Crow Valley to the beach

To start, I'm way behind in posting. This post is not where we are right not but is where we were about a week ago. Just as a quick FYI we are in Dumaguete now and will be here for a few more days after this post, Hopefully I should have everything caught up before we leave.

Onto the meat...

Once we left Crow Valley we took a Trike back to Alaminos, from there we were going to check out the 100 islands national park in Lucap. We took another trike (after stoping for a bit of food) to Lucap 75php. Arriving there and before I could even step foot off the trike I had a guy run up to me and tug on my shirt telling me I had to register to go to 100 islands, I had to pay a park fee etc... I tried to tell him that we just wanted to look around a bit, see lucap and maybe we wouldn't even go to 100 islands. He told me the only reason I can be there is to go to 100 islands.

Again let me point out that this is only our 2nd experience dealing with tourist areas and "tour guides" in the philippines. But we are learning fast. The first thing they will try to do is rush you into making a choice, into paying a fee, or into telling them where you are going (often to see if they can profit from getting you there.) The problem is that some locals are genuinely friendly and interested and some are looking for a buck, as I said before its just a matter of experience to tell the difference.

So the people @ Lucap could not be convinced that we just wanted to look around, and to be honest I was fed up with dealing with them so I just asked how much it would be. They wanted 500php for 1 night to camp with our tent. We smiled and said that we could get a hotel for that much.

We tried a different approach. Our back up plan to Lucap, if it was the tourist trap we thought it was and turned out to be; was to take a banka boat to a small fishing village called Pingan. It is about an hour by boat from Lucap to Pingan and they wanted 2,000 php. This is the first time that I wasn't able to control myself. I burst out laughing. The kind of belly laughing that forces you to bend at the waist, the kind of incredulous laughter that lets everyone around you know exactly what you think without having to say a word.

We told them we could get a jeepney there for less than 300php as we got back onto the trike and told the driver to about-face. As we rode away its was easy to feel the scowls at our backs.

I guess that most tourists that come here are either to stupid to know when their getting ripped off or to rich to care about it; we are neither. Even the locals we have talked to since then have been dumbfounded at how ridiculous those prices were. -We continue to learn every day.

So, back in Alaminos we hopped on a Jeepney for Anda (only 40php each). We also got to try something that a few people have recommended to us and I'm sure all or our families will scorn us for, top riding. Basically imagine a Jeepney like a big Van. Top riding is exactly what it sounds like. Its not all that different than riding in the back of a pick-up to be honest, something I think all of us living in Montana have done. It was neat, but with no roof for shade we had to be a bit weary of the sun.

Arriving in Anda we took a break to eat and find out the best way to get to pingan. We also wanted to explore the area a bit, as is our nature. We ended up stopping at this little burger place and talking to some kids. Through the kids we found out about a little beach known by the locals and NOT in a guidebook.

We have collectively decided not to name any of the non-guidebook places. If you’re a tourist, get a guidebook, if you’re a true backpacker, then ask around and do the leg work yourself, it’s not that hard.

So we changed our plans and headed to the beach the kids told us about via trike.
Getting to the beach we were apprehensive as always but when the surprised locals there asked us with disbelief "how did you find this place?" we knew that we were where we wanted to be. The "entrance fee" was 5php We gave them 200php a night to let us put up our tent on the white sand beach (we didn't even bother haggling the price down) the 200 included the rental of a little hut to keep us out of the sun. The water was clear and blue green, there were bankas floating sporadically out in the sea, and a small island about 300 meters off the shore... perfect.
The best thing, no tourists!

We met some other non-philipinos there, 2 Swedish guys who had family in the area, and an Australian who also had family there.

We hadn't even been there 3 hours when we met Julian, she came out to meet us after hearing that there were some foreigners on the beach. (Its a very, very small town and word gets round fast) She invited us to her friends house for some food. The town is so small there’s only 1... hotel I guess you could call it and basically no restaurants. Julians friend basically ran a pool hall, store and restaurant out of her home. No signs or advertising, without the local knowledge we wouldn’t have even known.

She asked us what we wanted and cooked us a great meal. Don't get me wrong we had to pay for it but it was far different than any restaurant. It was more like paying for the raw cost of the food that a friend cooks for you. We spend the next 3 days exploring the area, meeting locals and relaxing.

I could spend the next 10 hours writing about the intricacies and details of this place that has become so carved into my memories but it would all be hollow when set beside the experience of actually being there. It is a place that I will go back to.

During our time there we learned about a few other off the beaten path places that we decided to check out, both of them waterfalls.

Again without mentioning names though as I said, its not that hard to find these places; the first place we went to we started walking from the drop off point of the jeepney along the highway toward where a local had pointed. We met up with another guy who apparently was the owner of the area on his way to do trail clean up etc... he also was a barangay councilmen though we have learned to take what people say with a grain of salt @ first. He walked with us along the highway chatting with me.

He led us down a path that wasn't marked at all telling us that the sign had been knocked down in the last typhoon. Without going into much detail we had a bad vibe about the guy so we had our guard up a bit. He did end up leading us right to the falls though and I will admit without him leading us its very unlikely we would have found it. He said his goodbyes and left us there.

The falls were amazing, like nothing I've ever seen with my own eyes, and if the professional pictures I've seen on discovery and in magazines didn't do the job at preparing me for this kind of beauty then my pictures are hardly worth the pixels.

Back in Japan I posted pictures of the falls we went to and I thought those were amazing. The ones we saw here were full, and heavy with water. Hundreds of gallons poured over the rock face and fell 6-10 meters to water of the finest clarity below. In Montana before we cliff jump we swim below and check the depth because the bottom cannot be seen. We performed the same check here though there was hardly need, the bottom could be seen from above, it was amazing.

I wish we could have stayed longer.

About my 3rd jump from the top of the falls I noticed a few guys come down the path, and again without going into the kind of detail that might worry any one I'll just say that we were smart enough to follow the mood and our instincts and leave the area. I wish we could have stayed in that paradise a bit longer but prudence just wouldn't allow. Oh well, we know the way (or general way) to another set of falls, so off we headed.

We ended up going a bit out of our way, back tracking to a town we didn't need to go to and then passing by the same area we left to get to the next falls. We were dropped off where a dirt road met a highway (again when I say highway I'm talking about a small road barely large enough for 2 lanes.) and told by the driver it would be about 2km to where we wanted to go.

If there is a second thing that we have learned past being very vague about where your going, it’s that most Philippinos (and I hate to generalize) have very poor senses of distance and time it takes to get somewhere. When this guy said 2km he meant about 10. We realized this as soon as we looked at our watches as we say the sun passing over head and realizing that we had been walking for 2 hours.

We were lucky here though because walking with us were 2 school kids that we could keep asking if we had passed the falls yet. They were walking home (from what we could figure out) and made for good traveling companions.

Once again what could have been misfortune turned into luck. If we had been later in leaving the first falls, or if we had taken the trike all the way to the second instead of deciding to walk ourselves we would have missed an event that, while brutal is still a gem in our experience of the Philippines.

A cock fight.

Not a sport that’s legal where we are from or accepted by most, it is the philippino baseball. Walking past a turn in the road we could hear the calls of roosters, which in and of itself is not uncommon here as they seem to be everywhere. In fact it would be odd for more than 10 minutes to go by without the sound of a crowing rooster. So less the calling and more the mesh ring with 2 dozen or so individuals packed around it.

Once again I must comment on the generosity and curiosity of the Philipino people. While some are truly just trying to make a buck those that are not have shown us some of the most amazing hospitality I have ever seen, even in the close nit state that I'm from the hospitality here puts us to shame.

We were beckoned over by some of the people there, perhaps 1/2 out of their own curiosity of 3 foreigners out in the boonies stumbling across this event and 1/2 hospitality. They gave us front row seats, offered us some drinks (none poisoned sealed soda bottles for you worry warts out there) and even let us take pictures.

Out here there aren’t near as many people that speak English so learning the rules were a bit difficult. In fact I will go so far as to say we still have no idea about how the sport works. There seemed to be a lot of ritual involved in it (not the spiritual kind). There was a specific way to choose which birds would fight (which took almost an hour). Everything was very detailed and done with purpose; I can truly not think of a better word that ritual.

The birds were "armed" with blades that were attached to their spurs and sometimes one bird would have a handicap, if it was bigger or smaller, or of a better bread. The handicapped bird would only get 1 spur while the other got 2. The amount of detail is amazing. The box in the picture is a case of blades, all different sizes and shapes and all razor sharp.

We only stayed for 1 fight, just to experience it and because we still had a lot of ground to cover. Not to mention it was almost and hour of choosing which bird to fight, getting the birds ready, and betting for about 90 seconds of a fight.

We took off and headed down the path for another 3 hours before, after asking a few people in huts along the way, we found our destination.

It’s hard to compare the 2 falls; they were similar but different all the same. We stayed and swam here for a while and were caught in our skivvies by an entire family that came down to swim and picnic. We sat there in our underwear talking to the driver that brought the family here. We had a few shots of rum with him (yes rum, yes he was driving) and chatted for a bit.

We decided not to stay the night here as there wasn't really a nearby camping area and Jeff wanted to get back ASAP to make it home by valentines day. We walked back watching the sunset as we went.

Unfortunately there were no trikes going to where we needed to go to catch a bus back to Manila so we started walking along the highway the right direction, we really had no other choice at this point. We happened along 2 trikes exchanging goods and again, as a testament to Philippino hospitality, let us load up and took us to where we wanted to go, even though one of them was headed the opposite direction. We tried to compensate them a bit for the gas and time but they wouldn't have any of it.

The rest of the evening was spent cooking some rice and waiting for the overnight bus to Manila. We had to skip out on Benaue and Bulinou but I think both Nathan and I plan to come back in our lives and see them then.

Manila was spent finding a replacement tent as Jeff’s was too big for just the 2 of us and too heavy for one of us to absorb the extra weight. Since Nathan and I have to split the group weight that Jeff was carrying I wanted to find as lightweight of a tent as possible. 100 bucks and 2 days later (shopping in the Phils is really annoying, but that’s an entirely different subject) we had a tent that while, should be rated to 1 man only (poor nathan) was the only thing we could find to work. We said our goodbyes to Jeff and our three of a kind became a pair.