Rob and Anna's travel adventure

From Leyte to Samar Island, Philippines

Anna's entry:

TACLOBAN (last stop on Leyte)

Prior to continuing our journey to the province/island of Samar, which is considered one of the poorest and least visited in the Visayas, we made a stop-over in Tacloban (the Capital City of Leyte province). Tacloban is a dusty, not particularly interesting town, however, friendly and welcoming. We needed a rest stop-over for the bus connections onto Samar. Having been away from civilization, we decided to spend a few days in Tacloban and treat ourselves to TV (which came with a room). We had to change a room after the first night - due to the mold, which seems to be typical around here, but the second room was quite all right. The center of town had numerous bakeries, so we would run across the street to get some freshly baked rolls to go along with movies. We also wandered around, and once came upon a village community on the outskirts of town. We climbed up the hills to watch the sunset and were accompanied by a few young boys. On top of the hill we saw lots of kids and adults trying to fly kites. Most kites were broken or mended, but some were able to fly up to the sky, which produced a big enthusiasm of the locals. It is not the first time we've noticed how the impoverished areas find joy in the simplest things, and seem so genuinely happy... A few days later, it was finally the time to take off for Samar.




CATBALAGAN (First stop on Samar)

Samar is one of the most impoverished provinces of the Philippines, and in some ways almost forgotten by both the politicians and tourists. The roads and transport are more limited, which keeps Samar more of an off-the-beaten track destination to travel in. Our first stop was in Catbalagan, which gave us an interesting start in Samar. Having used by now being the only visiting foreigners, we thought nothing of staying in a somewhat strange place, but very clean and cheap. We climbed the stairs of a dimly lit hotel to inquire about a room, and were greeted by two smiley teethless ladies who did not speak a word of English. They motioned us to wait, and we put down our heavy backpacks on the concrete floor. Soon after, they shouted at someone around the corner (who was apparently fluent in Englsih) to come out and help us check in. A young lady stepped out of her room, wrapped up in a towel, who seemingly looked interrupted from being engaged in some business with another "customer". She very quickly helped us to check in a private room away from the "busy scene", and disappeared back into her own room. Not sure if we interpreted everything correctly, but we all seemed to understand what kind of place it was... But, the hotel was clean, friendly, and cheap. The whole experience reminded us about a similar stay in Guadelajara (Mexico), so we laughed and knew what to expect - a clean room and sense of humor. Having secured a room, we went in search of supper. Eventually, we located a BBQ chicken stand (a staple of Philippino cuisine), and not having any parks or pleasant places to eat outside, we settled on the curb along the main street, which gave us a great position to people-watch. In the perpetual stream of motor bikes, trucks, cycle-taxis, school children, vendors, etc. - street was smelly and noisy. Eventually, we saw our hotel ladies standing in the alley - either to get a look outside or welcome new clients, the latter being more likely... We returned back to our room facing the noisy street, and soon after felt an earthquake, followed by a tsunami warning on the East coast of Samar. However, being on the West coast, it was safe to continue our journey further North.




CALBAYOG

It is rare, that I have regrets about visiting a place - even if the experience was not the most rewarding, one could always learn from it, or simply forget about it. I must admit, the town of Calbayog is the only negative impression left about the Philippines. We spent only one night in that town - all hotels were booked up and over-priced, which doesn't make sense except for one fact - westerners do visit this place for an unknown reason (maybe ferry connection?). Eventually, we found a place to stay which seemed fine during the day, however, the night was a different story. Our room was above a karaoke bar, that blasted music until around 5 a.m. The bar attracted young Philippino women and old Western men, so you are getting the picture. To put it shortly, I had a verbal confrontation with the hotel manager around 2:30 a.m., and by 3:30 a.m. we left the hotel. Thankfully, some bakeries are open 24 hours, so we spent the rest of the night drinking coffee, eating freshly baked rolls, and conversing with young police-in-training ladies. At 5:30 a.m., we headed out to the bus station to get out of this miserable town. The timing worked out perfectly actually, as we needed extra hours to make a bus-boat connection to the beautiful island of San Antonio, which turned out to be one of the most peaceful stops...

posted by Rob and Anna @ 12:00 AM