Where on earth is Tim ?

A little bit of matchmaking, quickly followed by a trip to the cock doctor...

If you asked a Filipino what their national sport is, most people would instantaneously reply that its Cockfighting. And there is plenty of evidence that this is a really popular 'sport' in the Philippines. Just about everyone outside of metro Manila keeps a cock or few in their yards to grow into a prime fighting cock. Its just impossible to miss the plethora of Cocks tethered to poles in the gardens of peoples homes while sitting on the Jeepney travelling down the road. I'm told that for many people, their fighting cock(s) are prize possessions and are treated with the best possible food and care. A fighting cock from a renowned breeder can go for as much as PHP 10,000. Thats £130.

So during the past few weeks I've spoken to a number of Filipino chaps about cockfighting. And I have asked them if they find the sport cruel or barbaric ? In response you'll get a blank look and a response such as "No, whats the problem ?". I've gone as far as explaining that its Illegal in most of Europe and has been for a long time. However after so many responses, I was pretty convinced that most Filipinos find the sport quite acceptable and don't see a major issue with it. I was curious as to why not, to why it was so popular and most of all I wanted to get my head around the most popular pastime in the Philippines. Roll on Siquijor, a small island in the Visaya's with one cash machine, no chain restaurants and only 87k inhabitants.

Another awesome sunset over Siquijor

I decided to take a Motorbike for a spin around the island to visit, amongst other things, at cave at near the village of Cantabon and to climb to the top of the high peak on the island, Mt Bandila-an. Near the top of the peak, I become suspicious when chaps started to file past on their motorbikes, with almost everyone carrying a cock under one arm. Sure enough some 15 minutes later I rode past a small hamlet with a few hundred motorbikes parked outside. The chaps hanging around on the track told me a cock fight was starting, a special derby organised a few days after All Saints Day as friends and family are in town.

I was met by a 20 peso entrance fee, followed by the scene of men, young and old, hanging around with their chickens, eyeing up the competition. It turns out that this is the first step to a fight ... finding an opponent who you believe you have a chance of beating. Of course it takes two parties to agree to a fight and the size of your bird, breed, reputation and aggression are all crucial factors. Many of the chaps will not find a suitable opponent and have to wait until next weeks derby.

Then comes cocks being kitted up for a fight, specifically by having a rather scary looking blade attached to their left leg. Its a rather sobering sight, amplified with the wariness exercised by the handlers while putting the blade in place. The blade is placed over a sharp spur on the birds ankle and the length of the blade will vary depending on the size of the bird. Incidentally, I did not realise that the sharp spur is part of the birds physique thanks to thousands of years of evolution. For survival to be the fittest, a Cock only gets to breed if it is able to fight off other male competitors, and a cock with a bigger, more powerful ankle spur will survive to be the fittest. Or so the theory goes, if cocks were once again in the wild.

Attaching a blade to a Cock. A rather sobering sight.

Then comes the ring. A raised glass platform with a frenzy of men shouting and betting over the next fight. Some chaps will be sipping Beer, Tuba and Tanduay while they try and find a suitor for the next bet. Betting here is between punters with no middleman or bookmaker and is achieved by a series of hand signals signifying the amount of the bet and which bird they want to make a bet on. I found this curiously interesting for a couple of reasons: There is no percentage of each bet going to the house and if there is an overly dominant bird (I.E. everyone wants to bet on it) then there is no market for bets.

The fights I saw were swift. The handlers worked up their birds and then following a quick flurry of fighting you end up with a winner and (a dead) loser. This usually happens all within the space of a minute. The chickens are then whisked off, with the losing chicken ending up on the dinner table, although I am told that the a fighting cocks meat is rather tough thanks to the dietary supplements fed to the bird to make it stronger and bigger. The winning chicken makes a visit to the cock doctor for a checkup and the suturing of any injuries that it may have sustained so they can fight another day. As my dive guide for the past few days explained, his Cock has won four fights, was fixed up every time and has just retired, so that he can breed the blood line with the hope being that his offspring may be able to fight just as well.

Cock Doctor with his box of tricks, fixing up the winner of the last fight.

So having been and experienced the national sport of the Philippines first hand, how did I feel on reflection ? With this being my first experience of a bloodsport I was not as shocked as I thought I would be. Some of the animal treatment in China and Pakistan upset me to a much greater degree. The chickens at the cockfighting area had pretty quick and less painful death than the chickens I saw being butchered on the street in Pakistan. In Pakistan the chickens were bled to death over a miserable few minutes, as is required by Islamic custom of preparing food that is called Halal. That said the chickens in the ring have a fight for their life, which is not pleasant nor can it be humane. Finally seeing dogs slaughtered in front of their companions in a market while I was in Yangshou, China, upset me a whole lot more. That experience still haunts me.

What I also can't help but reflect on is that this sport is so ingrained within the Filipino's culture. They see it as part of their heritage and are proud of it. A Sunday afternoon at the cockfight for a Filipino, appears to him, to be no different to a saturday afternoon at the game for a Brit. But does that make it right ?

Bikes, Trikes and Pigs Copulating!

For the past couple of weeks we have been warned that November 1st is All Saints Day and that the day after is All Souls Day. I don't know much about All Saints Day nor All Souls Day, however we were told to prepare for some major celebrations in the Philippines during this time. It turns out that the majority of people, some 80%, are Roman Catholic in the Philippines. This is all thanks to the colonisation of the Philippines by the Spanish during the 16th century, who, apart from almost completely wiping out any form of pre-Spanish culture such as the script and literature, introduced Catholicism is a massive way. Since then All Saints day has been widely celebrated and the Filipinos do it 'Filipino style' in their local cemeteries.

We happened to be in Dumaguete, a hip university town in the south of Negros, which is hip thanks to the Americans. Shortly after they took 'over' colonial duties from the Spanish at the turn of the 20th century, the American's set up a schools, colleges and universities in a serious way. Literacy shot up from a few percent to over 50% within a few years which was no small achievement and really goes to show the differences in colonial thought between the Spanish and Americans. The American's believed in self rule for the Filipinos but only through Education, while the Spanish left ruling to the colonial power. But hey that's ok ? They liberated and 'saved' their subjects through Christianity. The Americans left it to missionaries. Hindsight is easy, but I am with the American's on this one and the Philippines is a whole lot better for it.

Duamguete Cemetery on the evening of All Saints

So we headed down the the cemetery on the evening of All Saints Day in Dumaguete. The cemetery was packed full of people sitting around their family graves with food, drink and candles. In between this were getto-blasters, food stalls and souvenir sellers giving the place the feeling of a mini Glastonbury. At first we were very nervous about walking on graves, but once we realised that it was quite ok and normal, we just followed suit. And as we walked around, we were quickly asked to join in peoples celebrations by sharing some food and drink. Result? Unable to refuse we ended up at a hog roast washed down with San Miguel followed by Poker till 3am. Yes, that was a full Texas Hold'em tournament, next to the family grave until the wee hours of the morning, with a large amount of beer and Tanduay flowing. The poker game was a lot of fun, although I did have to bite my winning streak and make sure I lost before the evening was out. So once we were down to three people, I went from Chip leader to out in three hands. Disaster !

On reflection it was a great celebration, no sadness, just remembrance for loved ones over a light evening of parting. And who would have thought? Celebrating on top of graves? All-in-all a great evening and one of my highlights of the Philippines. We got to know a Filipino family quite well and were made to feel very welcome. Fantastic.

Mikee's Tricycle on Siquijor ... A 175cc Kawasaki powering the cockpit.

Earlier in the day we planned to visit a set of old Volcano Caldera's in the area, called the twin lakes. Normally we would consider getting a tricycle to a nearby site, but we heard that the road was pretty rough and even a trike would not make it. Which is quite surprising, as Trikes, the Filipino version of a Tuk Tuk, are pretty tough. Consisting of a powerful bike, anywhere from a 100cc to 250cc depending on the local terrain, which is then welded to a carriage. But its no ordinary SE asian sidecar ... these side carriages have been really thought out by the Filipinos, who have sussed out a great design to maximise space efficiency. You quite regularly see a trike with two people up front, four in the rear and two on the back seat of the bike... that's eight people plus driver and they are all traveling in reasonable comfort. In my opinion that beats an India Tuk-Tuk anyday. I wonder how many people an Indian driver would be able to fit into one of these...!

But due to the rough track, we were advised that a motorbike is the only way. In town we were met by chaps flogging a ride to the lakes in their Habal-Habal's. Which is a motorbike with a extended rear... so they can fit up to five people on it at once, giving the bikes their names 'Habal-Habal' which means 'Pigs Copulating'. Another ingenious Filipino invention.

Habal-Habal ... seats five copulating Pigs

We did however pass on copulating like pigs and rented a pair of motorbikes. The lakes were rather good, apart from the extortionate price to get a boat to the other side of the lake.

Finally, I've had to finalised my plans home via Hong Kong, New Zealand and the Cook Islands. After seven months on the road its a little bit of a let down thinking of returning home. The most gutting of all is the realisation that to get to New Zealand, our last major stop, I have an ten hour flight from Hong Kong. Thats long haul and a little sobering. Gulp.

Tomorrow we are off to Siquijor a small island a few miles away which is going to be a taste of small town, small island Philippines. We can be sure there will not be a Mcdonalds.

PERMANENT DANGER ZONE: But completely spellbinding

The Philippines sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and has a number of active volcano's as a result. Top of the list probably goes to Mount Pinatabo which erupted pretty violently during 1991 and resulted in lowering the average temperature on earth by half a degree in the following months. So on my list of things to do in the Philippines was to check out a volcano. Having got a few days to spare I decided to climb the 2435 metre Mount Kanla-on on Negros. Lonely Planet touts it as a highlight and a worthwhile trip on Negros. So thanks to a Caving contact in Iloilo, I was put in touch with a guide and the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR) in Bacolod to get a permit to climb the mountain, as both a guide and a permit are mandatory. So off I trundled to the DENR where I was greeted with a number of glossy posters of the summit of the volcano. Pictured was a grassy summit with a large grass filled depression, that I took to be the crater. It looked pretty tame, but never-the-less I was enthusiastic about getting some good hiking done and enjoying the superb views, including, I was told, the spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Twenty minutes later, I was in possession of a permit which contained one small footnote that caught my eye:

"[Mt Kanla-on is] One of the most active volcanos in the country and is considered by the Philippines volcanology and seismology (PHIVOLC) as one of the most unpredictable in terms of it's volcanically eruptive nature. PHIVOLC has designated the four kilometer radius from the crater centre as a PERMANENT DANGER ZONE within which all human activities are therefore declared RESTRICTED."

Looking back at the glossy photos I wonder how such a benign looking place can also be so dangerous. My conclusion: It's hyped up.

Sunset from Kanla-on

That afternoon, I travelled on to Guintubdan, at the foot of the Volcano and met by Rey, who is a local guide. Rey kindly offered me a homestay at his house, which I happily accepted, along with dinner!  My stay with Rey was a pretty interesting insight into rural Filipino village life, although any chance of getting a decent nights sleep was dashed during the first night when I was greeted with a cacophony of Roosters crowing at 5.30am. Guintubdan it turns out, is a major Cock breeding centre, that is, Cocks to be used for Cockfighting, one of the national 'sports' in the Philippines.
After a pretty rough few hours trying to sleep in, I met my guide, James, later that morning. We started the 1300m ascent through rainforest to our campsite on the 'saddle'. We aimed for the saddle as it is situated on the edge of the tree-line allowing for spectacular views. The ascent is through a rather unique rainforest with a wealth of sounds, smells and sights, but without a view until you get to the sdaale. "Alimatoc" a.k.a. leeches where in abundance and we spent much of the climb flicking the little critters off our clothing, particularly a type of leech which aimed for you ears, eyeballs or mouth! After a long slog, we arrived at the saddle around 3pm, allowing us to climb the final ascent to the summit before sunset. It was at this point that James, my guide, explained that from the summit we will be able to see into the Crater.

I got the the summit and looked down. My Jaw dropped. What I saw was one of the most fearsome and impressive sights that I have ever seen. A sheer sided, 300m deep crater, stinking of sulphur and stained with vibrant colours from various seeping minerals. I could see into the centre of the earth, witnessing the destructive power of a volcano right in front of me. It was awesome and I was completely spellbound.

Looking down the crater. Its so deep that my Camera's lens was not wide enough to capture the whole hole!

I had no idea it would be like this. Until this point, I thought dangerous volcanos are the sort that Paul encountered in Hawai, with lava oozing from every crevice. What I didn't know and I do now (thanks to Wikipedia) is that there are two types of Volcano: firstly the Shield Volcano which are some of the biggest in the world, but relatively benign, just oozing lava from crevices at various speeds. Hawaii is a classic example with all the Hawaiian Islands made up of shield volcanoes. And then there are Strato Volcanos, like Mount Pinatabo which just goes BOOM when it is ready! A day later Rey (from my homestay in Guintubdan) looked at the photo of me standing on top Kanla-on, pointed to a 'hero' plaque on his wall and then commented:

Looking across the crater

"I was standing there in 1996 and the Volcano suddenly went BOOM!" He went on to explain that he and the clients promptly ran, as fast as they could, away from the crater while being bombarded by rocks and ash. One chap did not make it and the rest of the group had to be helicoptered off later that day with more or less everyone sustaining rockfall injuries. And in writing this blog, I have since spotted the following on Volcano live:

"There has been a large increase in volcanic earthquakes at Kanlaon volcano, Philippines. Between 23rd August and 1st September [2009] there were 257 earthquakes measured. This seismic activity is higher than the background levels, which usually varies from 0 to 4 events in 24 hour period"

We were camping at the tree line, a tree line that was defined by the limits of the falling heavy debris from the last eruption. I am left pondering that if there is an eruption, lets hope it is smaller than the last one for the sake of the regular campers who visit the summit!

Conclusion: This is a truly scary place but one of the most spellbinding sights I have ever seen in my life. And the bonus was my first proper cloud inversion when we woke up the following morning. Perfect.

Cloud inversion on the summit of Mt Kanla-on

Tomorrow I am off to Damuguete on the south of Negros. Its hip university town, so Sarah and I have heard, and its on Lonely planets must see list. We will see.

Do you ever wonder what happened to your BMX ?

Do you ever wonder what happened to your BMX ? Well I do.

That is, the BMX that I got for my ninth Birthday, which was pretty much every kids wish in my school back then. It was blue, a birthday gift and I was really chuffed. I remember wanting to take it to the local BMX track and being far too little to even contemplate the jumps never mind the camel-backs, but hell, I gave it a try! I even have a scar on my right knee thanks to one head over handlebars incident.

...Roll on 24 years... What even happened to my BMX ? I don't remember scrapping it, selling it and last time i checked it was not gathering dust in the shed. Well I just found out where all the worlds BMX's ended up. Somehow they all have ended up in the Philippines....

Is one of these your BMX ?  

Yep, here BMX's have been converted to tricycles, which are called Trisicad's and they are the most common form of short distance transport around town. A two or three mile journey will cost you around USD 50c, with a lot of banter and laughter from the Filipino pedaling you away to your destination. And these guys really have to pedal quickly when they get going, as the BMX's gearing is pretty high. As the brakes no longer work, the chaps have fashioned a strip of car type to the rear tire which they step on when they want to brake. A real world solution that is pretty effective, even with flip flops ! I rather like it and its quite unique compared to cycle rickshaws in India and Tricycles in Burma which consist of 'Dutch' bikes, or the latest Chinese equivalent.

The Brakes !

We have just arrived in Iloilo (thats ee-lo-ee-lo). We have come with the hope to get some Caving and Mountain biking done as our Lonely Planet really talks up this area as being a great spot for this. Its also as ideal starting point for our island hopping tour around the Visayas, the middle belt of Islands in the Philippines.

To save paying an extortionate price to fly direct, we flew to the nearest island and got the 'superferry' across. Its was our first trip on a big ferry, with our previous island trips taken on 'banca's', wooden Filipino boats with bamboo outriggers. The superferry has fully fully enclosed metal hull, one where your locked inside through a series of giant metal doors acting as watertight latches. We hopped aboard, the doors closed and then the safety briefing started on the ships tannoy. Except this Safety briefing started with the Lords Prayer. That rather unnerved me. Are we going to sink ?

Typical Filipino Banka, this one meticulously maintained and painted

Following a little bit of organisation, we managed to get mountain biking on a island near to Iloilo, Guimaras. This island is ideally suited to biking thanks to the rolling hills, nothing too steep, nothing to gentle and with most of it off road biking, its a MTB'ers dream. The added bonus was that we managed to get hold of some decent bikes and a guide to show us the decent routes. We visited a cave and then on tour our lunch stop, a beach with some decent snorkeling and a white sand beach that gets pretty much no visitors. Bliss.

There was a little bit of a hitch however as the 'homestay' we were meant to be eating lunch at was out of town. Off trundled Tom our trusty guide to speak to the local villagers to organise some Lunch and to his surprise he came back five minutes later saying Lunch was ready as we had been invited to celebrate a baptism (known as a christening in the UK). There was a huge banquet in a nearby home with all the village men rapidly tucking into bottles of Tanduay Rum while the ladies ensuring that Sarah and I added another few inches to our waistlines with the feast on offer. There was a superb range of local Filipino food which was really really good. My favorite was the macaroni salad, but not as you'd expect it ... in the Philippines it is sweet! Basically it a mix of fruit and condensed milk, which really does not sound like it would work, but it does and I've vowed to try making it at the next 53 Coldershaw Road Party...

As we were leaving, Tom asked us if we wanted to wash lunch down with some Coconut milk. Its been hard to miss the huge number of Coconut trees in the Philippines (they're everywhere) and discarded coconut shells all over the place (they're everywhere too). And the other day I noticed that all the coconut trees have steps cut out on the way to the top, which I assumed was so the trees could be climbed. My superstitions were confirmed when we met a chap up a tree harvesting coconuts in Sabang. He was hacking merrily away, some 20 metres up the tree, without any rope or other safety devices, just using his legs as grip. Brave chap I thought. But after we agreed to have some coconut milk after Lunch, a local lad promptly climbed up the nearest palm tree to get Sarah and I a couple of coconuts. Result ? If a 8 year old can climb a palm tree, so can I! Although maybe barefoot was not the wisest option given a lifetime of wearing shoes.

Up a Palm tree. Errr should really have checked to see if there were coconuts on the tree before I climbed it!

My final day in Iloilo was spent Caving. Thanks a little bit of luck I was able to get in touch with a local caver and get underground in the Bulabog Puti-an National Park. The caves that we visited were particularly interesting for the life the caves contained. Aside from the Tens of Thousands of bats handing on the roof and circling the caves, there were a ton of weird critters. Most impressive were the spiders, some of which I understand are quite venomous. Why I was using the Macro function of my Camera within inches of the spiders, errr in the dark of a cave, I don't know. I'd love to show you all the pictures, but as i lost my camera (stupid me), your not able to see them !
Tomorrow I am off to climb a Volcano on the Island of Negros. Its still an active Volcano which the last erupted during 1996.

Finally, I'm starting a 'Jeepney of the Blog' feature. So I'd like to finish with a picture of this rather cool Jeepney plying the route between Sabang and Puerto Princessa on Palawan ...

This blog update was made possible thru Gov. Joel T Reyes

For the past few days we have been traveling down Palawan on motorbikes. We really liked our experience on motorbikes in Laos, so we jumped at the chance of a one-way hire from El Nido to Puerto Princessa, allowing us four days to travel through northern Palawan. This time we hired two 125cc Japanese Honda's, the motorbike of choice for the average Filipino. Unlike the rest of southeast Asia, the Filipino's seem to have grasped the concept of paying for quality and the value in preventative maintenance, which was quite unlike our experience in Laos where the fake Chinese 'Honda's' suffered a number of breakdowns due to the poor quality and the 'if its not broken don't fix it' culture. You can also really feel the difference in quality, particularly the suspension. The downside is that they cost twice as much and if you do have the misfortune to break down, there are a lot less people around who are able to fix the problem meaning you'll need to load your bike onto the next Jeepney for a trip to the nearest town with a mechanic. In Laos every man and his dog could fix most problems on the Chinese fake Honda's ... they needed to!

Jeepney crew having a break from cleaning their Jeepney

Along the way down to Puerto I've become rather familiar with the efforts of Palawan's Governor Joel T Reyes. This guy must be a superhero. You see his name everywhere: 'This Bridge built thru Gov. Joel T Reyes' ... and later on ... 'This Road built thru Gov. Joel T Reyes' . It goes on with slogans over schools, hospitals, bus stops, viewpoints and my favourite 'This drain was build thru Gov. Joel T Reyes' embossed on a manhole cover. If it was not for the efforts Governor Joel, you would have not sanitation! Wow this man must have no time to govern with all the road, bridges, schools, bus-stops and sewerage systems he is responsible for building. Would the people of Palawan still have their roads, bridges and schools without the efforts of Gov. Joel ? Then again the Philippines has a President, Congress and a House of Representatives. Sound familiar ? It seems they have inherited the publicity fueled electoral system of the USA. We leads me to my favourite bit: Gov. Joel gives away free posters to his electorate. I rather like the cheesy playboy pose.

Poster Boy: Gov. Joel T Reyes

Our first stop was in TayTay. The most notable point I remember about TayTay is that everyone was drunk, yet there was nowhere in town to get a drink. We arrived and settled into our guest house, Casa Rosa, which we had been recommended. After a pretty nondescript dinner I decided to head into town and share a drink with some of the locals. They were all hanging around local street stalls, after having drunk god knows how many bottles of Tanduay (Filipino Rum). I did eventually find a videoke bar, but they were not serving. However the chaps in the 'bar' asked me where I was staying. I told them Casa Rosa and then watched their Jaws drop. "Oh my god, you can't stay there. Its dangerous. Come stay with me friend!" came the reply. It turns out that had been a massive landslide next to Casa Rosa the week before. Thankfully it did not rain that evening and we left with our jaws open as we saw the huge scar on the hillside in the morning.

Our second stop was Port Barton. During this trip I've left a couple of places knowing I was making a mistake leaving and that I will regret not spending more time there. One was Hampi in India. The other is Port Barton. Its a quite fishing village with a laid back feel and pretty much untouched by tourism or foreigners. We met a Scot and his Filipino wife who run the only a restaurant call Jambalaya which serves errrr ... you guessed it ... Jambalaya! Ok, its really more their front room which they have turned into a place to hang out and eat. The Jambalaya was delicious and the conversation was great, including my first intro into Zydeco music, which I will now certainly be sampling on iTunes over the coming weeks. Port Barton was one of these place I could have quite easily spent a week limited to our Beach Hut, a Hammock, a good book and Jambalaya. But alas, we left.

Sunset at Port Barton. It was so good, even my iPhone did it justice.

Our final stop during our Motorbike tour was Sabang so we could visit the Underground river cave in the Puerto Princessa Subterranean River National Park. I was a little unimpressed with the underground river cave, especially when I compare it to the wonderful Tham Kong Lor Cave in Laos. The tour only took visitors in for the first 1.5 kilometers and the guide was obsessed with rock formations that looked like a range of animals, fruit, vegetables and various christian symbols. One formation looked remarkably like Christ, which drew gasps of glee from the Filipino's in our boat. The Subterranean river has been put forward as one of the new seven wonders of the world and our friend Gov. Joel T Reyes has put up a huge publicity campaign to vote for the cave to be one of the new 7 wonders at www.vote7.com. While the cave was pretty impressive, especially as its the only brackish river of its kind in the world, I'm not sure it stands up to other worthy competitors such as the Galapagos Islands. However, its a viral campaign which the Filipinos are taking up with some vengeance thru Gov. Joel T Reyes and I would not be surprised for it to end up as one of the top seven.

We have been in the Philippines for over two weeks now and I have to say that I've noticed how nice the dogs are in the Philippines, even the strays. This is marked difference to SE Asia where the strays are a menace and even 'kept' dogs are sometimes temperamental. The Filipinos obviously treat there dogs very well, even the strays. While we were in El Nido we met Belly. Belly is a stray and his turf was around our guest house. But he's smart and has worked out how to make a living from the tourists that visit El Nido: By being nice. He slept on our beach chalet doorstep and was there to greet us both in the morning and the evening. He played catch on the beach. He offered affection. He even chewed the crisps we gave him like a gentleman. I miss Belly, he was one of the nicest dogs I have met. He certainly knew how to get a belly full.

Its a Dogs life: A Stray chilling out on the Beach

Final note of the blog. I saw an election poster for some local government position with the slogan 'I don't make promises, but I will do my best' from the politician wannabe. Try using that slogan in the UK and I am sure you will lose an election. Quickly. Oh and we have just seen some banners up in town with 'Happy Birthday Gov. Joel T Reyes'. I am sure he must now be thinking big. Like the Filipino equivalent of the White House, if there is such a concept.

We are off to Iloilo in the Visaya's tomorrow. I don't know what to expect, other than the usual trademarks of a Filipino city.

Errrr ... that'll be a reef then

Its Saturday morning in El Nido. My designated lie in this morning was disrupted by a sermon broadcasted over the towns tannoy at 6am. I felt like I was in the middle east and it was a call to prayer from a minaret at dawn. But you won't find a mosque in El Nido, this was the local Catholic Church blasting its morning service over speakerphones. At 6am! The lady at our guesthouse tells me that in Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan, the service starts at 4am so that Fisherman have time to take mass before they head to sea for the days catch. Ouch.

If there ever is a textbook definition of beach paradise, El Nido is it. White sand beaches, towering limestone cliffs, reef, incredible sea-life, hundreds of small islands littering the bay and no-one around. Its very very quiet, they locals even call it the last frontier. I really don't understand why this place is not overrun by tourists. We spent the past four days island hopping on a small bangka, discovering that we have most of the beaches and reef to ourselves. Its magic and we have got stuck here.

Another empty beach in paradise !

Its the first place I have come across which has a curfew for teenagers between 10pm to 6am. A world war two air-raid siren sounds across town, so the teenagers know when they have to be at home and in bed. And after 10pm, the internet becomes faster as all the kids leave their online games behind in the numerous net cafes.

We are, however, rather lucky to get here. We reached a rather abrupt stop in our Bangka on the way over from Busuanga. We were cruising along in the Jessebel, just as I was getting tucked into my book, when ...BANG... we hit a reef and everyone lunged forward. Result ? Bent Prop, bent prop shaft, bent rudder and a rather leaky Jessebel.

Bent Prop: That'll be a Reef then!

But we are in the Philippines, so no problem! The skipper and his mate jumped in the water with their masks and snorkels to check the damage. In between curses it became clear what the damage was and they then set about dismantling the rear of the boat to get it fixed, all of this while at sea. Removing the prop shaft meant an extra hole in the boat, so they started to bail even faster. So in between the bailing, they hammered out the bends in the propeller, bent the prop shaft back to something resembling a shaft and fashioned the rudder into something that would function. An hour and a half later we were back at sea, albeit traveling at a much slower speed and with a juddering vibration. Nevertheless we were on our way again.

At Sea, Island Hopping in El nido.

Following Manila we visited the island of Busuanga, in Palawan, to do some wreck diving. We'd read that its a top wreck diving location thanks to a daring raid by the American Pacific fleet against the Japanese during the second world war. The Japanese fleet moored up around the many small islands around Busuanga as an evasive action, but were surprised when the Americans launched an attach using 'Hell Diver' aircraft launched from newly build aircraft carriers sent to the Philippines. They sunk at least eight ships in one raid, left some fantastic wrecks, in reasonably shallow water to explore. We spent four days diving some famous sites such as the Irako Maru and Akitoshima Maru. Thanks to some excellent dive-masters, we managed to get deep inside the wrecks and see some cool stuff; bomb loading bays including one with a bomb jamming the mechanism, machine guns, canons, boilers, huge diesel engines, dumper trucks, bags of cement, portholes still with glass, sleeping quarters, kitchen areas, toilets, laundry rooms and much much more slowly succumbing to the decay of the sea. The wrecks also act as a mini-reef so there was a load of sea-life to take in. I was most impressed.

Sunset over El Nido Bay.

Tomorrow we are off towards Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan. We have hired two motorbikes, which amazingly we have managed to get on a one way hire and we plan to spend the next four days biking to Puerto, stopping off at various places including the 'Puerto Princessa Subterranean River National Park'. That means caves and I have already started drooling at the thought.

Bangkok for the Brits, Manila for the Americans

After our tour of SE asia we have headed to the Philippines. After talking with many travelers about their experiences, we have decided to spend the next six to eight weeks here so we can really get to know the place. To do this we had to give Vietnam and Indonesia a miss. We've heard that the Vietnamese are not the friendliest and its also tough traveling with every man-and-his-dog trying to aggressively make as many bucks out of you as they can. Indonesia on the other hand, is such a huge place that a few weeks traveling is not going to do it justice. And they limit the VISA to 28 days. So we settled for the Philippines. So far its been a good choice.

First impressions of Manila was one of California meeting SE Asia. Driving from the airport we saw an array of fast food joints such as MacDonalds, KFC, Starbucks and even Filipino joints such as 'JollyBee'. OK, you'll find some of these American fast food joints in places like Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. But here you have huge double lane streets and the fast food joints have drive through's. Mix this in with plenty of SUV's playing the highway and a splattering of US Jeep rips off, it all has a distinctly American feel but you're still in Asia. You still get street food and Tuc-Tuc's some of Asia's best trademarks. Even then, there are small difference; the Tuc Tucs are 'Tricycles' and they have modified the Jeeps into the main means of public transportation in the Philippines, the Jeepney. I cant wait to sample my first journey in one.

Amazingly to underline the American link, the 100 Peso note has an American flag on it ! Can you imagine any currency in the world, no less from a Republic, that has the American flag on its Currency ? I find that incredible. Whats more, this note came into circulation in 1985, some 40 years after the Philippines was granted independence from the US (the Philippines was a formed US colony). Incredible.

Walking around Manila, I came to one conclusion quickly: Manila is for the Americans, what Bangkok is for the Brits. The most obvious manifestation is the 60 year old men, usually grossly overweight, accompanied down the street by 18 year old Filipino chicks. Just like the Sex Tourism industry in Bangkok, except here they are American men. And there are plenty of Filipina's around looking for someone to marry and take them back to the states.

That said, I really like Manila. Its rough enough around the edges, has incredibly friendly people and you there is not too much hassle from touts. Oh and everyone speaks English.

Coming from SE Asia, its also strikes you as devoutly Christian country, the only one of size in Asia. You'll find slogans like 'Jesus is Lord' and the 'Praise Jesus' plastered all over the Jeepney's and SUV's. This comes thanks to the Spanish, who were the original colonisers of the Philippines during the 15th Century, as well as everyone going by the name of 'Jose', 'Reyes', "Enrico" and other names along a Spanish theme. Its got a very different feel.

Its also has, in my option, the cheapest beer in the world at 19 Peso's for a bottle of San Miguel. That's about 26 pence a bottle or 40p a pint. However, it seems that the poison of choice for most Filipinos is Tanduay Rum which sells at 80 Pesos for a 'long neck' (large) bottle. That's a whole £1. Very very dangerous.

So after a day in Manila we are heading off the Palawan and the Island of Busuanga. We've heard that the Wreck diving here is world class and this sounds like a good starting point for the Philippines.

For those of you who are interested, I've finally managed to get my 'Highlights of Burma' Photos on the web. You can find them here. SE Asia to follow.

Tomb Raider, The 2009 Chinese Edition is here.

For most of the past week I have been exploring Angkor Wat in Cambodia. After the intense rain caused by Typhoon Ketsana had stopped (more on this later...), I followed Paul's recommendation to 'head straight for Ta Phrom. This way you may avoid the coach loads of Japanese tourists'. Ta Phrom was the set for Tomb Raider as you realise when just about every seller tells you. But what is really special about Ta Phrom is that it is one of the few temples at Angkor that is overgrown and crumbling. There are some huge trees growing out of the top of buildings in this Hindu, then Buddhist temple. Its a shadowy and poky place and I was blown away. The temples of Angkor Wat and Ta Phrom in particular were simply incredible. This place is so good I went a little overboard taking Photographs. Like over 1000. And I visited Ta Phrom three times.

Ta Phrom

Unfortunately it seems they must have recently dubbed a Chinese version of Tomb Raider. Or even, it crossed my mind that Paul's excellent blog must now have a dedicated Chinese readership, but then again if you remember his blog is blocked in China, just like this one. Yes, Ta Phrom is now swarming with Chinese tour groups and it now feels awfully like a Chinese tourist attraction, except its not fake. They have even put in wooden walkways round the main route to accommodate all the high heels and posh frocks, the standard dress of a female Chinese tourist. Conclusion: I have found the one place outside mainland China which has been seriously tapped by the Chinese tourist market. Oh and, there are over a billion of them. Around Angkor you'll see separate places for the Chinese to eat and dine, great big warehouse sort of places serving, you guessed it ... Chinese. Then they're coached around in big tour groups from site to site and they destroy any sense of credibility by posing for Winston Churchill 'V for Victory' signs at every photographic moment, which, being Angkor, means there are a lot. Worst of all they are herded around temples in a giant convoys with tour guides bearing huge microphones and holding 'follow me, I'm an idiot' flags while blurting out Mandarin which I can only guess must be phrases like 'This tree root is growing on a doorway and looks like a frog crossed with a tiger crossed with a pig ! In China we call this the frog-tiger-pig-looking-tree'.

Tree and carved window at Ta Phrom

The other downside to Angkor is barrage of sellers that hang around all the main temples selling various bits of tat and plenty of drinks. But I have to say, compared to some place I've been they are very nice about it. Compared to India they are Saints. And its all very cheap, especially the couple of T-Shirts I bought for two Dollars, the cheapest t-shirts I have come across by far. Bets are on to see if the print will come off in the first wash !

So thank my lucky stars for a bit of serious rain from Typhoon Ketsana. Typhoon Ketsana left me with two whole days to explore Angkor without any tour groups and only the hardcore sellers. Everyone else stayed in Siem Riep, which I have to say is a dump although Sarah disagrees but I am with Paul on this one. Dump. For the first day, I was pretty much the only person brave enough to face the weather and head to Angkor. Which was rather pleasing to my Tuc-Tuc driver, who made his $10 dollars for a days work, while no one else did. But two days of a full on tropical Typhoon has its draw backs: Massive flooding. By the second day downtown Siem Riep was under two feet of water after the river breached its banks. Getting to Ta Phrom involved wading knee deep through the entrance. And the tuc-tuc drivers were frequently flooding their engines while whizzing you around. At first it was all a bit novel but that soon wore off after three nights of having to wade to dinner. Thankfully Ran our first rate Tuc Tuc driver knew all the back road routes managing to avoid the very worst of the floods.

My Blog does Video: My Second trip to Ta Phrom.

Its was all rather astonishing and very special. Bus loads of tourists aside, this place beats Hampi and Bagan hands down. Angkor Wat itself, the main and magnificent temple in Angkor was rather special but overrun by far too many tourists. The top level was also closed to tourists at the moment, which proved to be a little bit of a let down and certainly an anti-climax. Thankfully Ta Phrom and the hundreds of faces staring you down at the Bayon made up for this. The other place of note was Kbal Spean which translates to the 'river of 1000 Lingas'. Its a section of river has thousands of Lingas carved into the river bed, each of which is a symbol for the worship of the Hindu deity Shiva. Unfortunately with the floods all I could see was murky shapes in turbid water, but it gave me a sense of the scale and lengths the Angkor's went to worship their Hindu deities.

Detail, Ta Phrom

We liked Angkor Wat so much we put back our flights to give us a couple more days to explore. I even braved the heat on the final day to take a (push) bike for a spin and see some of the smaller temples, nooks and crannies. This is the way to see Angkor if you can brave the heat.

We are off to the Philippines in a couple of days. Our plan is to island hop for the next seven weeks. I've heard a lot about the Filipinos and I am hoping it's going to be a blast. I just have to survive one night in Bangkok. Gulp.

Sunset over Angkor Wat

Dinner in Flooded Pub Street

We are having dinner tonight, in a rather wet and flooded Siem Riep. No problem for the restaurants however, nothing like a little bit of wading to serve your customers and make a dollar or two! Same with the Tuc-Tuc drivers, who don't seem to be phased, despite flooding their engines on a regular basis.
Thankfully it's stopped raining and it looks like Typoon Ketsana has finally passed Cambodia. Oh and my feet have turned into prunes.

Brown and Out

One of the great things about travelling is that your a long, long, long, way away from the Tabloids. Ok, that is, apart from when I was passing through Bangkok airport and saw a selection of The Mirror and The Daily Mail in the Duty Free shop. Not quite the choice I wanted to make and certainly not the Sunday afternoon, Sunday Times, experience I might be looking for.

So today, while in rural Cambodia, a Cambodian came up to me told me that "The Sun" had just endorsed the Conservatives in the next election, ditching Labour after 13 years.

Right. No need to hurry back home and vote next year then. Its going to be a whitewash, or should I say, a bluewash.

On my way to Ankor Wat this afternoon

What I am more concerned about is if it will stop raining before I leave Ankor Wat. We are in the fallout of Typoon Ketsana and its rather wet. The river is only inches from breaking its banks. The Tuc-Tuc I was in died this afternoon ... from a flooded engine ... The driver got me another bike and then promised he will be at our guesthouse for a trip at 9am tomorrow, without fail, and ... he promised ... with a fully fixed Tuc-Tuc. I expect they will be working all the night to fashion a DIY high air intake. He is sure to reap his $8 dollars for a days work showing people like me round Ankor Wat tomorrow.

Detail, Ankor Wat

Despite the rain, Ankor Wat is rather good. More of it for the next couple of days, with or without the rain.