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During the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival from September 28 through October 3, 2012, I went with 5 friends to the Philippines. We decided that China would be too crazy and crowded during this festival for us to be able to easily travel within China, so we decided to leave. It seems strange that China could get any more crazy and crowded than it is on a normal day, but all the students and foreigners in China that I know say get out of China at this time if you can, so we did. And we went to the Philippines.
We flew from Hong Kong to Clark, on the island of Luzon, Philippines, then hoped on a bus. We didn’t really have any plans for destinations going into the trip other than knowing we wanted to go to the beach, so we hoped on a bus and headed south from the airport in search of a beach we could relax on. We ended up meeting a group of students from Hong Kong who were headed out to this little town called Puerto Gallera on the island of Mindoro, and we decided to jump on a ferry and head in that same direction. After an extremely rough, late night ferry ride we landed in the town Calapan on the island. Instead of trying to make our way across the island to White Beach, the most well-known beach in Puerto Gallera, in the middle of the night, we found a hotel and stayed the night.
In this little town we got the first chance to experience some Filipino culture as we took a taxi, if it can be called that, to the hotel. These taxis were more like motorcycles with an attached side-car to carry passengers in. As a tall girl, it was a little difficult to fit into these little cars, but it was a fun part of the Filipino experience. The language spoken in the Philippines, Tagalog, was also something very strange that we really got to experience while being in this town and on the journey to the island. Taglish, as the language is known as, is a strange combination of Spanish, English, and Tagalog, something completely foreign that resembles nothing I’ve ever heard. Listening to the radio was such a strange experience because it would sound like Spanish being spoken, and all of a sudden a few English sentences would be said, followed by more Spanish and some other strange language.
The next morning we took a Jeepney ride from Calapan through the mountains to Puerto Gallera, where we planned to spend the remainder of our vacation. A Jeepney is an old vehicle that somewhat resembles a jeep mixed with a long bus, and was a vehicle used during WWII and is still a common form of transportation throughout the Philippines. The ride through the mountains was beautiful! It went through several small villages, so we got to see both breathtaking scenery as well the living conditions that people in the Philippines have.
We eventually reached our destination of White Beach, in Puerto Gallera and headed straight for the beach. It was beautiful. The water was endless, the sand was soft and white, and there were very few people around. We spent the next two days in the water and walking around the beach. During the day, when there were few other tourists around, it was so relaxing. At night, however, all the people came out and the beach completely changed character. The beach was lined with little restaurants and bars that were calm during the day, but at night, each bar put on a show. Some bars had fire dancers who would perform on the beach, while other bars put on lady-boy (cross-dressing) shows each night which were the most ridiculous, entertaining shows.
After spending two days at White Beach, we decided it was time to visit somewhere new, so we hoped on another ferry and went out to the little town of Sabang, a short ride away from Puerto Gallera. This town is a large diving town, so there were boats full of scuba divers everywhere. The layout and atmosphere here were completely different from at White Beach. The town next to the beach was filled with little shops that had thin, wandering pathways that made a little maze trying to wander through the streets. The beach was also different here. Like at White Beach, the water and sand were beautiful, but the ground was covered in coral in Sabang, making it slightly painful to wade out into the water. We wandered through all the little shops along the beach as we enjoyed the remainder of our beach time before having to return to Luzon and work our way back up to the airport.
This trip was so much fun. It was so nice to get a chance to explore somewhere new while taking a vacation from the hectic life in China and at work.
