08.57 Today it is a month since we left our native land. So much has happened since that day. What has happened today is that we have woken up and I have had a shower. We are still at Marvin’s Seaside Inn in Atipolo.

10.14 Our breakfast food just arrived. Something is strange here. On the walls of the room are two clocks and both are fifteen minutes ahead of ours. Is this a time zone of its own and why haven’t we noticed it earlier? One reason why we haven’t discovered it is the fact that this is the first day we brought our own watches.

A cloudy sky, a common sight during our stay in the Philippines.

Another picture from the beautiful island Biliran.

10.54 We just took a last glance at the seaview and we´ve also seen two intelligent dogs that in a tricky way learned how to pass walls and fences and get between the hotel area and the neighbouring houses. On their way there they passed a wall next to the sea. Most of the things are packed and soon we will travel on.

Mr and Mrs Dog taking a walk.

11.43 We are back in Naval. On the journey here I rode on the back of the tricycle and Christer sat in the sidecar. The attempt to put two caucasians in the sidecar brought amusement to the local folks. My backpack travelled on the roof and Christer’s on the packetholder. The first mini bus to our next destination Tacloban was so full it almost burst so we have to wait for the next one. A guy will tell us as it gets here.

12.28 Not much happening here. Most of the people here just sit down and talk, some are trying to sell some stuff, minibuses comes and goes and children are playing. Some guy or some vehicle to Tacloban is not in sight. A strange man (the town fool?) is amusing some of the waiting passengers.

13.13 Christer went for a check and found a minibus with destination Tacloban. Now the backpacks are squeezed in and so are we. I wonder when the bus departs? The clock on the bus and one of the passenger´s is fifteen minutes ahead of ours. What is this? Have we lost time somewhere, maybe been abducted by aliens?

Peter waiting for departure to Tacloban.

13.51 With 14 persons onboard our minibus leaves the town. Right now time to fill the bus up, diesel 37.80 peso/litre.

15.52 We bounced on our way through northern Leyte to Palo. Here one of the passengers just left us. In this town General MacArthur arrived in 1944 on his way to fight the Japanese. Now the bus is filled up with diesel again and off we are.

16.36 We have a new room, 212, new hotel, Asia Stars Hotel, new city, Tacloban on the island of Leyte. This city saw the birth of the saint of all shoe salesmen, Imelda Marcos. Under our TV there is a bowl with white powder. What kind of powder is it and what is the use of it?

Drugs?

17.00 It is impossible to close the bathroom door and to flush the toilet. Our window view is towards some roofs and a concrete wall. On the bright side we can hear a rooster.

18.15 We left the hotel for Greenwich and Hawaii, or to say it short, a restaurant and some pizza. We are hungry and hope for knives and forks. We are not in the mood to eat with our hands. Before we left the hotel Christer saw one of the staff put some white powder on her face. Is it talc and is that what it is in our room?

19.00 Tasty pizza, perhaps we should have eaten one each but then it might have been too much. After that we walk around in the cluster searching for a shop. We found one and I bought, 1,5 litre Cola, 33 cl blood grape soda, tortilla snacks and a new diary. For the second year in the row will one diary not be enough. My change was supposed to be 28.25. But between me and the cashier, Imelda laid 23.25. I looked at the coins, she pointed at the receipt, I said 28.25 and this is 23.25. She grabbed a 5-peso coin and pressed all the change in my hand. This little incident amused the guy who packed the groceries. The store where this drama took place is called Leyte Department Store.

21.30 We are keeping a low profile. We are watching Animal Planet and a programme about proboscis monkeys at Borneo. We didn't see any of them on Borneo so I guess this will do it. They are really amazing creatures these monkeys. We can flush our toilet, sometimes.

Saturday 29th of July

08.57 I am sitting down drying up, Christer is sending SMS and CNN is presenting news from the Middle East. Soon I will check my nameday gift from home, a scratch ticket.

09.52 I didn't win any money. We have gone down to Star Café for some breakfast. Tocino (what ever that might be), rice, coffee and pineapple juice for me. Corned beef, rice, coffee and pineapple juice for Christer. Behind me is a wooden barrel cut in two halves. It serves as a bar. Before going down here we watched Larry King on CNN interviewing the winner of Tour de France about the doping accusations. It didn't feel all that partial.

10.25 Tocino is juice and tasty. Tocino is pork made with honey and saltpetre. Now we will prepare for a town walk. I need to buy more film to my camera.

The saint in our hotel.

12.17 Back inside due to an unplanned stop. Out on the town we posted our postcards and went to a small mall, Gaisano to buy film. There were plenty of people around me as I was about to buy film. The film store was placed just next to the entrance/exit. After the purchase was done we went outside again. Suddenly I felt some pain in my back. My pen had lost its cap. The pen stabbed me in my back causing an ink spot on my linen. I just washed it away, the spot that is.

13.01 In through the door without knocking or trying to unlock it came one from the staff. What was her business? Did she come for the powder? Why did she just enter? Did she enter the wrong room? She sure looked frightened.

13.14 We left the room to have some lunch. We sat down at a place called Shakey’s. An American with malaria founded the pizza-chain. His returning malaria attacks had given him the nickname Shakey. Here Jane has served us. She has cleared the table, handed us the menus, whipped the table and whipped the table (yes she did it twice). Furthermore she has taken orders from Christer, asked for his family name, let me place my orders and now brought us plates, knives and forks, napkins, glass and two bottles of Coca Cola.

A rainy Saturday in Tacloban.

14.29 The pizza was average. Now we are upstairs looking for a place to stay. Well, we will not stay here. It is an internetcafé. Besides a new home we are also looking for a transport to the next city Maasin, a place we haven’t found much written about, neither in our guidebook nor on the Internet. We found a possible place to stay called Ampil Pensione in a part of the town called Abgao. Maybe they know more about boat transportation. What we know so far is that there is a possible transportation Maasin-Ubay on Mondays 06.00. It seems to be two hours ride. The ships name is MB N & N Mama Mary-G. I wonder what kind of vessel it is?

15.26 We had to rush back from the internetcafe. It is raining again. We are hoping for some clear sky. We do want to see more of this city. Within 2,5 hours the dusk is here.

Santo Niño Church in Tacloban.

We have never been further east.

16.36 The rain held up and we went outside. We took pictures of the St Nino-church, the Madonna statue in the Madonna Park and also parts of the park around Lions Den. At that point we reached our easternmost place on this trip and in our lives.

18.33 We are making up plans on what to eat this dinner. Where is already arranged. We will eat it at the hotel.

19.18 Some problems/thoughts have occurred here. Why is the toilet unflushable 15-20 minutes after it has been used? What did that girl really want in here? What is the use/joy with that white powder? Enough with the riddles, time to go shopping.

Tricycles buzzing around in Tacloban´s traffic.

19.32 We didn't shop anything. They had closed the store. Here we were on our backs for three hours doing nothing. Not being able to get outside before they close. Why does one never think ahead? The dinner is ordered and now the beer bottles got here. The glass was filled with ice. We don’t think that we ever would like to have ice in the beer.

20.38 There will be no Leche Flan for desert. We paid and bought some soft drinks in the reception. We are hoping for a morning without rain and with an open store so that we can buy stuff for the trip.

Sunday 30th of July

08.58 Awake again. Our friend Roberth sent unfinished SMS-reports from several beer tents on a music festival back home all through the night. Now we´ve had showers and will soon go down for the first meal of the day. The sky is gray and looses amounts of water.

10.03 It was a delicious and nutritious breakfast, you might even call it filling. To prevent future hunger we went outside for some shopping. We got hold on some bread with raisins each at a bakery. Now it is time to put inside what still is outside the backpacks.

11.36 As I was paying for our stay here it struck Christer. He was struck by something that we actually know. Here the time is 10-15 minutes ahead of ”standard time”. The plenty of time that we had drastically changed. We had to leave in haste and reached the bus station after zick zacking through a market place there a guy offered me a fresh fish. We found a bus bound for Maasin. After we sat down we have been offered to buy all kinds of things, water, different fruits, a newspaper, something similar to eggs and sunglasses.

On the bus which will take us from Tacloban to Maasin.

12.10 Before we finally left the bus station we were also offered, nuts, knives, belts and a binocular. One of the salesmen had fingers which were attached to his armpit. He seemed to lack arms. He still was able to make a living out of selling although this handicap. Now the tickets are bought for 130 pesos a piece and we are slowly bouncing our way forwards.

12.37 The bus has made a short stop in Tanauan. Soon all the seats are taken.

13.26 We are going south on Leyte and just left MacArthur behind us, the town that is, not the general. Now we are for some reason standing still on some kind of bus stop. Around us I can see houses, palm trees and rain-wet grass. Music can be heard from somewhere.

13.46 The reason for the stop was to load some bags. Now we are loading passengers in Abuyog. Soon there will be no seats left. We are passing barangay after barangay. What is a barangay the curious ask? Well it is a form of council that can be found on the Philippines. A barangay is often just a part of the city or some small villages. They all have an assembly hall of different standards.

14.18 We have finally reached even surface again after slowly going uphill. The youngest one onboard is sad and cries.

15.17 We can see water. We can see seawater. We crossed the island and we have come to the town called Baybay. Most of the other passengers have decided to leave us here. The reason why they did so? Well I guess they live here.

Peter sleeping in Baybay.

15.54 The time has come to say Bye Bye to Baybay. Now our journey carries on southwards towards Maasin. I hope for as few stops as possible.

16.07 We just made the first stop. It is time to change a tire. I don’t know why they have to change it. It doesn’t seem to be a flat.

17.31 There is a dead halt again. The bus is leaning to the right. We seem to be trapped in the afternoon rush or something like that. Wait we are moving again. We have reached Bato.

18.28 We are now in room 104 at Ampil Pensione in Maasin. We got here with the help of yet another tricycle. Now we will just wash up and go to a place that serves food. The cost of the room is 450 pesos. Darkness fell upon us before this eternal trip was over.

Ampil Pensione, Maasin.

19.42 We went to have a hamburger at Jollibee. After this feast we went to buy bread for tomorrow in a small bread shop. Finally we bought beverages at Candy Supermarket. Now we are back in the room, after we checked about tomorrow´s boat ride. It seems to be a boat leaving at 10.00. A young man we asked seemed pretty sure about it.

20.05 We are sitting here thinking back on all the things we´ve seen during the bus trip. We have seen animals like water buffaloes, cows, hen, ducks, horses, dogs, cats, goats and pigs plus a whole lot of villages where people did a lot of things. There were several churches of different beliefs. In Inopacan there was a service lead by a priest in green clothing. Just imagine how much you can see by just sitting down on a bus going through a Philippine landscape.

Cockfighting on TV, a big thing on the Philippines.

20.46 I went outside to check about breakfast tomorrow. The answer was that no breakfast is served. I asked about coffee now and got a more positive answer. As I was waiting for my coffee there was a brown out. I glanced in the darkness trying to remember the way back to the room. Suddenly the reception desk was lit up the guard's cell phone and there was my cup of coffee. In the very same moment the back up power came to live and soon I returned to the room and the ordinary power to us.

Monday 31st of July

08.53 OK, today is the day. We have to get to Bohol. If the facts we got yesterday are accurate we have to be on the boat in about 1.5- 2 hours.

09.08 We left the Pensione and head for the sea. We asked some people about where the boat leaves from and they came up with different answers. One common suggestion is the port where we are now. The time for departure is 10.00. One man claimed that the boat has already left since it left at ten o’clock. But! he said, there would be one leaving from Bohol to Maasin at 14.00. We told him it was only nine and that we had no use of a boat going from Bohol to Maasin when we are about to leave. Right now passed a young man with a simple form of harpoon in his hand.

Happy and ready to go! Peter checking out from Ampil Pensione.

09.34 Still no boat in sight but we´ve got great expectations. So does a youngster some metres away. He is trying to catch fish. He has hook, bait and line. The line is twisted around a 1.5 litre Cola bottle.

10.00 The fishing youngster and his friend has quit. His friends line burst. We are about to quit as well. There is no boat in sight. Is it so that no boat leaves today? Does any boat ever leave?

Looking for a boat that never arrived.

10.41 We are watching the sea, partly for boats, partly for big waves. One of them just hit Christer. We are sitting here thinking about alternatives. Stay in Maasin and try again tomorrow, from here or from Bato? Take a bus to Ormoc to go by ferry tomorrow to Cebu and then to Bohol? During our thought a blue truck drives around lap after lap in the harbour area.

11.17 To get things done and to get away from that annoying truck we went back to the central parts of Maasin. Now we are at GV Pension House. In the reception there was a note about boat connections. There we read that there is a boat leaving for Bohol tomorrow at 09.00. It leaves if the weather allows it to. Today's weather isn’t good enough apparently. The boat doesn’t stand waves. We don’t think it is any huge waves today. What kind of boat is it that will transport us? We need to reload. Time to eat our trip food and get some sleep.

Maasin

14.14 We are getting ready to return to the streets of Maasin. Outside the sun is shining. Maybe we´ll find somewhere to eat. Maybe we´ll buy some new trip. food.

15.11 We are waiting for exchanging some dollars. They sent a guy to get some money. While we wait we have filled in some information about us. The cashier lady interviews about our thoughts of the country and what we´ve seen so far.

15.43 We finally got our money so now we will make it around a few more days. We’ve just sat down at Valtevian Fastfood Restaurant.

Late lunch at Valtevian Fastfood Restaurant.

16.58 They brought us a lot to eat. It was noodles with different things, among them something that might have been mussels. During the meal a man popped in and wanted some money for doing it. After that we walked the streets before we bought some bread in a bread shop and sodas at Candy’s.

19.52 We left the room and went for a stroll. Before heading out we ordered some breakfast for tomorrow morning. At 07.30 it will be served here in the room. Outside we bought beverages for the future.

Peter´s backpacker-feet

20.43 We are back after a Jollibee-dinner. Now we are thinking about tomorrow. Whatever happens we will head for the harbour and the bus terminal for some need of transport away from here.

22.59 Today we didn't travel far. Instead of crossing Canigao Channel we just crossed the street. Tomorrow we will make a new attempt. Now the alarm is set so that we will wake up before breakfast.

Tuesday 1st of August

07.00 We just woke up because of a knocking on the door. Dazed I searched for my glasses and went to open. There were our breakfasts in the hands of a young woman. The cell phone hadn’t alarmed.

07.18 We ate rice and corned beef served in polystyrene box. Now I will have a shower. I am happy that we ordered breakfast. I wonder when we had got up if we hadn´t.

07.35 Positive news, there is a boat bound for Bohol today. This news reached us by a messenger sent from the reception.

08.15 We’ve just sat down on a wooden bench each on the boat N & N Mama Mary-Glenn. A large version of what I think is called a pumpboat. It is a long thin boat with some forms of pontoons on each side. We just got a visit from some salesmen. Are they everywhere? The boat rocks gently. I hope it will remain in that state. The sea is calm.

N&N Mama Mary-Glenn in all its beauty.

09.06 We just filled in the passenger list with our age, home address and names. After that we got our tickets. We are ready to go. Our captain’s name is Robustiano. The captain seems to be more robust then his boat.

09.25 With the help from a strong rope, 5-6 guys and a powerful jerk the boat engine started. Our engine seems to be from a car and it sure makes a terrible noise. We are still in the harbour.

10.12 The water splashes around the wooden pontoons. The boat keeps rocking and so do we. From the steering wheel two ropes run astern. They follow the sides of boat and probably ends up by the rudder. Forward we can see some islands. I don’t thing any of them is our Bohol. On one of the benches there is an old lady sleeping. The bench is narrow and there is a loud noise from the engine. How does she make it? Pure routine?

Getting closer to Bohol Island

11.12 Full speed ahead again. We might have stopped at Lapining Island. It seems so according to the map. If that’s the case then the name of place is Aguining and Bohol is just around the corner. The sound from the engine is making me deaf. Sometimes I have to get out on deck to ease it all.

12.06 We are at quay again. Soon our journey continues towards the goal. This time we will travel by land. We have reached Bohol and the town of Ubay.

12.29 First we rode a tricycle a short trip from the quay. Now we are seated tight on a minibus with destination Tagbilaran on the other side of the island.

13.53 As I was eating my travel food we passed the city Carmen. We also got to see some of the famous Chocolate Hills. Before Carmen we passed a school with a brisk slogan. "Be proud to be a teacher. The future depends on you."

15.51 We made it to Tagbilaran. We got a little squeezed but we made it here. Merry as few we squeezed into a tricycle that brought us to Wregent Plaza Hotel. Here we will stay for three nights. It feels great to hear other stuff then an engine, not to sit tight or wind along. Freshly showered is just a bonus. There are plenty of TV channels to choose from, few are in colour.

Christer enjoying the nice room at Wregent Plaza.

17.55 The clothes are washed and so are we. Soon we will learn more about the premises. A little later it is time for dinner.

19.46 Back from a quick look on the city, passing a cloud from a grill and visit a supermarket. In there we bought sodas, munchables, watermelon and washing powder of the brand, Pride. The name of this place is Alturas Supermarket.

20.02 We sit in the hotel restaurant and we´ve ordered pork and onion plus Pancit Canton (Philippine noodles a’la Canton). In came the beer and two ice filled glasses. We mentioned that we didn't want any ice. The glasses were brought out and we haven’t seen them since.

21.05 The food was brought to us and we asked about the glasses. The waiter looked surprised to say the least. We said glasses again and got the same reaction. I signed that I poured and drank. We got the glasses and enjoyed the meal. Now we are back in room 304 again.

22.28 We might lack balcony but we will have a beer each. I must admit that my eyelids are heavy. Tomorrow is another day.