Bye Bye Taiwan, Hello Philippines!

So our time in Taiwan has actually ended. After two years, we've quit our jobs, sent home a big box of stuff we've acquired over the years, sold the scooter, packed up some clothes into a backpack, and got on a plane to Manila. We're taking a month-long backpacking trip around Southeast Asia, starting in the Philippines, then Malaysian Borneo, and after that northern Thailand. From there we will travel overland through Laos and into Vietnam. From Hanoi we're flying into Hong Kong, our last stop before returning to Taipei for a few days. On November 30th, we'll be on a plane back to the good USA in time for the holidays. I'm so excited to be eventually getting home after being abroad for so long, but right now, we're in the Philippines.

First stop: Boracay, known as one of the world's most beautiful beaches. Boracay is quite a ways from Manila, and we decided to take the cheaper route overland instead of fly there. Flying would have taken two hours. When we finally got to Boracay it had been about 24. Probably wouldn't take that same route again, but the trip was really interesting.

Our flight out of Taipei took off at 1:30am and landed in the Philippines at about 3:30am on October 29th. We didn't sleep before that, so we were pretty tired when we got in a cab that took us two hours to a port called Batangas. We hopped on a pumpboat that ferried us to Sabang beach in Puerto Galera, which is in the island of Mindoro. It was about 8:00am at this point, and we were already feeling wrecked. We didn't stay long in Sabang. We asked the locals how to get to Calapan, the next leg of our trip to Boracay. They directed us to a jeepney, which is like a small bus with bench seating on the inside. At first glance, it looked able to hold about eight people. After being on the road for a while, picking up people here and there, we ended up completely crammed in with round about 20 other people. This jam-packed ride lasted about two hours through twisty, wet, terrifying jungle roads. John and I were so tired at this point that we could not keep our eyes open, despite being constantly jostled around, weaving through the dirt road.

When we made it to Calapan, we had to find a way to get to the next town, Roxas, still on the island of Mindoro but quite a ways south. A couple of ladies on the jeepney were headed there too, and said we could follow them. Let me just say that the Filipinos are probably the friendliest, most genuine people I've ever met. We really had no idea how to get to where we wanted to go, and without everyone else's help, we would have been utterly screwed. There were many times when we could have gotten scammed or led in the wrong direction, but that hasn't happend at all. So we followed the ladies and got into a van (a welcome change from the jeepney) and headed two hours south to Roxas.

We arrived in Roxas in the afternoon, about 2:30 or so. From there we wanted to take a ferry to Caticlan, the jumping off point to get to the elusive Boracay. We thought we'd get to Roxas, get right on a ferry, and be in Boracay by 7:00 at the latest. Turns out the next ferry away from Roxas was at 8:00pm. We were so incredibly wiped out at this point that we got a small hotel room for a few hours to pass out before the four hour long ferry ride at 8:00. The hotel was sparse but did the trick. There was a bed and a toilet with no flushing mechanism, and all for just about 4 US dollars. The hotel owner said we could stay the night for about 8 dollars if we needed to, but we wanted to get on that ferry.

So after a much needed nap, we got on a really big ferry and made the four hour trip to Caticlan. The ferry ended up leaving Roxas at about 10:00 instead of 8:00, so we got to Caticlan much later than expected. The ferry was really nice though, not jam-packed, with nice, big, soft seats. I was so afraid that the boat to Caticlan would be some creepy pumpboat like the one we took earlier that day, and thank goodness it wasn't. The pumpboat was fun, but probably not for four hours over open ocean.

We finally landed in Caticlan at about 2am on October 30. We got in a tricycle that took us to a 24 hour hotel, which was a welcome sight after not knowing if we would be taking turns sleeping in some port terminal. The hotel was a hilton compared to our napping house from before. It was a little bigger than a shoebox, but was clean and had a flushing toilet. No hot water, but that didn't really matter. We were just happy to get a full night's rest after 24 hours of jostling, uncomfortable travel. We got up at about 10am, jumped on a small pumpboat, and took the 10 minute ride across crystal clear water to Boracay. Finally, we were there!

Like I said eariler, if given the opportunity to come to Boracay again, we'd definitely spring for the airplane, but I'm glad we got the experience of the overland route. I was amazed at how helpful the people were, and I'm reminded of their friendliness and openness constantly. People also don't seem to be phased by diversity at all. Even in the small dusty town of Roxas, where we were the ONLY Westerners in sight, nobody treated us like the weird foreiners we were in Taipei. They'd say hi and go about doing their thing. You don't get the glazed over stares, and unabashed gawks like in Taiwan. It's a nice change, that was starting to get old.

We're planning on staying in Boracay for a few days, not quite sure yet. There's a place west of here called Donsol where you can swim with wild whale sharks. We're hoping to get to do that. But man, Boracay is so laid back and beautiful. White sand and clear water, we could easily end up staying here for much longer than we first expected. We'll see!