Sugar Beach (Sipalay) 1/22/2013- 1/26/2013

Getting to "paradise" required us to have a stop over in the bustling and noisy town of Iloilo for a night. It was just too long of a journey to try and make it from Boracay in one day and we weren't feeling up to it.  Other than that, things seemed to move like clock-work and the next day we found our way to a little place known as Driftwood Village on Sugar  Beach, just north of the small town Sipalay (on Negros island).

It is hard to put into words what made this place so amazing for us, similar to a picture not being able to capture the moment.  Things just seemed to have that "right" feeling.  We never had to worry about the time as each hour seemed to pass just as easy as it had come.  The accommodation was very basic and all the "buildings" were made out of bamboo, like you would see in the movie Robinson Crusoe, but that just added to the charm.

Restaurant and common area

It was also a nice and quiet place because it was off the beaten path.  After the bus dropped us off in town, we took a moto-taxi for 5 km, then a quick boat ride across a river, then a hike on a beach and over a cliff before we made it to Sugar Beach.

Driftwood was started by a Swiss man, Peter, and his Filippino wife, Daisy.  Daisy, three of her sisters, and four other girls pretty much make the place go.  From cleaning, cooking, and bar tending until the wee hours of the morning, everything gets done and done well.  They aren't just the worker bees though, they truly are what makes  Driftwood special because they treat you like family, and that can really make you love a place.  The girls are incredibly friendly and sociable and make sure the guests have a great stay.

We also have to mention the other people staying there were all very friendly and talkative.   In fact, it seems that the place has quite the regular crowd of guys that come back every year for weeks at a time.  It was also helpful that there was no wi-fi at the place, and if/when there was, Driftwood had a very strict rule about no computers in the common areas.  So, instead of people being glued to their computers there was lots of socializing.  We also became good friends with a guy that we arrived with on the bus, Evan from Minnesota, who is a few weeks into his own 12 month travel adventure.

In addition to the great vibe, there was also plenty to do from hiking, board games, swinging, reading, and/or being lazy in a hammock.  We especially enjoyed throwing the football, playing bocce ball, table football, playing pool, swimming, and playing a game of volleyball with the girls during  their break. 

We also went with Evan on a path through the local village to another remote beach for some snorkeling.  It wasn't the best, but we saw some cool starfish, plus it was good to get out and do something.  A couple days later we made our way to a cave just off the same path.

And of course we can't forget to mention the beautiful sunsets we watched from the beach chairs at Driftwood ;-).

It seemed as though you could stay there forever, and Matt definitely would have liked that.  However, we forgot to go to the ATM before we made it to Sugar Beach and the closest ATM is a 20 minute boat ride plus a 3 hour bus ride away.  At one point, Matt had actually planned to take a whole day and go on an ATM adventure, but Kristin kept managing to find more "emergency money" in her pack that allowed us to scrape by for four nights.   Phew!

Luckily for us, on our fourth night it happened to be one of the "regular's" birthday and that meant a traditional Negros feast.  Chickens, about 30 of them, were marinated and stuffed on a pole to be put on an open fire, (Matt made plans to do this at his future home) and the girls prepared all the delicious sides, including tasty potatoes.  By dinner time, all those who opted for the "birthday dinner" got HALF a chicken and all the sides you wanted to make room for.  It was the most delicious feast! The rest of the night was spent celebrating the guy's birthday and enjoying the company of our friends on our last night.  

We had to leave the next morning and Kristin had to wipe away the tears from Matt's eyes.  He's still holding out hope that maybe we can head back that way before we're done.    

Boracay 1/17/13 - 1/21/13

Boracay is the most popular destination in the Philippines, and for many backpackers that doesn't mean it is one of the best places to go.  More so it just means it's over developed, over priced, and over crowded.  Luckily, we did manage to find a place to stay for pretty cheap compared to many of the other options.  Having said all that, the beach and water are very pretty!  White sands, clear blue water, and sunshine (well, for some of the time).  It's one of the prettiest beaches we've seen thus far.

Don't be fooled though, we were not lucky enough to see this beach every day.  Half of the time we were there it was overcast and rainy, so it looked more like the pictures below.  Amazing how sunshine can make it look like two different places.  We were thankful for the sunshine the two days before we left.

Walking along the main drag on the beach front you see dive shops and hustlers trying to drum up business for their moto-scooter rentals, jet-skis, sailboats, para sailing, snorkeling, etc., and it all seemed very "touristy" in a sense that we wouldn't get the "real" experience.  Perhaps we are just spoiled, seasoned travelers at this point, but it is always a let down to pay money and just be a part of another mediocre tour group.  Therefore, we opted for laying on the beach most days and waiting for Monday when the immigration office opened.  

As mentioned previously, Boracay is crowded with tourists, especially ones who loved having photo shoots on the beach. We thoroughly enjoyed this people watching :-).  Kristin wanted to re-create the pose we saw in almost every picture on the beach:    

When entering the Philippines, you're given a 21 day tourist visa.  There's so much to see though, over 7,000 islands (only 2,000 or so inhabited), that it's nowhere near long enough.  Luckily, it is quite easy to extend those 21 days to 59 days for a tourist, and it was especially straight forward and easy at the Boracay office.  To be honest, it isn't so much that the government is concerned about immigration laws, but more to do with the extra 3,400 pesos ($85 USD) that each tourist adds to the "money pool". 

We enjoyed walking to the ends of the beach where it was somewhat quieter (at the far ends), although from the picture below you can see there were still lots of people along the way.  In addition to relaxing we walked the beach, threw the football, and watched more of SE Asia's wonderful sunsets.  Kristin can't get enough of them, but Matt can ;-).  We also managed to find a place that had cold beers for about $.60 each to help pass the time.   

After we obtained our visa extensions (picked them up a few hours after we dropped them off), it was time the next day to move on to our next destination- Negros Island, more specifically Sipalay.

Sabang (Puerto Galera) 1/15/2013 - 1/16/2013

We took a red eye flight from Bangkok to the Philippines, arriving at Clark International Airport, and made it through customs by 2 am (the airport is about a 2 hour bus ride north of Manila).  Our original plan was to sit and wait it out at the airport until their were actual buses headed toward Manila and then make connections to get us to Sabang opposed to staying in Manila.  To our surprise, there was no need to wait around and we went with the flow of things that went as so:  loaded a Jeepney that took us to a bus going to Manila, that bus dropped us off under an overpass and pointed us toward another bus headed to Batangas, in Batangas we had to buy "ferry" tickets to cross the water, the ferry ended up having to drop us off a few kilometers away from Sabang thanks to being in a small boat and encountering bad weather, then finally we took a tri/ moto-taxi into town.  Roughly 12 hours after leaving Bangkok we arrived in Sabang around 10 am.

A few things to mention at this point about our travels in the Philippines.  First, the Jeepney is a national symbol here and is the cheap, local way to travel around town.  They're basically open air jeeps that can hold a lot of people.  They originated as Filipinos converted left over WWII jeeps and turned them into public transport.  

Second, sometimes a "ferry" is nothing more than a boat with outriggers/ stabilizers, or known to locals as an outrigger banka. 

In our case, we got to a point in our hour long boat ride where the swells and choppiness of the water definitely gave us a scare, especially since the waves broke one of the outriggers.  We were planning our escape route and plan of action while we waited to tip over.  Of course, it was just an over-reaction as we don't navigate the waters everyday like the captain and crew, but it was quite the adrenaline rush.

Third, the other popular mode of transportation is the tri/ moto-taxi, either a bicycle taxi or a motorcycle taxi.  This is the other cheap option for getting around town.  Some are smaller than others, but it's safe to say our butts barely fit together on one seat ;-).  And Matt usually has to bend his head down or it'd be through the roof.  Not built for big Americans, but it works.

Sabang is a small town, outside of Puerto Galera, known for diving, and we thought our time would be better spent here than in Manila.  However, once we were there we never had a good "feeling" about going out diving with any of the places.  Perhaps it was the over crowded dive boats or lack of perfect conditions.  We also never felt too enthused about Sabang in general.  We mostly saw fat, white, old men walking around with their young Filippino girls or in search of them.  It's quite common for older white men to come to the Philippines in search of a young Filippino girlfriend.  But, the white men do need to have money in order to make this dream happen.  The wi-fi passwords at a sports bar we went to for internet was " no money no honey".  How appropriate.  Of course there are exceptions to every rule; take our neighbor "Australia Jim", he was a skinny, 78 year old white guy and he wasn't afraid to get down (all the way to the ground) and dance at the bar (amazing talent).  

But yes, he had been married for four days to his Filippino wife, who was in her 30's, and he was at the bar solo with us for Happy Hour (where he says he goes everyday at 4pm).  Regardless, we decided to move on after two nights.    

Our next journey was to take a 4 hour ferry over to Boracay, fortunately it was an actual, legit ferry.  The sea wasn't so smooth and Matt was still feeling anxious from the last boat crossing, but everything was fine.  We had two things in mind for Boracay: a better/ prettier place to relax than Sabang, and we needed to extend our visas.