February 22nd 2015 Guimaras Island- Day 1 Trappist Monastery accommodations

This is where I am right now in the Philippines. Guimaras island circled in red.

Old Trappist Abbey. My accommodations for the first day on Guimaras island. Not even close to the beach. About 20 km from the beach. It is located inland but has many plantations like mango trees, mahogany trees, corn, and other stuff.

The guest accommodations and eating quarters.

Down the hall to my room.

My room.

Bathroom.

An "all you can eat" buffett.

Just chowing down. Had some rice, veggies and chicken with some mango.

After getting checked in at the Monks monastery and had lunch I decided to hit the road and walk along it to see if there was anything interesting along the way as I planned to see the beach tomorrow. It is around 20 km away from the beach.

You find SARI-SARI STORES in the most remote locations. There was nothing on the road as I walked 5 km and just saw landscape and then I see this sari sari store out in the wilderness. Another "BABU" looking for customers.

Walking along the road I saw this place. It looked very tranquil.

I got this glimpse of the ocean from up above on the road. It was at this point I ran into some old filipino guy who said he was retired and now a highway patrolman for tourism (whatever that is) and wanted to help me.

I got dropped off near the beach but had to pass through a resort to get access to the beach. I have been in the Philippines for 3 weeks and this is the very first beach with sand that I have seen. I am sure wherever there is a beach with sand in the Philippines there will be a resort there.

Guimaras is known for the sweetest mangoes so I picked up 5 mangoes for the road to eat back at the Monastery. She was selling oysters too but I just took 1kg of RIPE mangoes for 120 pesos ($3 cdn). I am sure they are marked up quite a bit considering it is located right outside the resorts.

When I arrived at the Trappist Monastery there was no one there or any reception. I was starting to wonder if this was a good idea. Then someone told me to go into the dining room and there was a woman there who worked there and she waved me in as she was sitting down eating. She got up from her dinner and took me to another spot and I heard her calling for someone and she said "There is a guy here who wants to rent a room. He is very tall! He is a very very big guy" and then I heard her laughing as she knew I was within ear shot. 

The Father who runs the place came out to meet me and asked what he could help me with and I said I wanted to rent a room and he said he had a big group of people checking in today so had to check on availability but did find a room and told me it was being cleaned but that I could go in for lunch which I did. 

I had some rice, a vegetable dish, chicken and some fruit. By the time I was done my room was ready and I went in to settle in and have a short nap. An hour later I walked around the monastery property and then decided to walk along the road to see if there was anything interesting. I didn't see much as I walked 5 km. 

I got a sea view from up above on the road (see picture above) and then I saw an older filipino guy asking if he could help. I asked him where abouts on the map I was and then said maybe I will grab some transportation to the beach. As I said that, a young guy in a jeepney stopped along the side of the road looking back at me trying to get my attention and the old man was waving his arm at him trying to get rid of him but I told him I wanted to hear what this guy was going to offer for a ride. At first he said 150 pesos and I said I could get a trike for that much but he is a jeepney and is suppose to be cheaper and then he said 50 pesos so I jumped in. I got to watch my pennies you know!!

His name was Ricky and said the jeepney was his grandfathers and as we drove asked me what I planned to see on Guimaras and I told him I didn't know but just wanted to check out the beach for now. He told me there were many mango plantations and wind turbine generators which supplied power to the island and parts of iloilo.

Ricky dropped me off near the beach and I went to the first resort to see how much they were and they said their cheapest rooms were 1500 pesos ($40.50 cdn) which was a little steep for me and she said they were fully booked but to call back tomorrow so I just passed through the resort and checked out the beach. It was nice and refreshing being down at the beach as I saw people swimming and the nice ocean breeze cooling you down and palm trees were all lined along the beach. Small boats coming into shore regularly dropping people off from a day of island hopping. 

I decided to try another resort RAYMEN RESORT and they were fully booked as I could see they had a conference going on but said they had rooms at 700 pesos ($18 cdn) which was ok with me and booked it for the next day when it was available as I only planned to spend one night at the monastery as there wasn't much to do beside checking out their property. 

So I left the RAYMEN RESORT and picked up some mangoes to eat back at the Monastery. A lazy trike operator was laying down in the shade and I asked him how much to the Monastery and he said 200 pesos and I told him I got here for 150 pesos and he said it is 200 pesos, "take it or leave it" and I said I will "leave it" and kept walking. As I walked 50 feet down the road another trike operator pulled up beside me and asked if I wanted a ride and I said how much to the Monastery and he said 150 pesos and I said "OK lets go!". 

I got back to the Monastery and it was around 5pm and I basically went to bed early. The monastery is advertised as a spiritual retreat way out in the province away from the noise and racket but at around 8pm I start hearing a boom box from a distance which I know cannot be part of the monks music as the base of the music went "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" all through the night and kept me up all night. I hated it!! I have heard that filipinos will play their music very loud without caring about their neighbors peace and quiet but I was shocked to hear this where I was. It was completely out of place!!

February 22nd 2015 iloilo to Guimaras island journey

Arrived at the Ortiz street wharf in iloilo. 15 pesos (45 cents) for the boat ride to go to Jordan, Guimaras. All the boats line up where the stairs are. I will be taking the POSEIDON BOAT which is seen docked in the distance. This boat says RAYMEN  RESORTS and little did I know that I would eventually wind up staying there.

There are about 30-40 people already seated behind me. The sign says 49 maximum but I am sure they don't really count. You can see a guy with a red Canada shirt just about to board here.

As he boarded I asked him if he was from Canada and he said no but his brother lives and works in London Ontario Canada but he lives on Guimaras island. His friend in the yellow took our picture together and said he was going to post it to facebook so I took a photo of them.

A last shot leaving the Ortiz street harbour on our way to Jordan Guimaras.

Arriving at the harbour of Jordan on Guimaras island.

My trike driver shows up to give me a ride to the TRAPPIST MONASTERY for 150 pesos ($4 cdn) which is a 15-20 minute ride.

Just giving you the VIRTUAL TOUR here as you see what I see looking through the trike windshield.

Passing through the town of San Miguel on our way to the TRAPPIST MONASTERY.

In the morning before checking out of my hotel I went to Jollibees and found out that a lot of what I wanted to order was NOT AVAILABLE including my coffee!! My pancake sandwiches were unavailable and they told me coffee was unavailable to. This is quite common here. 

I went to McDonalds and they had what I wanted but didnt have any sugar for my coffee. This is the second time this has happened at McDonalds. Things run a little differently over here. I don't know if this is a management problem but how do you run out of things? Like when things get LOW that is WHEN you are suppose to stock up again. 

Grabbed a taxi and headed to Ortiz Street harbour to catch the boat to Jordan, Guimaras. I have made no reservations for anywhere but just winging it once I am over there. Boat ride was 15 pesos and took about 20 minutes. Once at the Jordan harbour as a foreigner I was to sign some paper work so they knew I was on the island for security measures I suppose. 

Grabbed a trike and looked in my Lonely Planet book for cheap accommodations and saw a TRAPPIST MONASTERY for 400 pesos ($11 cdn) so told the trike driver to take me there which he did for 150 pesos and took about 15-20 minutes to get there. The book said it was a spiritual retreat so I thought it would be nice to have some peace and quiet after being in mostly cities since I got here to the Philippines.

February 20th 2015 iloilo city- Day 3

Went into the Dads BBQ Park restaurant today. You see 4 employees with red shirts but there is 8 of them and only 8 customers. It makes me wonder how much these people get paid each day is not a lot.

Just finished my rice and then spaghetti on the right and chicken at the top with ice tea.

Barns?

Sometimes you walk through some poor neighborhoods and out of no where you see a nice house.

Mixed Martial Arts in iloilo city.

Milk and cream are something you don't see too often in South East Asia and usually I have to go to 7- eleven for milk and I haven't seen cream anywhere. This milk I just had was fantastic. Way better than all the other milks I have had here. You might wonder why I comment on something like milk for but over here the shelves are not stocked with things we take for granted so when I find something I like I normally stock up!

This morning I just wondered around the streets of iloilo and along the water seeing where the streets would take me and I always end up in a very poor neighborhood where the people are wondering why "whitey" is in their neighborhood. Came and saw a group of filipinas who were probably a family and all I could hear was a young boy say "HEY! WHERE YOU GOING???" at which point they all started laughing. I am always asked "Where you going" and I always point in front of me and say "I am going that way!". 

I came back into town after my walk and found a mall so went in there to cool down with the air conditioning and got something to drink. As I walked around I saw a travel agency for Cebu Air and Philippine Air. I had previously checked on travel prices as I plan to fly to Davao which is at the southern end of the Philippines after I spend 2 weeks at Boracay. Online using Philippine Air website I had seen most flights were 8500 pesos on Friday to Sunday so was planning to book my flight from Roxas to Davao for Thursday March 19th for 4500 pesos (almost half price) right after I finish 2 weeks on Boracay but I went into this travel agency to talk to the woman and told her I wanted the cheapest flight to Davao and she said ok I have a flight from iloilo to Davao for 1025 pesos ($27 cdn) and add 200 pesos for an extra 15kg of luggage which was a total of 1225 pesos ($37) that leaves a day earlier than I had planned (9:15am Wednesday March 18th) but it was such a good promotional deal that I will spend 13 days in Boracay instead of 14 days as I originally planned. 

Tomorrow I will be checking out of my hotel once I get my laundry back at 10am and get a ride to the ferry as I plan to stay on Guimaras island for a few days.

February 19th 2015 iloilo- Day 2 as well

Had my morning coffees and pancake sandwiches this morning.

A backhoe in the water.

Saw this ad on a lot of telephone polls. Rent to own at only 2,280 pesos ($62 cdn) per month.

Where hungry ninjas like to eat!

February 19th 2015 iloilo- Day 2

A street in iloilo.

No smoking signs everywhere in iloilo. You can see two here.

These slots to put your hotel key are common as this one starts my air conditioning so it is only on when I am in the hotel room. In Dumaguete hotel I was at this key had to be in for operate the lights or fans or plugs in the room.

February 18th 2015 iloilo- Day 1

My first thoughts of iloilo was that I really liked it as I walked around.

As I walked farther I noticed the neighborhoods changing with less motor vehicles and more peddle bikes for cabs.

Thinking I was heading to the ocean I kept heading in the same direction and came to small alley ways and went in and kept walking and realized I was in a really poor neighborhood. Every alley way I walked down people would immediately look at me as I am sure they don't see too many big white guys with blond hair and blue eyes and they would say "Hello" or "Good morning" and the most common was "Where are you going?". It was going down all theses alley ways where I eventually got lost.

The Philippines isn't a great place to be a pet. This kitten doesn't exactly look healthy but neither does any animal I see including dogs here.

One thing I like to do is watch the construction going on. In Philippine construction they normally build vertical columns of support with cement and rebar as you can see here and once all the support columns are in they fill in the walls with cinder block (hollow blocks).

I notice all their meters are high up on poles where they need a truck to get them up their to take the meter readings for each residence. It seemed an odd and inaccessible place to put them but maybe it keeps people from tampering with them or wrecking them?

After being lost for a couple hours I finally found my hotel again and still had a couple hours to kill so went over to a place called COFFEE BREAK and got a coffee (50 pesos) and blue berry cheese cake (110 pesos). The cheese cake was very good! As I sat there a vendor with his goods came up to me and I nodded my head "no" that I wasn't interested but he came up anyhow and I checked out his stuff. I ended up buying some sunglasses off of him for 550 pesos ($15 cdn) as he demonstrated that they were unbreakable by twisting them up into a ball where I was impressed and the pair of cheap sunglasses ($3 cdn) I bought 5 days ago in Bacolod broke within a day so flexible sunglasses were what I needed!