I travelled across four islands in the Philippines to meet Nordic people living there. Along the way, I took buses, ferries and tricycles, got sick, missed a bus and eventually had to abandon my budget.
“The combination of a tricycle and Liloan’s uneven concrete roads resulted in me having to hold my breasts from falling off.”
This is one of many sentences I wrote in my notes app during a budget-friendly journey through the Philippines.
I had set out to travel across four islands – Negros Oriental, Cebu, Leyte and Luzon – to tell the stories of Nordic people living in the Philippines.
The route seemed simple enough:
Dumaguete, Dauin → Liloan → Moalboal → Back to Liloan → Cebu → Ormoc → Tacloban → Manila.
Buses. Tricycles. Ferries. Repeat.
Everything was supposed to be budget-friendly and straightforward. And for the most part, it was.
Until it wasn’t.
Somewhere between the rattling tricycles, long bus rides and ferry journeys, my carefully planned trip began to unravel.
And eventually, I had to admit defeat.
DUMAGUETE
My first stop was Dumaguete.
I arrived by plane from Manila and headed straight to Dauin, a coastal town known as the capital of muck diving – a form of scuba diving that takes place over sandy, silty and muddy seabeds.
It may not sound like the most glamorous place to dive.
But beneath the surface, Dauin is anything but dull.
Tiny, colourful creatures move between the corals, while fish slowly return to a reef system that is still recovering from Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated parts of the Philippine coastline in 2013.
In Dauin, however, the reefs are coming back to life.
Coast guards patrol the water to make sure divers do not stand on the fragile corals. People from around the world come to help restore the reefs, earn their Divemaster certification or teach others how to dive.
It was the perfect beginning to my journey. From there, I continued south to Liloan.
→ LILIOAN → MOALBOAL
From Dumaguete the initial plan was: Ferry from Dumaguete to Lilioan, and then a bus from Liloan to Moalboal.
But as the ferry arrived in Liloan and I turned to security for guidance to find the bus, a tricycle driver offered a ride to the bus station for 250 PHP.
That quickly turned into him offering to drive me the whole way: 2 hours for 2000 PHP.
At this point I figured: what the hell. The bus wasn’t leaving for another couple of hours and this girl (me) was tired from diving in Dauin.
So off we went: me, my luggage and a tricycle driver who probably should become a salesman.
Along the way locals were burning off trash with the smoke entering this open carousel, and the combination of a tricycle and Liloans uneven cemented roads resulted in me having to hold my breasts from falling off.
But you would not hear me complaining. It’s good to feel alive sometimes.
In Moalboal I was greeted with the same Filipino kindness as everywhere else. People seemed genuinely happy, and for a very specific reason perhaps: I arrived in this city at the same time as the Philippines biggest festival Summer Madness.
Normally people would come to Moalboal for diving and snorkeling, but since I had just done that in Dauin, I was ready to experience a different side of the Philippines.
And so, the festival came at the perfect time. People were young, drunk, dancing, swimming in the ocean, laughing.
I’ve never felt such a community-feeling in a city as I did in Moalboal.
And as fun as Moalboal was, it was also here things started to go downhill – a little too early on my trip.
I got sick and ended up having to extend my stay in the saddest way possible: staying in my hotel near a toilet at all times, which ended up delaying the rest of my travels – and later on ruining the budget-friendly attempt.
→ CEBU → ORMOC → TACLOBAN
When I finally got fresh enough to travel again, I entered the bus to Cebu from Maolboal with what I assume was a very confused expression.
From what I could see, the bus was full, but it seemed like the ticket inspector wanted me to sit down. There were just no seats available – at least you would think.
All around me people were sitting very close to each other. They were making room for each other, even though it really would be a more pleasant trip to just stand up.
With my expression still best described as confused, a kind woman echoed: “Ma’am, you can sit here.”
I thanked her kindly, and as I sat down, I immediately could confirm there was no room for me. I was almost falling off the seat only keeping myself up by pure leg muscle which contains little to nothing.
Shortly after, the kind woman next to me luckily got off, and I could sit comfortably.
Next to me a local sat down. He was on his way home from work as a tourist guide, and I could teach him a little something about Road2Rio, an app where you can plan your journey.
When I finally arrived in Cebu, I stayed 1 night to prevent grey hair. The next day I headed to Ormoc.
Ferry from Cebu to Ormoc
I was welcomed by a staff member who took care of the whole damn operation for me: he helped me buy my ticket, guided me through the absolute chaos that is the ferry terminal, and made sure my luggage ended up on the right ferry through security.
You have to imagine the ferry station exactly like an airport. Announcements are blasting over the speakers, and you have to find your assigned gate.
It is confusing as hell.
I would never have made it through without my ferry guy by my side.
Bus from Ormoc to Tacloban
From Ormoc, I headed straight to the bus terminal next to the pier, only to find out that the bus I needed actually left from another terminal about 15 minutes away.
Before I had time to process it, a tuk-tuk driver had taken me under his wing and was hurrying me toward his vehicle. He was walking so fast that I could barely keep up.
As I wondered why we were practically running, he told me: “The last bus is leaving now, ma’am! I will hurry!”
Sure enough, by the time we reached the bus terminal, my bus was already pulling away without me.
My heroic tuk tuk driver, who at this point was driving like a cartoon character, drove up on the side of the bus, honked and yelled something.
The bus luckily stopped, and I was on my way to Tacloban: a 2 hour trip for 200 PHP. Of course with a kind tip to my tuk tuk driver.
The ride was cold. The windows were wide open and it was pouring outside. But I kept warm. My stomach was still burning from my Moalboal-sickness.
Once in a while the bus would stop for the local vendors to sell food and snacks to the bus passengers. Meanwhile the rest of the city would wave aggressively as they saw me and giggle as I waved back.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to experience that much in Tacloban. Not that I didn’t want to, but I had other, quite different plans: I came to visit Streetlight.
Just a 40 minute drive away from Tacloban, there is a quiet area filled with nothing else but the sound of children laughing and birds chirping. At Streetlight, street kids are offered something many of them have never had before: safety, stability, and hope.
It was hard to leave the peace of Streetlight behind, and as lovely as it was, I wasn’t done chasing buses just yet. Or so I thought.
→ MANILA
Unfortunately, this was where my budget-friendly journey came to an end. The plan had been to take a 17-hour ferrybus all the way from Tacloban to Manila for 2.500 PHP, but getting sick in Moalboal had thrown my schedule off.
By the time I was ready to leave, it was Saturday. As far as I could figure out, the ferrybuses only run once a day from Monday to Friday. That meant I had missed my chance.
So there I was, ready to take on my 17-hour travel suit, but I had to see myself defeated. I looked the Tacloban airport in the eyes and we agreed that a flight was the only way out now.
It all started with me buying the wrong ticket. A whole month from my travel plans to be exact. And mind you, it was non-refundable. I started to question the universe. Should I just take the bus? Is that it, dear stars shining above me?
I sat down, really concentrating on buying the correct ticket to the correct destination on the correct date. And I succeeded.
A short flight later, I ended up in Manila. The last destination on my travels. An absolutely beautiful and vibrant city.
And also the city where I had no idea how to get around. The city where I think I almost got mugged, and the city that only saw the defeated side of me.
But again, you would never hear me complaining. It’s good to feel alive sometimes.
Prices:
Tricycle from Dumaguete to pier in Cebu: 700 PHP
Ferry from Cebu to Liloan: 185 PHP
Tricycle from Liloan to Moalboal: 2.000 PHP (the bus would have cost me 380 PHP)
Bus from Moalboal to Cebu: 220 PHP
Ferry from Cebu to Ormoc: 1.350 PHP
Tricycle from Ormoc to bus: 230 PHP
Bus to Tacloban: 185 PHP
Flight to Manila: 8.380 PHP (If i took the ferrybus instead of flying: 2.570 PHP)
Total without flight: 4.840 PHP (with ferrybus to Manila: 7.410 PHP)
Total with flight: 13.220 PHP
Important apps on my journey:
12go – for booking travels
Road2Rio – for planning the journey
