The Philipines

The Philippines-

People have asked me what the Philippines are like since I came back. What can I tell them?

The Philippines, even though I only saw a small part of the over seven thousand islands that make up the country, are beautiful beyond belief.

Everywhere you look you see huge patches of green, bright and emerald. All over the place are flowing palm trees laden with coconuts and bananas and flowers everywhere. The whole country seemed to be in bloom just for us, and it was winter, pretty much the dead time for things to be in bloom. I cannot imagine what it would be like in the summer!

The water was incredible too. From the deep, milky, green of the Loboc river with its silky smooth feel to the incredibly clear salt water that welcomed us to the shore of Pamlican Island it was all just, well, awesome.

Besides the sights, the sounds, and the smells, the real pearl of this undiscovered, often overlooked gem of a country is the people. Never, in all my travels have I met more people who were, well, just genuinely friendly. I have never waved as much as I did as I traveled throughout Bohol and Manila. Even though many of the people I met have probably never used a computer or even had running water in their homes they were all happy, I never once heard an angry word or saw a fight the entire time I was in the country. Every time I asked to take a picture of people or things I had to take two or three to fit everyone in who came running towards the man with the camera. I have never met people so willing and wanting to have their picture taken!

I would also like to thank the people that I had the honour, the privilege of traveling with. Kelsey Anderson, Helen Dainty, Kirsty Prior, Saun Casey, and Kelly Hardy. A truly great bunch of people who made my holiday in Bohol and Manila probably the greatest nine days of my life, thanks to all of you.

Last but not least, to the people of Nuts Huts who catered to our every need and were so incredibly helpful with advice and local knowledge, thanks guys.
Finally I would like to say this. For all of you who read this who go to Thailand or Malaysia, think about the Philippines, it is the most undiscovered, untravelled, wondrous part of South East Asia! Don’t wait, just go and buy your tickets now!

What follows is just a little selection of the over five hundred pictures I took on this trip. If anyone wants to see more just give me an email at jonofragusa@yahoo.com and tell me what you would like to see more of and I will send you some more pictures.

Pamilican Island

Pamlican Island

What a place! Pamlican island sits about a mile or two off of the south eastern shore of Bohol Island proper in the middle of the deep blue and greens of the Bohol Sea. It has long been a centre of the whaling and dolphin hunting industry in the southern Phillipenes, but with a ban on whale and dolphin hunting in 1998 by the government the people have had to look for other ways to make money and the chief one is whale and dolphin watching excursions.
The island itself is fairly low and accessiable only by boat it is home to around sixteen hundred people that belong to around two hundred and fifty families and consits of a few houses grouped around the beaches. There are no docks or anything, the boats are simply drawn up on the white sand beaches that go almost all the way around the island.
The water is almost perfectly clear and covered in bright corals. Huge brain corals and delicate fan coral litter the ocean floor up to around two hundred yards off the island where the sea floor drops off in a wall of coral to about a hundred feet.
We were lucky enough, after our very successful dolphin watching expidition, to go snorkling along the drop off. The boat and our guides took us out about a hundred and fifty yards off shore were we donned masks and hit the water.
The clear, blue green water was incredibally crystaline. When I first splashed I thought I was only in about five feet of wet stuff becuase it was so clear but in reality the ocean floor was about ten feet down. All around me I could see fish of all kinds swimming around.
It looked like a veritable aquirium down there. All manner of fish were swimming around, fish whose names that I did not know, stripped and spotted with all differant colours. As I hovered on the surface I saw groupers and sea snakes moving with total freedom through the warm water. As I moved over the wall of coral twoards deeper water I could see huge schools of tuna and other fish that did not come into the shallows with the smaller fish. This was truely one of the greatest experiences of my life.
After snorkling for a couple of hours we went on shore to eat lunch and explore the island.
Lunch was laid out on a table under a small roof, tuna steaks and salad were on the menu along with some chicken soup, excellent.
After lunch we were able to explore the ruins of the three hundred year old Spanish fort that once watched over the Bohol sea and hung out with the locals for a little while before heading back up the Loboc river and home to Nuts Huts.

Pictures-
1. Dolphins are incredibly hard to photograph, the little bastards keep bumping and moving through the water and appear when you least expect them to. I took a lot of shots of the dolphins and this was the best I could get. If you blow the pictures up you can get a better view of the four dolphins in front of the boat.
2. I took this picture while treading water in about ten-twelve feet along side of the boat. Probably one of my most favorite pictures taht I took on this trip I really likeit for the simple view of the ocean.
3. The ruins of the three hundred year fort that used to guard these waters against threats against the Imperial Spanish empire.
4. A shot of some of the residents of Pamilican Island.
5. Gerald, a mute boy that hung around us as we were eating lunch.

nuts huts

Nuts Huts

What a place! Nuts Huts is the name of the collection of huts where we stayed on Bohol. It sits in the middle of the jungle along the valley of the Loboc river.
You can only reach Nuts Huts by walking down a long dirt track and then down the longest staircase in Bohol.
The huts themselves are really simple, jsut a bed, fan, and a cold water shower along with a mosquito net that is designed to keep most of the critters off your body.
What the huts lack in modern comforts they make up for it with exquisite scenery and wonderful people. Owned by a Belgian family that switches off operation of the huts during the on and off season it is a haven for both backpackers and people just looking for an out of the way place away from the constant influx of drunken tourists.
As you walk down the staircase you are struck by the incredible beuaty of the place. Every where you look are coconuts, bananas, and flowers all interspaced with huge swatches of green. When I would sit on my veranda after everyone went to bed, reading my book, I could hear the sounds of ripe coconuts splasing from the tops of the trees into the river.
The family who run the huts are incredibly garcious hosts. Alwasy ready to sit and talk and offer advice on things to see and do in Bohol they were truely great hosts. The fact that the entire stay was dirt cheap and had excellent food did not hurt things either.
My total bill for all my food, beer, scooter rental, everything, from nuts huts for seven days was about $130.00

Pictures
1. My room at Nuts Huts, complete with mosquito nets
2. One of the many animal visitors to Nuts Huts, a gecko
3. On our last night at Nuts Huts there were not alot of people hanging around so we spent the evening hanging out with Chris and Greta, the owners. Chris is in the red tank top and Greta is behind him in the white one. This is one of the few times that I saw Chris with a shirt on! The other people at the table are Saun, Kelly, Kelsey, and Chris and Gretels friends from Holland.
4. The outside of our hut. Kelsey and I had the room to the left while Saun and Kelly and the one to the right.
5. The four of us having some pre dinner drinks in the dinning room.

Manila People One

Manila
Manila is a city of grinding poverty with incredibly friendly people. Here are some shots of the locals.

1. When we were walking around China Town we passed a group of kids who were getting ready to do their dragon dance for the new year. When we walked by and asked what they were doing they asked us if we wanted to see their dragon dance, of course we said yes. Pretty soon the entire little area around the front door of their building was filled with kids and adults watching the impromptu show of the ancient Chinese dance.

2. Helen with her new friends of the Manila S.W.A.T. team who were enjoying a little liquid refreshment before tehy headed out on durty for the night.

3. Another shot of the dragon dance, these kids were amazing bouncing around with their paper dragon.

4. Kirsty, Helen, and I stopped for lunch at a little place and this boy and his sister sang Christmas carols to us while we ate pork and drank cold San Migs.

5. Kirsty with a new friend learning how to play the drums.

Manila People

Some More Shots of Manila

1. The five us finally reunited in Rizal Park, central Manila after various journeys and adventures. Front, from left, Kelsey, Kelly, Helen, and Kirsty.

2. The Manila fire department gets ready to head out on shift New Years Eve 2006. The guys told me that this was the worst night for fires in Manila as the poor in the slums started alot of fires. I know that some of these guys will probably die this year doing their job. I wish them all the best and I hope that God watches over them in thier task.

3. Dr. Rizal is the Phillipino most responsible for the countries liberation from four hundred years of Spanish oppression. He was a freedom fighter and a doctor who was executed for consipiring against the Spanish crown in 1896. On the one hunred and tenth anniversiry of his death this huge flag flew at half mast above his shrine in Rizal Park, a huge expanse of green that is Manilas answer to central park.

4-5 Just some pictures of some street children. They may not have ever touched a computer or seen an I-pod but they love a camera. Even in the depths of their poverty they still wanted their picture taken.

Manila Fireworks

Manila Fireworks 1.1.07

The mayor of Manila reached in to his slush fund to find ten million pesos to give us and the locals a fantastic display of fireworks to welcome in the new year. Sorry about the poor quality of the shots. My little point and click camera was not up to the task of taking night fireworks shots.

On the Loboc River

On the Loboc River

Nuts Huts sits on the Loboc River a milky jade coloured strip of water that winds its way lazily through the center of Bohol from the Chocolate Hills to the ocean. I was lucky enough to swim almost every day in its cool waters and travel for many hours along its palm shrouded banks, watching the world go by as coconuts splashed in the water.


1. The Loboc in the early morning

2. The great Vietnam war movie Apocolypse Now was filmed in the Phillipenes. When I saw this view from a boat one morning I could almost feel the Viet-Cong watching me from the banks of the river.

3. The Loboc at mid-day you can see the way the river is a milky jade colour from all the clay that the island sits on.

4. Some boys on a bamboo raft, the chief method of transportation on the Loboc

5. The Loboc river with the sun coming up