You know what she said...

caribou-found out by Ctrl_f

I fucking hate you, Jollibee.

I am now in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. For the last three days, I have had to say my goodbyes to the beautiful, friendly people of Siargao Island. A shout out to Dom, the locals, the friendly dudes in the surf, and the welcoming hospitality at Ocean 101, thanks for the good times! Since my departure, I caught a plane to Cebu for the night and stayed with two Aussie lads who I met only two nights prior to my departure at the resort I was staying. I had no clue where I was going to stay in Cebu, so when the guys offered me the chance to stay with them, I took it.

The plane trip to Cebu was a scenic one. Flying over all the tropical islands was stunning. I was a bit pissed off when I pulled out my SLR to take some pics of the islands and my battery went dead. I had to make do with my trusty blackberry phone. When we arrived at the airport, we caught a taxi to the hotel, which was suggested by one of the locals back at the resort. I can’t remember the name of the hotel, but it was situated near the somewhat center of the city. It was a nice, clean hotel, but we learnt a lesson that night: don’t ask for a room with a window if you know the hotel is situated in busy streets or else you're going to get some douchebag yelling repetitive calls just outside your window. Anywho, my time in Cebu was very short and I didn’t really get up to much. The guys wanted to get some shopping done, so we headed to SM which is the Philippines' main large shopping mall. Once we got the shopping done and dusted, we bought a bottle of Tanduay Rhum, had a few drinks at the apartment, and eased off to bed. I had to leave at eight the next morning. Again, I said my farewells and safe travels to the lads and headed to the airport for Palawan.

I arrived in Puerto Princesa at about 11:00am; I’ve been here before, so I was a bit familiar with the roads and where things were, which felt good for once. Got a tricycle to a little hotel called Lola Intang, which is just situated off the main road, so it was close to the shops and just far enough from the noise. Now, being in a new place, I knew I'd have to make new friends like I did back at Siargao, so that night I walked down the main street and stopped over at this little cool reggae-influenced bar (it had a tricky name, I cant remember it). After having a beer or two, I started talking to this chick, Kat. She was from Canada and was on her last leg of her journey from travelling around the globe. She and her friends invited me to join them to some bar, “Katabom,” just down the road for some live music. I thought "why not?", and glad I didn’t say no. Had a blast of the time. The live music at the bar was radtacular. Kat and I tried to figure out what style of music it was and just named it “Local Reggae”. Anyway, got drunk and the way home went to Jollibee, which is like McDonalds in the western world, and I shouted everyone a burger meal 'cause it costs peanuts here.

By the power of Greyskull, did I feel like shit the next day! It wasn’t really the hangover that got me, but I think the food from Jollibee was a bit dodgy. My body was broken, so I spent most of the whole day in bed trying my best to recover. I’ve written this the day after my little road trip to hell and back and I’m feeling a lot better! I’ve booked my transportation for El Nido the next day, a six to eight hour trip, so between then and now, I’m just going to take it easy and make sure I feel at least 80% for tomorrow’s adventures.

Cloud 9

During my time at Siargao, the surf had been poor with weak one to two-foot waves. The promise of catching a head high barrel at Cloud 9 looked dismal, but on my last two days on the island something came. This is Cloud 9.

Just what the doctor ordered

Today was one of those picture perfect beach days. Some of the travelers and I organised with Dom and friends to take us out on the boat to one of the nearby islands off Siargao. We all met at the town markets; from here we bought some fresh fish, squid, and vegies for lunch, which we would cook up at the island. After a 20 minute trip, there we were in paradise; not that I wasn't already in paradise. White sand, crystal clear waters, this is where the locals from GL plan to move when GL and the Cloud 9 area gets too busy in the near future.

It was a really lazy day, eating awesome seafood, eating out of a coconut, floating in the water, and sleeping under a coconut tree.

Which way to that thingy place?

After a full day's recovering from my drunken bender, doing absolute shit all, I rented out a moped (P500/$11) for the day. I was told if I headed north there was some beach lagoon thingy and some nice coastlines. After a good 50 minutes of riding, in which I was kinda lost because I left my map back in the apartment, I arrived at my destination. With spot-on timing, I got there at low tide, the perfect tide to swim in the lagoon and go walkies along the beach. It was pretty. After that, I ventured further north, riding through the smaller towns and taking in the scenery. There was a point where a bunch of kids were on top of a hill off the side of road yelling out helloes and waving to me. I know back home the locals would just death-stare you. I eventually got back in the afternoon and soaked up the remaining sun in a sunset surf out at a little reef break. Good times!

Fight!

Dom, one the many friendly locals, invited us to go check out the town's cockfighting. I didn’t know what to expect, just a bunch of locals gathering around some hut seeing whose cock was tougher.

Well, I was wrong! It was heck of a gathering. When I arrived, all the locals gathered around comparing there, umm, cocks, on size, I guess. I thought they were going to fight on the spot, but then I was taken to the actual ring. It reminded me a bit of a UFC ring, just not so modern, more “barnyard” like, though I was pretty impressed with the setup. From here shit got loud. I’m not sure if this is correct, though from what I tried to figure out - the other travellers didn’t really understand either - once the cocks come into the ring, the crowd start to shout out, yelling out what the odds should be between the two cocks. After a good five minutes of watching people going bat shit, they finally come to a decision on the price margin between the two. During this time, the “trainers” stir up their cocks, taunting their opponent by letting them get close to each other and then letting them lightly bite each other while they are held. Gives them a taste of blood before the bout! Just before they begin, they attach this little sharp blade on the back of their legs so the bout doesn’t take so long for one to kill the other. A good karate kick to the opponent and the cock is down. Once the match begins, the crowd starts chanting, and shit gets brutal. I’m not into the whole blood sport, especially if there's animals involved, but shit it's interesting.

Later that night, Dom and some of the locals took us out into town (GL) had some dinner and got on the Tanduay Rhum with a mixture of karaoke. It was a great drunken episode for me and I’m sure my friends back home are happy they weren’t around. I was ruined the next day and spent most of my time floating in the water and watching movies on my Mac. The locals were right; Tanduay Rhum really can knock you out.