Kate’s Winter Vacation

Back in Manila I had a couple of nice shopping days (don’t ask me how much stuff I bought, please :D) before we had ANOTHER wee trip to make, this time down to Legaspi, specifically Donsol, where we were going to attempt to swim with whale sharks.

[This is now Frances writing to Anne:] We flew to Legazpi in the southern Luzon region of Bicol, next to the enormous active volcano Mount Mayon (Daddy annoyed with self: he got no pictures on our arrival day, and on our departure day it was clouded over). A van met us at the airport and drove us the hour / 50 km to Donsol through windy roads, lots of rice paddies (a few terraced, very pretty) and small towns that got poorer-looking the further we went. By the time we got to the Donsol region, nearly all the roadside houses' walls were of woven nipa palm rather than concrete (except in the town itself). Lots of carabao (water buffalo) and pigs. Oh, and roosters. My goodness, there were roosters.

The Woodland Resort cost about 1/10 as much as El Nido, and we were visiting at the very beginning of whale shark season. The first night, we were the only guests. Thus, our nipa-walled room was a bit musty. No soap -- fortunately I still had some bath gel in my toiletries bag, though someone had cleaned out the spare soap I usually keep there -- but at least there were two towels to share. As for the food, well, you wouldn't have survived. Even the vegetables were stir-fried with fatty pork bits. Our choices were pork, fish or chicken with rice and veggies and a plate of fresh fruit for dinner, and, at breakfast, rice or sugary bread with fried eggs, bacon and bananas. However, there was running water, a flush toilet and even a cold-water shower. And air conditioning, though with all the louvered windows it wouldn't have been necessary, if we'd had a breeze.