TravellingStrom

Ok, so Wednesday morning we had a tour planned. Because we got cheap accomodation, the same people had tours so we felt comfortable doing a Jeepney and Caribou ride to a waterfall up inland a ways.

So, the beer was organised, two boxes and ice and off we go, first beer to be opened, this young chap was the drivers son and his job was beer opener 🙂

This first part is the same dirt road we rode up on the bikes yesterday, so I managed to get some good pix out the window, sometimes!!

But you had to watch it as fast eddie was a rip snorter of a driver and did not slow down for nothing, just used more horn!

He was not over endowed with tread on the steering department either

We had a break at the lookout

Before heading off to the waterfall

Check out the battery on the handlebars, just for the horn I think:)

This other jeepney was going even faster around all the hairpin bends and ended up using more foot and more horn and passed us going uphill I was glad I was in the back

We dodged some school kids on the way to school amongst all the rice paddies

Eventually we were at roads end, from here on in no motor vehicles allowed, so it is either shanks pony or Caribou express 🙂

We had 7 river crossings to negotiate, in thongs! I did not break mine

It was very hot, I wished I was riding like these lazy bastards

We eventually got to the waterfall area

There was a BBQ lunch organised so while that was cooking, we checked out the area, this is toilet rock, me having a practice

A view from up top, it was not a big fall

And I had a waterfall massage under this fall of about 3 meters

Then we had to negotiate. As we walked here we were seperated from each other by these ladies, they wanted to sell us stuff, that is their job, they do this walk up to 6 times a day in season, at this time it is off season. They put a lot of effort into it, but nothing useful to me, to carry on a bike etc, so I slipped them some dosh anyway and bought nothing. The singlets were XL, but way to small for me. This is the market laid out for us

As it was stinking hot, the rest of us decided to ride the carts back, so more were brought up.

On the way back the girls took short cuts and nearly ran all the way, because there was still a chance of larger shirts back where the Jeepney was left

The dangerous part about caribous is their natural urge to take a dump as soon as they are in water. At the first crossing this young chap managed to close the foofer valve, but here on the 2nd crossing it created an almighty kersploosh nearly soaking all in the front seat, including Alan, but he bailed out at the last second

Then we stopped and crossed a swinging bridge, made of steel cable and plate steel for the boards

Then back at break neck speed to Sabang

Check out the bamboo Armco barrier on the right of the road, that would stop nothing!!

It was a great trip and we all had a good time and it was cheap for the day $25 the lot each

After the bike rides and then the fast eddie Jeepney ride, Des had booked a boat from the same guy he had used last year for the next day. Basically a day trip cruising around in an outrigger, they were to supply beer and ice and an esky, all for the princeley sum of 2000Pesos, which is equivelant to 50 Bucks. We had booked it for 10am, as usual we were attacked by hawkers of all types while waiting out the front. This is Ken, buying some shorts, Maybe!

This is our boat the Euro Allstars, as you can see it is quite narrow

And the intrepid captain and his son, teaching him how to rip off tourists

So we set sail, with the wrong style beer on board, horrible stuff, he drove us around the headland where it started to rain a bit. I had been saying to Des the previous day that the rain falls vertically, wrong! This stuff was coming at an angle, we got a bit wet, but it was not cold. The cap took us straight to the Sandbar Bar, where he expected us to get off… WTF.

We had booked a boat cruise had we not? Apparently, he is expectimg to just take us to a few bars where we get off and drink, while he does nothing and the motor is not running, hmmmmm! OK, so we had a couple of beers here, then we chuffed off around the corner to Peurto Galera, nice BMW

More beer at the Rock and Roll Bar where one of the lovely barmaids had a sense of humour and called Al a pommie bastard, quite funny at the time

Here is a flash new 100 person outrigger ferry

The we got the bum boat to the Peurto Galera Yacht Club, it is at the other end of the channel markers

There Des met an old mate from Cairns, Steve I think, who now lives over there and is running the club, or on the executive anyway, he is on the right

The chaps fromn the Big Apple brought over the chips and stuff for the regular Friday poker session, we did not play, but we had lunch there a Vindaloo that was not so hot, whew that was lucky cos if shitting was an olympic sport, I would have gold by now. 🙂 I know Al, I stole that off you, tuff!!

Here are a couple of views of the shore, in the 2nd one you can see a mansion being built on the cliff

We had dinner that night at the Tamerind Bar( I think, it could be the other one, it is all a blur), it was good tucker and we all had a good time. There was an Aussie running a bar called the Bondi next door, but his prices were through the roof. $50/kg for crab, bugger that!

Next day we decided to meet for lunch at Eddies bar. Ken was happy with this location, but it had a grey water discharge running under it and it stunk(he had the flu). We eventually went back to the Tamerind bar for lunch.. It was raining and looked as if it had set in for the day, so what else was there to do but drink 🙂 Some images of the day

See the hawker to Als left, we were bombarded by them, they came from everywhere, except the watch salesmen, they don’t like moisture so they were not around We told them to go away, which they take as a challenge, come back Tuesday, which got turned into come back Sunday at 10am, we were leaving on the 9am Ferry 🙂

And this is Angel, she worked the cafe/bar/resaurant in front of the units we were staying at, she looked after us and was always happy 🙂

So, how many times have these hawkers been told lies? They were waiting for us next morning at 8am, silly us eh! We eventually went down to Eddies bar where we waited for the boat and tried to ignore the sellers. This is the gauntlet we had to negotiate on the way out

All those people out there were sellers. We even were offered great deals, 2 bracelets, one watch and a pearl necklace, all for 500P, when prior to that they were all 1000p each, go figure!
Thats our boat coming in for us all

and lifeboat drill, wait there are none, um lifejacket drill. See the shiny orange lifejacket? That is the display one only, all the rest were faded to no colour, I wonder if they work?

Back on dry land after an hour and a half travel

While waiting for the bus we saw this Toyota, it must be getting prepared for global warming

The bus was broke, but our fare included a bus to the Swagmans in Manilla, so two shuttle buses were aquired and we got there around 2pm or so. I had had no brekky or lunch, so I ordered a chow mein with crispy noodles. BY crikey, the plate was massive, I was never going to eat all that! We had become used to eating small meals, so this was a shock. I ate only a small amount, Des got one and scoffed the lot, but paid for it later. The cost of the rooms was too high so we went to the Amazonia Bar/Hotel. The reception desk is on the 3rd floor, you can pay for a minimum of 3 hours, on the ground floor was the disco and 2nd floor was a lounge area. You can tell the type of hotel we were at. The rooms were crap, very noisy with traffic, both internal and street, I did not get much sleep.

The next morning I booked out, I was heading back to the Great Eastern, I needed a tooth modified, just a slight grind off of a high spot. While having breakfast this American was harrased by a watch salesman(red shirt), he said he already had one but it did not work, the idiot then spent 10 minutes in the street with a sword salesman looking on and bought two more, some people never learn!

An unfortunate name for a taxi company, and looking at the state of the cab, I would say a shitty driver as well 🙂

Then a lunch date with Michelle 🙂

Before a great dinner of bangers and mash up at the Woodmans Head.

The next day I took a trip to one of the large shopping malls to buy another stick of memory for the laptop. I only had 1G, so I doubled it with another 1G stick(cost $20AU) and then tried to meet up with Des and Dallas. This did not happen, so I spent a bit of time in taxis, here are some impressions of the normal parts of Manilla

I then had the dentists appointment, very small, nothing like what you get back home, but it costs a lot for frontage

It was all very high tech new equipment, after the mod I was back at the pub, here is Vanessa and Clair

And Vanessa with a Dutch chap called Joost I met there and had some rhums with 🙂

I managed to get very sozzled becasue I found out that Vanessa was free pouring the rhum, not using a nip pourer. I ended up staggering back to the hotel around midnight. On a side note, there is no crime in the business district where I was. Every 2nd building had security guards with pump action shotguns and belts full of extra ammo, so tourists are very safe. Except if they want to sell you, DVDs, watches, bracelets, Pearl necklaces, Viagra, Cialis etc 🙂

So, I woke up late and got room service for bacon and eggs

Before getting a cab to the Amazonia Bar where the rest of the lads were still staying (except Alan, he had flown home different airline Monday), so it was 10.30am and our flight was not until 10pm, so we had a few beers

If you look over my right shoulder the girls are still dancing, the disco music is still on, just a different shift . One freelance girl(that is not a staff girl) took a liking to my beard and proved a comparison, enough said 🙂

The music started to get louder so we went up one floor to the pool table, lounge area, here is Des, relaxing

We finally left around 7pm for the airport, I was not sad to see the last of this

Across the road I spotted this, the first one I have seen all this time

Taxi???

Airport, more waiting, waiting, but no beer

The plane was late and Dallas went missing, apparently he had conjunctivitus and was not allowed on the plane, he would try and get next weeks plane, what a bummer!

We eventually took off 2 hours late and arrived in Cairns around Midday Thursday.

As an after thought. I logged on to the net at Des’ and found that my 3,300PhP room cost using Mastercard at the Amazonia had just cost me $3,300USD so with conversion to Aus and the exchange fee it cost me $4000AU for one nights stay????????? Des paid his bill with Visa, no worries, but he also paid for Alans with Mastercard and got ripped $1700.

After a few phone calls we dashed to our respective banks and put in a complaint form. The end result was that the next morning the whole deal had been reversed and I had all the cash back and just paid what I expected to pay. Mastercard should not have stuffed up in the first place, but at least I did not have to wait 45 days for my money.

All in all a great side detour and some great times with some old freinds and some new ones.

Cheers
TravellingStrom
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