Part 1

Region: La Union

Our first port of call on both trips, more by luck than judgment!

We initially arrived in the country with no plans, just 2 months to do whatever we like.  Our first stop was the hotel which we had booked from home, costing about 7 a night instead of the usual rate of around 25-30 per night.  Arriving in Manila for the first time is an experience which I’m sure a few would be comfortable with but for the majority of people it’s something that they would be extremely nervous of.  We went with open minds as to what to expect, after all it doesn’t matter how many books and websites you read nothing can prepare you for the reality of your individual experience.

 

We had 2 nights booked at the hotel so we could get our bearings and formulate a plan, we didn’t leave the hotel until the end of the first full day and we thrown straight into the hustle and bustle of the countries capital.  The usual people/places/smells and sights are enough of a shock coming from the clean crisp air of north Devon! This wasn’t what catches you off guard but what does are the sheer numbers of people/cars/motorbikes/jeepneys and all manner of other infrastructure such as low hanging electrical cables which have been tapped into illegally any number of times.  There are the usual hawkers and begging that you would expect in any large city in a developing country, with these comes a variety of tactics to negotiate your way to your destination.  For us this experience initially was a little overwhelming but looking back it’s quite funny how differently we see things now, I would comfortably walk down the street in some of the ‘less desirable’ areas of the city at night knowing that the chances of a problematic situation occurring are no higher (if not lower) than any large town or city in the UK.

The city itself is a great place to spend some time as it encapsulates everything the Philippines has good and bad.  For our first visit we had to decide on a first destination so some cover-to-cover reading of the lonely planet guide was required to help us decide, we finally found a region on the east coast of Luzon which had a small but established surfing community and got swell that time of year (early Jan).  Destination decided we had to get there and stay somewhere so a little investigating was in order but this didn’t get us far, being pasty white fresh from the winter in the UK and staying in a hotel with mainly fat westerners with young Filipino girls we were subjected to the same selective giving of information as everyone else.  We decided in the end that the only person who had been helpful was a driver for the hotel and that we would ask him personally if he could take us, a deal was done and the next morning the boards, luggage and ourselves were packed rather uncomfortably into his Filipino sized taxi and away we went.

The journey from manila involves around 2 hours on good quality motorway before you get onto the only road to the region which is single carriageway with every possible form of transportation from people walking to lorries traveling flat out.  After around 7 hours of traveling we finally arrived at our destination after dark and checked into what was supposedly the hub of the surfing scene with rooms spitting distance from the beach, the rooms were basic or to be more specific they were crap.  10 a night got you a bare room with a toilet, shower and tiny single bed, also a TV and many unwanted guests!  We were tired and thought that a couple of nights would be ok until we found a better option, bad mistake!  The gap under the door was around 2 inches so big enough for all the things you want to keep out, anyway the mosquito net went up and an uncomfortable night followed.

In the morning we awoke to our first view of the beach and the waves, after a quick discussion we decided that we would go looking for some more suitable accommodation on foot armed with our lonely planet.  A long walk along a virtually empty white sand beach followed until after a couple of hours we came across our destination which was a small German run place on a quite stretch of beach open to the swell.  We met the owner Jan and had a look around, we almost fell over when he told us the price, for 3.50 a night we could get a large clean room with a big comfortable bed, TV with cable and a nice clean on suite!  The place was a dream compared to our current accommodation, everything from the room to the ambience created by perfectly manicured gardens and a food menu that sounded amazing, to top it off out front was an empty fun looking beach break with some heavy looking low tide banks.

We made our booking for the next day and got ourselves transport back to our dive as to work out how we were going to carry our luggage, it cost us about 15p, (yes we walked in the 30 degree heat for an hour and a half when for 15p and 10 minutes on a tricycle we could have gone by road!)On returning, the thought of spending any more time in our room more than we needed to gave us one choice, food and beer!  We headed over the road to a little place that looked like someone’s house, it turns out it was but a large area in the front of the house was a restaurant and bar, Jo went all out and chose sashimi (I suppose if you are going to get sick you might as well do it properly) I went for something more straightforward like fish and chips!  The place was great, amazing food for the same amount of money it would cost for a mars bar and can of coke here, the walls were covered in surfing photos, posters, broken boards and all manner of signatures and messages, amongst it all was a large poster advertising an upcoming longboard event at the break no more than 500 yards from where we sat, next to it was a schedule for surf club meetings, the next one was that very night and sat in the corner were a group of guys chatting and drinking San Miguel (the Filipinos insist its their beer!).  We bit the bullet and went over for a chat, an hour later I was entered into the international division of the contest 2 weeks from then, and that was the first part of our trip sorted!

After another restless night of spider and cockroach slaughtering we were relieved to be going somewhere nice for a fraction of the price and within an hour we were settled in and enjoying the peaceful surroundings. 

Sunset German Beach Resort is run by Jan and his Filipino wife along with their daughter and a group of adopted daughters and son Leo and is a project which all started around 25-30 years ago when a small piece of land was purchased and a plan drawn up, years of hard work later and the place is perfect, about 7/8 rooms some with air-con and some without, beautiful gardens and a friendly atmosphere.  We soon got to know all the guys quickly and made some new friends in the next few days when a couple of Aussie guys and a Canadian guy arrived.

We spent most of our time surfing out front on our own, also up the coast at another pretty empty spot next to a cement factory, the final spot that we were surfing was the main point break just down the road in front of where we had stayed previously, all of the accommodation in this area was far more expensive and as it was only 10 minutes away by jeepney at a cost of 11p each person each way we felt that we had done well!