Our last stop in South East Asia are the Philippines. Since the 2 week round trip in Vietnam was tiring we spent the first 12 days being spoiled at a resort on Cebu Island (Mactan). We enjoyed an extensive buffet breakfast, three large pools, jumped off the diving rock (about 1.5m), went down slides and tried stand-up paddling. We also did archery, rock climbing, biking, went to the gym and enjoyed kids’ activities like tye dye shirt or Santa hat making. Levin is definitive a prospect Tesla buyer because he loves driving a kid’s car with an electric motor on the resort compound 😊. The kids highlight was the game room with air hockey, table tennis and arcade games. The resort offered everything we needed and was located in the middle of nowhere so we basically did not leave it for 12 days. The only exception was the birthday and Christmas present shopping “stress”. In Vietnam we didn’t find any suitable presents so we had to get everything done here. Luckily, we found a big shopping mall in Cebu City and while Felix and the kids were shopping for warmer clothes for future destinations, Lena rushed through the mall and returned with a well-stocked bag pack.
On 24th of December we left the resort for our next Destination: Dumaguete City on Negros Island. Dumaguete is only about 170km from Cebu City and we decided to take the bus and ferry. The Philippines are mainly Christian but we were reassured that public Transportation runs normally over the holidays. However, we got to experience the impact of the Philippine weather. Typhoon Phanfone was announced to hit Central Visayas from South East going to North West with 200 kph on December 24th! Many flights and ferries were cancelled (including all going out of the port of Cebu) so we headed off to the bus station early. We were 4 to 5 hours ahead of the typhoon when we left, and after some chaos at the bus station, managed to catch a bus at 10am. At 14.00 we reached the car ferry connecting Cebu to Negros Island and luckily ferries were running here. After a 2h wait (nobody knows why), the ferry finally left for Negros and after another 30min drive the bus dropped as along the road close to our new apartment. In total the trip took us about 10 hours but we were very happy that we were able to reach Dumaguete while many other travelling Philippinos spent Christmas Eve stranded at the air and sea ports. Once settled in our new apartment we gave out presents to Melia and Levin (on Christmas Eve as per German tradition). Since that Christmas Eve both don´t believe in Santa Claus anymore because they got the idea that Lena bought the presents in the Cebu shopping mall…
During our week in Dumaguete we did a snorkeling excursion to Apo Island. Melia was too scared to go into the ocean, but Levin did a great job. He jumped into the open water without fear, ready to explore! We had three snorkeling sessions and each of them was breathtaking. What we saw was so beautiful and amazing! Next to colorful fishes and corals we saw see cucumbers, sea stars, etc. but the highlight were definitive the sea turtles! We saw a total of 8 turtles eating and swimming close to the shore of Apo Island. Some of them were bigger than Levin! The rest of our stay in Dumaguete was relaxed enjoy the local restaurants and doing nothing. Lena and Felix headed over to the Spa & Massage saloon close to our apartment a few times😊. On the day of departure Sonny, our caretaker of the compound in Dumaguete, helped us by getting to our next destination, Siquijor Island. He organized a tricycle to get to the harbor and bought ferry tickets in advanced. This saved us lot of time and nerves because he found out that the ferry we originally wanted to take was cancelled for unknown reasons.
Once we reached Siquijor Island we took a tricycle to our guesthouse. It was simple but with direct access to the white sand beach and palm trees. Wonderful! The following two days we rented motorbikes to explore the island. We took a bath in the Cambugahay Falls and Levin had great fun jumping into the natural pool from a Tarzan rope. Moreover, we drove around the island and explored several beautiful beaches and chilled in front of the Old Balete Tree while small fishes nibbled our feet, nice spa feeling! We celebrated New Year’s Eve at a beach bar. Melia and Levin were so excited that they played and danced the whole evening with other kids at the beach giving Lena and Felix time to enjoy a few drinks! At midnight there was a small firework. This was definitely a memorable and peaceful New Year´s Eve.
On 2 January it was time to leave Siquijor and head to Bohol Island. Learning from our last experience from taking a ferry we organized our tickets to Bohol Island two days in advanced. We have learned that even if the distance we need to cover is less than 100km, it will take a day…..and one must not ask at what time something happens or how long it will take or wonder why one has to queue up 3 times even though we already had a ticket (check in counter to add a seat to the ticket, port fee counter to pay to enter the port, luggage check in counter to pay for the luggage….) What an efficiency!
We spent 1 week on Bohol Island where we enjoyed a country side tour to the Chocolate Hills. During the tour we also visited the Tarsier Sanctuary and cruised the Loboc River. The rest of the time we spent admiring the beautiful Panglao beaches. Now it is time to leave SE Asia behind us. We are very much looking forward to our next stop: Los Angeles.
World Xperience 