Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!

On the 19th of April Francesca and I finally left Manila after a thorough cultural immersion. We left one full backpack behind to make travel through the Philippines a little easier. Eager to leave Manila I had us wake up a little too early, giving us a little extra time at the airport. We were ready to get back to nature! To attain this goal we took to the airways, flying from Manila to Legazpi in the early morning. It was a quick and efficient flight with Cebu Pacific, a major (mainly domestic) carrier. During the flight we tried to win a Cebu Pacific gift basket by showing a requested item as fast as possible, but alas, we were not fast enough…

We arrived in the heat of Legazpi around 10 AM, and made straight for the bus terminal after a bit of haggling with a tricycle driver. A few minutes later we were there and dropped our bags in a minivan, which was to take us to Donsol, further down south. Said trip took another hour and a half and turned out to be decent, despite the filled van, the high temperatures outside and the winding roads under us. When we arrived in Donsol Francesca immediately spotted the Santiago Lodging House right in front of us. We hadn’t pre-booked anything and didn’t know where the other places would be, but we did know Santiago only had 3 rooms, so Francesca went there to make sure we beat a German couple to any available rooms. I grabbed the bags and followed her a little later.

It turned out we were right about Santiago’s , since they had two rooms available, both fan, but one looking distinctly less attractive than the other one. Since we had first pick (ha ha!) the good room went to us. We dropped our bags and headed out once again, this time to visit the Donsol Visitors Center, a good 1.5 kilometers out of town. Luckily there’s a large contingent of eager tricycle-drivers readily available at any hour of the day. A good ten minutes later we arrived and were talking with the receptionist. She told us to watch a little introductory video about the butanding before returning to her for more information. We were apparently the first two people to sign up for the following day, but since she told us ten boats had gone out that day we wouldn’t have to worry about our boat filling up. It didn’t take long for more people to show up: a group of Germans (huzzah!) offered to join us, and we were set for the following morning. We signed the paperwork, rented snorkel gear and headed back to Santiago’s.

When we got back an older British guy was sitting outside and we ended up talking to him for a while. Apparently he’d been traveling for a few years already (and planned on a few more), visiting the Americas, India and parts of South-East Asia, mostly by bike. I saw Francesca’s eyes light up when he shared all of this, and knew she’d only want to travel more. The guy had also picked up an Australian girlfriend along the way, who joined us as well and we talked for a while. After that, we relaxed in the room for some time. I decided it was time for lunch and walked around the little village for a while, not finding much, but checking out the market and surroundings. Friendly “Hey Joe”s (the standard phrase used for foreign guys, who are always thought to be American; Joe comes from G.I. Joe) came my way left and right. I returned to report to Francesca. The owner told us of a little place next doors that did pizzas, so we went there. The home-made pizza turned out to be a bit of a let-down, but the in-house karaoke performed by the family was pretty hilarious. We declined when offered a turn, finishing our pizza quickly to escape the cacophony of sounds.

Santiago’s was still as hot as before, and the fan in the room didn’t help much at all. We hibernated for a few hours, waiting for the sun to become a little less relentless. Around 4:30 PM we ventured out once more. The owner had told us it was the last day of the town fiesta (in honor of some saint) and that there’d be gambling (a national pastime anyway) and games throughout the day, as well as dancing in the evening. Francesca and I walked through the market, checked out some of the gambling-tables and walked along the waterfront. Here we found the ‘real’ Donsol, people living in bamboo-shacks, and actually a little surprised to see foreigners. We were invited in for a drink, a bite and a swim (all declined) and I played a little basketball with some local kids. We finished our mini-tour by checking out the food-market.









When we returned our bellies rumbled a little and it so happened our fellow-guests had the same idea. They had found a decent restaurant in town called Giddy’s Place and invited us to join them. Giddy’s food was indeed pretty okay. Francesca ordered another pizza, whilst I got soup and a shared fruit salad. The fruit salad, some wedges and other food arrived fairly swiftly, but my soup and Francesca’s pizza took forever. When my soup finally came I saw why: they’d made me a giant bowl (good for four people probably). Francesca’s pizza, however, didn’t come… And when it eventually did almost all the other food was gone or cold… And the pizza didn’t taste great… Poor girl! (I ended up getting her a sandwich later.) We did have another fun chat, which lasted for over two hours. We got more and more excited about the butanding we were going to see.

Since we had to get up early the next morning we called it a night after that and went for some sweaty sleep. The alarm went around 6:00 AM and had us at the Visitors Center before 7 AM. I got a water-tight bag to try and take some pictures under water. We met our captain, headed for the boat and climbed on board. Our guide, or Butanding Interaction Officer, told us what we were supposed to do as the boat sped towards the open sea. Now, I’ve kept using the word butanding to throw you off: here’s a little Wiki information about the giant sea-creatures we were about to snorkel with!

“The whale shark is a slow moving filter feeding shark, the largest living fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 12.65 meters (41.50 ft) and a weight of more than 21.5 ton (47,000 lb), but unconfirmed claims report considerably larger whale sharks. […]The shark is found in tropical and warm oceans, lives in the open sea with a lifespan of about 70 years. The species originated about 60 million years ago. Although whale sharks have very large mouths, they feed mainly, though not exclusively, on plankton, microscopic plants and animals, although the BBC program Planet Earth filmed a whale shark feeding on a school of small fish.”

We also learned the name "whale shark" comes from the fish's physiology. As large as a whale, it too is a filter feeder. Our B.I.O. explained we’d have about 3 butanding-spotting hours, before returning to the shore. He said there’d be a chance of not spotting any, although slim. The sea was a little rough and it was a little cloudy, which he feared might keep the fish and plankton lower in the water, lowering the chances of the whale sharks surfacing. We were not discouraged by this news and eagerly readied our snorkel gear. For a whole two hours nothing happened and everybody was getting a little antsy… Then, all of a sudden our boat turned and we were told to get ready. We jumped in the water and landed right above a 12 ft/4 meter long whale shark! Wow, so impressive! I struggled to get some pictures, but as soon as we encountered the white spots of the giant fish it dove again and disappeared into the murky waters below. We learned later our guide had touched it… A big no-no in whale shark land, as the creatures dive as soon as that happens.









We climbed back on board, happy to have seen a whale shark, but disappointed it had only been for about 30 seconds. Another 30 minutes passed and again no whale shark. The Germans were getting tired of the lack of action and wanted to swim at the reef. We didn’t want to, and as soon as we’d said so the guide told us to get ready again. We jumped off the boat once more and got a much better view of the butanding. We got to swim alongside a 21 ft/7 meter specimen for maybe one or two minutes, noticing it didn’t actually take that much effort to keep up. We later learned that the whale shark is not an efficient swimmer since it uses its entire body, unusual for fish, and only reaches an average speed of around 5-kilometers-per-hour (3.1 mph).





Again, it impressed us thoroughly, but the Germans didn’t seem fast enough (they carried a little extra weight) and were keener on swimming. Again we told them we hadn’t come for the reef, and since the guide offered us a little extra time on the water, we’d prefer to try and see one more butanding before going back to shore. Our wish was heard as all boats converged and a large amount of people got in the water to catch a last glimpse of the gentle giants (can’t NOT use that one).

Unfortunately, that concluded the day and we were left feeling unsatisfied. In fact, we were so unsatisfied that we decided to stay an extra day in Donsol (despite the fan room) and go again the following day. The Germans wanted to do the same, but only under the condition of dividing the 3 hours between the reef and the butanding. We declined once more, trying to explain slowly that we really wanted the full 3 hours for one reason only.

After our return Francesca had a shower whilst I checked out the menu at the resort next to the Center. We decided to have lunch here. I had a pretty decent Putanesca, whilst Francesca ate tasty chicken fingers. We enjoyed the view for a while before Francesca and I headed back to Santiago’s, and despite not having been in the water that much we were still quite tired. We relaxed for the afternoon/evening, and I only went out to get food for the young lady. The jumbo hotdog stand I’d found proved a success, whilst a little bakery across the street from us provided me with extremely fresh buns (which I filled with sliced apple).

And so we woke up the next morning, once again early and once again soon joining a tricycle driver to go to the Visitors Center. This time we hadn’t paid yet, so we had to find a group first. A large group of Filipinos still needed 3 people, and Francesca and I offered to take two of those. An American guy took the third spot and we were set for a second chance to swim with whale sharks. Boy, were we right to join this boat and to go again! It took no more than 15 minutes before we were in the water. The first encounter was similar to the previous day’s, but the second one was magic. We got to swim with a whale shark for a whole 5 minutes! At first it looked like it was going to dive again, but we persisted and eventually it did come back up. It just felt so cool to swim alongside of it! I tried to shoot some videos, but kept focusing on the whale shark. I almost got smacked by the whale sharks giant tale, having to make strange shapes to dodge it. Thank God I didn’t and the dream could continue.



Francesca and I high-fived on board, already feeling better about this one event than the whole trip the day before. The fun was far from over though! Our spotter did a pretty good job getting some whale sharks before the others got to it, and we got in the water 3 more times. None of them was quite as good as that second encounter, but all were still well worth it. Francesca got a warning for swimming pretty much on top of a butanding (naughty girl), but otherwise we just got to spend more time with the whale sharks. This time the fun did stop around 10 AM. We were completely happy with the adventures of the day and went back to the Center for a shower at the neighboring resort.



After the welcoming shower we also had lunch at this place, this time one I had prepared for us. Francesca got herself some extra cheese balls to go with her cheese sandwiches, whilst I enjoyed my apple buns once more. We watched a little bit of (pretty good) street volleyball before heading back to Santiago’s where we crashed for one more night. On the 22nd we were done with the heat and the AC-less-ness and decided to leave. Around midday we made our way to the bus terminal. We doubted between the jeepney and the minivan, but the jeepney driver promised to leave earlier, so we went with him. At first we thought we’d have the jeepney to ourselves, but it soon filled to the brim (and the roof). Because of all the stops it took about two hours to get back to Legazpi. I spent most of that time talking to a Filipina that worked on the Cayman Islands. Her boss only gave her two weeks off every few years, so she finally got to spend time with her daughter. Crazy! The remainder of the time I inspected the guy with his fighting rooster on his lap.





Once in Legazpi we took another jeepney to the Legazpi Tourist Inn, where we checked in for two nights. I went to get Francesca food from the local fastfood joint: Graceland and made myself some sandwiches with buns I’d bought earlier that day. The following day in Legazpi was equally quiet. Francesca stayed in whilst I went out to purchase some food. On the 23rd I got her a whole chicken in the morning, which turned into sandwiches for that morning/afternoon and dinner! I made myself some tuna sandwiches and ate fresh fruit from the supermarket. Ideal!

On the 24th we decided it was time to check out another city on this part of the Visayas (the name of the group of islands we’re on): Naga. We figured that a city with a cool name like that (it means ‘dragon’) can’t be that bad. Furthermore, we’d heard the place was cheap and filled with students, so it couldn’t be that bad. The minivan took nearly two hours to get to Naga, and when we got to Naga it took another 5 minutes to get to the Golden Leaf Hotel. The room was indeed a lot cheaper, but the city didn’t seem as vibrant as we hoped.

We explored as far as the giant SM Mall, where we spent the afternoon window-shopping and seeing Shrek in 3D. Not as funny as the other ones, not as many references or double layering; shame! The 25th and 26th were shockingly similar to the days before: we went to the mall, ate there and spent time working on our posts (yay for reading about Hanoi when we’ve already been to HK and a quarter of the Philippines) (you gotta understand writer’s block for this one!). Highlights were the Ube cake and Ube ice cream we had on the 25th. Purple tasty ice cream, what could possibly be better? Francesca also thought Shakey’s mixed platter (breaded potato-slices, a slice of pizza, spaghetti and chicken) deserved honorable mention, even though it looked better than it tasted.









On the 27th we took another minivan back to Legazpi for our flight out to Cebu, where we were to stay with some couchsurfers for a few days. I’ll tell you more about that in the following post!