22/01/2010
Another early start up at 4.30am !!! Dam I hate those early morning starts. We had to catch the 5.30am ferry. So we had booked a car from the resort and as to be expected they were knocking on our door at 4.55am. Down to the wharf to get out tickets and of course you have to buy the tickets at one booth and you have to pay what the call a terminal fee at another booth, I guess it’s a good way to give people jobs. Considering the two aussie guys had a live in maid and they paid her about $50 aussie per month!!! Of course you have to stand around to wait to get on the ferry as the ferry terminal is pretty crappy. The ferry had to go back to Dumageti before heading to Tagbilarin. It was a bit rough but I was pretty happy as I didn’t get sick. And I didn’t see any chickens on the ferry this trip. The bloody air cond was freezing and I mean it was like a fridge !!! Of course I did not have any thing warm and turned into an icy pole but managed to thaw out pretty quickly once we got to tagbilarin. Had a talk to the tourist guy at the port and he was pretty helpful. We only had one day at Taglibarin so we had to get moving. Got the tricycle who of course knew a better place for accommodation and bike rental. On the way to the motel we rented a Honda XR200 for 800 pescos about $20 aussie but we had a bit of ground to cover and I thought the moped might not be up to the task. Anyway we busted the room down to 700 pescos which was ok as it was reasonable as it had air con. We hit the road as we needed to cover a some miles. Our first port of call was to see the little E.T Monkeys. They are only as big as your hand and they have big googley eyes and they look a bit like Yoda off Star Wars. They are so cool you just want to grab them and stuff them in your pocket, but seeing as we had full pockets we had to leave them all behind. Did I mention we were pulled over by a police/army block??? They are having elections and they have a gun ban !! Normally you can carry your gun but they are a bit edgey at the moment. No trouble for us as they are not really worried about white Australians. He did ask me if I had a licence, I went to get it and he just waved us through but his mate did notice the supposedly registed bike we were on had no plates but too late we were on our way. Woops forgot to mention the stupid looking helmets they gave us, check out the picture!!! We stopped at a little place for a drink and it had a really cool old church. Drank our coke after a few miles Trace saw a sign for a place she had read about in the Lonely Planet called Nuts Huts. Luckily we had the trail bike as it was nearly one kilometer from the road down the side of the mountain on a very steep and rough track. Lonely Planet described this as a 15 minute walk from the road !!!! YEH RIGHT..!!! Apparently most people get there by the river at the bottom of the mountain. Well once we got to the entrance there was still another million stairs to go down. Well that was fine but whatever goes down must come up !!! And that was our exercise for about a week!! Anyway once we got down the bottom we had pretty ordinary hamburgers but we could see why people stayed there as its right in the middle of a jungle. We talked to a few people but had to tackle those stairs and the mountain as we had to get to our next stop. The Chocolate Mountains. We had to have a few pit stops as our bums were getting sore. We battled on and finally got to the mountains. Pretty amazing but we were a bit early as the hills were green. They got their name because when the vegetation dies off really look like Chocolate Drops. Pretty !!! Did the tourist thing had and ice cream and headed off. We stopped at the old church place for a beer and another ARMY road block, They simply waved us through and continued o search all the locals..!!! Was getting dark so we had to motor but still did not get back to our room before dark so we battled our way back. Got back dropped off the bike, showered up and headed to a nice restaurant. Another days travelling so grabbed a tricycle back to the motel for sleepy time.
