On Saturday, the 18th of January, Chu Sum and I had made it - we finally had our own wheels and were ready to go explore the Philippines on our own! But, it was getting late which, as I learned, would make the ride from Angeles to Subic Bay a bit uncomfortable as the air was thick with insects. After about an hour or so, we arrived in Olongapo covered in tiny little dots... or at least I did - Chu Sum was a bit scheltered there on the back of the bike. We settled into our "pods" at Subic Bay Hostel & Dormitory then went out and got our first taste of restaurant quality Filipino food at a place called Coco Lime.
The food was a bit pricey, as would be the case with most places during the trip (at least compared to Vietnam), but that's what we get for getting recommendations from the hostel. Actually, even if we had managed to find a local-friendly place, they would probably have charged us more because we were tourists. In any case, the food was excellent.
On our way back to the hostel, we stopped by a live music event where a group was performing what were probably local hits based on the reaction of the audience. I suppose this was my first time being exposed to Filipino entertainment, which I would say is rather unique in that they regularly pepper their lines with English words. In fact, I eventually realized that everything is that way in the Philippines: commercials, recorded announcements, TV shows, etc. The English words sound so out of place, though, that you'd be forgiven for thinking that they'd simply forgotten the word in their own language.
On day one of our motorcycle journey we both had our first scuba diving experience. We got there in the morning for an hour of so of instruction before heading to a pool to do some training exercises. Then, that afternoon, we took a boat out and did the real thing! Scuba diving really is a lot of fun. I get it now why so many people are so passionate about it it. The feeling of breathing underwater alone is pretty awesome but, of course, the real treat is being able to navigate the depths without needing to resurface. I have to say, I'm really relieved that I didn't have any problems equalizing the pressure in my ears. I've had trouble with that before, but it turns out that you just have to go up a bit again if you feel pain and then, when you go to descend again, just equalize a bit more often. I also learned that you can adjust your boyancy by just controlling your breathing. Chu Sum had a bit of trouble with this because he relied too heavily on the boyancy control unit. As I discovered (and later confirmed with the pros), you just have to let the air out of your lungs and you sink like a rock!
On day two, we had problems. The bike was making weird noises, so we stopped by a local mechanic and he told us that the engine was going to seize. We called the owner, Alex, and he told us to ride it back to Angeles City. This actually worked out really well! It was slow going getting back to Angeles with the bike protesting anything over 60 kph but, upon our arrival, we were given a free upgrade! We actually would have gotten such a bike at the start, but we had arrived on the weekend. Now it was a weekday, so we got something that could take us to a much more interesting destination.
Alex didn't just upgrade our bike, but he gave us some good tips as well. He told us about some interesting routes we could take to get to a little-known place in the mountains with a free hot spring! So, we took the bike over to the local mall, grabbed a tent and some food, and drove off into the countryside. Our first obstacle was navigating a small neighborhood (or "barangay" aka "barrio" in Spanish) that gradually became more and more rural until the roads were no longer paved. Soon we exited the neighborhood onto sandy pathways that were rather difficult to ride on. Luckily we found a local to follow who rode much faster which, as I had expected, made the bike much more stable.
Eventually we came to the river, which we had to cross several times on the way to the pools. At one point we came to a fork that Alex had told us about. He had told us to go left, but our wannabe guide was insisting that we follow him to the right. So, we paid him (money is always expected even if you didn't actually ask for help) and, despite his objections, we continued to the left. Alex had explained that there are indeed hot pools to the right, but that they would charge us there. Sure enough, as we continued to the left, we came upon a bunch of very well-made hot pools with nobody charging entry. We set up camp, did a little BBQ and then went for a midnight dip in one of the best hot pools I've every been in.
On day three we decided to head back to where the first bike had broken down. There we had another go at our original destinations - Balanga City and Mariveles. We hit a couple snags along the way, though... not the least of which being that we got trapped in quicksand. Alex had warned us about riding in the river where the big construction machines were working. I just figured he meant to start looking for the exit, but no - he meant to get out of the water! Anyway, after a few minutes of panicking and beeping SOS with the horn, I managed to get some locals to come help pull the bike out. Not a moment too soon, though!
A few hours later we arrived in Balanga City and found our hostel. Balanga City is a center of tourism with historical buildings, a public market with interesting drinks and snacks, and really weird traffic issues. We got there and I wasn't sure if my GPS was working properly as the traffic was actually directed along a circular route that, unless you cut back through the middle of it, you ended up being coraled along an unending loop that just kept going around and around.
We spent the evening walking around getting food (Sissig!) and looking for a good message. A lot of the places we just couldn't find - one place was just a gas station - but, in the end, we found a pretty good one.
The next day was Chu Sum's last, so we headed down to Mariveles to check out the famous "Five Fingers" - a bunch of peninsulas with caves and beaches. Unfortunately, the road was blocked and, though we found a trail, we soon started running out of time and became demotivated. The views were nice, though.
Still, we did manage to find a cool little coastal barangay on the way back where we finally got to see some beaches. We even met some nice locals and a little kid who had a pet crab! We got back on the road, returned the bike in Angeles and took a trike to the bus station so Chu Sum could go back to Manila to catch his flight.
That night I went to a new hostel where I made some new friends from Russia named Janko and Nikita. Janko was riding around on a little scooter that he had rented in Manila (not an easy way to get around!) and Nikita had found a place that rented out full-sized motorcycles for half the price of the ones Chu Sum and I had rented. We talked a bit and agreed that he would take me there the next morning so that I could rent one as well and we could explore the Philippines together for the coming weeks! The real adventure was about to begin...
