Ayoke Island [click to open]

A few days ago a French guy, Jacques, invited me out to Ayoke Island where he bought some land. 
Getting there required an hour long jeepney ride, a twenty minute motorized tricycle ride,
then an hour in a small boat to the beach landing on Ayoke.
Jacques has 3 workers cleaning the land for a building site.
Living conditions were simple..sleeping in a tent, cooking over a fire and a coconut tree for the loo.
The lack of electricity made for a peaceful setting...just the waves crashing on the beach 
and a million stars at night.

New Photo Safari

The surf has been pretty good here the past few days. Unfortunately, the blog has suffered from neglect as a result. I am trying to find somebody here to take photos of me surfing...but so far no luck. There is a nice swell later this week and I hope to have a photographer lined up to document this great wave.
Meanwhile enjoy some nice photos from around town.

Afternoon Storm

Moonrise over Lanuza

A Perfect Day

Flower Close-Up

Another Nice Sunset

The Spider

Many Tropical Flowers Here...

More Flower Pics...

And More Flowers...

Another Beauty

Local Creatures [click to open]

 

Nothing better than fresh bukus!

The Philippine Food Blog

The traveling surfer/food critic

                                                                                     

The Bamboo Haus food choices
After 3 or 4 days of really nice surf the sea has gone flat again. So I am back to the blog. I got a question the other day regarding the food here in the Philippines. Here in Lanuza there is one restaurant The Bamboo Haus. Everyone there is super friendly. There is no menu. The food de jour is on display in a glass case and varies every day. They always have several seafood choices to choose from and cold, cold beer!
The fish is always fresh and the price is just amazing. My meal pictured below fish, rice and fish soup came to a total of 70 Philippine Pesos. I'm getting 44 Pesos to 1 USD. Once I had this amazing coconut and squash soup which was sweet and rich with flavor. Although I ask every visit, I have not seen it again [so sorry no photo].
Next door to The Bamboo Haus is the combination fruit/vegetable/fish market. This is the market where the whole town buys their food. Once again everything seems fresh and low, low prices. I now eat mangos everyday. Just typing this is makin me hungry. I guess I will have another mango. Life is good!
Please share this with any kind souls.
Peter

Noodles, chicken and fish

Fresh mango from the market

The fish market

Fish...

Another fish.

My breakfast today at The Bamboo Haus.
That whole fish had lots of little bones.
The fish soup was delightful.

More fish..

After...

Lanuza, Surigao de Sur

The View Across the River

'Photo Safari' is wandering the streets with the camera looking for interesting subjects for photography.

Here is an example of Photo Safari - Lanuza, Philippines.

A river flows past the place I am staying. When it reaches the Pacific, sandbars form which makes the waves here.

The light here is just wonderful, especially at sundown.

Enjoy..

Filipino Boy Fishing

Cool Old Building

Future surfer getting a 'taste' of his first board

Headed South...

The old prop plane

The weather looked nice for my 2 hour flight south to Surigao City. Philippine Air policy for surfboards was to weigh the boardbag [12 kilos] then divide that in half. The result is the charged 112 philippine pesos per kilo. That comes to 672 php, at 44 php per USD thats $15.27 USD maybe the best deal in Manila! 

I boarded to older model prop plane at 11:30 am. We took off on schedule. Then instead of heading south we flew a large circle around the city. The pilot announced that we were landing again in Mainla with a mechanical problem. After a normal landing we sat back down in the terminal. Within an hour or so we boarded another older looking prop plane and took off again. Now...no problems. 

Everybody cheered when we landed.

In Surigao City I found a van headed south to Lanuza.

[200 php + 100 php for the board]

View from the air

I am glad I brought some rope to tie the board
to the roof. 4 hours later and after dark the van drops me at the front door of The Poktoy Surf Haven. Im the only guest at this time as the real surf season is a few weeks away. Its hot here maybe 85* F but a nice seabreeze keeps things comfortable.
Watch for a new blog soon with lots of pics of the resort and the town of Lanuza, Surigao de Sur.
Feel free to share this travel/surf blog with other kind souls.
Peter

My van for the ride south

Goodbye Manila...

My condo is on the 15th floor of the white building

With a heavy heart I must leave Manila after 10 wonderful days.

I have a 11:30 am flight south to Surigao City on Philippine Air.

Manila is crowded, busy and chaotic city. 

What a contrast to the serenity of the beach area in the south.

Keep checking back for updates from the road.

Feel free to share this with other kind souls.

Peter

There it is!

Manila, Philippines

LAX with my longboard

Greetings from Manila Philippines!.

After a wonderful flight on Korean Air, I am now in a condo here in Manila. 

The check in procedure at LAX was easy. Korean Air gave me a phone quote of $125 to bring the surfboard with a 110" max length. My board with bag was almost 112" I was sweating this as I approached the counter. I arrived extra early in case i had to speed home and dump the board. The travel gods were smiling down on me on this day as the super friendly Korean Air agents never even measured the board just weighed it and sent it thru. Then I was only charged $75! SWEET!

On board the plane seemed new and nice. I sat next to a nice guy from Pasadena headed to Hong Kong on holiday. We shared the same travel strategy of drinking beers till one passed out. I had 7 till I fell asleep for 5 hours. The 12 hour flight to Inchon, Korea was a breeze. I wandered the wonderful new airport during my 2 hour layover till I boarded the 3 hour flight to Manila. Maybe the best trans-Pacific flight I ever had.

Once in Manila I had to convince a taxi to bring my board to the city center. I brought along some rope to lash the board to the roof of the cab. Of course we got some funny looks as we negotiated the traffic [see photo].

The weather is hot and humid as expected. 80s and 90s during the day. The evening brings some powerful thunderstorms with crazy lightning. Im on the 15th floor so the lightning seems to be right on my balcony followed by booming thunder. A golden retrievers worst nightmare!

On Monday I fly Philippine Airways south to Surigao City... but that story is for another blog.
Feel free to pass this along to other kind souls.    Peter.

Manila taxi 

Welcome to my first post...

While going through some things on the boat I came across this postcard from the late 90s. I love so many things from this, the pain and sadness, the winter chill of europe. The short days were a trade-off for the uncrowded museums. I won't name who wrote this but the fact they referred to me as a pinball star scores points. A true traveler.

Hello and welcome. This is blog #1 for my much talked about now a reality travel blog.

I am in Marina Del Rey ready to fly to Manila on Sept 9. I plan on surfing in the south of the Philippines. I see some side trips to Bali, Veit Nam, Cambodia in the future. Any travel advice or stories from the road are appreciated. Feel free to pass this along to other kind souls. This is a new email which I'm breaking in... more soon. Peter