Philippines: Part 2
Written by Bruno
This is part 2 of our travels to the Philippines, you can read part 1 here.
We spent the last two weeks of our month long Philippines stay on the small island of Siquijor. To reach the island we had to take a domestic flight and a ferry.
I would describe Siquijor as a small island where beach bums (affectionately) congregate to do well… beach activities. There is a good tuktuk infrastructure for tourists to move around the island.
Highlights
Here are some of my favorite things we did on Siquijor:
My absolute favorite were the waterfalls throughout the island; this is fresh water coming out of the ground. People dive in and hang out in the various natural pools. There are some small fish in the pools that like to nibble on our toes, weird sensation for sure.
Lugnason Falls:
Cambugahay Falls:
This is me tarzaning:
We also did some cliff jumping in the ocean, this was super cool; the water was crystal clear. (I swear it looked higher in person…)
The beaches were really pretty, white sand everywhere. One of the beach had a marine sanctuary, a huge area protected by buoys where we could snorkel. This is the best snorkel I have ever done, we saw hundreds of fishes, with a ton of variety; as well as many bright blue starfish.
We also did some cave exploration which was really fun. There was a river running down the cave where we could just let ourselves float through. What was amazing was turning off our head lamps, it’s total darkness; which we never really get to experience.
Siquijor also had a ton of stray dogs and cats.
How many cats can you see in this picture?
Lowlights
nasty details ahead, TLDR: I got amoebiasis from food poisoning
Well… I got sick. It suddenly started with some stomach pain which quickly developed into stuff coming out from both ends. After about 6 hours of tens of episodes of violent vomiting and my inability to hydrate we decided to check in to the only hospital on Siquijor. I was feeling so weak, it was hard to open my eyes.
After a quick checkup from the doc, he recommended that I be admitted to stay overnight (at that point I was vomiting blood).
Me checked-into my room.
What was slightly concerning here, was that we were 2 days away from our flight to India… the doctor was advising that we cancel our travel plans but we weren’t sure and decide to see if my health improved overnight.
The hospital was so small that they ran out of medication, and at midnight asked Sofia to go get the IV fluids I needed at at pharmacy a couple of blocks away.
On day 1 at the hospital I got diagnosed with amoebiasis, which is fairly common in the Philippines. Having a diagnosis was a huge relief, because it meant that I could now be treated with antibiotic that targets amoebas (instead of the broad spectrum I’ve been on).
On day 2, we decided to check out, the doctor gave me a prescription to continue the medication on the road. In a perfect world, we would have stayed in the hospital longer; however, since we had our flight to India, we decided to leave.
To add insult to injury, it was valentine’s day… I’m sure Sofia would have preferred to to something a bit more… romantic.
Leaving Siquijor
Leaving Siquijor (to head to India) was an adventure. It starts with us leaving the hospital, me still feeling like shit weak. The first step was to take a ferry from the small island of Siquijor to the bigger island of Bohol. On that ferry Sofia started getting sick (she vomited a few times). This was very scary because we weren’t sure how severe her sickness was, but thankfully it resolved itself in a few days.
Once on Bohol (the bigger island), the next step was a domestic flight to Manila. Bad luck struck again, our flight to Manila was delayed by six hours… We eventually landed in Manila, at around 2 AM, where we had our international flight to India at 6 AM the same day. Here, we had a choice, do we check-in to our hotel to sleep a measly 2 hours or do we just sleep at the airport. We decided to check-in to our hotel… and bad luck struck again! When we got to the hotel, we noticed that it was full of cockroaches… we saw at least five in the span of two minutes including some on the bed. We instantly left to go sleep at the airport:
This whole 24 hours of travels was one of the most painful of my life… We eventually made our way to India, and here is where I leave you for now, with a picture of Sofia eating Paneer tikka:
Reflections
Here is a collection of my thoughts on the Philippines:
- Be careful what you eat and drink (lol)
- I would only recommend the Philippines to beach lovers
- Being comfortable renting scooters is a must, we did not and it hampered our mobility on the various islands
- I didn’t feel a sense of unfamiliarity (which is one of the main reason I travel). I think there are a few reasons for this:
- A lot of western tourists conglomerate on beaches
- Everyone speaks good english (including the Filipinos)
- It was colonized by Spain which is Christian; the same religion from back home
- The food was mid, at best… sorry
In conclusion, I think the Philippines did not really hit the mark for me (Bruno); it was still pleasant but I am excited to move on to the next adventure!