Tero Pikala

Getting to PG from Talisay was reasonably easy, just 45 minutes with jeepney, 2 hours with bus and 1.5 with small boat. Immediately when I arrived at the pier I knew this is nice place. Imagine harbour from Pirates of Caribbean and you are getting close.

And my resort at Coral Cove is just perfectly isolated from other beaches but still close enough to walk to when it’s time enjoy nightlife.

Resort facilities include own dive shop, restaurant and bar, spa with sauna and of course very inviting hammock.

Almost everything is perfect and room price is still very reasonable £20/night. That’s less than my rent in London!

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We took advice of our lovely host Gloria and spent evening at Tagaytay town. Compared to Talisay where we are staying it’s very lively town with plenty of up scale resorts and restaurants.

Tagaytay also it some 640 meters above Talisay making travel between these places somewhat a challenge. Road is easily steepest one I can recall travelling ever!

We first went to Peoples Park but they just closed it before we could get in. Quite a shame since it’s in highest peak and sunset was awesome.

Then it was dinner time and trough lucky accident (or my lazyness?) we ended up in Leslie’s which is described as “institution” by LP. Food was really good indeed and place was packed. I guess I’m starting to like Filippino food bit by bit.

Coming down from Tagaytay was little bit of a challenge. Local tricycle guys were all quoting ridiculous P600 and didn’t haggle at all. Finally we found one guy willing to take us back for P300.

Ride down the hill sitting in a back seat of tricycle sideways was dangerous, fun and made all muscles tired. Girls were in the “cabin” but even they complained sore butts in the morning!

I need to say thanks to two new friends, Australian and Filippino girl, who I had pleasure to spend a day with. One of best aspects of travelling alone is meeting some other travellers so easily. In past i’ve stayed in touch with some of them and even met them again.

Overall it was nice evening, most likely best so far in Philippines.

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Weather didn’t look too promising in the morning but cleared enough so that we felt comfortable taking boat ride across Taal lake to volcanic island in the middle.

It was quite windy and we were quite wet once 45 minute crossing was done. No problems with that and after we explained maybe ten times that we would rather walk than use their horses we proceeded on the path towards viewing platform.

Path is covered in horse shit. It’s no wonder considering number of horses taking trip up and down every day but I still felt they could put more effort into cleaning it. Just throw it into bush every morning!

After some 45 minutes we reached top - roughly 500 meters above starting point. View is good and contrary to Lonely Planet advice there is shaded areas and people selling drinks, beer and naturally t-shirts.

After coming back to hotel we had nice fish for lunch. Overall pretty nice day and we are planning on going to Tagaytay to see views from this evening as well.

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I’ve been lazy until now and have taken easy transportation options with taxis and minibusses. From Subic I’m now going to Manila with normal bus - it seems that I’m only foreigner here.

Bus is actually better than I thought. Airconditioning, spacious seat and not too noicy. 120km journey will take forever but what’s the rush?

I should be in Manila / Pasay around 11am leaving plenty of time for quick lunch and then next leg to Tagaytay.

Fortunately I learned this morning that all banks will be closed from 25th until 3rd January so it will be impossible to get cash. I really need to stock up some pesos before that!

Update:

Trip to Manila was 3 hours and it seemed that first 25km took half of that. And then it took about an hour in ring road going around Manila to Pasay.

After quick lunch I found bus going south to Tagaytay. Being Friday afternoon traffic was bad and we were stuck for some 2 hours before actually starting to make some progress in 45km journey.

After all Tagaysay wasn’t best possible way to get to Talisay. It’s very close but road is nice mountain serpentine coming down maybe 500 meters over some 12 kilometers. And it’s mostly gravel. Anyway some guy promised to drive me down with his tricycle and at least scenery was really great.

Tomorrow I’ll take a boat ride with two girls staying at same hotel to Taal volcano.

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It’s time to move on from Subic Bay. I ended staying day longer than I thought but still this place isn’t going to get too high on list of my favourite spots.

All huge tankers in the bay just prevent charm of a nice beach destination. Beach is ok but not great - there are just too many buildings in bad repair.

Diving is adequate but nowhere close to world class. And since volcanic ash in the bottom and shipping traffic makes visibility low and has killed most corals only thing to dive are wrecks. I would dive in Ko Tao instead any day.

One thing that’s lacking is services. I would really need to get a haircut but I haven’t seen any hairdressers here. Or small corner shops to get some basic tourist things. I could take jeepney to main town but it’s too much of a hassle to get some sun tan lotion.

All businesses seem to be run by foreigners. I would much rather give my money to locals instead to support some fat German guys! Is it so that Filippinos are less entreprenial than their Thai cousins who are always opening new shops even though it sometimes fails?

Other thing missing is young backpackers. Most of the other people I have met here are well over 45 and always male. There are few families and couples but I prefer place with mainly young people and vibrant nightlife without girls selling themself.

Tomorrow I’ll take a bus to Manila and then other one south to Tagaysay. Lake Taal should be quite interesting and then I’ll be closer to Puerto Galera where I should be in 4 days.

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My first dive at Subic was USS New York. It’s impressive war ship with main gun and 5 meter propellor still in place. Most exiting part of the dive was going quite deep inside the wreck - definitely much deeper than I would have gone without experienced guide.

Next dive was El Capitan, little bit smaller boat but easier to dive in. I think we dived some 40 meters through it and came out from other end. It’s wide enough for 2 divers side by side.

Visibility in the bay isn’t that great - maybe 7 meters. This is due volcanic ash and also constant shipping traffic. Actually it’s slightly disturbing to start dive with huge oil tankers only some 250 meters from you but I guess locals know what they are doing…

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I was planning on going to Subic Bay immediately when in Philippines but since my sleep last night wasn’t really good I decided to spend a day next to airport in Angeles. Sleep was really needed because I slept from 4PM until 6AM only waking up to watch Die Hard 2 in the middle of the night
Lonely Planet guided me to nice (and bit too expensive) Oasis Hotel. It has huge pool and bar which was all I needed. I impressed some other residents by freediving pool length - some 25 meters. I could do better when rested and without any beers…

Angeles is best known for it’s girl (and boy) bars, little bit like Pattaya in Thailand I guess. After seeing some of the bars I really hope I would have skipped whole place. It’s not that I have an issue with that kind of stuff or anything but too much is just too much.

I’m now in a minibus on my way to Subic Bay where should be some good wreck diving main attraction being USS New York sunk in 1941 by Americans themself.

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Today I decided to visit Cheung Chau island. It’s small place with only about 30.000 inhabitants and most people are earning their living from the sea.

Contrast to central Hong Kong is huge. There are no cars here as far as I can tell. Primary way to travel is with bicycle! Somehow this is like Suomenlinna fortress outside Helsinki but here is nice beach and seaside boulevard with restaurants.

Tradition here is to burn “money” in memory of friends passed away and I participated in that for Lukasz. It’s still quite hard to accept that he is no longer with us.

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24 hours after leaving home I am finally in Hong Kong. At least now I feel pretty much adjusted to new time and who cares if I will fall a sleep at 8pm? I’m on holiday!

Hostel is slightly worse than I recalled from last visit but it will do for 2 nights. At least it was way easier to find - I just walked from bus stop there. Last time in 2006 it took over an hour to find just right entrance!

Immediately after shower I did only thing imaginable: find nearest bar and get some beer. There’s nobody but me here but beer is cold and it’s happy hour so it’s 2 for 1 at $35

Then I needed a free wifi to post this so I wandered down Nathan rd and eventually to central. Plenty of bars to choose from here but boy is HK expensive compared to London! Pint of Guinness at £5 or even more. Second pub had happy hour and wifi so I’ll stay here for few

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I’ve used Qatar Airways before and again they managed to deliver good service during the flight even in tourist class.

Food was actually really good lamb biryani and french Syrah-Grenache complimented it nicely. Combine that with nice service and I guess they have winning formula.

Anyway, how many airlines let you choose between 3 main courses?

I would love to try their 1st class one day just to see how nice is separate business terminal in Doha.

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