Philippines: Batangas and Puerto Galera

We left Talisay around 2pm in a Jeepney toward Batangas. If you've never seen a Jeepney (and I hadn't), they're old US military vehicles that have been converted to buses. They're completely decked out with chrome and bright signs and fitted with benches that run front-to-back inside. Comfortably they hold about 10 people in the back, but we had the pleasure of riding it completely full with about 18. I guess two more could have joined the fun if they would have hung off the back of the Jeepney's two passenger stepladders. Safe.



We eventually traded the Jeepney for a city bus that sat 5 across. Of course, we got lots of good, long stares as we made our way to the back. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but our group of eight was made of up of 3 Norwegians, 2 French, 2 Americans and 1 Brit. All very white.

We paid 51 pesos per person ($1.25US) to ride for an hour to Batangas. We arrived in Batangas just as the sun was setting, but too late to get anywhere to take advantage of it. We went to our hostel (recommended by Lonely Planet) called Travellers' Inn. It had a great location close to the ferry terminal, but the place was pretty shitty. At least this time, there were two double beds so no one had to sleep on a mattress on the floor. The bathroom was the same as the "Resort" in Talisay. But (get excited) our upgrade included a TV without cable and a table with two chairs. Yeehaw!

To find dinner, Ronan found two tricycle drivers to be our escorts for the evening. Again, if you've never seen a Filipino tricycle, they look like a cheap motorbike with a retro sidecar attached. Here's a photo I found online.



I think they're intended to carry 2 passengers, but we managed to pile on 5 (including the driver)--two more on the bike behind him and two in the sidecar. Did I mention we were on a budget? Anyway, these guys volunteered to take us where we wanted all night for 300P ($7US). We asked to go to a place that served drinks and food in a Western-friendly area, or something of that nature. We pull up to this place, pile out of the tricycle and walk to the front doors. The boys walked ahead of us and as soon as the doors opened, about six women jumped up to greet them. Apparently our driver confused dinner with hookers.

Sooo... a few stops later, we found a place that looked suitable. Most everyone ordered the T-bone steak, but Jen and I ordered cheese sticks and chicken fingers. Much to our surprise the chicken fingers were really good. When the steaks came to the table they were thin, fatty and somewhat gray in color. Better than that, the restaurant "ran out" of knives, so half the table had to try cutting their steak with fork and spoon. Yeah, not very easy to do... but hilarious to watch. Jen and I were satisfied.

The rest of the night wasn't very interesting. We went to another patio bar thing and ordered beer. Since we couldn't order drinks with water or ice, we were limited to beer. We didn't drink much or stay out late because the next day we planned on getting up at 5:30am to catch the ferry to Puerto Galera.

What do you know?! The boys all overslept. In the process of paying and leaving the hostel (200P/night or $4.92), two of the boys ended up paying twice because of some confusion. They got pretty mad, but looking back, there wasn't much reason to. An extra $4.92?!

The ferry ride was a few hours long, but we got to Puerto Galera (a part called White Beach) by 10am. We had breakfast, dropped our stuff off and headed to the beach! It was a bit "touristy" as you can tell by the picture below. (Again, I'll have more pictures once the girls put them online. This is one I found thanks to Google.)


The worst part about laying on the beach are these women selling on-site massages. At any given time there may be 20 of them roaming around asking, "Maaaassage?" Our biggest mistake as saying, "Maybe later." When they don't get a firm 'no' they follow you around allllll afternoon. Jen and Maud decided to get them after we had been laying around a while. I didn't because 3 women ended up getting mad and fighting with each other over who "had me first." I tried to be polite, but I eventually just picked up my stuff and went to a shaded area to read. I decided if I go back there I need a shirt that says, "No. I don't want a massage" on the front and "No, I still don't want a massage" on the back, so they can see it when I walk away. Even better, I need one that says "I have a very contagious skin infection under this shirt."

After a long day at the beach and brief incident involving jellyfish stings, we went back to our rooms and got cleaned up for dinner. We had some pretty good pork kebobs cooked on the beach... with beer... again.

I went to bed early because I'm always the first to pass out. When I woke up my roommates informed me of some escapades that carried on through the night. Thankfully I wasn't involved.

As we were packing up to head back to Batangas (and eventually Hong Kong), I decided I wanted some left over off-brand Goldfish Jen bought a few days before. I put my hand blindly into the box and when I pulled out a cracker there was a penny-sized cockroach on my index finger! It. Was. So. Gross. If there hadn't been a lightbulb moment before this, this was it. Pay more than $4/night and you probably won't have this problem. Lesson learned.

We made it back to Hong Kong after a full day of traveling. There were plenty of other funny moments involving bathrooms (no toilet paper or soap), fast food (that serves spaghetti), a famous bamboo organ (that we paid to see?), and a crazy Hong Kong cab driver (who thought his mini-van was an Indy car). We survived... and had a pretty good time! It was the perfect in the sense that I got plenty of time to laugh.

Motto of the week: "It's all part of the experience."

On another note: I had the best mango of my life in the Philippines. Dad, you would have loved it!