Is This the Most Epic Way to See the Philippines? Ep.2
Good morning. Are you doing your dances? Nice. I wondered what the noise was. Okay. Coffee, please.
This is Che. She lives right here. This is her spot. I saw her yesterday when I was walking back after watching those kids play basketball, and she's out here doing her morning workout. This is the corner stop right here. Get your chips, get your toys for the kiddos, get your water. Either way, this one's okay.
Ooh, this guy over here is selling some donuts. Hell yeah. Good morning. Oh, you want one? Yeah? Wow. Do these have anything inside? Is there anything inside? Egg? Egg. What about this one? Coconut? Oh, I'll do one coconut. Huh? Nothing inside? Nothing inside. What about this one?
Coco bread? Cocoa bread. Okay. What about these? Chai—chat? Only syrup? That looks good. I'll try one. Yeah. One.
Good morning. Morning. Are you here every day? Yeah. In the morning.
How much do I owe you? 10 P? 10 pesos? So there's five... ten... ten. Okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you.
I'll come sit over here. Yeah, sit here. Thank you. How much for the coffee? Fifteen? Fifteen.
One... five... ten. Oh, there's ten. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, this thing is covered in some kind of gooeyness. Can't tell what it is, but it's kind of sweet. Not bad. Not bad for five pesos. I'll take it. Seems like that's what happens around here. People show up with their catch, people come and check it out, see if they're interested.
Let's see what she's got. A little bit of everything. Looks like some of the trainees have started to show up. And this morning, before we get on out of here, I'm going to show you guys a little bit of what they have to go through here at this Maritime Training Center. It's coming—coming. One, two, one, one, out, guys. I don't know. I guess I've just never thought about it, like, what goes into getting a job on
a ship. A cargo ship, a cruise liner, any ship, I guess. I guess I just never realized— I mean, I guess it makes sense. You'd have to do stuff like this. Talking to the people here, a lot of them are going to work on a cruise liner, but they're working all different jobs. Like, the lady over there, she's going to be a casino dealer. I've met chefs, firefighters, electricians, engineers— just everyone. It doesn't matter what position it is. If you're working on a cruise ship, And there was one guy I was talking to earlier this morning. He said, "Yeah,
I'm going to work on a cargo ship, and I have to take like four different courses." It's actually kind of expensive, but he says it's going to be worth it in the end. It was like 25,000 pesos for him to take four courses to get certified, qualified to do his job. So, cool. I learned something. Thank you to the Visas Maritime Training and Review Center. Mal. He's a good boy. You're a sweetheart, aren't you? You're a sweetheart. Take care of this place, all right?
All right. I think it's about time to get on the road. 9:15. Let's do it. Where'd I put my bike? Parked it over here in the shade. Time for some breakfast. What do you want? I had halang-halang last night. Okay, I'll try the pork, I guess.
Okay, this one? Yes, please. I got some fruit. I'm gonna get some rice, pork, maybe some veggies. Veggies look good. Some beans. Okay. Can I eat here? Yeah. Okay.
In? Yeah, yeah, come, come in. I saw her starting to put it in plastic bags. I was like, "I don't want that." Okay. Excuse me. Good morning. You in? I want to eat here.
Yes. Looks delicious. Thank you. So I got some pork and veggies, and some other veggies with a little bit of pork, and a lot of rice. Sweet. They put a lot of sugar and stuff here, but it's warm. I like it. It's not cold.
I think they just made it. I scoped out this whole street. There are like four or five different stalls open, and this is by far the busiest. So that's why I chose this one. Nice and greasy.
What do you know? Another old, old church. Looks like a whole little compound up here. A whole community. I'm sorry, I don't have any stickers. I need to get some, though. Thank you, thank you. That's one thing I do need to get—some stickers. The sign on the back of my bike, though, is money—the best $10 I've ever spent in Bondon. I was just checking out this sign right here. It says "Carcar Parish Priest, the first one, August 22nd, 1759." So it's a pretty old church.
Alright, I think this is Leon Central right here. On the maps, there are like eight different Leon restaurants throughout here. Let’s see. Where am I going to park the bike? Can I park it back here? Yeah, I'm looking for crispy, crispy lechon. The last stuff I had was really rubbery. So yeah, how do I order? I need some rice and lechon. "One kilo is 900. Only 425 for you."
"How much? 225? Okay, just for me? Yeah, can I get some of the crispy?" "Yes. You want to try honey rice or plain rice?" "What kind of rice? Honey? Sure, I'll try honey rice. No, thank you." I would say already, this looks way better. I think the ultimate test is the skin. Yeah, nice and crunchy. That’s how it's supposed to taste. Look at all that fat. Damn, that’s really good. Let me put a glove on. Okay, awesome. Thank you, thank you. But yeah, this meat looks so much better. Oh man,
nice and salty. I think that's some proper lechon. That is good. Salty, but I like it. Kind of tough—it’s not exactly easy to chew, but very flavorful. I don't know why, but that last stuff kind of tasted like turkey. This tastes more like pork. And the skin? Hear that crunch?
That's freaking good. Now I need some chili sauce. "Sir, so spicy." "Just a small one." "100."
"Okay. Is that chips? Ah, no thank you. Thank you, thank you. How much for the peanuts? 100? Three for 100? I’ll try. Okay, peanuts sound good. Thank you. No, thank you. No, thank you. 100? I know, I know. I think I have plenty. I got the chicharon and some peanuts." Alright, now what to do? Hi, hello! Okay, I think from here we're going to cut to the other side of the island. It's
already 2:00. It’d be nice to find a place to camp up in those mountains right there, but I don’t know if that’s going to be doable. We’ll see. Still getting a feel for the Philippines. There you are, Cebu. Beautiful, beautiful. I haven't done an uphill in a while—I am huffing and puffing. Feels good, though. Feels good. I need it. Oh, didn't mean to freak you out, dog. Didn't mean to freak you out. Just taking in the beauty. "Hello, hello!" "Buko juice?" "What is buko juice?" "Juice!" "Oh, coconut? Buko is coconut? Okay, I’ll have one buko juice. Sounds good. How much is it?"
"35." "35? Let me show you this view. Oh, that’s sweet. Not bad." That’s good. A lot of sugar, though. Might not be able to find bingsu, but this coconut juice will work. "Are you roasting corn? What’s in here?" "Corn."
"Can I see? Ooh, steamed corn. Oh man. How much is that?" "50." "50? Okay, I'll take one." Oh yeah, I bet that's real good. Actually, that looks freaking delicious. Oh yeah, nice
and crunchy. That is freaking good. That is really good. Got some butter and salt on it. Good stop. Alrighty, check it out—we have our first monument! Seen a lot of churches, but I don’t think I’ve seen a monument yet. This one is for Chief Justice MW Jose Abad Santos (1886–1942), "Counsel of the Nation." He was captured by the Japanese in Carcar on April 11, 1942. When he declined to take an oath of allegiance to the Japanese government, he was ordered executed. At the last moment of
his life, he told his son, "Why, son, do not shed tears, for this is an unusual opportunity given to me to die for my own country. Not everyone is given such an opportunity as this." Wow. Gotta love seeing all the smiles too. Pretty much every single person I pass by—especially if I smile at them—I’ll get a smile back. Or a creepy look. That was a nice smile. Hey, there’s a nod. I tell you what, the Philippines—they love Eminem. I can't tell you how many times I've passed by someone, or someone has passed by on one of these little guys right here, and they've been blaring Eminem. I ain’t complaining—I like me some Eminem too.
"Hello, hello!" Ah, more smiles. From here, I’m going to try and go scope out a campsite. Looks like it’s kind of uphill away, so hopefully, it's not too bad. I'd like to stay up in the mountains one night instead of just going straight over to the other side of Cebu to the beach. We’ll see. They play this volleyball with a really small ball, and there’s really no volleying—it’s just back and forth the whole time. Kind of like badminton, I guess.
Alright, let's see how good my luck is today. Pulled off the main road again, going down a side street. Super local area. Kids walking around with chickens. "Hello!" On Google Maps, there shows to be a campsite about a kilometer away. Fingers crossed, because it has been extremely steep going up and down these hills, and I don't want to go back tonight. I think it starts here too—the uphill. Well, I found camp, but this is just the trailhead. Hopefully, it's not too far down here. I could talk to somebody. Just don’t want to leave my bike
up there with all my stuff. Like, everything. We are out here in the middle of nowhere, but there is still a lot of traffic. Oh man, I don’t think this is going to work. Nope. Okay, we’re going back. We’re going back. That’s so good. Everywhere you go, you see water fountains like that, and all it costs is like one peso to get some water. This cost 3 pesos to fill up, which is like 10 cents. "What did y’all do today?" "School."
"High school? College? I’m from the U.S., going to Manila." "You have a girlfriend?" "No, single, alone. What about you guys? You got girlfriends?" "That’s your girlfriend?" Oh, she shut that down. She denied him, man. That’s alright, that’s alright. At least it’s been a beautiful downhill ever since I got back on the main road. Just cruising. Could’ve been doing this the whole time. And just like that, I’m in a bustling little area again. Hey, what’s up? More people dancing.
I swear, they love choreographed dancing here in the Philippines. You see this everywhere. Go to any random park where there are tons of people—7, 6, 5… 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… And just like that, we've made it to the other side of Cebu. Wasn't too bad. Yeah, I kind of did it to myself by going up and trying to find that campsite—that freaking wore me out. But if I hadn't done that, it wouldn't have been so bad. It's beautiful.
I think the next island I'm going to is that one right over there. If you can see it from here, we're going to Moalboal—or however you say it. So that's kind of where I'm heading now. I'm about an hour and a half away, 25 km. Let's get moving. Seems like a really nice area. Oh man, I'm excited to be here. Yeah, I am tired. Sorry, what was your name? Gwan? Gwan! Nice to meet you.
Well, I made it to Moalboal. I didn't think I was going to make it this far today, but I did. I wanted to stay somewhere up in the mountains and camp, but that didn’t happen. I had a place to stay here, so I figured I might as well just book it. Which means... I’m extremely tired. I've already checked into my place, and I'll introduce you to the owners of the guesthouse in the next video. Really nice
couple—they invited me to stay at their guesthouse, and I couldn’t pass it up. But that’s going to do it for this video, guys. I'm exhausted. I'm going to take a shower, clean up, and call it a day.
2025-02-14 16:49
