Pearl of the Orient 2025

Foreword

Again a new layer of snow started to slowly fall from the sky and cover the frozen soil and slippery roads. It is winter in Estonia. My partner Eunice has difficulties coping with the cold days and more often icy rainy winters. Especially hard to accept the endless clothing to step into the fight with winter. She finds wearing the multiple layers of clothes extra exhausting. I hope she will get used to the cold and Estonian 4 seasons. Of course she is not happy that I'm about to travel to the Philippines without her. She just can't join because she is working in the school and she can't have another vacation. Actually we travelled to the Philippines in October 2024. That was a two week journey with my daughter Mirjam and for her it was the first time visiting this tropical place. 

I suppose the upcoming adventure would be my 9th time travelling to the Philippines. Again I will combine working and adventure together. I'm planning to have meetings with my employees and perhaps buy a car for the Cebu office. Second part of my journey I would have a fam trip with my friend Madis. He is the founder of Trip Animals company and we are planning the preliminary two week trip in Luzon, Cebu and Bohol islands. 

What am I looking forward to this time? Well, I think it would be great to see previously seen places changing and discover new things, but also to see my friends and fellows. Also I need to admit I would like to get some warmth, burning sunshine, tropical fruits and exceptional food.

Diary

Th01/23/2025 Estonia

This is it, the last morning in Tallinn. It was a rather slow phase morning and the room was nicely cooled down during the night. Actually we have moved recently from Koidu to Telliskivi street, again into an over 100 years old wooden building and into a tiny 20 square metre studio. This time we have a fireplace that we exploit to heat up the room. But as this building is not renovated and the walls and windows are kind of leaking the warmth, we need to keep on fighting to keep it nice and decent in terms of temperature. The electrical radiator would be an option if there is no time to hassle with firewoods and fireplace. I prepared breakfast and served coffee like I’m used to. It turned out that my daughter Mirjam had walked back home from school halfway due to the sickness, but she promised to be ready to send me off at the airport. Eunice worked a bit and took a shower. I walked to a nearby grocery and bought cabbage, a big chunk of meat and rice so that she could cook lunch. Meanwhile I was preparing the firewood in our storage room, splitting these old dusty stocked wood with my brand new axe and piling them up near the fireplace. It would not be enough for a month, but at least for a week or two. As she is pregnant I can’t ask her to hassle too much with it and most probably I need to order more prepared wood soon with the delivery to the door. At 1PM she walked to Tallinn European School to give a few classes. It is a short walk, just a few blocks away from our house. Later I packed my last items, had a nice glass of dark Czech beer and did the last preparations for the upcoming trip. 

At 4PM I ordered a taxi and first we picked up Mirjam from Tondi. She walked towards the taxi with long blond hair flying in the air and sat in the front passenger seat of a fancy black Lexus. At 4:30PM we arrived at the airport despite the minor rush hour traffic jams. The girls diverted to the café and I was able to complete the check-in 10 minutes without a queue. Again I was lucky to talk out the emergency seats in both flights. My recipe is actually simple - be very polite, notice people helping me and ask favours. In this particular case Turkish Airline needs fit men for emergency seats to help the flight crew to evacuate passengers in the case of need. Soon I joined the girls and ordered Coke, pancakes and a coffee. Later it turned out Eunice asked for a cappuccino and not coke. 

At 5PM we kissed and hugged and they took a taxi back home. For the teenager the kisses and hugs with dad are always extra awkward. But I added that we never know when the last huge one is, it is not in our hands. Next I walked through the security check and sat in the pub. As it is my drinking year, I ordered a special brewed red ale Aviator by Saku which is only sold in Tallinn airport. Somehow I have my doubts about the uniqueness of it and I suppose it is Saku's red beer called Manchester. Well, it tasted good and was a good companion for writing a diary. 

At 8PM I walked a bit further through the passport check and into the gate. The famous Boeing 737-800 Max was fully packed and we took off from Tallinn airport at 7:15PM. My chat partner was seated at the seats of an Estonian lady, Tiina who was also on the way to Cebu. She was happy to talk about the adventures in Asia and she admitted she is hooked by Asia. Also it turned out that she is leading a small group for a 40 days trip in the islands of Philippines. At 8PM the lovely Turkish Airline flight crew served food and beverages. The flight time flew quicker because we had found more topics to cover with Tiina. I suppose it is a mutual benefit to reduce the time in a sense. 

At 11:30PM we landed in Istanbul. Luckily we managed to get directly to the shopping area and we didn't need to walk a long loop. There was a free airport internet available for an hour. For getting this internet I needed to slide my passport in the kiosk and get the code in return. My seat neighbour Tiina gathered her group and we landed in the café. First matter was to solve the eGovPH Philippines immigration form, but the app was crashing and it was hard to complete the form. Eunice completed my form on my behalf the same day.

Fr01/24 In the air

As the older group members kept hassling with the app, I ordered a croissant and tea, which was a whopping 495TRL ~ 13€. Basically this airport seemed to artificially lift the prizes even higher than in Frankfurt or Oslo. They asked me to share some details about the islands where they are planning to travel and as I have been in these places, I hoped I gave them helpful hints. At 3AM I made a quick toilet break and refreshed myself. Soon we walked to the announced gate and waited and talked some more. 

At 5:30AM we took off from Turkey. The Airbus A350-900 was almost full and to my great surprise all around me there was a group of infants. Surely at the take off they will start screaming. Luckily I had a noise canceling headset, although I was disappointed that as the aircraft engine noise was muted, the crying of infants was not cancelled at all. Actually I promised one day when and if I travel with an infant I will wear a T-shirt with the message: “It is my payback time for 25 years of air travel.” Later it turned out these babies cried only a couple of times when the air pressure changed in the process of taking off and landing. Soon stewardesses served breakfast. 

As we flew towards east after some time the first signs of orange light started to emerge from the dark sky - good morning! During the flight I tried to sleep and I guess I managed in short patches. At 7PM I ate dinner or lunch, hard to tell because of the mess of time zones and flying. At 9PM we landed in Makati airport in Manila. Most of the passengers actually departed for Manila. While waiting for refuelling I asked for another milk tea. At 10:45PM we continued our long journey with the last 50 minutes leg to Cebu. Just shy of midnight we landed in Mactan airport. The long flying is over. Tiina and other Estonians in her group thanked me and I wished them a nice two month adventure in the Philippines. Essentially these Estonian pensioners escaped the winter and warmed their bones in the tropics.

Sa01/25 Cebu

The immigration was easy and quick and soon I walked to the baggage belts. My bag was just lifted off the belt. Actually everything went smoothly. Even after ignoring all the taxi brokers and black and yellow taxi offers I walked to the white taxi stop. 600PHP ~ €10 was just about right and regular night price. My Grab account was not active and I need to hassle with it a bit later. Otherwise the Grab would be my first option. It was kind of surprising to see that The Mactan and Cebu City streets were very vibrant at midnight. But it was late Friday night after all. At 12:35AM I reached home. The guard remembered me, let me into the yard and added you have been away for awhile. Quickly had a shower, packed the majority of my luggage and had a video call with Eunice. She is already missing me and was enjoying the warm room after she lit the fire into the fireplace. Soon I went to bed.

I woke up finally at 6:30AM, had a shower and made coffee. As my supplies are all mostly low, and the fridge is empty, I took the leftovers of the coffee from my Estonian home so that I survive and do not need to rush to the grocery. Basically I have flown the entire Friday and therefore I needed to catch up with work and messages. 

At 9AM Warren arrived and first we discussed the process of buying the car and the options on the table. Eunice had prepared gifts for Warren’s family. Eunice’s friend Julie is the wife of Warren and also godmother of their daughter. Soon he ordered Maxime habal-habal aka motorbike taxi for me, because his bike is too tiny for both of us and I jumped onto a tiny scooter and rode to the Capitol area. The motorbike was agile and I needed to check all the time that I would not hit my knees passing car mirrors or other motorbikes. Basically I was squatting at the back end of the scooter, legs spread because I needed to fit there somehow and as a result of it my knees were the furthest points in terms of width. The driver was a bit nervous and serious, because I’m a big man and the balance of the scooter was way off because of it. We drove uphill towards the Apple One tower and entered a nice neighbourhood.

The sun was burning and I wisely was wearing the long sleeve sweater. We arrived at the mall and the cost was 70PHP ~ €1. First I walked to Bo's café, which is famous for old Americano men sitting alone and checking for passing local pinays. It is worth observing. My stomach was empty and the only meaningful thing to eat was a bagel with ham and cheese. Additionally I ordered a large coffee. I wrote a letter regarding the Taizé Tallinn event and wrote a diary. One old man from the US sat right next to me and started to talk about the cost of dealing with climate change and how wrongly it has been calculated. Well, that was the weirdest entry by far and usually you should enter with a line about weather or something. Of course I couldn’t win the argument, but we both agreed that the coastal communities are the most vulnerable to the shift for worse in natural disasters like hurricanes and severe storms. He agreed, because he had lived in Florida and now similarly on the coastline in the Philippines. 

Next I walked to the grocery called Metro and bought items for upcoming days. It was a small shopping trip and soon I walked back home with the little loop to the nearby massage parlour. My therapist Ruby was at the counter and we were able to set the time for 2PM. Quickly I walked back home across the street. Cherry was in the office and we had a little chat and made a plan to have a late lunch after my massage. Now I needed to shower super fast and walk back to the massage place. It was good to put the joints and muscles back into their rightful places after a long flight and my cost was 400PHP ~ €6.5 and as a long term loyal customer I gave 100 peso as a tip.

Soon after I walked back to the office we turned around and walked to the main street and catched the local public transport called jeepney. For a tall man it is always a hassle to crawl into this little vehicle, but once I’m sitting firmly, it is actually just fine and a rather fun experience. It is also very cheap ~ our ride was short, but the entrance fee for 2 persons was 25 pesos ~nothing in euros. We jumped off in front of Bonifacio district and walked to the second floor Korean restaurant Kaya. The menu was overwhelming and I asked Eunice via phone to recommend what I should try and order. Eunice was envious and a bit upset about me eating good Korean food. 

Eventually Cherry ordered pork bellies for BBQ and I went for the rice bowl with many vegetables and raw beef mincemeat and egg on top of it. The BBQ came with 5-8 smaller dishes as a combo package and pork was laid on the grill in front of us on a hot charcoal in the middle of the table. It is like Japanese Yakiniku, but just a Korean version of BBQ on the spot. We chatted about the new OJT or trainee program and we decided to have 8 young students in Cebu and 5 in Bohol to train. It is a part of being a partner for local universities and our goal is to hand pick the brightest talent for Blendit. We are looking for quick and curious learners that would want to be part of the team. 

Also we were talking about burning out some of our team members and what we should do to help. I suggested perhaps we should send him to Vietnam or Cambodia for a 10 day backpack trip and give him a book called Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, because I have seen what burning out is doing and we really need to avoid that at all costs. And why Vietnam or Cambodia? Well, there are not too many countries where Filipinos could enter without a visa and there are relatively cheap flights to these locations too. Cherry has been my employee again after she quitted few years ago and she is a massive help to raise the overall level of our developers. She recently conducted the validation of the entire team and under her leadership we have knowledge sharing days once a month again for the entire team. Also she has a gut feeling about people, which I started to trust more and more and I would not hire anybody without her approval. 

Food was finger licking good. In the combo I enjoyed the steamed egg, kimchi and actually also a weird mash potato ball with vegetables. Kimchi soup really reminded me of the Filipino sour soup called sinigang. Our bill was only 950PHP ~ €15. This is one of the reasons why I like Cebu City and perhaps also Mactan, where I have not been that often, the local Koreans and Japanese are kind of forcing the level to be high and very affordable. That is Eunice’s contribution to expand my view of Asian cuisines and start to understand more about these cultures through food. The sun was dropping and the heat was lessening and it was just nice to walk back to the area of our office. She walked home and I went to my home, which is on the second floor in our office. Later I had a call with Eunice and dropped to bed at 7:30PM. But to my great surprise I woke up again at 10:30PM. What a mess with sleeping patterns. Eventually I managed to go to sleep again.

Su01/26 Cebu

It was 5:30AM when my sleep was all gone and I heard the rooster start singing in the distance. Yes, the roosters are also in the city. Basically, you can see roosters everywhere tied into a post or attached to a small shelter with a tiny rope. Usually these are all fighting roosters and owners will sacrifice these birds in cockpits. It is a matter that is hard to explain to a foreigner, but I have taken time to dig deeper and investigated that matter deeply in 2018. It would be just too simple to say it is bad or not humane or as they are birds, “birdane”. It is a phenomenon and legacy of the Spanish era and mostly men are still finding thrill in it. Many families are ruined and devastated by gambling on these roosters and few have gained fortunes. I have seen both cases. It is just part of life and it is what it is. 

I took a shower and prepared coffee and breakfast. It is kind of odd to prepare breakfast for myself only. I was listening to podcasts and enjoyed beacon, eggs and mushrooms. Later I wrote a diary and worked. It was cloudy and there has been rain during the night. To my great surprise I discovered a pomelo tree with 2 big green balls hanging. Somehow I have failed to see this tree in our yard. At 10:30AM I had enough and decided to just walk around the block and landed in Antonio’s café. First I ordered coffee and read Mathew McConaughey's book. At one point I had a video call with Eunice who had difficulties sleeping. At noon I walked back with a loop to see the subdivision called Kasambagan. Later I had a video call with Eunice and Mirjam, had a nap and went to massage at 3PM. Actually there was very little to do and therefore I took advantage of the affordable massage and I guess I was bored too. This time I asked Ruby to massage mostly my back. 

After that I walked to a bar nearby called Turning Wheel. First I ordered a stout and later a red ale. This is one of my favourite tap bars where they sell only craft beer. Later I started to chat with local Americanos John, Greg, Bruno, Cody and Mikel who were all part of the association of VCBA aka Visayan Craft Beer Association. All of them have been living in the Philippines or in Asia most of their lives. John is from Dalaguete and he has brought some new home brewed beer to this bar. It turned out that I stayed at his German neighbour's accommodation with Eunice in 2022. Cody seemed to be the leader of this association. The Croatian guy called Bruno gave us a taste of his strong, very hoppy IPA, but the professionals turned him down by saying it seems the east was old and the beer has been semi-kicked off.

Well, I learned a lot that night about what makes a good beer. Spaniard Mikel, who was born in the Philippines, is a chef and he has a joint right next to the tab bar and he is also obsessed with craft beers. Soon most of the men went to the hotel nearby because their wives called them back. Cody and Bruno stayed longer and we talked until midnight. Cody is in the shipping business and Bruno is in the online casino business. Both of them had crazy stories about travelling in Asia. Cody can’t ever return to China, because he has even spent a year in prison there and Bruno has been sent back from the Philippines immigration during the Covid era. Wild stories by guys who are not street criminal type of guys, just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This night I tried about 10 different beers and it was a fun night. Bruno rode away by exactly the same motorbike that I have in India - Royal Enfield Himalayan. I thanked them and walked back home. Eunice was a bit upset that I didn’t mention my plans to go to the bar, but we managed to fix the turbulence of emotion and I promised for the sake of her peace of mind to heads-up next time. Also I had a quick shower and at 1AM I went to sleep. It seems my jet lag is over and I’m starting to sleep properly with the regular pattern.

Mo01/27 Cebu

Finally I woke at 8AM and it seems I have recovered from jet lag. First I had a shower and prepared breakfast. Soon I started to work and one by one the Cebu team members started to arrive at the office. First we had discussions with Cherry about the evaluation of the developers and their new hourly rates. Later I had more meetings with employees and team leaders. At noon Eunice's friends Rhea and Julie arrived at my office and we went to a very humble eatery where we ordered fried fish, stuffed grabs, stewed vegetables, beans, pancit noodles, a pile of rice and a soft drink. The girls paid for me too and all together it was only 345PHP ~ €5.5.

Afternoon I had calls with Mirjam and Eunice. Later I worked some more until the end of the day. At 7PM all the team went home, I fried eggs and ate, but soon I realised the fridge is too empty to survive 2-3 days. I desperately need to go to the shop. Just on the way out I had a call with Eunice and I walked to Ayala mall’s grocery store. This time I bought more eggs, pork’s belly, mushrooms, fruits and other needed items. All together my shopping was just over 1000PHP ~ €16. As I walked back home I saw quite many people running on the pedestrian roads around the Business Park streets. The pedestrian roads are not very common and very often they are hectic, dark and often with obstacles like electricity poles or big trees. Back home I ate a mango and a papaya. At 10PM I went to bed.

At noon I drove to Banilad road to my favourite fruit stand and bought 900PHP ~ €13 worth of tropical sweet fruits. It is the season for jackfruit. So, I bought jackfruit and I asked them to unwrap the edible parts from the huge hairy fruit. Additionally I bought more mangoes and papayas. On the way back I refuelled and made it slowly through the traffic jams back to the office. The Cebu team had a short meeting and I offered them jackfruit too. Soon I had more talks with Cherry and Lyneth and had video calls with Eunice and Mirjam. At 2PM I went to get a massage for the last time in January. At 4PM I had a video call with my business partner Tõnis and about Blendit things in general and some of his development ideas.

After that I drove into the queue of cars on the main road and made my way to the south-side of the city. Actually my destination was not far from an adult entertainment centre called Mango street, but in order to reach Eunice brother’s home I needed to take small roads which were twisting around the block and were very narrow. Eunice's mother and brother’s mother in law were waiting for me and they led me to the nearby church parking lot. We walked into the labyrinth of narrow passages and closely built compounds of small houses. Well, I felt like Santa Claus. The kids were waiting for gifts. Badae, 3 years old Eunice 's brother's daughter, who had birthday just recently, got a make-up kit with colours, a mirror and lipstick. She was very happy and started to colour her face immediately. Other kids got a chocolate medallion with golden foil wrapping and number 1 printed on it. Brother was working and the brother’s wife was also going to work and the kids were left for both grandmothers.

There was also a neighbour’s 5 year old girl who was very curious about me, perhaps she has never seen with her own eyes an americano that close. Eunice has prepared chocolates for the entire Into/Librada gang in Carmen. Badai became a big friend to me and played with me. She even applied colours into my forehead and eyes. Elder boy Shaun showed his collection of ancient creators.  I was sitting on the floor to make myself smaller so the kids would not be afraid of the giant. Juju aka the youngest son was more reserved and shy and not willing to hang out with me too much, rather checking me from afar or from the lap of Eunice mother Elvira. The kids also took my hand and reached it to their forehead to receive my blessing. This is a nice honourable tradition here in the Philippines and somewhere else in the Catholic and Muslim countries. The kids were so excited that it was almost impossible to talk to Elvira, kids were just playing and talking at all times. Actually she was also a bit tired of hassling with kids and she will go back to her home in Carmen next day. After one hour of playing time it was time to drive back and I hugged Elvira and cuddled the kids and drove back to the traffic jams.

It was already dark, but Mango street was not fired up just yet. Near the Ayala mall I was sitting in the traffic jam for 10 minutes and reached home at 7PM. The team had already gone home, but soon Cherry and Lyneth returned to office. They were eating out and now we had matcha tea and chatted some more. Soon they went home and I cooked pork and eggplant and ate fruits. Later I had another call with Eunice. At midnight I went to sleep.

At 5:45PM we drove to the nearby Time Square mall in Mandaue City. Basically, Cebu and Mandaue cities are grown together along with many other suburban settlements called Metro Cebu with a population 1.5-2 million people. Most of the team shared a Grab taxi, but 4 people jumped to my car too. The ride was only 10 minutes and I knew roughly the direction to this part of the city. Our team dinner place was this time Red House Shabu Shabu, which is basically Taiwanese co-cooking a soup in the middle of the table.

Entire team was together, including accountant Janine and me. There were 10 people. First we ordered two giant combo plates for two pots and more mushrooms, pork, dumplings, rice and beverages. The logic is that people around the table would put the ingredients to the broth in the pot. Then you need to scoop out the boiled soup into your bowl. Additionally you can add spices, garlic and onions from another counter. It was fun to cook together and have them exploring something new and different. Only Ruben has eaten shabu shabu soup before.

My stomach was packed with healthy food. At 8PM we drove back to the office and again I had passengers. This time Cherry, Lyneth and Chester who are living near the office. Later I had a call with Eunice, took a shower and at 9PM went to bed.

Th01/30 Cebu

Amazingly I woke up at 10:30AM, my sleeping patterns are all over the place. Again I was awake in the middle of the night for 2 hours. But I felt energised and slept well. The team was already working downstairs. Soon I had a shower and a breakfast, consuming the last mushrooms and mangoes. Of course these were consumed not together, but one after another. Also I prepared a pomelo for my upcoming trip. At 12:30 I had last talks with Lyneth and Cherry and ordered a Grab taxi. On the way to the port I tried to have a short video call with Eunice, but the internet in the port area is very unstable and choppy. My ride was 180PHP ~ €3. In the terminal it was quick and easy for me, because I have done these little steps tens of times over 7 years. The terminal was packed with tourists out bounding to Bohol, Leyte and Negros islands nearby. There was a delay and I ate my pomelo, but it was a bit of disappointment - it was a bit too dry, a sponge-like pomelo this time. Again, no complaints, next time I would ask the seller to cut the fruit in half to investigate the matter of freshness. Soon the boat arrived, we onboarded in the form of a queue and started the crossing of the Cebu straights at 2:30PM.

Soon I made a deal with the tuk-tuk driver to drive me home. Well, first he asked 200PHP, but I said I lived here, no americano price and we agreed with 100PHP ~ €1.5. But he needed to take two other passengers along with me and drop them downtown. Fair. From a fellow passenger I learnt that Grab service has recently expanded to Bohol. For me it is good news to get the taxi without the taxi mafia keeping the rides expensive and unnecessary walking to the major road to catch the taxi. At 4:45PM I arrived at the front of Blendit's office building. A helping neighbour let me in and I walked to the top floor. Jessa and the developers were in the office. Soon I was able to move into my flat, which is one of the three flats and which are connected with a large balcony. As I was unpacking my stuff I handed over candies to the crew and put my clothes in the cabinets and drawers. Actually there were more clothes and sports gear stored in one of the cabinets on the office side. So, now I'm fully equipped to play tennis, badminton and free dive. Also I resumed the video call with Eunice who had caught a cold.

At sunset I walked with developer Russel along the road and got my rental motorbike. Russel is living nearby and he enjoys the walks, especially at the sunsets. The Danish motorbike guy Per was not home and step daughter gave me the keys and helmets instead. She recently had a bad crash with a dog while riding her bike. She even stayed in a coma in the hospital. Again, reminding the dangers of riding a bike and having no protective gear. Soon I drove a bit further to the market to buy pork, eggs, eggplant, garlic and green onion. Additionally I bought a pack of milk and BBQ-ed chicken breast. Later I enjoyed the chicken on our balcony and drew the bones to the edge of the road for street dogs. Until late in the evening I worked, wrote a diary and prepared my sports gear. At 9PM I took a shower and went to bed.

Fr01/31 Bohol

Well, I woke up at 1:30AM and never returned to bed. Somehow I have issues with sleeping. After some hassle in the bed, I decided to prepare breakfast and called Eunice. To my great surprise Mirjam was studying for an English test with Eunice. Before studying they went to shop at A1000 grocery store across the street and prepared dinner together. Perhaps I have had too little faith in Mirjam's ability to study. After the call I worked a bit and just surfed on social media.

At 7AM I drove back home and had a shower. The sleeplessness was catching up with me and I had a nap until 11:30AM. Then I worked a bit and rode with Jessa to Tamper café in downtown. We discussed the alternative office options, one burned out employee and how to help him and some changes in our own software. We both ordered rice-based local dishes called Tocilog and Chosilog and coffee. The bill was 641PHP ~ €10. After the café I dropped her off into the plaza and continued to the harbour area to find a massage. In the end I chose Masaje de Bohol and my therapist was Michelle. Again I have been here many times in previous years. The cost was 450PHP ~ €7. The sun was burning and I drove back to the office. Later I worked in the cooled room with the Bohol team and got an overview of many projects.

At 6PM I enjoyed the sunset and soon the crew went home. When it was dark outside I sat on my couch and the a bit colder breeze came in from the ocean. I wrote a diary, worked, made some video calls and drove to Panglao island, just on the other side of the bridge to Tony’s place called Food Hunter.

At 8PM I thanked the hosts and drove back home, where I had a video call with Eunice who was about to go to the school. Also I was writing a diary and had another work related call. At 10PM I watched Estonian news, had a shower and went to sleep.

Sa02/01 Bohol

Again I had early morning waking, this time at 3AM and soon after I prepared breakfast and coffee. At 5:30AM it was still dark, but I started to see the first beams of sunlight in the sky. When I reached the plaza, I took out cash 10,000PHP~€180 and ordered my second breakfast from the booth connected to the tennis club building. Soon our game started and again it ended as a tie at 7:7. Although we had 3 match points, we were not able to convert these against strong players. After the game I paid 100PHP ~ €1.5 for both yesterday's and today's game and additionally 100 pesos for breakfast. It was cloudy and not that hot.

At 4PM after some hassle and asking directions I found the tennis court in Alburquerque, just behind the public market. There were already gathered plenty of players from my club, the Bohol Capitol Heritage Club. As I had already paid the fee, it was time to warm up and wait. Actually because there was a single court and there were about 50 players, it would take forever to play all games. But local club people were very welcoming and prepared and well stocked with Tanduay rum, coconut wine, home brewed tuba and strong Red Horse beers. So, they didn’t bother and many would not even reach the stage of playing and would be too tipsy for playing tennis.

After the game I took off my shoes and wore flip-flops and bought a bottle of San Miguel Pilsen from a nearby market building. Some people came to see the event, eat good food later on and chat with other tennis enthusiasts. 87 years old Sid from Dauiz Panglao was one of them who slowly walked there using a support stick. We started to talk and it turned out this guy is a Forest Gump of the Philippines. He was born in 1937 and he has seen many historical events and been in places where only few could ever do. He was playing in the tennis club at the plaza in Tagbilaran, where I played tennis every morning, already as a kid in 1946. Usually it was not allowed for Filipinos to play such a gentleman's sport and was limited only for the colonists, but somehow in Bohol and perhaps somewhere else in the Philippines, it happened that local kids were welcomed to play and not only used as ball boys. 

Actually the first well known Filipino tennis player was Felicisimo Ampon, who had some success in Wimbledon and in Roland Garros in 1940s and 1950s. He also said he got lucky and was in the Catholic school and under German priest learnt many languages and was continuing studying in Chicago in the 1950s. Sid saw Martin Luther King’s speech and how severe the discrimination was in the US. He told a story that he was not allowed to go to the nice restaurant, because he was told that he is an immigrant and he has not been born in the US. Sid pointed to a guy, who was something McGuire, and he was eating there. He even asked where he is from and of course it was Ireland and he was too not born in the US. Sid found that very unfair. But back then discrimination and unjust was a norm. Later he divorced from his American wife and moved back to Bohol and got a teaching job in a local Holy Name University. His subjects were English language and literature. 

One of his students later, after tens of years later, became his girlfriend. Basically they met in Pillar in the eatery which was run by Gemma and by then she already had 3 kids and husband ran away and rushed long days to survive. A typical story in the Philippines, not very rare at all unfortunately. Sid just proposed that they should move together and support each-other. He also said that many US elderly men are running away from the US to the Philippines, because it is not allowed for pensioners to live alone or with grandchildren by the US regulations. He has 12 grandchildren and his kids are also pensioners already. Gemma came a bit later to cheer for the Tagbilaran team and eat together. Sid has visited his son in Alaska and he is taking a cruise with his son’s family to the north pole. What a guy and what a story.

After a few games there was a break and we ate seafood focused Filipino food. The noodle dish pancit was with squid balls and there was a nice choice of BBQ-d fish. At 8:30PM I thanked the organisers and our team and rode back home. Later I had a video call with Eunice who had a slow domestic day at home. Soon I took a shower and went to sleep at 10PM.

Su02/02 Bohol

My morning started again at 3AM and I guess the issue is the room's temperature. The initial coolness disappeared, leaked out or actually the hotter air got in instead, and it stopped my sleep. I'm switching off the AC, because the window-type machines are very noisy. There was no point in waiting for the condition to change and I started to prepare breakfast. Additionally I ate a juicy mango. Before going to play tennis I managed to write a diary. At the plaza the first tennis match was ongoing and I ordered my second breakfast and waited for more players to arrive for Sunday morning tennis games. But eventually I played singles against the ball boy Lyto who was there anyway. Well, he wore flip-flops and despite that I needed to push him hard and not make too many mistakes on winners. Finally I won 8:6 and paid 100 pesos as a game fee and about the same amount to the eatery at the club's gate. 

Later I had coffee back home and at 9:30AM I drove to a nearby massage. Well, it really looked like a rugged place, but it was just an old classical wooden building that has lost its charm. My therapist Sally was an older woman, actually god damn it, she is approximately my age, but considered old here for ladies I guess, and she applied a lot of force to my calves. At some points it was even hurtful. Later I sunbathed on the balcony, had another coffee and had a call with Eunice. It was mostly sunny, but all of sudden there was heavy rain. Again it was about 10 minutes and after that light traffic resumed. As a motorbiker there is no point pushing through the rain, you would be soaked until your underwear. Instead it would be wise to just find a shelter and wait for 10 minutes. Besides, being late 10 minutes here is not considered a big deal and if you mention there was rain...well, that is commonly understandable as an excuse.

Mo02/03 Bohol

Again my morning started at 3AM, had breakfast and coffee and worked on accounting. A nice fresh and colder ocean breeze came in from the opened balcony door. My sleeping pattern is obviously fucked up and this is not a jet lag anymore after being here nearly 10 days. Anxiety? At least I haven't figured out the reason. Later I watched news from 10,000 miles away from Estonia just to be informed. I was listening to Nitin Sawhney music using the bigger headset. At 5:30AM I rode to the downtown plaza. The first game had just ended and I needed to wait for more players. There was an interesting mix of sounds in the area. At the centre of the plaza there was beat music for early morning zumba and it was mixed with very loud bird’s sounds from the top of the trees. The birds were excited by the sunrise and flying with formations from tree to tree. Also there were church bells and passing tricycles and other vehicles engine sounds in the soundscape. Actually there was a rather annoying loudspeaker in the mix too, which was continuously announcing from the tricycle vendor to stop and buy hot pan de sal aka fresh bakery on wheels. A lady from the eatery brought me an omelet and instant coffee. Soon other players started to arrive. My partner this time was Bob and we won the equal game finally by 8:5. It is really such a privilege to play tennis each morning, I would not be able to afford it in Estonia. 

Later back home I took a shower and worked on issuing invoices. Before noon I worked in the room with Charley and the rest of the devs and Jessa asked me to introduce myself and Blendit for 5 OJT-s. These students are at the end of their journey in the university, only 3 months internship and thesis to complete and defend in July. Actually they are also practising the procession of graduation for many days. They practise walking and wear funny hats as well - all curated. They are taking extra care to make the graduation as perfect as possible. At noon I drove to Tamper café and ordered coffee and chicken tonkatsu. There in a nice café I also made a short call with Mirjam and a longer video call with Eunice. 

At 1:30PM I drove a bit further downtown to massage at Medipoint. My long serving therapist Maria has moved into this parlour and remembered me. In the end it was a 1.5 hour massage, because she needed to fix my calves from hurt from a random therapist on Sunday. After that I rode back home, had a quick shower and had multiple project related meetings in a row. As a result of it January will end up in minus, but we will recover from it in March. Also I completed all sales invoices and sent these to clients. Later I had another call with Eunice. It was time to celebrate with her the received living permit for 5 years in Estonia - that has been a milestone and a major step on the journey to become a citizen. At 6PM employees and OJT-s were going home and I was working a bit more until 7PM when I drove to a nearby market. On the way, actually easily in the walking distance, I drop off the laundry.

This time  I bought loads of fresh tropical fruits. It seems I just can’t have enough of them. With 400PHP ~ €6.5 I got a bigger set of bananas, a papaya, 2 mangoes, half of the yellow watermelon, a cucumber and 2 tomatoes. Next target was the BBG chicken stand where I bought 2 chicken breasts with leg pieces with 140PHP ~ €2. Lastly I bought 2 beers and pancit noodles for the unprecedented hungry moments. Actually I have only a few days remaining in Bohol, but during these days I would like to continue with my fruit diet and eat a lot of eggs. Later I enjoyed the beer, BBQ chicken and watermelon on the balcony. Until 10PM I worked and wrote a diary and then took a shower again and soon went to sleep.

Tu02/04 Bohol

Again I woke up at 3AM and started the day with breakfast and coffee. Later I worked on a profitability analysis of a project. At 5:30AM in the awakening city to the plaza. First game was ongoing and I needed to wait. This time I ordered not the instant coffee which is actually a bit awful, but instead a local hot chocolate called sikwate and of course the omelet and a tiny bread. I was partnered up with Soy and we got hammered 3:8 by the former presidents of the club Bobby and Jonas. 

Later back home I had another coffee, then took a shower and worked on accounting. My friend Bing has been busy, not playing tennis in the mornings and will not come out for a pint either. Finally he revealed his secret - he is getting married soon and the preparations, although they are doing a tiny civil wedding, are occupying his time for upcoming weeks. Of course a tiny wedding in the backdrop of the Filipino weddings could still mean 30-50 guests. At 8:30AM OJT-s arrived along with the first employees.

There many people going to different diving resorts and paying for an instructor and also environment fee etc. The cost can quickly reach several thousands of pesos and it is an industry around here. My agenda was simple - I don't need anybody, I have the gear and I know the spot. Actually the very spot has been a venue for the freediving world championship. Quickly I changed and I was wearing this time the long sleeve swimming shirt for protecting my arms and chest from jellyfish burns. My loop was only a few hundred meters and 30 minutes. As it was low tide, it was easy to walk into the water and the colourful world of corals and fish were immediately very close to, basically at the grasp and I saw the fish close by. The waters on the edge of the deep underwater drop were crowded. Many people were snorkelling and scuba diving so the water was like boiling scuba bubbles from the purple depth of the sea and snorkelers splashing above me. But I was able to somehow navigate myself to a tiny flock of sardines and into deep scars in the rock. These sharp edged cracks were extra vibrant of life with corals living on top of each-other and full with tropical fish. Actually I was happy that I didn’t have any GoPro or underwater cameras and I was just able to observe it hassle free. The sunlight was also nicely brightening up the seafloor and the colours were kind of magnified.

Soon I changed and drove to Tony's place and ordered a big chunk of meat with mashed potatoes. That was very good and I was happy the beef was between raw and medium cooked, it was really delicious. My bill was 960PHP ~ €15. Similar dishes in Europe would be easily double the money. The host family was kind to me and gave me a warm welcoming feeling. Mae was guiding the daughter’s school homework and this girl was saying giraffe, lion and cat in English. Her daughter is going to the first class. Tony’s shirt was covered with flour while he was preparing a pizza. I thanked them both and drove back home. 

At the straight, which divides the islands of Bohol and Panglao, a family had a picnic on a tiny exposed sand strip. They had food there and a small girl was playing with sand with all the buckets and toys. Very cool. It is only possible of course because of the low tide and in a few hours this picnic site would be covered again with water. After eating that big chunk of meat and because of getting up too early, I felt really sleepy. Between calls to Eunice and Mirjam I guess I fell to sleep and had a short power nap. 

Later I had calls with clients and at 4PM Jessa asked everybody to join to eat ice cream in the kitchen. One ice cream contained Oreos, gummy bears and marshmallows. It was also very very sweet, but actually I took even a second portion of it. At 6PM we set off to Panglao to A9 restaurant for a team dinner. I assisted the team member not to go for pasta or even Filipino food, but as this is founded by German, go for schnitzels and sausages and potatoes instead.

They even served draft San Miguel Pilsen beer. Additionally I ordered a platter with cheese, hams and olives. In the opening words I thanked the team for the commitment and I also thanked Jairus for his work. Actually the announcement of his leaving came as a surprise to the team, because he just came back from vacation and he was not telling the news to the team mates. It is always sad when somebody is leaving for whatever reasons. It is obvious that I’m on a mission to educate my employees and expand their food palate. The food was good and delicious. 

Jessa ordered a fish fillet and that was also nice and crispy. It seems they are not using deep frying, but hot air fry instead. In the background there was a lady performing karaoke singing. One topic that we discussed was the need for young people to work as waiters or in general in the service industry, to learn to be patient, coping with pressure and assholes. It seems to be a vital purgatory to transform from a spoiled brat and mamma’s boy into responsible manhood. The owner Lyn came by and thanked us and asked whether we enjoyed the food. It seems they did, because many ordered burgers for take away for their wives. The bill was 5500PHP ~ €91. That is actually cheaper to feed 10 people. 

Later at the counter I chatted with a Russian and a Bulgarian guy who are also playing tennis somewhere close in Panglao. Soon I thanked people in the bar and drove back home. On the way I needed to pay attention to the dogs and cats on the roadside, just needed to avoid colliding with animals, because I didn’t want to find myself laying down on the asphalt. At 9:30PM I went to sleep.

We02/05 Bohol

Finally I was able to sleep until 5AM and I think the suggestion by Eunice to use the timer for AC in order to keep the room cool longer. It seems it was working. First I made coffee and ate a couple of bananas. At 5:45AM I rode to the tennis court. Only a few mornings left of that kind of good sporty life. The first game was ongoing, but the next players were not in sight and therefore I ordered hot chocolate and omelette. And a fresh little bread was also good, just right or little sin for the morning. This time we got an overwhelming win 8:1. The president of the tennis club made a talk of a membership payment and with no further delay I paid 500PHP ~ €8 for being a proud member of this club. Not sure how long this payment lasts, but I guess when I come back in December I might pay for the 2026 year already.

At 2PM I rode to the area of the biggest mall ICM and went to get a massage, but near the plaza it started to rain and just pulled over to Tamper café and ordered garden salad with chicken. There is no point in getting soaked and dirty because of the rain. Actually the rain stopped soon and just shy of 3PM I continued by heart towards the massage place, but the therapist Mitch was not there and she was on sick leave. OK, then I rode to nearby MediPoint and asked for Maria. She was still completing one job and I needed to wait a bit. After massage I drove back home, had a quick wash and joined the project managers weekly meeting. 

Soon everyone went home, I cooked a pancit noodle dish and drank my last beer. I just enjoyed the last night at the balcony in Bohol and made a video call to Eunice. She received the firewood and the guy brought up the wood to the 2nd floor like a gentleman. Eunice needed to use her limited Estonian language to communicate with him. She needs more people who do not speak any English and kind of being forced to speak Estonian to them. Soon she went to work in the school. Later I was working some more and went to sleep at 8:30PM.

Th02/06 Bohol

I woke up again at 5PM and prepared my last coffee and started to pack some stuff already. At 5:45AM I rode to the tennis court and ordered an omelette, 2 tiny breads and hot chocolate. The purpose for the bread was not tipping into the hot chocolate, which is the local common thing to do, but opening the bread up and putting the omelette between the bread to make it a bread omelette like it is common in India. Soon I was called to the court and we played against former presidents of the club and somehow we won 8:5. 

Later my partner said he was motivated by the umpire who was Agnes. Sometimes my partner was distracted by her. Oh boy, it does not matter how old you are, still the same issues. It has been very fun and sporty mornings in Bohol, I have really enjoyed being part of it. Even the old man Sid came by. He said he started in the same very court as a ball boy at the age of 8 in 1945, right after the Japanese were kicked out and war was over. I thanked everyone and promised to be back anytime soon. I paid 40 pesos for the game, because we won and 80 pesos for breakfast at the gate of the club. 

This café is a dump, I even saw a giant rat with fluffy fur, well fed, hassling with the trash bag in the back room. The tourists would never dare to stop by just looking at the state of the joint, but again there is a queue at all times and locals are finding this place to get the best sikwate hot chocolate in town and fresh bread. I do admit, it looks rugged, but the food is decent and hot chocolate is nice.

Soon I drove home and I stopped by at the bakery and bought 2 siopaos with pork and egg inside. These steamed relatively big pastries cost me only 60 pesos ~ exactly one euro. Somehow I started to love them in the days of the covid in 2020. At 8AM I had my last shower, ate the leftover food and cleaned my kitchen. Soon after, I returned my bike to Per’s home nearby.

Soon I walked back to the office and worked a bit and packed my bags. Also I ate my last bananas and put the Bohol bag into the office kitchen cabinet. This bag contains fins, rackets, shoes and clothes for staying in Bohol, no need to bring these back to Cebu each time. At 10:50AM I said bye-bye to the OJT-s, 3 developers who were in the office and to Jessa and ordered a Grab taxi. The ride was short and cost me 109PHP~ €2. My first landing site was again Tamper café and I ordered the local favourite Tocino rice meal with coffee. Tocino is a simple Filipino rice bowl with fried pork chops, egg and in my case carrot on top of it. Very delicious. Later I had a video call with Eunice and ordered a tuna sandwich and another coffee. 

At 1PM I checked out and paid 630PHP ~ €10 and ordered a Grab taxi. Actually I had already started walking towards the city centre and the port when it started to drizzle again. The ride was short and I paid again around 100 pesos. It was the same driver Charley who did my previous trip. It seems there is only one Grab driver in Tagbilaran. It took about 30 minutes to wait for the boat. Check-in and payment of the terminal fee went also smoothly and without hassle. The boat left Tagbilaran port at 2:10PM. It was still raining and the sky was all grey. 

At 4:10PM we docked in Cebu City and we needed to walk around the terminal, because the regular way out was blocked by construction work. It was still raining. My Grab taxi was already waiting in front of Seven Eleven and we drove to my office. Most of the team was working and I went upstairs unpacked my gear and went to a nearby laundry service to drop the laundry. Back in my room I washed my feet because it had been raining the whole afternoon and the streets and the terminals were soaked and dirty. Later I had a call with Eunice and got an update from Lyneth. 

Later I worked on accounting and paid some bills. We have a blender in our kitchen now and I did the test run with the brand new machine. Well, I had a juicy pineapple just waiting for it. It was a pineapple and almond milk mix and it was rather good. Our office was almost in full strength and additionally we had OJT-s studying upstairs. Between 6 and 7PM all went home because the rain had just stopped. I ate the last pieces of the pineapple and took a shower and started to prepare my gear for the Luzon trip. At 8PM I felt really sleepy and went to sleep.

Fr02/07 Cebu

During the night I woke up twice and eventually started my day at 5AM. That has to do something with my early morning tennis practice routine in Bohol. It was still all quiet around, only few roosters started to practise for the singing competition at sunrise. First I took a shower and prepared breakfast. Later I worked and resumed reading book. Well, I started to eat the pages of McConaughey's book, it was really enjoyable and I read it almost half way in one go. At 10AM Lyneth, Cherry and few developers arrived after them. First I discussed with Cherry about a proposal and soon after with Lyneth and Paul we debated how to implement the work or portfolio to Blendit's website. 

At 11:30AM I walked to Ayala mall and had additional breakfast and coffee at Bo's café. Actually the café was at the cashiers of the Metro grocery store. Easily I can imagine to sit in the café and enjoying coffee while Eunice is enjoying doing grocery. Perhaps one day when I am 70 years old. It would be like a husband's day care. Soon I entered to the shop and spent some time to carefully select gifts for Mirjam and friends. Also I bought some tea and noodles for Eunice, because I know she’s craving for some of these. My bill was whooping 3200PHP ~ €53, but this was my last chance to buy gifts. Additionally I needed to buy a small toothpaste and a shampoo, because I’m travelling with hand luggage only to Luzon. It was burning hot outside and walked in the shades of the trees and high buildings back home. I had a call with Eunice while I was unpacking the things from the shop, quickly had a shower and soon walked to massage.

Later I had a client’s meeting, then worked some more and at 5PM I went with Cherry to nearby Japanese restaurant called Yumeya, one of the best in the city. We ordered combo sets and I ordered also hot sake. We discussed delivery and problems of one project and how to make procedures to avoid plunders in the future. The food was good and I paid 1900 PHP ~ €31 for the dinner. I made a joke to the head waiter that I'm here again, but with a different lady. Actually it was Eunice who dragged me to her favorite restaurant 3 years ago, where she used to go with her Japanese ex-boyfriend. Surely we are giving them hard times to keep up who is eating with who. But at the same time I assume the waiters have a black belt in gossiping. Later in the night I worked alongside Chester and Cherry. At 7:30PM I went upstairs,  had a call with Eunice, took a shower and soon went to sleep.

La02/08 Epic trip in Luzon, Cebu and in Bohol

My sleep was short and I woke up at 1AM and took a shower and packed the last items. Eunice got back from a Korean restaurant in Tallinn and was delighted with the good food and time with her friend Erika. This is it, it is the beginning of another great adventure and this time with my friend Madis from Estonia. For him it would be the first time in the Philippines and actually that far in the east. I prepared coffee and used the 4 remaining eggs for breakfast. At 3AM I took 10,000 PHP ~ €180 cash from an ATM, ordered a Grab taxi and drove through a relatively lively dark city to the airport. In front of the night club Ikon I saw teenagers hassling to get in or out of the club. They were tipsy, noisy and of course everything was hilarious. The taxi ride was quick, only 20 minutes and cost me 320 PHP ~ €5. 

At 3:30AM I already made the check in and got the emergency exit seat just by asking. The domestic flight terminal is surprisingly big and there were many options for sitting and getting coffee or eating something. Again I went to Bo's Café and bought coffee and a bagel with bacon and egg. There were many foreign tourists taking flights to many cities around the scattered islands. Cebu Pacific, CebGo and AirAsia as low cost carriers are making the flying affordable and relatively easy. It really started to itch me to fly to Davao or to Zamboanga in Mindanao. One day!  At 5:35AM we boarded the A320 and the aircraft was fully booked. Soon at 6:15AM we took off from Lapu-Lapu into the sky with the rising sun. I was sitting in the first row. At 7:20AM the Airbus wheels touched the runway of Manila airport. The Manila airport is a vast place and after some taxing we stopped at the far end and a bus came to pick us up. 

It was drizzling outside and it was still a bit chilly outside. As I didn’t need to wait for my luggage from the bag belt, I just walked out to the arrivals. There was a counter for rental cars and hiring a taxi. I thought that before I would start an adventure to find my way to terminal 1, I should ask for more guidance from the counter. Eventually the lovely ladies there reached out to Budget employees and the one and half hour hassles started. First the lady in Budget said there is no such booking in their system and after some more hassle they figured out that there is another company also booking under the name of Budget. Actually we already agreed that they will send me a cancellation email and I will take something else from the counter, but then they called back and said their representative will drive and pick me up in 15 minutes.

Meanwhile my friend Madis arrived from his flight from Dubai and I was pretty sure there would be no people for 30 minutes. So, we ordered Burger King meals from nearby and enjoyed the beginning of an adventure. But to my great surprise after 15 minutes the car rental guys were in front of the terminal building and waiting for us. It took about 10 minutes and a few blocks of driving around the airport area. At 9:20AM we arrived at a humble office and we made the paperwork and payment for 6 days ~ 19,000 PHP ~ €316. Somehow we made a mess in communication and Madis did not take his driving license and therefore I will do all the driving. Luckily we got a refund for the extra driver fee.

Our car is a silver coloured Toyota Vios. First we needed to make a video around the car for limiting chances of dispute of the damages later at the drop off. We put our gear to the booth of the car and changed shoes to flip-flops because it was getting hotter. Our first challenge is to make some sense of Google Map’s directions on how to get to the ExpressWay ramps and into the elevated motorway. It was twisting and turning and making U-turns in order to get to the ramp that took us to the upper level of traffic.

As we were almost at the foothills of the Baguio mountain range, we didn’t return to the highway and instead drove on smaller roads until we started to climb. The road is fun and the road is very twisty. Some stretches of the road were under construction and we needed to crawl over bigger stones and gravel. Actually at the very beginning of the Baguio road, the police officer pulled us to the roadside and pointed to the clearance of the car and explained that there will be rough road and construction work ahead, but I just said we had a rental car and I’m confident we can do it with ease. The police let us go when I said that.

At 3:30PM we entered Baguio at 1540 metres and soon we drove in front of our hotel called Venus Parkway which is located right next to the central park. After check-in and valet parking, we walked into our room. That was my first time ever to leave car keys to someone else to park my car. Quickly we took a shower and got ourselves ready to go out to explore Baguio. 

The main attraction was of course the artificial Burnham lake and the park around it. It was clear it would be great to come with kids and spend a fortune on all the attractions you can imagine. We just walked around the lake and checked the market and decided to investigate the merchandise more thoroughly later in the night. The majority of the buildings in downtown Baguio are kind of ugly and left without maintenance for many decades. Not very charming and we just walked around a few blocks. Somewhere along the way we bought a cigarette lighter charging unit for our rental car. Madis was able to get his first patch of 10,000 PHP ~ €180 from the ATM. 

Many of these dishes were 100 pesos and it was just fun to taste a variety of food. The entire street food area was buzzing by mostly local Filipino tourists and it seemed they too enjoyed the food. Slowly we made it back to the hotel. I had a quick shower and tried to write something, but I was a bit tired. As soon my head touched the pillow, I fell to sleep immediately, passed out.

At 10AM we checked out and started our journey north, but first we decided to check two of the local sightseeing spots. First was a haunted hotel, which was built more than 100 years ago by the Dominicans and later used as a hotel. Well, we paid the parking fee 20 pesos and saw masses of people walking around the building. The hotel is located on the hilltop overlooking the city and hills around. I guess the view has more value, because the building is just an old building and has its charm compared to the ugly buildings downtown. Madis was more impressed by the interesting concept of having the light wall, which was separating the rooms, ending up in the middle of the window.

Soon we rolled down the hill and drove around some other hills and ended up in another sightseeing spot called Mines View. This area was more Bosch and we saw many fancy villas overlooking the valley below. Luckily we found the parking spot on the road side and started to walk uphill. Along the way too I gave Madis to try out a local kids' favourite, a banana-que, which is a BBQ-d banana with caramelised sugar. The view spot is a mass tourism destination with the entrance fee 10 pesos per person at the gates. OMG, there were a lot of people. First we walked a bit down the stairs which were surrounded by potted plants and that were designed to attract mostly ladies.

Next there were decorated horses and to my great surprise that attraction surely clicked with Madis and he climbed on the horse back and even wore the fathers as a headwear. Yes, he looked legit. The view to the valley and to the surrounding city and hills was actually nice, but because of constant hassle with other tourists it was rather stressful. Everybody tried to take a picture of themselves and try to avoid random people in the frame. Hopeless. Soon we walked back to the car and decided to buy take away coffees from a fancy café called Coffee Project. Madis even got his soya milk coffee.

Now we turned to the north and started to drive away from Baguio. On the way I realised that we missed visiting the Valley of Colours. It was a really cool neighbourhood with houses piled up on the hillside on the edge of a river. The houses there are painted using extra bright colours. Next time we will investigate this lovely area and perhaps find a nice coffee shop there or check somebody’s home there. 

Soon we were on smaller roads and scenery started to get better and better. Again and again we stopped the car and took pictures of the valleys and rice terraces. These terraces are very old and passed from one generation to the next to maintain the stone walls to keep the fertile soil horizontal in a very non-horizontal landscape and keep it from flooding down to the valley with rains. The road from Baguio to Sagada is 120KM and a bit more, but it took us 5 hours to drive on the mountainous roads. At 1:30PM we made a stop in the relatively crowded spot of the highest point 7400ft~2255 metres in Atok. It used to be the highest mountain pass in the Philippines. There was a viewpoint deck and many merchants around the place.

I started to talk with ladies who were selling potted plants and passion fruit. These were a local mother and her daughters from a local tribe. In the end I bought passion fruits and made pictures of Patricia, who had very different face lines to compare with other Filipinas. Later Madis took some more pictures of these ladies in front of Mt Timbak which local people consider as a holy mountain. One of the ladies called Jane used to work as an English teacher in Thailand and that’s why she had proper English. These were lovely ladies and we truly liked these interactions and it seemed the ladies also enjoyed talking to us. Soon we continued our journey. It was showing +14'C and the clouds were rolling in and we were within the white misty cloud.

Next item in the list was a nice dinner and we walked to the nearby Log Cabin tavern where we ordered pasta with grilled chicken fillet and salad. Also we had many beers and talks. Actually we don’t meet too often and therefore there were many topics to cover. This time we talked about our kids and their upbringing and the faults we have made and how we can turn it into a joke. There were two young ladies as waiters and they made a mess of an additional ordered drink, but in the end the cocktail was fine what they brought. At 9PM we wrapped up at the Log Cabin restaurant and we paid 1395PHP ~ €23. 

On the way back down we felt the cold and we saw our own exhausted air was smoky. The air temperature really dropped dramatically. The road was relatively empty and only a few people were walking. At one point we stopped and tried local wines at the wine station on the road side. There were two options - Bugna as a sweet red and Tapey as more sower rice wine. It was self-serving and based on a trust system. Madis put 100 pesos into the jar and we pour both drinks into little cups for tasting. Cool to try. 

Other side of the street there was a bonfire and around it 6-7 men gathered around it to get some warmth. One guy was playing guitar and others were singing along. Of course we joined them. Soon Madis was playing two songs and on Knocking On Heavens Door majority of the men knew the lyrics by heart and sang along. Madis was also offered a local shop’s gin and sipped that too. One guy named Pigien was categorically against any pictures taken, but then he said if you play one more song, then he is ok for one picture. Well, of course Madis played a song even though the scenery was so dark to get any decent pictures, but it was just fun.

Local ladies would just say that these men are tambays aka jorsid in Estonian or semi-bums in English, but they were just local tribe men with wrinkles in their faces like an imprint of their hard working life in these mountains. These men appreciated each-other's company as much as we did just 30 minutes ago in a fancier tavern. We are not that different after all. I really like that Madis is not a snobbish guy and enjoys these rather raw interactions and embraces spontaneous real moments. Many would never do similar things, feeling awkward and would miss out the real essence of local life. We thanked and shook hands with the guys and walked back to the hotel. At 10:30PM I went to sleep and Madis went to sleep a bit later.

Mo02/10 Luzon

We woke up at 7AM and walked to the street to meet our guide called Frank. He is a farmer from the local Applai tribe. Frank was a rather quiet guy and first just observing these European lads. We started to walk down the street and slowly he opened more once he realised we are respecting his culture and we don’t want to do perhaps a selfie with a skull in one hand. All of a sudden he pointed to a ditch on the side of the road - there was hardly a visible mouth of a cave and in front of the cave a pile of coffins. In the Applai culture they place their deceased villagers not to the soil, but to the caves and only most honourable people’s coffins hang to the cliff walls near to the sacred caves. Later we learned it really requires a lot of work, daredevil will and rock climbing skills to get the coffins to the rock wall and hang many meters above the ground. Actually these coffins were all around the area of Sagada, really nearly impossible and unsuspected places. 

First we came to see Lumiang cave where the entire huge cave was turned into a cemetery. As we were walking down the slope and towards the cave he pointed to a bonfire place. It turned out that he and other elders had been forced to make a sacrifice to reconcile with the spirits of the dead villagers and the living. He said there have been stupid reckless people defiling the sacred site. So, the only solution was to sacrifice a chicken and do some rituals to calm down the spirits. The surrounding of the cave was also impressive with high grey rock walls everywhere and jungle between.

Next we climbed up the stairs back to the street and walked to the centre of the Sagada town again and diverted from the main road, which is actually noisy because of the passing jeepneys and tricycles, and walked up in a narrow pedestrian track between houses and ended up passing the main entrance to the Sagada hanging coffins. Yep, we didn’t pay the entrance fee, which was of course only 20-30 pesos, ~ half a Euro, and we also passed the church graveyard and Frank led us directly to the site. 

In the middle of the rock face was hanging Frank’s grandfather’s Bomit-Og coffin. That was his duty to climb up there and drill the holes to the rock and hang the coffin. Sometimes they have coffins made out of tree trunks by just half it and carve out a hole enough to compress the corp inside. Very often they even press the hands and feet together to accommodate the body into a tiny coffin. Actually that part alone is disturbing, because the tribe people here try to do everything possible to not disturb the dead relatives, but it seems that kind of forceful compression of the dead body is just fine. While we were admiring the hanging coffins there were about 20 people doing the same thing. So, it is kind of a main attraction in Sagada. 

There were coffee bushes in the valley and all around us and we clearly were able to see red or green coffee berries. The coffee plants led us to a farm run by Cyril. It was a coffee shop built in a way that the back wall was actually the rock face towering above us. It was quite dark inside, because the building had tiny windows and they also made a bonfire inside the building in order to smoke the pork. For me it was the first time I saw somebody smoking meat. For Estonian this is a familiar sight, but here in the Philippines it has been mostly BBQ or stewing the pork. Perhaps the lechon is an exemption, because lechon pork is also cooked on the fire or hot coal. 

Madis had many talks with Cyril and we enjoyed the Arabica coffee. In this coffee farm they only produce coffee about 300KG per year and they consume it all with guests, they don’t want to sell it due the low price of the beans. There were trays of beans where they selected the beans and roast.

At 11AM we walked back to the main street using another course, which meant we needed to climb between huge rocks and cross little creeks between them. Our journey ended and our cost was 820PHP ~ €13.5. The tour management company’s person Erol got the money. We thanked Frank for being our guide and he said he will walk back up to his farm. And by the way, the whole climb,we were wearing hiking shoes and Frank was wearing flip-flops, no problem. Our total walk was about 7KM.

Next we walked down to Bana's café and ordered breakfast and Madis tried the civet coffee. Owner of this café is Melay who is the widow of the founder Goad. Madis was sipping the expensive coffee and described it as more sour and perhaps more silkier than usual mild roasted Arabica coffee. After breakfast which we had at noon, we turned back to the hotel and had quite a few hours.

At 5PM we went for another loop to discover more of Sagada, but this time we turned off the main street and walked at the edge of the rice fields and banana plantations. There were kids hanging in front of the shop and offered us chips. There were cool kids and they weren't afraid to talk to strangers. There has been a boom of constructing new houses and only few paintless dark grey wooden houses are left as a reminder of the humble origin of Sagada. The local government is trying to prevent foreigners and rich people from Manila from investing in Sagada and instead they try to keep real estate only for local people and keep Sagada not growing into a mass tourism destination like Baguio.

At 6PM we returned to main street and ordered among many things a local delicacy called Pinikpikan, which is basically a chicken soup with vegetables. In the far end of the eatery there was an old man wearing a hood, which covered his face, and having a gin or vodka bottle in one hand and a glass in the other hand. I was only able to see his eyes and wrinkled face only when he swallowed the shots. Later more people joined his table and it seemed some were his relatives too. I suppose this is one way to calm down anxiety. That was our last night in Sagada.

Tu02/11 Luzon

I opened my eyes at 7AM and I opened the balcony door to let in the beautiful birds songs, but already some builders started their shift and made noise with machinery. Additionally there were people moving furniture above us and probably cleaning the rooms, but with a lot of laughing and loud talking. Well, it was time to wake up sooner or later and we needed to start our day. Soon we had a shower, packed our gear to the car, Madis did the check out and at 9AM we walked to the Bana’s café. This place was founded by Goad Sibayan and after his death in 2017, his widow Melay is in charge. Again we saw the waiter Ra and we ordered breakfast meals and coffees. We started to like this place. Later Madis bought Sagada coffee and civet coffee, because I said I can bring these packages in my luggage. His bag is very full and there is no room for bigger souvenirs. Besides, he first will travel to Indonesia.

Soon we walked back to our hotel and started our 5 hour journey towards Vigan. There were many nice views over the rice fields and agricultural terraces. Actually we stopped now and then because of the beautiful views. 

Some parts of the ascents of the road were so steep that I was really scared that our little Toyota would die in these mountains, so my foot on the accelerator pedal was pressed against the metal. But we made it each time and actually big heavy lorries were also going up these mountains. There were many big rivers that we needed to cross and to do it we drove down to the mountain first, crossed the bridge and then started to climb up again.

At 1:20AM we finally climbed on top of the hill, where we made a stop at Skyline viewpoint. The payable view point was not our interest, but the eatery in front of it. The scenery of the eatery was very humble, but I was sure the food had to be good. There were chip packages which were swollen up like pigs because of the higher air pressure in the higher mountains. Again we tried new local dishes and drank the truck driver’s coffee. A lady boy was serving us and while she was not busy with serving us, she took the little one month old puppy and walked it in the lap. Our experimental food cost us 260PHP ~ €4.

The big climbings were done and now it was mostly downhill towards the plains in the coastal area. Our Toyota was really struggling with these steep climbs and in many cases there were no serpentines, just crazy straight forward to the sky. Just before turning to the coastal road we bought fruits and continued towards Vigan. We crossed many huge rivers which were just a small river in the middle of a gravel and sand terrain, but which will turn into massive destructive rivers in the monsoon rainy periods in July and August. Currently there was machinery to dig the gravel out and transport it elsewhere as construction material.

At 5PM we reached Vigan, which is considered one the oldest best preserved examples of Spanish colonial architecture in the Philippines. Yes, there is Intramuros in Manila, which is also very old, but Vigan has been preserved better and hasn’t been burned down by invaders. Madis has booked a nice old looking hotel just two blocks from the main pedestrian tourist’ road. Once we entered the room there was a huge crack in the wooden floor, a very authentic crack, perhaps 5CM wide and easily 1M long. Well, strange, but at the same time it did not bother me too much. Soon we walked around the old town and admired the streets around the main promenade called Calle Crisologo and decided to eat in a restaurant where we ordered filled grilled squid and BBQ-d chicken.

Later we walked to the riverside to eat street food, but it was actually in another direction and on this river bank there were no street food joints, only a 4M long python swimming in the river in the middle of the city. Also we chased the ATM machine, because we were running dangerously low in cash in Sagada. Somehow the ATM-s were not accepting European cards in Sagada. No such problems in Vigan.

At 8PM we landed in Bar Tech on the Calle Crisologo. First we ordered beers and later snacks and more beers. In our neighbouring table in front of the bar were an older Dutch guy Jaap and his Filipina wife Jenny. Jaap told amazing stories about how he got caught up in a violent firearms exchange in Manila and president Duterte’s bodyguards saved him and later president gave him a medal. He seemed to be a Dutch version of Forrest Gump. Also he was laughing in a very entertaining way, kind of making you laugh regardless if it was funny or not. It has been a long driving day and fun day and it was time to go to sleep.

At 1PM we made a stop in Bo's café near Sevilla. And soon we turned into the ExpressWay and we were surprised at the little cost of the fee, it seemed we had done a ton of prepayments on the way to the north. In Angeles we turned off the highway and drove to Koreatown. Our accommodation was a very nice and cozy hotel with a swimming pool. First we went to swim and I prepared tea and drank it on the edge of the pool.

Next item in the agenda was to find a decent massage parlour and I remember a place from the previous time, we located one on the Amur street. Unfortunately the good therapists that I remembered have been replaced in a year, we got new therapists who were also ok. After the massage we walked to the main road and witnessed the strange sight in the Philippines - majority of the signs were in Korean language like we are in Soul. Amazing. There were many restaurants, cafés, KTV-s aka karaoke bars, clubs, groceries and massage places.

At 8:30PM we landed at a Korean restaurant and Pyeonbaek-Jjim at the very end of the main street. Our goal was to order the wooden steam box food. And with the order came like always in Korean food, a variety of complimentary Korean dishes including super good kimchi. I also ordered soju and gave it to Madis for degustation. He was not impressed. I admit soju has a strange taste, but I’m kind of used to it. The grapefruit soju flavoured is good. For me it was a very authentic Korean food, because the place is simple and on the weekends it would be packed and we should even stay in the queue to get in. And most importantly there are Koreans eating there. That is a sign.

Slowly we walked back to the hotel. The main street was very lively and vibrant. Very interesting subculture. Ladies in the massage place mentioned there have been attacks against Koreans in the Philippines. Perhaps social hatred got loose and local Koreans and perhaps tourists from Korea have been targeted. Well, I don’t know the truth, but it could be. Besides, the regular Koreans appear sometimes arrogant and snobbish, feeling better than Filipinos if you will, but I think they are mostly just awkward and it could be just a misunderstanding, a clash of cultures. Soon we went to sleep because we needed to wake up very early the next morning.

Th02/13 Luzon

The sleep was short and the alarm sounded at 3:30AM. My body screamed: it is all wrong, there can't be an alarm that early. It was time to prepare for a hike. Madis checked out and soon we started to drive around Clark airport and later we drove on a new road that was going through absolutely empty land and by passing the New Clark City. It was weird to see a city built in the middle of a barren land and there were not too many buildings and people, just illuminated wide roads. After 45 minutes of ride we reached the military checkpoint, where we presented the print out of a permission to enter. Soon we parked our car in an area where all the vehicles and hikers gathered. Our contact Don approached us and had a chat with us. He asked about Eunice, because they were chatting about the details of this hike. It was good we were able to buy breakfast, because my stomach was already singing. Don also recommended buying the buff to avoid the volcanic dust ending up in the mouth and eyes.

At 6AM we jumped into the Jeep and drove a bit further. All of sudden the sleepy passing settlements woke up and people were all doing something. Soon we pulled off the road into a river bed. The river itself was currently a couple of little creeks, but the river bed was very wide and there were some higher sharp edge river banks emerging from the river bed. It is a mass tourism site and there were about 20 cars driving towards Pinatubo at sunrise. Some 4x4-s really rallied at high speed and splashed at water crossings and got the screams out of the guests. Our guide’s name was Ryan, but later we figured out his Aita tribe’s name was “Aitahh” instead. Our’s machine was a Mitsubishi and our driver was taking the drive very calmly and not speeding.

The drive took 1 hour. Mostly we drove on the river bed which was covered by rocks and light grey ash. Some cliffs contained ash and big rocks and were towering, very high. And some of the cliffs were dangerously straight and sharp and already collapsed. I guess we crossed the river more than 20 times and sometimes we were squeezed between towering walls and sometimes the river was fast flowing and relatively deep. In some cases our car’s engine stalled and we sat in the middle of the river. Along this route we saw white cows and carabaos which gave me flashbacks of the travels in Rajasthan's planes in India, really looked very similar with barren land vast open plains and these animals everywhere. There were many kids waving hands and saying hello, they were just chilling and enjoying their sightseeing to see people driving by on jeeps. At the end of the road there was a parking lot for many jeeps and people started to take selfies.

Our guide urged us to continue on foot. The trail was still following the river or in the upstream more like a creek. The people from Aita tribe have made their makeshift selling booths and their temporary villages near the river to have quick access to the feed of tourists. It was amazing how far up some guys were capable of riding a motorbike on basically rocks. We saw many cute Aita children who had darken skin and very curly hair, very different from regular Filipinos. Some of the kids helped mothers to do laundry in the river, some were selling merchandise to the tourists and some were just playing in front of the humble hut. They have their own dialect and Ryan was able to communicate with them. There was no steep climb and we kept on following the creek that was flowing from the lake down to the river.

Soon the scenery turned very mystical because we entered the forest and trees were covering the sky above us too. The surface was mainly stones or rocks and fluffy vegetation was all around us. The forest was full of birds singing and mixing with the sound of the flowing water. It was really calming and nice. But some city idiots of course had their boombox with them, some people just can’t handle the silence of nature, there has to be noise around them.

At 8:45AM we reached the view point, which is not very high, only 900 metres. Yes, this climbing was all worth it - the view overlooking the crater lake and surrounding sharp edge cliffs were just perfect. Then we decided to walk even further down to the lake level and see the split of the sky and the water. It was not allowed to swim there, because one tourist who drowned there recently had a heart attack. Actually this is a very common solution and behaviour pattern in the Philippines. If something happens, then the first step would be closing down something. I remember a similar case in another lake in Leyte. Again somebody drowned in the lake and the solution was to close the attraction on the lake and around the lake. But the view was worth the long walk.

Soon we reached the cars and started our journey back. It started to drizzle and we kind of drove away from the rain. Again it was amazing to see the landscapes formed by this volcano over the thousands of years. Usually there are sand banks on the river bed, but here it is more like sand-like ash. We had many river crossings and some places it was really unearthly landscape as far as the eye could tell. At noon, almost back on asphalt and on the last water crossing, somehow we got stuck into the soft river bed. So deeply, that we waited for Don to toe us out. Actually Madis needed to guide the show, because in their own knowledge our car driver was just sitting and not using the accelerator at all. After Madis briefed Don, then our car was pulled out in one go. Amazing.

At the gathering spot we took a shower and Madis chatted with Don. Soon we started our road trip by driving again through the strange ghost town called New Clark City and soon we turned to Express Way. This time we paid very little, if any. Somehow the system works. At 1:45PM we pulled over to eat at a local fast food joint called Jollibee. It was a very noisy environment to hear anything at the counter and in the end we ordered burgers, a chicken leg, fries, mango pies, ice tea and rice. That was Madis’ first encounter with the Philippines national pride Jollibee. Eunice also recommended trying the mango pie and it turned out to be decent.

We continued our journey over Metro Manila and I was happy to skip the traffic below. Again there were high rise buildings on both sides of the highway as far as the eye can tell. Some of the condominiums were as high as 50 floors, amazing. The toll road payment system was keep on surprising us and it seems that we were very generous on the way from Manila airport to Rosario, just at the foothills of Baguio mountains, and we paid a lot as fees and it accumulated as prepayment, It seems to be connected to our car’s number plate. As this is my first time driving on highways in Luzon, I’m still learning the system. All in all we paid only ~300 pesos for rides and in many cases we had prepayment. 

Once we were off the Express Way we were able to make stops and first was a fruit stand and we bought jackfruit. It is a gigantic fruit, but after separating the edible sweet parts, there was a bag of yellow content left. Basically 2KG of fruit, which was just a segment of the entire hairy ball, ended up in a bag of fruit ready to eat. Madis paid 300PHP ~ 5€ for the fruit and the hassle.

At 5:30PM we entered the mountain resort Tagatay and soon found the way to the hotel called Villa Ibarra, which was located on the edge of the Taal volcano's caldera and overlooking the lake and new volcanic cones in the middle of the lake. Madis tried to upgrade the room to have the lake view, but the decision making chain was very long and it took some time. Meanwhile I enjoyed the lake and the group of active volcanoes down in the middle of the lake. The scenery was changing all the time. There were some orange and pink colours from the sunset and soon the volcanos and the edges of the caldera started to fade away into the darkness.  Soon we moved into our fancy room and quickly took a shower.

Soon I spotted a lady-boy called Melay who served us a year ago when we first ate her with Eunice. She was super excited to serve us and we sat down. She lit the heater on fire beneath the bowl of bulalo and we also got 2 cups of rice. Madis again was so excited by the authentic food experience that he made a video using a selfie-stick and he was talking with himself in front of the phone. Melay wants to go abroad to work in the food industry and I recommended not to apply to Arab countries, but to more liberal Europe instead. Our bill was 530 PHP ~ €9.

Next we drove back to the hotel and walked on the hotel and restaurant strip. We landed in the restaurant for drinks. Madis was craving Spanish or Italian wine and we ended up with a bottle of  Spanish wine called Romanico. We were working and among many things we booked accommodation in Moalboal in Cebu. The restaurant started to close at 9PM and finally we moved out with the last guests at 10PM. The wine was good, but I guess I got a little tipsy from it, but I contained myself and was able to walk back to our hotel. Later we sat on our balcony and enjoyed ice cold beers. The lake below was covered with tiny lights, it seemed each fish farm had one. All together these lights were forming cool stars-like in the dark backdrop. Soon we went to sleep.

Another lady showed the small clip from the video camera footage from the camera mounted on the edge of the crater. The major eruption was in 2012 and people needed to be evacuated all around the lake, but it was still nothing more than an ash shower. Of course in some places roofs collapsed because of the ash build up and the fact it was combined with the hurricane and heavy rain. Madis showed photo and drone videos from his trip into volcanos in Ethiopia. She looked at these and said: OK, it seems to be more like a Hawaii type of volcano there. Madis also wrote a note to the guest book. We were thankful that they invested their valuable time for us and perhaps because we were curious and we were also exposed and climbed up to various volcanoes, she was also entertained.

After that we took some pictures of the fishermen on the lake. The lake had a rich vegetation and many species of plastic too floating and sank to the bottom. It was time to start our journey back, but first we needed to refuel. We took another route back and drove through Talisay and other smaller towns until we continued on the highway. At 11:40AM we pulled over to Starbucks. Actually we walked to Starbucks in Tagaytay, but it was such a popular café that we decided not to stand in the long queue. Soon we resumed driving on the highway and at 1PM we pulled off the ExpressWay system and I dropped Madis to the Newport mall near the airport and I refuel a bit more to satisfy the rental guys. Like in some countries you will not get the rental car with full tank, but with random fuel level instead and you need to return like this. So, I tanked first 300 and 100 and lastly another 100 pesos worth of gasoline. Fun. 

Soon I drove back to the mall and picked up Madis and drove to Terminal 3. At 1:30PM we drove to the departures and gave the car back to the rental guy who was already waiting for us. That part went without any problems and I hope they will return some sort of deposit of 5000 pesos also back to my credit card. Next Madis checked in using the self-service terminal and went through the security check. Later I had a call with Mirjam and Eunice. I was able to work a bit and write a diary.

Sa02/15 Cebu

We woke up at 7:30AM and slowly took a shower and packed our gear to Toyota. This time it was my own car. Madis was not interested in coffee and instead I prepared him a hot calamansi drink.  He said he does not want to drink coffee with an empty stomach, but soon we tried guyabano fruit. Actually it was a messy enterprise, it required experience which I was lacking to deal with this fruit. But eventually I made a smoothie out of these juicy fruits and also prepared some mangos. Although it was a Saturday morning, we still were slowed down in the south part of Cebu City and in Talisay and Car-Car. 

In Argao I was disappointed that the coffee shop was closed and I didn’t get a decent coffee, but what to do. Perhaps they had issues with the staff and they were not able to open the joint in the morning. In Dalaguete we turned into the mountains and inland and started to climb towards the highest peak in Cebu. There was a parking lot and a tourist gate for the Osmena peak trek.

Soon we got our mandatory guide, because there was a fatal incident many years ago with a Korean tourist who dropped down a cliff while trying to do selfies. The fee was 120PHP ~ €2 environmental and entrance fee and additionally 100 pesos for the guide service. Soon we were ready to walk up the hill and saw the grassy rocks all around us. Actually it was really cool to see both coasts from high up the mountain near the central point of the island. Also it was clearly see the Bohol island with 3 islands near Calape and the Negros island with the towering very active volcano called Kanlaon. Technically we were not at the highest point of Cebu, our height was 1030 metres, but the highest point, 30 metres higher, was just too dangerous to climb on top of it, because it is located on the edge of the steep cliff and unsuccessful selfie surely would end with the deathly drop.

But the view from our spot was also majestic. The grassy hills were everywhere and sharp dark grey rocks were in the middle of these grassy hills. Madis was able to do multiple video footage and photos using the selfie stick. At 1:30PM we started to walk down the rocky road. In front of us a Polish lady slipped and landed on her butt. The loose stones are dangerous and Madis pointed out that it would be wise to step on the solid stones and not place the foot on the gravel on the way down the hill. The lower hillside is covered with farming and there were harvest ready chayote, Chinese cabbage and regular cabbage. We thanked the guide called Wilson who is living in a nearby village and drove back down to the coastal highway.

Almost back on the highway I spotted a lot of motorbikes parked and a cockpit arena. The decision was to go and investigate the culturally controversial phenomenon called cock fight. Actually I have seen the rooster fight before and I wrote longer about it, but the general feeling is that it has huge importance in the rural and small town society. Mostly men are involved in betting the roosters by giving them expensive vitamins, steroids and food. But also they train them and just give them love. It is amazing to see when some men are sitting with their rooster long hours in the early morning. First we walked into the warm up area where we saw how they attached the sharp blade to the foot of the rooster. The actual damage would be caused by this blade and less with the beak and claws. Then we entered the main arena, which was like a mini gladiator arena made out of wood. There were 2 rooster owners holding their roosters in the middle of the arena and the main pimp with the microphone.

Time to time the owners of the roosters let the cocks head close to each-other, I guess to make them more excited for the upcoming battle. Then pimps started to cheer up people and gather the bets. It is all about the bets, this is the central point of the whole bloody thing. It was amazing how people around us started to shout and waive 1000 peso bills in their hands. The actual fight was short and roosters tried to climb on top of each-other and by doing that the blades did the damage. Actually I have seen the winning rooster and it had many deep cuts too before. The least damaged rooster is the winner. Soon one rooster was no longer capable of flying and the fight was over and it laid down on the sandy floor. Money changed hands and the owner of the dead rooster took the rooster from the legs and walked away from the arena. 

I try to be as journalistic as possible in this matter, but I’m biassed I guess and mostly I’m sad of the roosters. These roosters would never win, they always lose, even if they win. Also I remember a sad quote from a lady who sold snacks in the cockpit arena in Baclayon, Bohol when I asked what she thinks about the rooster fight in general: if her husband loves her just half of the love that he loves his rooster, she would be happy. Some men are gambling and losing their kid’s entire college funds. All in all a sad place. Madis was also disturbed by the experience and it would give another layer to understand more of the Filipino psyche.

We walked back to the car in silence and continued down the road. Again we pulled over from the road and parked in front of Boljoon church. There was an ongoing wedding ceremony in the church. We have seen this church with Eunice in 2022 and it is a cute old church which was built in 1783. Actually the older and previous building was destroyed by the pirates. For me it is always fascinating to touch the coral stones of the church walls and the main wooden doors. There is some connection with the previous generations and church going people who have also touched these doors and walls. These people are all gone, but the touches are still there. Soon we continued our road towards the south and I need to admit the roads kind of broke up and the nice smooth concrete roads ended.

At  4PM we reached Oslob and into our accommodation. First we needed to figure out how to buy or reserve the tickets for whale shark watching. It turns out that Madis needed to go to a certain Facebook page and message the person in the Oslob whale watching team. Our time slot will be 7-8AM. Next was to settle into our humble accommodation and get the wifi access. But soon we headed to a beach nearby. Well, there was no public beach and all of them were down below the cliff. So, we took the stairs down to the sandy strip, but soon discovered a more promising beach right next to it and we settled there. It was 5PM and slowly it was getting darker and it was not that hot anymore. The Pacific ocean water was nice, but the only scary thing was that it was not transparent because of the waves and the coral-sand surface. It was not visible what lies beneath the waves and later Madis, when he was testing the snorkelling gear, saw some sea urchins clustered together and lurching the reckless swimmers. But we were lucky. Later we ordered beers and sat on the edge of the swimming pool. Well, it is a perfect spot for relaxing and leasuring on the edge of the sea. Not sure about the price level for staying in this hotel, but definitely more pricey than our humble lodge. I also had a video call with Eunice and realised my adventure will end within a week and after that I will fly back to Estonia.

Basically it is a mess. We needed to go back to the cashier booth to pay, get additional briefs and wait in multiple spots. Finally we got life jackets which were mandatory until the boat reached the watching area, then it was allowed to take it off and swim without it. There were about 20 boats with 10 passengers floating on the relatively wavy sea. Soon we were allowed to go to the water and immediately we saw the large magnificent ocean creatures. These mammals were big as cars and buses, easily 4-7 meters long. It was required to stay near the boat, but soon it was clear that for the sake of a good selfie with a whale shark it was kind of allowed to swim very close to the beasts. There was another smaller boat where the fisherman threw skrill to the whale who opened their enormous mouths and swallowed the skrill along with water in. Yes, it is not actually good that they are feeding these big whales, because by feeding the whale sharks,they are no longer taking long voyages to far ends of the Pacific and Indian oceans to meet other whale sharks and doing the adult whale shark thing. But on the other hand these fishermen, who are now hassling with tourists, feeding the whales and showing these massive animals, were actually hunting them a few decades before. Perhaps that alone is a good thing and gave me comfort.

This was my second time seeing the big sharks and they still gave me goosebumps by just swimming with them and seeing their gentle effortless movements in the water. I was not distracted by hassling with a camera and I was able to just enjoy and marvel at the beautiful miracle of nature. Actually we were not in a very deep spot, perhaps only 10-15 metres and I was also able to see divers beneath taking pictures from below. At some point I started to ignore more and more the instructions to stay close to our boat and I swam close to the little feeding boat. That was a naughty move, because when I was in the middle of whale sharks I was able to see big mouths, small eyes and their massive tail from very close, perhaps just a meter away. Of course it was not allowed for me to touch the whale sharks, but it happened the other way around multiple times when the animal touched me gently from my feet. 

Later I got even a slight injury when I was hanging by the edge of our boat and the whale swam beneath the boat and in the process touched my foot with its fin. The surface of the whale shark is rough, like a slimy sandpaper and later in the boat I discovered I was bleeding. Yes, it was a mass tourism activity and I was kicked twice in my stomach by a fat American lady while she was doing swimming movements in the water, but still it was all worth it. Our turn was 30 minutes and then we went back to the shore. I got treatment from the first aid room and they stopped bleeding with a mixture of iodine and spirit.

The motorbike guys needed to show how macho they are and they rode very fast up and down hills. After 5 minutes we were at the falls and went straight under the curtain of falling water. The water was not very cold and the falling water was like a massage to the back. Later we sat on the edge of a pool a little bit downstream and let tiny fish eat the skin of the feet. That was a cool experience and although these fish were tiny and swimming in the misty waters, they really did their job. Soon it was time to walk back up and drive to the lodge where we took the stuff to the car again and stayed in the bakery’s café in front of the lodge. That was our breakfast and second coffees.

At 10:45AM we hit the road and drove further south to the tip of Cebu island. In Santander we clearly saw the neighbouring island of Negros and in the distance the witch island called Siquijor. But we didn’t stopped or even considered to make a short city break in Dumaguette in the south tip of Negros, because our time is limited and we wanted to spend time on the sandy beach of Moalboal instead. The western coastal road was nice and we made good progress.

At 2:30PM we arrived at Moalboal and went to the beach area. This time we were late with booking the accommodation and we were kind of forced to settle with a hut-like lodge. Madis did the check in and soon we moved in. Surely we will survive one night in this place, not too bad. As the sun was still high up in the sky, we decided to drive to the White Beach 8KM away. That is a resort area mostly designed for Filipinos who want to rent a shelter at the beach and eat their own food. Well, first we parked the car and walked on the beach to get some sort of sense of this resort beach and find a restaurant. Some of the Filipinos were singing karaoke and in many cases it was painful to the ears, just missing the notes and causing misery to the trained ears - I mean for Madis, because he is playing guitar and has recorded a couple of albums. After making a loop at the beach, we found a restaurant at the beach where I have been twice with Eunice in 2022 and 2023.

Madis was eager to order seafood and we started with shrimp tempuras and had also BBQ fish steak and fried eggplant with egg. It was very tasty food and very affordable. At 4:30PM it was time to discover the coral reef and for Madis it was definitely the first time to do it in the Pacific ocean. To my great surprise the corals were in good condition and mild sunshine gave a nice transparency and colourful underwater life was sparky. Soon we resumed sitting in the beach restaurant and ordered a bit more food and beers. Many people were just enjoying the sunset and had a picnic on the beach, kids running around and playing in the shallow water.

At 6:30PM after seeing the sunset we billed out and headed back to our lodge. Actually many people started to drive away and perhaps many were driving back to Cebu City, because it is a working day tomorrow. In our humble room we quickly had a shower and washed the snorkelling gear. Soon we walked to the tourist streets of Moalboal. First I noticed many roosters accommodated in small separate shelters just across the street. These roosters surely will wake us up next morning. Next thing I saw on our street was an almost open air humble barber shop. One young lad got a fancy new haircut.

This time we decided to eat in the local BBQ place and get more fish and chicken. The food was nicely done and it was way cheaper than many other more fancier spots. After eating we continued on the main road and ended up at the beach bar. Again we liked to sit at the counter and Madis assisted to try out different gins. Soon we started to talk with a guy from Ireland. I guess sitting in the bar’s counter opens you for more drinking because you have an overview of all of the shiny bottles just otherside of the counter, but also opens you for conversations with strangers and bar tenders. It was dark and this bar was a bit off the main route of the tourists, a bit in the dark corner at the beach. Later we made another small bite in a Greek place and had a salad and a pita.

On the way back we checked some restaurants and bars, but not ordered anything, just observing the vibe. Close to our accommodation we stumbled into another bar near our place and we sat next to Jay and later the owner Roy. Our drinks were gin and whisky. This was a hostel bar where we hung out with Eunice and met our drinking buddies two years ago. Later when the bar was closed we talked with Madis at a lounge which was covered by a soft carpet. The topic was casual sex. These hostels are in a way designed for that. People are coming from across the world, very often solo travellers. They need companions for a night and then they go their separate ways. It would be relatively easy to make one night contact and have sex and then go back home empty handed and destroy the long built relationship. Not worth it, not worth the excitement. Actually when you ease down the aspect of getting laid, somehow it would be even easier to communicate. Anyway, at night we chatted with guys only. We walked back to our accommodation and soon went to sleep.

Mo02/17 Cebu

It was our last morning in Cebu and it started at 6:15AM. Our neighbouring roosters started the ceremony of welcoming the sun by having the contest of screaming. Quickly we took a shower and put the stuff into the car. Just shy of 7AM we walked to the tourist street and ordered breakfast with coffee and cappuccino. 

At 8AM we started our journey back to Cebu City. Soon we started to climb to the mountain range that separates the island like a backbone. Somewhere in the middle of the mountains we saw the elusive jackfruit again, it is not sold everywhere. Additionally, we bought bananas and a papaya. On the other side of the mountain range we descended to the eastern part of Cebu island and started to hassle through the heavy traffic and jams. There was an accident along the way, but just minor damage to the cars. But it would not surprise me to see accidents, because people are driving really recklessly and the speed and stupid moves are just unnecessary.

Almost at noon we reached Cebu City and I dropped Madis off at the Ayala mall, because he needed to buy some special long swimming wear for ocean adventures later in Indonesia. Later it turned out these were too expensive and he walked back to my office. Meanwhile I was able to quickly take a shower and repack my gear for the Bohol trip. Because I will drop some shoes and shirts there. Additionally I had meetings with Cherry and Lyneth. Soon I prepared the papaya and jackfruit into the boxes. Madis soon joined too to open up the jack fruit from its non-edible white surrounding parts. It started to rain and at 2PM we decided to order the Grab taxi and drove to the port.

At 5:45PM we docked in Tagbilaran port and soon we got our rental black Toyota Vios and drove through downtown to the other end to my office. Tagbilaran has 100,000 people and the housing is relatively spread out on the flat area and there are no higher buildings really. Again I don’t need any guidance from Google maps, I know these streets by heart. The office was still very active and I was able to give one iPad to J’marc for the ScoreMusic project and talk with team leader Jessa. 

But soon I took the fins from the cabinet in the office and we drove to a nearby market where we tried buko juice, which is a fresh coconut mixed with coconut and cow’s milk. It is a refreshing drink for 20 pesos. It was already dark and there were many people taking a bite of street snacks, perhaps on the way home. The fish selection was also fresh, but not as wide and colourful that it sometimes is. Soon we crossed the bridge and entered Panglao island and drove all the way to the other end to Alona Beach. 

This was my first time ever to stay longer and have accommodation in Alone Beach. Usually I go back to Tagbilaran or to Momo Beach instead. Alona Beach is a bigger tourist place than Moalboal in Cebu. There are many hotels, McDonald and Jollibee joints, plenty of restaurants, café and bars. Our hotel was very close to the beach, but didn't have direct access. Madis checked in and I parked the car into a single parking slot and I asked reception to reserve this spot for us. Amazingly she said yes. Soon we walked through the Best Western hotel lobby to the beach front and to a nice Thai fish restaurant.

First we needed to choose the marine creatures. Eventually we picked prawns, scallops, shells and seaweed salad. Additionally we got grilled vegetables and rice. The bill was 1300PHP ~ €21. Later we walked on the tourist streets and made a loop back to the hotel. Along the way we bought a Korean ice cream called bingsu, which was basically a fruit frozen ice made in a vertical air sucking machine. After sunset we went back for drinks at the beach.

My favourite bar was kind of empty and we landed on the 2nd floor called Escape. Madis was eager to try Don Papas rums and we ordered tacos. As usual at the bar's counter you start to chat with people around you. There were work mates in their twenties Jerome and Shane from Manila. They are working in customer help for Spotify. It turned out that nasty blocking of access to my music after 14 days being abroad is triggered by location set by the credit card used. Even in a paid plan there is such a blocker. Anyway there are other ways of listening to music. Madis had a talk with another guy. Later we had more drinks and at 11PM we walked back to the hotel.

Tu02/18 Bohol

At 8AM Madis' alarm started to sound for no particular reason, because unlike many of the previous mornings, we were not in a rush to go anywhere. Instead we checked emails and had a shower and at 9AM we walked towards the beach for breakfast. Actually we were not too far from the beach, just behind a big hotel and we decided to try out a fancy hotel's breakfast buffet with a price tag 800 PHP ~ €13. The food was good and the variety was also rich although many dishes were already out and the staff was not eager to renew them because it was too close to closing time at 10AM. Later we walked around the beach front and on the tourist streets. Madis got his pants for swimming and a T-shirt for his son.

At 10:30AM we were back in our hotel and soon we drove to the other side of Panglao island to a diving paradise called Napalin reef as I have remembered Molave cliff. As always we were not going straight to the diving resorts and instead to a local villagers' swimming spot. Well, we parked the car under a tree and navigated on an Indian file track around newly built resorts to the shore. It was high tide and the waves were crashing to the cliff and we had a bit of a struggle to get into the water. But the water was relatively clear and when the sun came out again, it was a dreamland experience with so many corals and tropical fish everywhere. Some little yellow-black fish were surprisingly brave and curious and swimming very close to me, almost into my face. Perhaps it has to do something with my facemask with mirror glasses. I convinced Madis to swim alongside a big underwater drop further to a more shallow place where there was a gigantic flock of sardines.

Well, we were not the only snorkelers interested in seeing sardines. There were also tens of locals and Koreans, but somehow were able to swim into the flock and be surrounded by thousands of sardines. Also I needed to be very still then the fish closed the circle and came closer and I was able to see their scared faces. But I was not their threat, it was the jackfish who were spinning around the sardines on the edge of the deep cliff and then storming into the flock. Of course the sardines were expecting the surge from the predator and they reorganised their formation and the poor jackfish ended up in the newly formed hole inside the flock. It was a game of life and death really. Actually the sardines are a food source for many fish and also to humans. Locals adore the fish, but I also remember a local fish restaurant Lisbon, Portugal, where the locals were eating the fried sardines and claiming it is the best fish in the world. At least jackfish agrees with these old men in Lisbon. For me it was a highlight of this snorkelling.

Soon we swam back and all together we had 40 minutes of swimming and we walked back to the car and drove a bit further to nearby Momo beach. For getting into the water in the diving resorts you need to expect a price tag in thousands of pesos, because they ask for an environmental fee and also mandatory guide of course. Anyway, for us it was zero cost for a short dip. Next in Momo beach we drove in front of a small hotel where I stayed with Eunice, her mother and Mirjam in October, and went to swim again. The high tide and big waves compromised the visibility in the water and the extra load of water kept me higher and not that close to the corals. But it was still good to swim and see plenty of life in the underwater wonder world. It would be better to come back in low tide which should be in the early mornings.

There was an abandoned resort that my former employee Jay showed me already in 2018, which belongs to a Chinese owner. For some mysterious reason this resort is abandoned and nature has taken over the entire area. The pools were full of green moss and vegetation and these pools would be ideal homes for pythons or alligators. The buildings seemed to be not completed, never used, and the trees and bushes are taking them over too, slowly, but surely. Truly irie site and a collector’s item for dark tourism. Of course the site was blocked with simple branches and on the other side of the compound there are guards on duty at the gates. But if you don’t know the remains of the resort is exciting, you would surely miss it, because the jungle has just taken over the resort.

Soon we drove through poblacion aka centre of Panglao town and I was pretty sure there has to be a restaurant La Familia that belongs to a Dutch guy called Leon, but after some driving back and forth and starting to lose trust of my senses, I realised the places has been demolished totally. I wondered what might happen here? Soon we turned into a market and bought some more fruits and drove back to the hotel.

Later we drove to Tagbilaran for massages. Maria did me and Rosy was Madis therapist. He was talking with her all the time, the entire 1.5 hours. It turns out Madis is even more talkative than me, amazing. After the massage we drove back to Alona Beach. Later we walked around the tourist streets and had dinner at the seaside and at 11PM went to sleep.

We02/19 Bohol

I woke up just 10 minutes before the 7AM alarm and took a shower and while Madis took a shower I was able to work even. Soon we went to check whether we could find a breakfast place. There were many breakfast buffets in front of the hotels, but after some walking we landed in a local eatery. I ordered a tocino pork shop with a cup of rice and scrambled eggs. Madis went for the corned beef option. That was a cheap breakfast, 175PHP ~ €3, compared to our previous hotel buffet breakfast.

They reluctantly said OK and allocated us a tour guide and we entered the miniature fenced forest. There were tracks in the mostly bamboo and bush type of vegetation dominated forest with some higher trees too. The guide pointed to a sleepy female tarsier clamping in the top of a tiny palm tree. She was observing us with her big eyes and was just trying to have a siesta. These animals are night animals - that’s why they have such big eyes - and they hunt basically any insects, dragonflies or butterflies that they could catch.

Next we walked to another female tarsier who again watched us with the phlegmatic eyes, but all of sudden climbed very quickly to another spot using the limbs very agilely. I was really surprised how quickly she repositioned due to the potential threat from an approaching group of noisy people behind us. The third animal was a male tarsier. They are so cute and fluffy, just like furry toys, but imagine if they were 10 times bigger, I would be terrified of them, because they are fearful predators with sharp teeth. Well, that was it - the tour was 5-7 minutes. 

The tarsiers here are like semi-free prisoners - they are coming to the fenced forest to sleep, because it is safer inside. But the hunting ground is outside at night. Their enemies are mostly big snakes like python and king cobra, but also dogs and cats and eagles. But the biggest enemy is of course human, because deforestation and new housings and roads cut off and fragment the habitats. Besides, these tarsiers who are one of the smallest primates in the World, are also endemic species, meaning they are only in Bohol.

Soon we continued our road and we took a usual road to see some more countryside where tourists usually would never stumble. There were rice fields with carabao eating in the grasslands and humble housings in the middle of the farm. Driving in Bohol takes time, because the central part of the island is very hilly and roads are twisty and narrow.

At 11AM we arrived in Carmen, parked the car, paid 100PHP ~ €1.5 per face and jumped into a shuttle bus. The shuttle buses are actually a clever solution for preventing the tiny approach road and parking space on top to be overwhelmed by heavy tourist traffic. After all, it is a mass tourism spot. Soon we walked up the stairs and admired the view of the surrounding chocolate hills, which were green grassy hills. Only in April and May these hills in the local summer will turn into brown truffles. Because of the heat, lack of rain and sometimes of wild fires these grass bumps will be coloured brown. It was a fight for picture shooting spots, typical hassle in such places. Madis sleekly got the corner of the platform for himself and took many photos with his camera selfie stick. There was a massive dark purple cloud approaching from the east, from Alicia mountains and it was wise to go down. I also saw our drinking buddy Shane from the Escape bar in Alona Beach a few nights ago.

Th02/20 Bohol

It was an early wake up alarm, at 5:50AM that woke us up and quickly got ourselves to the car. Our destination was Tagbilaran and near the port was a tiny fishing port, swimming spot and most importantly a fish restaurant. There was payable parking near the beach and we walked down the stairs to a little pier where we saw a deal happening between fishermen and a buyer. It turned out these weird ocean creatures called sea cucumbers are desired delicatesses in Korea and in China. These are strange sea animals, I have had hold them in hand and they are moving and bursting out of water from the back end.

Next we checked the fresh fish options and we ordered a giant squid and a bigger fish and squid salad. All together 1000PHP ~ €16, which later turned out to be an Americano price. Damn it, double the price. Eunice said we should start walking away from the vendor, then the price would sink into the normal spot, but we were too excited about the fresh catch. Need to have a poker face. While the food was on the grill, we swam nearby along with locals and the water was even a little bit chillier than I expected, but still very warm. The Caingget beach is a local people place, I have seen only once a foreigner there in 7 years. 

But on weekdays it is rather calm, not too crowded, but on the weekends it would be a vibrant place. Kids will swim and families will rent the shelters and have smaller scale fiesta with good food, heavy drinks and loud music from boombox. They also served hot rice steamed in bamboo little packages, which is also a very cool local custom. The food was good and the place was very authentic, a spot for locals. The water was calm, no waves to speak of and only the passing OceanJet made some waves. There was a chasing game for life and death on the surface of the water. The long spear type fish chased smaller fish and they were almost running on the water. A very impressive site. 

Soon we walked back to the car and drove to the plaza to see my tennis club people. Somehow there were many just chilling there and one game was ongoing. It was good to see them again before leaving and introduce another Estonian to them, kind of proving that I’m not bullshitting about a small country called Estonia. It really exists. Old man Sid was also there, perhaps dropped by his wife to hangout while she did shopping. Madis was talking with Sid while I was talking to Odette and other familiar faces. I promised to be back in December. 

Next we drove back to Panglao island and to the very end of it to a resort and mall called Maodto. As it was still early, at 9AM, the restaurants and cafés were still closed, we sneaked in as resort guests and layed down at the beach. It is amazing what you can do when you have a white face, in my case already more pinkish or reddish face really. It was low tide and I suggested we should go snorkelling. Madis was lazy I guess and said he will see more corals in Indonesia. First I walked on a floating bridge further to the sea and started snorkelling still in 1 metre deep water. But it soon turned out to be a good decision, because the sea floor was covered with coral plants and marine life in general. Besides, I was swimming between and floating over very close to the coral bushes and I saw plenty of colourful fish. It was only a 15 minutes spin to the underwater deep cliff and back, but it was all worth it. Madis meanwhile was talking to a Hungarian guy at the beach. Soon we migrated to a café and enjoyed proper coffees in Buzz Bee café. Soon the sky turned very dark and we decided to walk back to the car and drive to Alona. And immediately it started to rain, but not very heavy tropical rain, just drizzled.

Later we stayed indoors, had a shower, packed bags and worked. For lunch we had mangoes, bananas and chicos. I got a nasty surprise from Turkish Airlines and I needed to invest about one hour hassle with their support in order to get a decent replacement flight for the cancelled Istanbul Tallinn flight. The funny thing was the cancellation reason - due the weather condition in Tallinn. 

Wait a minute, do they really know the weather 3 days ahead precisely? Sorry Turkish, don’t bullshit educated passengers. In the end I need to stay in Istanbul for a night. That sucks, because I wanted to be home on Saturday and have Mirjam and Eunice welcoming me in the airport, but now Mirjam and Jaanika will go the same morning to Egypt instead. What to do, there was also an option to cancel and get a refund, but that is not really an option in such a short notice. Besides, many flights are already fully booked and overpriced. I even tried to make the upgrade to business class, because I saw a decent flight option on the flight where the tourist class was already sold out, but the support person was not able to do such an action and I really didn’t want to hassle with it on my own.

For the last night we decided to have a buffet, ~1000PHP ~ €16 per face. It was all good food and also regrettable, because we walked away with stomachs too full. There was Korean food, many choices of meat and fish, but I mainly concentrated on fish and not eating rice at all to avoid stomach explosion.

There was also a local Filipino older man drunk as an old skunk and he was sleeping by head on the counter. Sometimes he had an awakening and he asked for more drinks. That was also amazing. I was wondering whether the waitress or bartender's work requires flirting or perhaps Julie just wearing the bar outfit starts this flirting role to keep customers energised and ordering more drinks. Time to time she was pushing her hair up and repainting her lips with lipstick. For me it was like a field trip of anthropology. Our bill was 688PHP ~ €11, because she didn’t write all the drinks down, deliberately. At 10PM we walked back to the hotel, had a shower and wrote a bit before at 11PM went to sleep.

Soon we did our last preparations and checked out and drove to nearby Panglao airport. It was a quick 2 weeks packed with emotions and experiences. We hugged and Madis went to the terminal and I drove to the office in Tagbilaran. At 11AM I put my fins and other diving gear along with extra tennis shoes and shirts into a cabinet in the office. My regular flat has been rented out to a Lithuanian guest. First I gave a civet coffee to Jhobert who is a coffee fan and he promised to arrange a Sagada coffee experience for the Bohol team. After all it is an expensive shit, literally - 1200PHP ~ €20. I chatted with Jessa and Charley too and soon drove downtown for a massage. 

After massage I drove to the port nearby and gave the car back to the rental company. At 1:15PM I walked into the terminal and soon into the waiting hall, where I worked, wrote and had a coffee. It was raining heavily again and the sky has turned grey again. At 2:15PM we started the crossing of the Cebu straights and I was catching up on the diary. The sea was rough at some places and the sky was grey. At 4:14PM we arrived to Cebu and soon Grab taxi picked me up and soon I was in the office. First we had a meeting with 3 OJT-s as trainees and we presented with Cherry the Blendit's values and how we operate. After that I had few more meetings with Lyneth and Cherry. Also I had video calls with Mirjam and Eunice and packed my bags. OMG my bag is big full of gifts and food, only few cloths for Eunice and for myself to bring back to Estonia. 

At 6:30PM I said bye-bye to the Cebu team, because they will leave before I will be back, and walked to the laundry place and dropped the dirty laundry there. On Monday Lyneth will go and pick up the clean laundry. Next I walked further to the Bonifacio district to TUF for a haircut. Actually I could drive there, but as there was a massive traffic jam I preferred to walk instead. Besides, I'm too lazy to take the car's cover off. The hairdresser Allan cut off almost 10cm of my hair, he said that I was his customer also in October. The work was relatively easy and I paid 380PHP ~ €6.

Soon I was at the fruit stand and I bought jackfruit for Eunice and a mango and an avocado for the night.  As there were no Maxim habal-habal aka moto-taxi in sight, I walked back home, but with a little twist. There was a nice secret passage which I didn't know existed. Basically it was a rich people neighborhood with multiple security checks that random poor people would not go through. But as my face was again white or in that state more reddish, I walked through and I was amazed by the pools, gyms and hidden luxury life. 

Well, I was just happy to have a shortcut and avoided walking along the dusty and jammed John Paul II road and enjoyed silence. Back home I ate the mango and consumed the last milk by spinning it with avocado in our new blender. Soon I took a shower, wrote a diary and dragged the bags to the first floor. At 10:30PM I walked and soon ran  to massage through the rain. It turned out that my flight would be in at least two hours. Ruby massaged me for one hour and I was her last customer. Yes, that was my second message of the day, I guess I just wanted to get one more massage at an affordable price. Later I had another call with Eunice and took a last shower.

Sa02/22 In the air

At 1AM I ordered a Grab taxi and drove to the airport.  Actually Madis gave his last few thousand pesos to me, but still I ran out of cash and I was not eager to take another 10,000 pesos from the ATM. But I made it, the last cash cost was 386PHP ~ €6 taxi bill and I had 400 left. Only coins were left. Check-in, immigration and security checks went smoothly because there was no queue. At 2AM I was sitting in the bar and drinking coffee. I continued to read Mcconaughey’s book. It was quite surreal to have a call with Eunice when she was about to go to sleep. 

At 4AM we onboarded the Airbus A350-900 and the plane was pretty empty, but the flight crew said it had been fully booked and it would be loaded in Manila. We took off from Mactan airport at 4:30AM. In Manila we had a one hour stop where they refueled and restocked and the majority of the passengers came onboard. Soon it was already daylight and we started our long journey to the west. At 8AM we were served breakfast. My neighbor was Daniela from Serbia and we talked about multiple topics. On the 14 hours flight I tried to sleep and I guess I had some sleep in small portions. Also I kept on reading the book. Somehow I have made a mess with the joint of the chain of cables for connecting my big headset to the plane’s entertainment console. Just last joint was lightning and USB-C that was required in my headset and I didn't want to use the given set, because it is not very good. Instead I had plenty of time to read books and drink red wine. Somewhere above Azerbaijan the stewarts served lunch or dinner, not quite sure because of the time differences and the fact that we were flying towards the west and running away from the evening is messing up my sense of time. 

At 3:30PM we landed in Istanbul. There was snow in Istanbul and we didn't have any warm clothes. Many flights were cancelled and that created a huge mess and a massive queue in the passport control. And then I walked some more and waited for an announcement of my hotel downtown provided by Turkish Airline. At 5PM I was finally in the shuttle bus. Well, there was a mess too and some waiting and as I was wearing only a sweater, I was proactive and chased my name in the long lists. Finally I got it - Kaya hotel. I was numb, too tired to be annoyed. Istanbul's new airport is almost in Bulgaria and it took a bus over one hour to reach the hotel and that was not luckily even the city centre. In the hotel reception we needed to wait again. My name was not called and it turned out they were missing my voucher. Well, I was clever enough not to wait until the lobby was empty and asked about my name, because often they had difficulties pronouncing the name.

Finally at 7AM I got to my room on the 21st floor and made video calls and took a shower. Soon I went down to the restaurant for dinner. The food was good, but limited in terms of variety. Actually I was starving and food did me well. 

Another item in the list for knocking me out for a great sleep, was the spa on the first floor. As I didn't have my swimwear with me, I asked how the saunas are working here. Eventually, obviously  ladies had a separate sauna area and in the mens section I was wearing the colorful towel around my waist like a skirt or a dhoti in Tamil Nadu India. There was a regular sauna, a steam sauna and hamam. I was entering the sauna and said Salam and they all said a standard reply. There were 4 men in the sauna pouring ice to the hot stones. I enjoyed the steam sauna most, hamam was just for washing, no steam there. Later I went up to my room with a bigger towel around me. That was a fun experience and surely after one more tea and video call I was sleeping like a baby.

There was massive snowfall and the visibility was very low and then again the sun came out and all was clear. But I think this very snow created all this mess and delays in Istanbul airport, because snow is not very usual here. Soon I saw the snow on every higher ground. It was time to have food. It was breakfast, although it could easily be lunch too. After eating I continued reading Mcconaughey's book and in some parts couldn't handle it and burst out laughing. Only one thing annoys me more and more - his ability to create wonderful sentences, a real wordsmith if you will. I guess I'm just envying his skill, but I also know it's just the fact that English is not my mother tongue and I have far less English books and scripts than he has. The very cheerful steward gave me Efes  Pilsen beer and so I drank beer and read the book. This time, for the 4 hour flight, I got the emergency exit seat. At 2:30PM we landed in Tallinn. I got my bag and walked out and Eunice was there for kisses and hugs. It is good to be back home.

Looking Back

As I have been in the Philippines so many times, it was refreshing to see somebody getting excited about the country, people, food and nature that I have been privileged to see many years in a row. Madis is of course a different kind of person, his ability to cheerfully exchange meaningful conversations sometimes with random people and absorb the vibe and essentials of the culture and society. He went even further than me in socialising and digging deeper into the matters, perhaps he felt he also needed to, because he hasn’t had the luxury to visit these tropical islands multiple times. For me there are also new things to discover like Pinatubo volcano and driving on the Metro Manila ExpressWay. 

Yet, it was just one month this time and the adventure with Madis on the second half of my trip consumed 2 weeks. That made the trip very intense and emotions were kind of compressed into these weeks. And also I guess I haven't drank that often ever, basically every night. That surprised me too. It was fun and affordable. I was able to enjoy a very wide variety of food, from Filipino dishes to far east cuisine. It seems every trip has its unique side and this time it was heavy travelling and collecting a total of 2000 KM on 3 islands. Already 1350 KM in Luzon, which is the largest island in the Philippines. I’m planning to return to The Pearl of The Orient by December.