Bohol, my favorite island in the Philippines!

After Cebu I went to Bohol on a slow boat that took about 5 hours (not the longest boat ride) and they have beds on the boat for the long rides.





Beautiful sunset from the boat.
The Tarsier, the smallest monkey in the world. Small enough to fit on your palm.






Diving at Balicasag island (small island off Alona beach in Bohol) and my dive master, Kwats.
Alona Beach!








More Bohol to come later!

Apo Island, or in other words Small Paradise!

After Bohol, I went to Apo island off the big island of Negros Oriental. Another paradise island that is only big enough for 750 people to live and only has electricity 5 hours a day and no running water... But who cares when you're in paradise!!!
My super generous friends, Pad and Joel, from Bohol that practically escorted me to Apo island and wouldn't let me pay for anything along the way!!! Unbelievable, and just because they wanted me to enjoy the Philippines!!


Sunset and fishermen looking at Negros from Apo Island.
The one beach on Apo island.








The view deck.
Is it still necessary to explain that I was really on paradise!










Going out for a dive from Apo!
Paradise I tell you just paradise. This English man I met can't leave seem to leave the island so he decided to build a fishing boat with all his spare time!




Adriano (Australian), Liberty (the Chief of the Island), and Hugh the man who built the boat. This is in Liberty's community resort, one of the 2 resorts on the island, and where I stayed. I think you would have a hard time finding a more friendly place on earth.
Liberty is the reason this beautiful island hasn't been over run buy tourists b/c of her no more resorts can take over the island! Also, with her caring of the island she built a much need elementary school and put already 8 island children though University and is working of getting a medical facility on the island, and all with her own money!! I want to go back there are teach English at the school she had built if I can :)

Sadly leaving Apo island, but with Liberty's big heart being taken to her home in Valencia, Negros to stay a night in order to catch our boat early the next morning.

Arriving in The Philippines

I booked a flight to the Philippines when I first got to Singapore, and unfortunately the law to enter the Philippines is that you must have a ticket leaving the Philippines. So, I bought a round trip ticket to Manila and then back to Singapore, when really if I had been a planner it would have been best to fly to the central island of Cebu and then leave from Cebu directly back to Bangkok... Oh, well done and over with...

So, I started my trip in Cebu, which even though Cebu city is the second biggest city in the Philippines after Manila, it is still a much nicer city and the people are supposedly a bit more friendly (don't know if I believe that one). I met an Iranian guy on the airplane on my way to Cebu, so I traveled with him for a few days. It was really interesting because I learned a lot about the Iranian people and culture while I was in the Philippines, and turns out that a lot of Iranian students (as well as other nationalities) come to the Philippines to study because they can easily pay off the teachers to pass classes or to say they took a class that they didn't really take.

Then I took about 3 days to go south of Cebu city to Moalboal which is known for its scuba diving. And here was the first time I learned how different the Philippines is from Thailand. Even a place like Moalboal that is on every tourist map and every tourist itinerary to Cebu, this little town has no AMT machine, and little did I know but the closest one is in the town of Carcar which is an hour and a half ride from Moalboal. So, I ended up having to pay a habo habo driver 750 peso (~$15 ) to take me to Carcar... What an expensive trip to the ATM!

My dive masters from Korea, and really funny guys!

My second dive site... A beautiful little island off Moalboal.

The scuba diving really is great there, its all wall diving which I had never done before. And the water is bluer than anything I had ever seen.... also on my second dive I saw maybe 6 sea turtles and swam through a cave!!!
There was also a beautiful white sand beach nearby that had almost no tourists there and the water was of course crystal clear and the sand so white and so soft! The day I was planning to go back to Cebu City I thought I would go to the Moalboal city market to buy some fresh Mango's (the best in the world). The really really cute Filipino guy that was driving me ask if I had been to Kawasan Waterfalls yet, and I said no but that I was planning to go on the bus soon. He told me I had to see them before I left and that he would dive me there if I wanted, so I agreed. He took me to the waterfalls which were about half hour from Moalboal and once you get there you have to walk about another half hour to see all the waterfalls. So, while I was talking to him, his name was Cito btw, I found out he wasn't a habo habo (motorbike) driver at all that he was just on his lunch break and tries to make extra money sometimes by offering the tourists rides to the city. Well he was really informative in spite of it and told me all about the falls and about the Philippines and the people of Cebu and also taught me some phrases in Cebuano. He was in a bit of a hurry to get back to work but was super nice and cute!
Cito and me at Kawasan Falls!
Bridge over the Kawasan stream.

Return to Thailand from The Philippines

So, just a couple days ago I returned to Thailand from the Philippines. I haven't updated my blog in so long because the internet was very expensive in Singapore and traveling from island to island in the Philippines took so long that I didn't want to waste my time in the cities sitting on the internet. And the small islands I spent my time on were lucky if there was even electricity all day or running water. But all in all I had an unforgettable time and have so much to say about it but I will have to do it in parts for putting it into my blog and will do it soon.