Malditah Musings

Bohol, Philippines – You Enjoy yourself With more than Ferdinand Magellan ba

"Eight days a week is not enough to show I care" crooned the guitarist, serenading us in the lunch-deck cruise barge as we drifted down the Loboc river in Bohol. "Eight days a week, I loooooove you" he continued, the plus-forties tapping their feet or singing included. I do not want to go out and buy a Beatles album, as I hear their songs too many times, but it when someone sings one, as Some of my first memories are of their songs. I pondered what it is about the Philippines that makes its inhabitants so musically talented – pretty much everywhere you go there is a guitarist playing – perhaps to play guitar and singing talent is something the country can thank the Spanish for.

Not getting the impression that Spanish is Thanked for many people other than Christianity, judging by the respect that they hold chief Lapu Lapu, who killed of the Spanish conquistador Ferdinand Magellan in the nearby island of Mactan in 1521. He had sailed there to educate the residents and the boss, badly misjudging their struggle spirit, decided to leave all his mercenary forces aboard to save the glory and gore for Spanish skin occur. After telling the Mercenaries to makapanood well to learn Spanish superior art of war, he marched his band of country-man ashore, only to be promptly hacked to bits, most his companions. Display this rather confused his audience of native Mercenaries, one of whom remarked that he was not too impressed with superb Spanish art war and preferred the old approach just lopping head with a big ax.

This text about Magellan is a bit of a digression. As a under this digression in digression, readers may be interested to know that, according to recent findings, the Straits of Magellan off the Cape of Good Hope is not actually first discovered by Ferdinand Magellan in all but by a Chinese admiral in 1421. For an attractive and plausible theory that the Chinese discovered pretty much everywhere before Europeans are, I recommend the reader review the book "1421, the year of China to discover the world", by Gavin Menzies.

As if to reinforce my musical impression of Filipinos, our lunch barge pulled up on a Pontoon Sun where about forty ukulele players and singers, from the age of about eighty eight, their faces wreathed in smiles big. Small children wriggled with impatience in having to sit still, while the girls fluttered their eyelashes and, when I smiled at them, blushed and looked away, giggling to each other. Granddad incidentally a plucked instrument not I recognized as a young boy strummed a guitar bigger than he. After a while I noticed one of the parents nod an 'OK' a group of women, who immediately downed their instruments and dived into the river, one of them climbing up onto our barge and then using it as a diving board. Some day-trippers aboard back away from the spot where he was climbing, fear of a soaking when he hit the water, but they need not have worried, as he jumped far out and dived head-first, hardly causing a ripple as he went to, say alone with a splash. "Hmm, maybe I should have a go at that "I thought," then they'd really have to worry about (my water removal is, should We say, rather larger than the men). After the lovely music Pontoon then we show off our lunch. The food is capable rather than stunning but is enjoyed by all but my son Nigel, who turned his nose up to everything, which is no surprise, because he only eight. Thankfully he finally found something he will enjoy the magnificent mango, watermelon and pineapple, which tasted way better than, in my experience, They Do to Europe.

I sat and watch the forest slide by the side of each river. Palm trees reach out from the sides and over the barge, their fronds swaying in the wind and nice sunlight filtering through them, dappling the deck in hazy, soft sunlight. As the guard My wife Fon worry over my son, a feeling of happiness and peace came to me. Everything seems OK, even the things about life more less than perfect. I see that as I become older experience happiness in other ways. When I was younger, it is all about losing myself in extreme concentration while doing something exciting, now it is more about Tranquility and family values.

Other highlights are Bohol the great scuba diving and snorkelling. I'm not much of a scuba diver so I went snorkelling on a spot near the little islet of Balicasag, which I unreservedly recommend. We left our resort aboard a local boat banka at the crack of dawn to get a chance to see dolphins for for some reason appear the hour. Apparently I was cynically thinking this is probably unlikely to happen, but they are out on schedule and in number, and then swam around us for a good time. They apparently were swimming in groups of families, some of them just barely breaking the surface and the other (perhaps showing paghayag extra joy of youth) jumping right out of the water. They are such lovely creation, their faces permanently grinning apparently funny to some private joke. We came Balicasag and a while later, after an unusual-for-breakfast I steamed prawns, fried egg and rice (which tasted better than I expected it), we boarded much a small, hand-powered boats. Motorised boats are prohibited to enter the Balicasag Marine Sanctuary in an initiative to protect flaura and fauna: the arrangement It appears, judging from the abundance of fish swimming around meetings with crystal-clear water, that worked. The length of the column of fish swam in an almost military formation built reef. They seem so ordered and organized that I wondered if one of them is in charge. Was it the fish before? Or maybe she is just the expendable point-man and the fish behind him is the one in charge?

A large cloud of small fish swam pain-through. I took off my life-give power (that supports me the most comfortable fashion as I floated lazily and watch the marine life) and dived down, feeling pleased with myself for hiring flippers, as I am a weak swimmer without them. I swam right through the clouds of fish. At one point all I can see around me is small black fish, illuminated by scattered rays of sunshine. Beautiful, just lovely. The most beautiful thing about experience is the way they swam away from my moving limbs, almost as if the attractive through denial, all maintenance of exactly the same distance from me. It felt like being clothed in fish. I do not remember ever enjoying a snorkelling experience so much.

The Chocolate Hills of Bohol is the island's most popular tourist attraction and become worthy the attention they, they look like the most bizarre. hundred 200-foot high earthen mounds out of flood-plain, most topped with grass and looking like the perfect place for a picnic. Almost all of them are almost completely conical in shape. I tried to research the reason for their strange shape, but find The answer – a bit like the authors of the official tourist site tablet, which does not seem to know either. The Hills is reminiscent of the English penetration 'barrows' (or mounds) on Salisbury Plain, only much, much bigger. It looked as is, instead of some prehistoric chieftains lying underground, it has dozens of dynasties of emperors, each interred under a couple of tens of thousands of tons of earth, a landscape of some such as Salisbury Plain the meeting Pyramids of Giza.

For our first visit to the Chocolate Hills we took to driving and mini-van and was taken to the tourist center on a hill where was developed for the purpose and which is covered in concrete, fast-food outlets, hawkers and screaming children. When I asked the driver if he can vary his route so that we can experience the scenery without the crowds, he reacted with the same incomprehension as I remember getting from an assistant in a sea-side fare in England, when I used my foot to his flanks to attempt to make it change its route usage. Several days after this disappointing experience we returned to try and experience in the hills in a more natural way, the employee receiving a motorcycle where we can range through the lanes and take the experience in our own Tilt. We had planned to hire a local guide (when I say 'local', I mean one of the farmers working in the midst of the hills) and then climb one of them. We thwarted by a rain-storm, which is somewhat unfortunate, but at least give us a good reason to return. Careful readers of the motorcycle-riding in SE Asia are advised to get driven themselves to the Chocolate Hills in a minivan and to hire an additional helper to trail them on a bike, then hop on the bike when they reached the hills, where small roads are relatively safe.

After checking one of the Philippines' best beaches, why not visit some of Thailand's: www.andamanadventures.com

 

 

 

About the Author

Simon Ramsden runs Andaman Adventures, specialising in climbing and diving trips to Thailand’s best beach destinations.