[Dive + Hike] Legazpi, Philippines

13th - 19th June 2012 (7 Days)

Living on my extremely shoestring budget and a craving to just get out of the country every few months, I travelled up with a couple of friends and their friends to Legazpi and Donsol with the intention to see whalesharks, manta rays and hike up the second most symmetrical volcano in the world. 

Donsol's peak season is typically from January to late May, so we were a little late on the peak season, but this trip was rather impromptu (less than 2 months of planning) and we had teachers in the group, so school holidays it is. Actually, I just tagged along since I was really dying to get out. It's the wanderlust syndrome. 

The Itinerary:

13th June: 1:30am flight (3.5hours) to Manila > rush for 7am flight (1 hour) to Legazpi > Van ride (3 hours) to a harbour at Donsol > 1 hour boat ride to Ticao Island. 

We reached around 2pm to settle in. 

At Legazpi Airport 

Very bad photo taking by our guide. I'm looking somewhere at the floor and a rare shot with me in spectacles, and everyone else looks a little stunned. 

We stopped by this little town centre for a toilet break and to buy some refreshments, after about 2 hours in the van and 5 hours on the plane before, kahcheng a bit the sng... totally needed to walk around.

Taking the boat out (not this one thought, but similar) to Ticao Island. There were 9 of us, so we had to split up and go in two different boats. 

  

 Enjoying the sea breeze before the storm up ahead. Luckily we had a cabin below, the rest on the other boat were soaked. 

Finally at Ticao Island Resort. 9 Cabannas in total, the only other people there were this group from Hong Kong.

 Really nice resort feel, had air-conditioning as well. One of the better places I've stayed this year. 

We did our travel with Donsol Ecotours, there was a promotion at ADEX 2012 and they're pretty efficient I must say. However, they did warn us we may not get to see whalesharks so instead of doing the typical snorkel interaction, the lady we were in contact with suggested changing the snorkel to 2 dives instead. 

So after lunch, we headed out to San Miguel for a couple of easy dives. North of Ticao Island. It's another 45 minutes or so boat ride out from where we were staying. 

Map of Masbate Province (read it properly). Ticao Island and north of it is where most of the dive sites were. 

Sunset at the dive site. Some nice walls and corals, lots of nudibranches too.

The subsequent days at Ticao Island, we headed to Manta Bowl where there was reasonable amount of current, about > 20 metres deep. We spent 3 dives in total on the second day and saw 2 manta rays on the first dive, but sadly, no photos for proof. It was actually mostly waiting around for the big stuff to appear. No whalesharks too. So a lot of the time we were just hooking ourselves in to the rocks and playing. 

The third day, we did one dive at Manta Bowl, still no whalesharks, so did the remaining dives at San Miguel. Total of 8 dives this trip.

 Making air bubbles while waiting to ascend 

 Waiting at Manta Bowl

 Lionfish 

Nudibranch

Dogfish puffer

Synaptid cucumber

At the "Flower Shop"

While the diving experience wasn't as spectacular as we had hoped, it was a rather worthwhile trip. I guess peak season would have still been the best option. The dive masters told us in April they saw a family of 12 whalesharks in a single trip. Oh well... till next time.

We didn't do any night dives, so at the resort, other than dive, there really isn't much else to do. There were some canoes to row around the beach at to the fishing village. 

The fishing village

Out on the canoes...

 Ikan bilis out to dry

Kids from the village posing for me. 

 Dining area. The food was great for the 3 nights there.

 Some days there were beef, pork, pasta, fish... although we suspect the meat came from the animals we saw on the island. Especially the pigs. 

After the diving part, we headed back to Legazpi where the group split up, I went on to do the hike, while some added an extra 2 days in the town before flying out. 

Not much on Mount Mayon because my camera decided to commit suicide somewhere along the way and I had to depend the remainder of the trip on my Galaxy SII which wasn't too bad actually. 

The plan was to do a 3D2N on the volcano, but due to bad weather, we landed up only going up to about 1400m instead of the crater. Also note to self, trail running shoes are a big NO NO for hiking. I should have stuck to my trusty hiking shoes instead. We did one night on the mountain instead, and headed back down to the town after. 

Drenched after the first day of trekking at Campsite 1.

 Escargot anyone? Resident Mount Mayon snails. Chewy. 

 It was really very very very windy up there even though it's only about 1200-1300m in this picture.

 Our porters acting all cool here.

At the supposedly real Campsite 1 waiting for the only guy to make it up to the "last shrub" before the crater bit. 

The first day's hike is quite easy, took about 3 -4 hours of walking, moderately steep, but beware. Mayon is really not like the other more popular places like Kota Kinabalu or Rinjani. The treks are relatively less commercialised and I would say to some extent, a very noob and amateur trekker, you may want to be careful. Don't expect safety ropes along the way. The second day's hike to the crater is basically crawling on all fours for a large amount of the distance, this is where gloves will come in handy. 

 Start/End of the trek

Only time we'll get to see the peak this trip. 

Best time to travel: November - May 

Budget: 7 Days - Dive & Hike set me back about S$1200 + $200 (own expenditure). 5/6 Days Dive less than about $1000 + own expenditure. 

[Trek] Mount Rinjani, Lombok, Indonesia

27th -31st August 2011 (5 Days)

The famed Mount Rinjani at 3,726m in Indonesia was my first trekking experience after something like 3 years. We actually spent something like 2-3 months training at Bukit Timah Hill climbing the stairs over and over again. Those were the times I lost a lot of fats, I say fats because for some weird reason, my weight has only made a  ± 2 kg in the last 14 yrs. I just shrink and expand. 

Getting there, Silkair from Singapore departs only on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tickets were at $400++ There are of course cheaper ways such as flying in to Bali and then a domestic flight. We decided on a less time consuming way. Working adults need to scrim on our leave.

We checked it slightly after dinner time to rest before a really early start and a 3hour drive to the base of Mt. Rinjani.

The group sorting out the luggage on how we want to bring up our stuff, what to pass to the porters etc.

This would be our accommodation on the first and last night. Only myself and one other guy decided not to head over to Gili Islands for a few days of diving. I had limited days of leave left and I didn't want to spend too much on this trip because I had already spent a LOT on gear and the right outer wear.

Everyone looking really fresh not knowing what lay ahead...

At the park office to register. So that's where we're heading! (I think) 

Starting out. Cool weather, lots of cows, lots of cow dung too. You can see our porters already far far ahead. 

At the first rest point. If you're really not keen on spending over $100 for a trekking pole, which trust me, you will need, Mustafa sells $10 trekking poles/walking sticks that will be good for a couple of times before they fail. These two lasted me through the trip before they decided to not 'lock' any more.  I borrowed my friend's Osprey bag, but it didn't really fit me very well. Nonetheless, I did survive. For long treks, you want to be as comfortable as possible. 

Stopping for lunch. As you can see, lots and lots of hikers. By the time we reached this bridge, about a 2 hour plus hike, we were already above the clouds!

A bunch of happy campers, after nearly 8 hours, we reached our campsite! 

Lots of others camping along the ridge. At that time, 4pm, it was already getting cold. Once we changed out of our clothes, it was thermals, fleece, outershell, gloves and wool socks. 

According to our guide, we were supposed to be up by 2am to move off at 3am. But we were delayed slightly. Balaclava and two jackets for me. This was probably below 10 degrees C, it's gonna get worse.

 At sunrise. I didn't reach the summit sadly because I was having a lot of stomach problems. But maybe that's just an excuse. The trek up is gravel, like they say, 3 steps front, 2 steps back. You can't just take a step forward, you need to literally move as fast as you can a few steps and hope to not fall back too far. Plus the air is thin as you get higher and higher.

 Over looking the crater. Magnficent!!

By the time we reached the summit, not the peak, it was already zero. Lots of strong winds too. 

Everyone wrapped up like bazhang.

The descent was just as bad. Because of all the loose volcanic rock, going down can be quite a challenge. It's one of those, you can't be afraid and just slide down things. But the sides are narrow and you really don't wanna fall off the sides. We had a few close calls. 

After everyone reached back to the camp site at around lunch time, some of us took a nap because it was really one of the most tiring things I've done in my life. Full marathon, oh please. This is far worse. During the descent, every time I sat down, I literally fell asleep. That was how tired my body had become and I didn't even know it. 

The descent to our second camp site by the crater lake was a little more enjoyable. Keep in mind, this is already after 9 hours of ascent and descent. Lunch then a further descent. A rocky path and from what our guide told us, a couple of weeks before, someone fell off and died. So I must say when we were told that, it was a little daunting. He made it sound like one wrong step on either direction you'll be dead. It wasn't that bad actually, although we had to do some simple rock climbing up somewhere along the way.

 Our guide looking ahead to where we're gonna be spending the night.

After about another 4plus hours of hiking down, our lovely prime property with scenic view. And if you really really feel like you need a bath, there's the hotspring about a 20minute walk away from the camp. It's cold here too. But the dip in the hotspring was really worth it. At least cleaned off some dirt and grime. 

This is the point where people decide if they want to do a 3D2N or a 4D3N thing. If we wanted to cut short our original plan, we had to wake up at 2am (again) and set off. A group camping at the same place set off around that time. We decided to take a more relaxed time and leave after breakfast.

The ascent on this portion isn't too bad. I would say moderately difficult. I love how the types of vegetation changes as you get higher or lower during the trek.

 By lunch, we reached the second crater rim. The first crater rim being where we camped the night before.

The summit of Rinjani is somewhere on the left side of the photo above. The volcano is the one in the centre. 

Second crater rim and lunch area. We decided to cover more ground instead of camping here for the night. 

As you can see it looks rather hot and dry. Because it was on this side of the mountain. On our final night of stay, there was a forest fire that was less than 100m away from us. In the night we actually packed our things and ready to run if there was a need to. Luckily it never came to that.

This time the descent was more of a sandy one. 

Slowly the trek turned into a more tropical one, and you can be sure, it means we're nearing back to the base.

And finally. We ended at the Senaru end...

This is also where we made our separate ways. The diving group to Gili Islands and I was heading back to Lombok for a day in the town. We did take one of the passenger boats the next day out to Gili Islands before our flight back to Singapore since we had time. Maybe I'll be back to Rinjani again or maybe just to dive.

 On the way back to the resort at Lombok.

 After 4 days of trekking, coconut juice never tasted so good.

And for a change, looking sun-kissed and getting into the beach resort feel.

Around Lombok. It was Hari Raya Puasa earlier in the week so the whole town seemed rather deserted. We were encouraged to pay the porters a bit more since they had been fasting during that period. 

 Horse carriage ride around.

Sunset at the beach

Trying some local satay and kutupa. 

Our flight back to Singapore was only in the evening on Wednesday, so we decided to head over to Gili Air (pronounced as ai-yer) where the rest of the group was.

 Passenger boats for the locals.

 The amount of things on it was crazy!

 By some miracle, we managed to find them all. Happened they were out having a drink when we walked by.

Gili Trawagan is the more popular and the biggest of the Gili Islands. 

Best time to go: Probably around July to September, diving would be good as well.

Budget: For the trek alone for a 4D3N plus 1D at Lombok, I spent about $1000 inclusive of flight. If you include the 3 days of diving, that's another $400.