Good News and Bad News

Well it's August 31... Are you ready for an update?

The good news is that my right bicep is looking great! Completely room temperature and everything.

The bad news is that apparently banning myself from the kitchen was not going to thwart the Disorder this month.  

Back in Siquijor, the first full day we were in the Philippines, we had a little slip involving a steep hill, some gravel, and our little motorbike. It wasn't a big deal--we were practically standing still when it happened--but it did result in a bit more leg/exhaust pipe contact than is really ideal. As soon as it happened, a very kind Filipino couple stopped to check on us to make sure we were ok and the bike was ok (I was far more concerned with the bike than my leg because the bike was rented!). We didn't have anything to cover up the burn, so the girl found some leaves that she called "medicine" and crushed them and squeezed the juice on my knee. It worked amazingly well, actually.

The incident obviously didn't slow us down at all (we still went diving and waterfall hiking and more while we were there, including more motorbikes), but our pride has been a little sore this month. But now that we have a nice "after" picture, we feel better about it. It looks totally fine and feels even better.

But still... this is getting weird.

August 2007: Right bicep (hot oil)
August 2009: Right bicep (hot pan)
August 2011: Right leg (hot exhaust pipe)

(And it should be noted that those are the only three times I've burned myself ever. I'm not pulling out a pattern from a long list of options.) 

So August 2013... I spend the month in Iceland? That's cool. I've never been to Iceland. :)

Searching for Casaroro

After touring Dumaguete on Tuesday morning, we were on a bike again heading out to explore the surrounding area. We headed toward Valencia, a little town at the foot of Mt. Talinis or Cuernos de Negros (Horns of Negros).

We wandered a bit and found some gorgeous butterflies:

We had some really yummy fried bananas (the outside was sort of crystallized sugar, not a heavy batter) and buko juice (coconut) from a street vendor and sat on the town green for a while watching the soccer matches that evening.

And we spent quite some time chasing the sunset behind Mt. Talinis. (If you ever need a change of scenery, can I recommend renting a motorbike and chasing a sunset? Good for the soul.)

Kyle climbed on a 6 ft cinder block wall to get that shot, while I stood on the ground trying to look nonchalant. This earned us some really interesting looks from passing motorbikes. I tried to take a picture of him, but my camera settings were incorrect and then he jumped down.

(Now you know what a good 5% of my photos look like. Grr slow shutter speed when I'm in a hurry.) 

But we spent most of the afternoon looking for the Casaroro Falls. The falls are 30 meters, but the problem is we had to climb up, just to then climb down to see the falls. Thankfully, there was some encouraging signage:

335+ mossy, slippery steps.

[Ask me how many times I fell? Just once! Win for me!]

It was completely worth it though. The falls were absolutely stunning and we were the only people there.

They fell almost into a well. The rock wall was curved around them nearly 270 degrees with one open section and we climbed all the way to the pool at the bottom.

The whole rock face was covered with ferns dancing in the mist and breeze.

It defied photography, and we loved it.

Eating, Seeing Animals, and Dodging Coconuts

After our day of diving, we spent the rest of our time in the Philippines (another day and a half) exploring Dumaguete and around. We also had a few signature Philippine dishes. Two nights for dinner we had kinilaw, Philippine fish ceviche. Very yum.



We also had sinigang na hipon a couple of times, a sour soup. The recipe in my Southeast Asian cookbook says the sourness comes from either medium-ripe fruits (like guava) or from tamarind (which I've used once--and searched for extensively--when cooking Indian). We had fish versions twice, which were really good and which we'll probably try to make at some point. For lunch the last day, though, I had a pork version until I realized that the pork still had hair on it. At which point I no longer had any. 

(Fish version)

For dessert we had milkshakes, which aren't particularly Asian at all, I don't think, but still good. 

On Tuesday, we explored the town a bit via tricycle in the morning. Here's a good shot of the motorbike/sidecar situation: A nice little set up.



Being the science-y folks that we are, we visited the Center for Tropical Studies (CENTROP) at Silliman University, which works with endemic endangered species. We got a tour from one of the center's animal breeders, who works with bleeding heart pigeons [Google pic] and the Philippine spotted deer [which looks like a fawn its whole life].

On Wednesday before we left, we also visited the Silliman University Marine Lab. They are raising crocodiles and giant clams (like the one we saw on the Great Barrier Reef). 

They also have the [reportedly] second largest collection of whale bones in the world. The first is in a museum in Japan. This collection is in a spider-web-covered out building. I don't think they get  a ton of visitors, so I made Kyle write down all his scientific credentials, so we seemed less random.

As we moved around town, we enjoyed some of the public service announcements:

Poor guy.

Not pictured, a whole cast of Disney characters painted along a long wall encouraging people to Be Brave, Work Hard, and Be Open Minded!

Finally, in what is becoming a small collection of pictures of this shirt in foreign countries, here's Kyle carrying our bag back to the main road from the Marine Lab (we were heading straight for the airport). Just because it's funny.

Disneyland for Divers

We weren't sure about diving in the Philippines because I couldn't get a clear sense of whether or not it was the right season. It was definitely low season. None of the dive operators I contacted had scheduled trips to Apo Island (where I wanted to dive) and several weren't even going to other sites. But that doesn't mean the diving would be bad necessarily. It's more likely to mean that the water would be rough for the trip to and from the dive site. Some would have been willing to go with a full boat--usually 4 or more divers--but we were alone and I had no idea if I'd find people who wanted to go diving when we got there. When we left Singapore, we didn't have anything booked and we really weren't sure if we'd get to dive or not.

I offer all this as an excuse for why I did not bring the underwater camera--which our friends had loaned us--on some of the prettiest dives we've done.

Our first night in Siquijor I heard a guy call Apo Island Disneyland for divers. A tiny little volcanic island between Siquijor and Negros, we'd heard Apo is one of the best dive sites in the Philippines and is the site of the country's first and most successful marine reserve. But Disneyland?

We talked a bit more; he had been recently and said the diving was great. Visibility was good. The boat trip wasn't bad. We decided to head back to Dumaguete on Sunday night and see if we could arrange a trip for Monday. The guesthouse where we were booked in Dumaguete ran trips to Apo, so we emailed them on Sunday morning to let them know we were interested.

The first thing we asked when we checked in late Sunday afternoon was about an Apo Island trip the next day. They needed 4 divers to go, but another couple had mentioned it, so they'd ask them. Later that night the front desk let us know that the trip was on.

We ended up being a group of 6 divers and 2 dive masters. We rode in the back of a truck from Dumaguete to Dauin, where the boat was, before taking the 7km boat ride to Apo.

The trip was infinitely better than either ferry ride although it took about the same amount of time. Being in the open air is so much nicer. It's been a while since we've been on a dive boat that isn't a liveaboard though.

There was no where to go between dives but relax on deck and enjoy a picnic lunch and stunning scenery.



We dove three sites in the crystal clear water around Apo, and it really is like Disneyland. The visibility was phenomenal. Every time we entered the water I was sure I was going to hit bottom when we jumped in because it just looked so close. I was shocked on the first dive to look at my depth gauge and find that we were 30 meters down. The light was so good, I would have guessed we were in much shallower water. (I paid attention after that. That's a good way to get yourself a trip to a decompression chamber.)

We saw several critters on my wish list: a frog fish the size of a dinner plate (a black one though, not any of those crazy colors), some awesome shrimp including a boxer, really fantastic varieties of coral, and Mandarin fish (!!), though they were being very shy. [Links go to Google Images]


I, of course, wished the whole time I had a camera so I could show you the incredible things we saw, but Kyle, as usual, was glad I didn't. (I get very, um, involved in the camera when I have it). Regardless, I'm so glad it worked out even if all we had to show for it were dive hair and entries in the dive logs.

Siquijor

Siquijor is its own little island province and the coastal road that circles the island is only 72km long. It's a quiet island, with lots of small villages. Beaches ring the perimeter and [small] mountains in the interior hide waterfalls and quarries and rumors of healers brewing traditional medicines.

So you know what we did as soon as we woke up on Sunday morning, right?

After a relaxing and low key Saturday evening, we spent the day Sunday exploring the island, adding to our rice paddy photo collection (rice is just so green and pretty!):



Checking out the beaches:



And rounding bends in the road to find gorgeous coves:



We visited the coral-stone San Antonio de Padua Church built in 1857 in the village of Lazi.

Since it was Sunday, there were services going on. The entire town seemed to be gathered in the shade of the enormous and awesome tree in front of the church enjoying their Sunday. We got lots of attention pulling up on our bike.



We stopped interrupting their Sunday and headed up into the mountains to visit the Cambugahay Falls. We'd been warned of "Organized Child Crime" (seriously, that was the warning) at the falls and heard stories of children hanging out in trees until a wallet or camera was left unattended and quickly climbing down and grabbing it. So we left the cameras locked in the bike seat. I looked around and didn't see anyone hanging out in trees, but I didn't feel like hiking back to the road at that point, so you'll have to just imagine it.

The falls were lovely though, several levels of cool green pools (similar to the ones in Laos). A group of guys was hanging out when we arrived and there was only one other woman there, so I skipped the actual swimming (I didn't feel like stripping down to a bathing suit with the audience), but Kyle jumped in and did a flip off of one of the ledges to great applause from the onlookers.

When we were nice and cooled off, we headed back to Lazi to peek inside the church (I loved the blue ceiling and the gorgeous wooden floors!)

We'd considered staying on Siquijor longer, but we wanted to get a dive in and needed to head back to Dumaguete to arrange a trip, so Sunday evening we took the ferry back. This time we booked with a different ferry company though--one that offered open windows, fresh air, and a sun deck if you wanted it. Still, none of the ferries are exactly luxury travel:

One so-long shot of Siquijor through the window:



(The windows did get closed halfway through the trip though because everyone was getting wet.)



Then we headed to the island of Negros.

Planes, Another Plane, Ferry, Etc.

After the drama earlier in the week, we were a little shocked that we actually arrived in the Philippines early on Saturday morning. We left Singapore at 1:30 am, had a short, painless layover in Manila, then continued on to Dumaguete. We were headed for the Visayas, a group of thousands of islands (seriously) that lie in the middle of the Philippines made of up of 15 or so provinces.

Dumaguete is the capital of Negros Oriental (the Eastern province on Negros island). When we landed on Saturday morning we went straight to the pier and bought tickets for the 1:30 ferry to Siquijor (pronounced "siggy-hor" by everyone). I'd hoped to get to Siquijor much earlier than that, but the two earlier ferries were sold out, so we needed to wait.



After an overnight flight and with luggage still in tow, we weren't up for much on Saturday morning, so we spent our morning at a restaurant on Dumaguete's ocean front, Rizal St, snacking and visiting with our seatmate on the flight, an Australian aid worker who was also headed to Siquijor.

By 1:30 we were fed, somewhat rested, and ready for the ferry. Our boat was equipped with what looked (and felt!) like rejected airline seats. The crossing was almost an hour. Toward the end, I started imaging how we'd all be stuck there if the ferry were to sink, unable to get out of our cramped seats and through the bolted shut windows. It wasn't my favorite 45 minutes of an already long trip.

We arrived in Siquijor at 2:30 pm, 13 hours after we left Singapore, 26 hours since we'd last slept. The port where we arrived in the ferry was absolutely stunning--white sand, turquoise waters, and one outrigger picturesquely situated in the shallows. Walking down the dock, Kyle perked up a bit at the sheer beauty, but I was too tired to fish the camera out at that point for a picture. Trust me when I say that view may have been the only thing that renewed Kyle's faith in my trip-planning skills.

Then it was into a tricycle (basically a two-seater side car for a motorbike) to our cottage at the northwest tip of the island. (That's our driver, Romeo, cell phone in hand.) 



When we finally arrived, we were ready for showers and rest. We spent the afternoon taking it easy with a walk down the main road and then wandering along the beach and enjoying the sea breeze (Kyle's hair is really coming into its own)...



We had an early dinner as the sun set.



Not a quick trip at all, but the Philippines was looking awfully pretty, which was a nice welcome gesture.

The Trip that Almost Wasn't

Back at the end of June I found a great price for two direct, round trip tickets to the Philippines over Singapore's National Day holiday on August 9. Kyle was in the US at the time, so there was a flurry of trans-Pacific emailing about whether or not we should take off a few days and spend some time exploring a new Southeast Asian country. I've been researching the Philippines for a while now, so we definitely wanted to go, but we needed to make sure that the trip would work with both of our work schedules.

Turns out the timing was good. Kyle would have Tuesday off. For just 2 vacation days (for him) we could spend Friday night through Wednesday in the Philippines. I was at a good spot in my schedule as well, so on June 30, I bought the tickets direct from Singapore to Cebu on AirPhil Express.

On Monday, August 1--before we were supposed to leave on Friday--I realized that we had a problem.

From: Alli
To: Kyle
9:22 am, Monday morning

PROBLEM

I just checked this flight to get the exact cost (so I could put it in our spreadsheet) and it's now showing a flight over-nighting in Manila. AUGH. I'm calling now.

Our nice little direct flight? Now replaced with a seven hour layover in Manila in the middle of the night. And no one told us anything. So I start calling AirPhil Express. And keep calling. And keep calling. Sometimes I get cut off. Sometimes the automatic menu won't work. But most of the time it just rings and rings. Finally at 1:30 I talk to someone.

From: Alli
To: Kyle
1:30 pm, Monday afternoon

I got someone! She said they'll give me a full refund. And they are "honoring" the flight in that they'll get us to Cebu, just not direct. She was very polite and apologized and looked for other flights for me, but no explanation. 

I got off the phone without accepting the refund, because we still wanted to go. And as annoyed as we were that they hadn't told us about the schedule change, at least we still had a flight. 

I quit worrying about the flight at that point to get some work done. Monday night, we looked at our options and decided we wanted to keep part of the AirPhil Express flight, but catch at Cebu Pacific flight that would leave Manila earlier. Yes, we'd be flying all night, but at least we wouldn't be stranded in the Manila airport for hours and hours.

On Tuesday morning I start trying AirPhil Express again. After just a handful of tries, I get through.

From: Alli
To: Kyle
9:38 am, Tuesday morning

Ok, I just got through to AirPhil and she told me the spiel about the flight being canceled, so you're on the Manila flight, blah blah blah, BUT THEN... oh by the way, you don't have a ticket. Because there was a problem with your issuing bank and your ticket was voided on July 1.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

So on Tuesday, before we were supposed to leave on Friday, we had no ticket at all. Room reservations, yes. Flight, no.

In the Philippines there is a national sense of fatalism--bahala na, a phrase that (according to my guidebook) expresses the idea that all things shall pass and in the meantime life is to be lived. Whatever happens... so be it.

After much frustration and prayer, we decided to embrace that spirit. We dumped the whole AirPhil Express experience, booked new (and valid) tickets on Cebu Pacific, and called it a day. We'd fly through Manila overnight, but arrive in Dumaguete, the provincial capital we actually wanted to go to, and bypass the 4-hour ferry I'd planned from Cebu.

You know, if everything went according to plan.