A rusty bus pulled out of the south bus terminal in Cebu. I threw myself in a chair in the front row and placed my bag in the aisle. This was a southbound local bus, windows wide open and filled to the brim with Filipinos. A yellow beam of sunlight shot through the windshield as the suburbs of the second largest city in the Philippines sprawled outside.

As we watched the last of the day disappear in a haze of smog and honks, a raspy voice next to me inquired “Where you going?”. The elderly gentleman smiling at me was a retired police officer in Cebu going to visit his daughter in the south. He had that calm look that comes with experience, and stories that come with age. As we honked our way through the winding roads of Cebu, we had long conversations in broken english on almost every imaginable topic.

Sleepy Moalboal

In the typhoon of ‘96 all the sand on the beach of Moalboal was blown away, and with it mainstream tourism seemed to have disappeared. It’s become a place of divers and adventure visitors, hiking the surrounding forests and waterfalls, we just rented mountain bikes and explored the rural area around the city on our own.

Just down the road from the old spanish church we met Naomi and her husband Tito who run a bottle museum. After a few words of wisdom from a bottle, they urged us to try and make our way down to the city of Dumagette on the neighboring island of Negros.

Moalboal hadn’t been on our initial itinerary, we took the bus there because some people had recommended it, now we where contemplating moving further south and crossing over to Negros for a chance to see the old university city of Dumagette. We had a looming deadline, a flight out of Tagbilaran on the island of Bohol and this expanding adventure on Cebu was quickly swallowing up days. When you travel you always need to keep some dates flexible, cause it’s usually when you’re on the road that you get the best tips on where to go and what to do.

Making our way further south

So early next morning we where making our way further south by Tricycle, a quick stopover at the local attraction; Kawasan Falls, then by local bus, another trycicle, then a ferry from Lito-an to a remote harbor in Negros. From here we took yet another trycicle before finally arriving, dusty and tired in the laid-back city of Dumagette. If you’re up for a bit of local transportation, getting around the islands in the Philippines is surprisingly easy with bus and ferry connections crisscrossing the landmasses. Should you find yourself in a place with no apparent official transportation you can be sure that a guy with his motorcycle is waiting around the corner.

The people are wonderfully open, inquisitive and very eager to please. With my background in Thailand, I can’t stop comparing the countries and the people, and while Thailand may hold the official tagline ‘The Land of Smiles’ I’m beginning to suspect it might have been invented by a guy who just visited the Philippines.

As icy snowstorms tore up Copenhagen, we where already safely thousands of kilometers away in the golden warm confines of the dinner buffet at the Marriott in Manila.

Light piano music was flowing while we planned our expedition into the Visayas. With only a few weeks at our disposal the 7100-something islands seemed hard to wrap our heads around. Anyone who has tried to organize a journey through this country from home quickly realizes that there is a towering amount of places to go and things to see. As soon as you settle on one thing, a few other places of interest seem to pop up over the horizon. So as we finished the last of our Sushi, we decided that what we needed was a week to get our bearings and clock in some serious relaxation.

One luxurious night later and we left the Capitol of the Philippines on a small aircraft bound for Caticlan, Panay. From here we would take the ferry to one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Philippines; Boracay where relaxation was in stock.

At the very tip of Panay, just a stone-throw away from the main island lies Boracay, a 7 kilometer slender piece of land inhabited by around 15.000 people. Like so many other beach starlets, Boracay was a bright paradise, complete with powdery white sand, swaying palms and problems combatting the effects of overdevelopment.

A slowly moving patchwork of sailboats hung around the bay at White Beach, offering tourists magic carpet-like trips up and down the island. A small sandy stretch of road creeps along the shoreline where barefooted tourists peruse the stalls or hang around the central D’Mall area, an outdoor labyrinth of restaurants and boutiques. Brilliant sunsets color the evenings as thick carpets of clouds roll in from the mainland. Afternoon showers and the smell of the beachside grill buffet set the scene for a surprisingly low key nightlife.

Unwinding

I’d wish this first week would pose more of a story, but the honest truth is that we didn’t take long to readjust and wind down. It was not because the days where uneventful, we moved about a lot and enjoyed most of what the island had to offer. It’s just that eating good food, hanging out on the beach and drinking San Migs’ at sundown really doesn’t make for an interesting travel diary.

In any case, Boracay was just what we needed. Sure it’s touristy and (as we would find out) it’s a rather odd introduction to the Philippines, but at that time it was just what the doctor prescribed. I’ll let some vivid shots of sunsets and boats fill in the rest of the blanks.