88 days of farmwork finally completed

After more than 11 months in Australia, weeks of work on construction sites and farms, I finally completed my 88 days for the Second Year Visa.
Since my visa was about to expire anyway, I had enough money saved up and I didn’t has any big plans for three weeks in Australia, I decided to continue my travels in South East Asia until uni starts in October. My first stop: Moalboal on the Philippines. I’ve been dreaming of going to the Phillipines for a few years. So it was immediately clear to me that this would be my first stop in Asia.

Since I had heard that Manila, the capital city, shouldn’t really be that interesting, I booked my flight from Sydney direct to Cebu. After an 18 hour journey I arrived in Cebu at noon.
After passport control, I met three backpackers at the taxi stand, one of whom was also on the way to the same hostel as me. So we decided to take a taxi together.

Welcome to Cebu

When we arrived at the hostel, we first brought our things to the room. Then we went out into the street and looked at the neighborhood of the locals around our hostel.
The locals are absolutely nice and helpful. The children playing in the street always waved at us and we were greeted warmly by everyone.

In the evening we had dinner on the terrace of our hostel with a few other backpackers. Since I hadn’t slept the night before, I went to bed pretty early.

The next morning we packed our things and I had breakfast with Sabrina in a café in front of our hostel. Immediately afterwards we called a taxi and drove to the bus stop in Cebu. From there we took the bus to Moalboal.

It wasn’t far to Moalboal, but the bus ride ended up taking 4 hours. Sabrina and I took a tricycle from the bus stop, which brought us to the hostel. The only way to get around on Moalboal is either by scooter or trycycle.

Sunset at the Beach

We briefly checked into our hostel in Moalboal and then took the tricycle directly to White Beach. There we met up with a couple of guys we had already met in the hostel in Cebu.
At the beach we were in the water, walked a bit along the beach and finally watched the sunset over the sea.

The view of the sunset was really nice, even though it was cloudy. Above the island, however, the sky began to darken and we could already hear the thunder of the thunderstorm. So we took the tricycle back to the hostel. Luckily the storm passed us.

In the evening I went to dinner with Sabrina in a restaurant next to our hostel. After dinner we met the guys in town.
Since it was the city’s birthday, there was a lot going on there and the city centern of Moalboal was full of people.

We actually wanted to see a beauty pageant, but it was so crowded that we couldn’t get a view of the stage.
So we moved on and ended up getting stuck at a small street party. We were there for a short time, but then we decided to go back to the hostel.

Canyoneering at the Kawasan Falls

The next morning the boys borrowed scooters and picked Sabrina and me up at the hostel with them.
It was the first time I rode a scooter. Even if I was just sitting on the back, I still had a lot of respect at the beginning. After all, you hear so many horror stories about scooter accidents in Asia. However, everything went well and at the end of the day I was able to enjoy the ride.

We drove to the Kawasan Falls and ended up booking a canyoneering tour there. The only way to see the falls is to book a tour.

We all got a life jacket, a helmet and shoes and then our tour guides took us to the waterfalls with the scooter. Fortunately, the five of us had a tour guide to ourselves and didn’t have numerous other people with us.

First we had to take a small forest path of about 20 minutes down to the water running. When we finally got to the water, we were able to jump right in.
For more than four hours, we repeatedly swam through the water, jumped off cliffs and walked along forest trails. It was a lot of fun and the scenery was super impressive.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of tourists there at the same time, so it was very crowded. After all, we only had a short time for a photo at the end of the waterfall and then we went back again.
The adventure was a lot of fun and if you want to see more than just the waterfall, the canyoneering is definitely worth it.
Unfortunately, there is no time for a lot of photos and just to take in the view, which I personally think is a bit of a shame.

At the end of the tour we got lunch. A typical Asian meal, which tasted really delicious. After we sat outside and talked a bit about the trip, we drove back to Moalboal.

Bitten by a jellyfish

In Moalboal we went straight to the beach to see the sardine run. With the diving goggles and snorkels we went straight into the water and went in search of the sardines.
I could see a few sardines, but I kept getting water in my glasses the whole time. While holding on to a boat to put my goggles on properly, I was also grazed by a jelly fish. Of course, my skin immediately started itching and burning.
I then got out of the water and went to see the snorkel rental people. They then immediately gave me an ointment.

It burned a lot for the first two hours. In the evening I didn’t feel anything anymore and you couldn’t see anything of the bite anymore.
After snorkeling we sat down on the beach and watched the sunset.

After dinner at the hostel, I went to a bar with Sabrina and one of the guys. But we didn’t stay there much longer.

Call it a wasted day in Moalboal

The next morning I slept a little longer than the days before. First I went to have breakfast with Sabrina. We then tried to plan our day there. The day before we had planned to hike up Osmena Peak with the boys in the evening. But the boys didn’t want to do it anymore.

We had several ideas of what we could do. But since we both didn’t trust ourselves to ride scooters, we looked for other ways to get to the respective places.
In the end I didn’t do anything that day. None of the people I had met were really determined or motivated. If I had known that the day before, I could have made my own plans. I wasted a whole day doing nothing in Moalboal this way.

Days like these always remind me that traveling alone is a lot easier. You don’t have to follow other people’s plans with your plans and you can do everything as it suits you.
During the day I could at least make plans for the next day.

In the afternoon I walked around Moalboal a bit. Later, in my hostel room, I met two guys that I went to dinner with in the evening.
I then went to bed around 10, because the next morning I wanted to leave my hostel with two girls at 3 am to go to Osmena Peak to see the sunrise there.

Hiking up the Osmena Peak

The boys also spontaneously decided to come along. Even though they didn’t go to bed until 2 am, they still managed to drive off with us at 3 am.

We took a taxi to Osmena Peak. It was quite a long way to get there and the road was very bumpy but that’s how it is almost everywhere here in the Philippines. As soon as we arrived at Osmena Peak we could already see that the sun was slowly rising.
Together with a tour guide, without whom we were unfortunately not allowed to hike up the peak, we started the walk.

The way is not long, you have to walk at most 15-20 minutes. But the path was very rocky and slippery, so we had to be careful not to fall.
Once at the top we could see a bit of the view. But only a few minutes later, fog passed us, so everything was gray and we couldn’t see anything.

Sunrise at the top

A bit disappointed, we then made fun of the fact that we got up at 3 am especially for this „sunrise“. Our tour guide told us that it usually clears around 9 am. Since it was not even six o’clock, we were of course very happy that we now had to wait a few hours.

However, we were lucky and less than 5 minutes later, the fog slowly passed. Although we couldn’t see the sunrise because there were still some clouds there, the view over the landscape in the golden light was still incredible.
We were up there for two hours and enjoyed the view. In the meantime the boys drove back to the hostel because they were just too tired

Heading over to Casino Peak

Together with the two girls I drove on to Casino Peak. This is another hiking trail just 5 minutes from Osmena Peak.
In the meantime it was already eight o’clock and slowly it was getting quite warm. Therefore, the climb up to the summit was a lot more strenuous.
The way was also quite adventurous. Just towards the end we had to climb through the rocks.

But the ascent, which didn’t take longer than 15 minutes, was worth it. The view of nature was similar to Osmena Peak, but still a little different.
We were very fortunate that we were the only ones at the time. So we had the viewpoint all to ourselves.

After a while we hiked back down. The descent down the cliffs was of course a lot more difficult.
When we arrived at the bottom, we drove to our next stop, a small waterfall. The drive there took a while again, but we had a great view of nature.

A disappointing waterfall

Arrived at the parking lot of the waterfall, we first had to walk a distance of about 10-15 minutes to get to the waterfall.
There we were guided by two local kids who lived there with their parents. The path to the waterfall was quite a long way and it always went over stones and through plants. The last meters to the waterfall we had to climb again.
Compared to the falls I’ve already seen on my trip, this one really wasn’t spectacular. It wasn’t a real waterfall either, but more of a natural pool in which you could swim.

Accordingly, we did not stay there for long. There was another smaller waterfall nearby, but since it was supposed to be similar to the first waterfall, we didn’t think it was necessary to stop there.

So we made our way back to Moalboal around 11 am in the morning. By now we were pretty exhausted and tired.

When I got to the hostel, I just put my stuff down and went straight to breakfast. The day before I saw a café on the beach that offered delicious looking smoothie bowls. I went to this café and also ordered a smoothie bowl.

Snorkeling in the reef

After „breakfast“ at 1 o’clock in the afternoon I went to the beach. I took my snorkeling equipment with me and went in search of a turtle. But once again I was unlucky.

I then spent the afternoon fairly quietly and started to edit my pictures from the morning.

The next morning I got up early again because I wanted to see the sardine run before I made my way back to Cebu.
At first I didn’t see any sardines, although these should be particularly visible in the early morning.

But after a few minutes, suddenly, out of nowhere, a whole swarm of sardines passed me. I absolutely loved it. In total, I was able to see three schools of sardines in a short time.

I actually wanted to stay in the water a little longer, but since my ferry to Bohol left Cebu at 1 pm and I still had to travel 4 hours by bus to Cebu, I had to go back.

If you would like to know how my trip to Bohol was, check out my next post Driving a scooter for the first time on Bohol – Philippines Travel Diary.