Leaving the Philippines heading for Singapore

After a very wet boatride across from Apo to Malatapay, the rain drenched us, we arrived Dumagete for a nights stop over before heading to Cebu City and the airport. Palwa hotel was very nice and we got a big family room with 4 beds with breakfast. Last minute shopping and free wifi made the day.
Tomorrow we have a long journey to Singapore, and finally we managed to book a hostel! Chinese new year makes it difficult to find beds for 6 nights for 5 people.

Lazy days in Apo

Apo is a very small island and electricity is only available between 6 pm and 9:30 pm. So at 6 everyone in the village puts on their TV:s and stereos. When you walk through the village a lot of people says hallo and smiles at you. There are rooms at a very cheap price available in the fishing village. Prices range from 500 - 1000 pesos for double rooms. So if you are travelling on a budget they are a good option. Apo island resort has electricity from 6 pm to 12 pm. No resort or guesthouse has running water. You have two big buckets in your bathroom, one with fresh water for showers and one with salt water for the toilet. Water is brought in tanks.

If you are not a diver or enjoys snorkelling, Apo island has very little to offer in terms of action and activities. There is a nice walk 300 steps up to the lighthouse but other wise you just relax with a good book on the beach. Not a bad choice but if you are seeking action you have to look somewhere else.

Vera and Oskar climbed the rusty ladder...Pernilla stayed on safe ground

Another popular activity is cliff climbing and jumping. This stopped when Klara almost jumped on a swimming lionfish (venomous). Look first in the water with a mask, then jump...

Vera the climber

Vera the jumper

Diving Apo island

We booked diving with Apo island resort. The divemaster Keken was very nice and located next to out cottage. 8:30 we had a briefing of the dive and went through the equipment.

  

Our first dive was the Chapel, a shallow entry that turns into a wall. Good visability and we saw a white spotted eagle ray and a turtle at the same time! Fantastic corals and we saw more turtles, one was about 1,3m. Two very satisfied divers returned to the resort. 

The white box at the back is the toilet

Afternoon dive was very different. More smaller things to see and some area was brown sand with a lot of bubbles coming out. Apo island is a volcanic island so there is a lot of gas in the grounds. Luckily it's not an active volcano.

Porcupine fish caught in the fishermans net. Unfortunately it can't deflate so it dies.

In total we did 14 dives and they were all very good. The best I (Pernilla) think was the Marine sanctuary, a nature reserve not open for fishing. We saw so many wonderful fishes and corals, and also we saw 2 sea snakes! They are very venomous so you have to be careful.

Bye Siquijor, Hello Apo islands! 20/1

After a week in Kiwi dive resort we decided it was time to move on to Apo island. Apo island is famous for the excellent diving. It's rather expensive to get there and to stay and there are only two resorts on the island. The rain poured down so it felt like a good departure day. Skies cleared up when we arrived at the pier. The boat cost 100 pesos ( 15 SEK) for a one way ticket. On the boat we met a very nice couple from Bath, England. They spend their winter time travelling since he trains proffessional car racers during april - october. Not a bad career...!

Water is very shallow around Siquijor so the pier is very long

We hit some ATM machines for some good cash and stopped a Tricycle for a ride to the Bus station. The tricycles are so fantastic, Family Janlert + 5 big backpacks and 5 small ones could all fit in!

Oskar is looking a bit squeezed...

Lady Luck was on our side today, we only jumped from the tricycle to the bus. This bus was very convenient. When the ordinary seats are taken you just fold up a chair in the middle. No worries if you are in the back and want to hop off, everything can be fixed in the Philippines.

A sea of bus passengers

Transportation to Apo island is very regulated. There is a fixed fair of 1700 pesos (return) for small boat and 2700 pesos for a large boat so no idea for bargaining. We could see the Apo island soon, very soon we would be there...

Apo island soon...

We arrived the little fishing village in Apo island and Pernilla set out to sign in and pay the National park fee. Rest of the crew set of for Apo island dive resort and soon 2 snorklers where out in the water screaming... It's wonderful! Apo island is absolutly fabulous, very small and charming. with wonderful diving reefs just minutes away. The landing point of Apo is just below Liberty's resort, here there is no real beach and all the boats are anchored here. Tucked away with a very secluded beach is our resort, Apo island resort. Our cottage wasn't big enough for all of us but the cottage had a very big veranda so Kalle and I slept outside. Incredible to watch the ocean from our bed and hear the waves. Never slept better!

The passage to Apo island resort

View from the bed

Sunset Apo island resort

Our cottage, Lower triton

All the way around Siquijor island 18/1

Siquijor is the magical and mystical island of the Philippines used to be part of Negros Oriental and it was at that time called Island of Fire. Siquijor is said to have sorceres and shamans - and a lot of Filipinos will not stay overnight on this island because of this superstition.We didn't see much of that on our around-the island tour. The island is very nice but the beaches are ok but not extraordinary since they are very shallow and not so good for swimming. But equipped with booties you avoid the seaurchines and can snorkle the reefs sourrounding the island. The southern side is slightly more developed but its very genuine. On our way we saw the sacred old tree and Oskar and Klara swimmed in the Cambugahay falls.

Old sacred tree

Old sacred church

Oskar in Cambughaya falls

Cambughaya falls

Utflykt till Salagdong beach 16/1

Efter några dagar med dykning och dåliga magar hos olika familjemedlemmar åkte Oskar, Klara, och Pernilla på utflykt till Salagdong beach. Vi fick lift upp till stora vägen och ganska snart dök det upp en Jeepney. Sträckan vi skulle åka var inte lång men en Jeepney stannar hela tiden och plockar på och av folk. Ett tag var vi ute i buskarna och lämnade cement, då undrade vi vart vi var på väg... Till slut blev vi avsläppta och började vandringen mot stranden. Vägen är omringad av vackra höga träd så det var en skön promenad. För att komma till stranden fick vi betala inträde och när vi kom fram förstod vi varför. Utanför stranden ligger en liten ö med 2 stora rutschbanor som slutar i vattnet och 2 hopptorn för de som vågar. Stranden är liten men trevlig och restaurangen hade jättegod mat. Bredvid resturangen finns det en karaoke jukebox som användes flitigt av söndagslediga filippinos och pick-nick bord att hyra. En familj hade med sig en helgrillad spädgris! Klara och Oskar åkte och hoppade från hopptornen innan det var dags att påbörja resan hem. Nu var vi klart mörare och vi hade turen att få åka med på ett flak. Familjen tyckte vi var väldigt exotiska och bad att få ta foto på oss. En Tricykel tur senare var vi hemma på Kiwi Dive resort för tidig sänggång.

Ups and downs in Siquijor 13/1

Kiwi dive resort a great place if you are not feeling well.

Oskar didn't really recover from the seasickness, must have been some bug... and Vera and Kalle followed his trail. He and Kalle managed to do some diving, which was fairly average. Visibility not so good. We have a lovely little house of our own just by the beach, only paying 1390 PHP per night. The staff is ever so friendly and nice and we have a little house kitten visiting us. She climbs in via the roof. Siquijor is a very quiet and non touristy island. Hardly any cars, just the Jeepney's, Jeeps turned in to some kind of bus. Hardly any transports are made by lorrys so everything goes in the Jeepney, concrete, vegetables on their way to market, roosters and people. When you want to hop off you bang a coin against the rail. Very efficient! The rain is following us :-(, so when the sun shows its face we are very happy. Another transportation is the tricycle, a rebuilt motorbike with a sidovagn (in swedish). we managed to be 11 people at the same time on the tricycle, 4 adults and 7 children! Travelling with Jeepney or Tricykle is very cheap, you pay about 2 SEK or 0,2 pp Euro for a ride.

Our little house in Kiwi dive resort

Some Janlerts talked a lot to Ralp on the big white phone...

The beach, just outside the resort

Klara watching the crabs at lowtide

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Kiwi Dive Resort, Siquijor

After two nights at Nuts Hut we got enough of the mud. We took the ferry to Siquijor island, arrived at 8:45 pm to Siquijor town. Quite a tough ride for Oskar who became seasick. After a 40 min bumpy ride with a taxi we arrived to Kiwi Resort.

Taxi at Siquijor

The resort is very quiet, we have a bungalow down at the beach. The diving is ok, but the visibility is not so good, around 10 meters.

Nuts Huts

We took a taxi to Bohol and went up into the forest. From the main road there was a short walk to the resort, very slippery in the mud.

As it turned out we were slipping along in the mud for the whole stay :-(

 
The plan was to do some trekking, but we were surprised at the arrival by this sign:

 
Vera was so happy!

You get good excercise at Nuts Hut, 275 steps from bottom of the stairs to the top.

Alona Beach, Panglao

Finally we could see the ocean again, stayed att the cottages behind Oops bar. Nice and clean, paid 1900 pesos for two huts/day.

Quite a lot of tourists at the beach, we did som diving outside the reef and at Balicasag. The latter was great, Pernilla, Oskar and Kalle dived together for the first time. Great corals and thousands of fishes. The best were three giant turtles, one of them at least 1,5 m long :-)

Mother and son preparing a dive.

Balicasag island

Long day, from KL to Manilla

The alarm rang att 4:15, interesting taxi ride to KL airport.

Four hours flight with Air Asia to Clark airport outside Manilla. From there it was a two hour taxi trip to Nichols Airport Hotel located close to Manilla airport. The traffic situation in Manilla is crazy, vehicles all over the place and everyone is using the horn.

A room with a view, Manilla

In the evening we visited Mall of Asia, the third largest mall in the world, it was gigantic. We watched the movie Tron (not the best of films) of course the cineman was biiig!

Looking good!

This is maybe not what to expect in Manilla!

Early to bed, tomorrow we´re off to Tagbilaran.

Kuala Lumpur

The second of januari we flew from Chiang Mai to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Great city, we stayed at the Equator Hostel (fantastic staff!!) located close to the mall Times Square downtown KL. At Times Square there was a indoor rollercoaster! Great fun, definitely better than Gröna Lund :-)

Indoor rollercoaster, Times Sqaure KL

We enjoyed delicious food, not so much malaysian though but chinese and japanese (Sushi Tei, strongly recommended)...

Menu, Sushi Tei

The Bird Park is worth a visit, all kinds of birds flying around.

Birds....

 As ususal we had some rain, when it rains in KL it rains a LOT.

Vera?

Our new familymember!