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Why the Philippines?

Not too far from Taiwan, just a couple of hours' flight to ferries and sunshine galore ! 🚴🚴🌞🌞

Also: having worked with so many Filipino colleagues in the NHS, Molly was curious about their homeland.

Our Route 

We toured in the Visayas region (shown in red, below).

Think of it as the Midlands of the Phillipines !

Starting from Cebu City, we pedalled 6 island loops in the Central and Western Visayas: Cebu, Negros, Panay, Boracay, Guimaras and Bohol (below).

Total Filipino miles pedalled: approx.1500.

The Journey

Cebu City is the second-largest in the Philippines. Its busy roads were packed with trucks, noisy mopeds, "tricycle" taxis and their fumes.

Heading south out of town on the Cebu S Road was a long urban stint, stretching beyond Carcar City over 50km away.

The traffic finally got less busy around Argao.

Above: A quieter stretch of road in Cebu City. Filipino drivers do share the road well, with no aggression.

We overnighted in Oslob, but dodged swimming with the whale sharks: preferring to watch the mass tourism from a sane distance.

The poorly-maintained roads in the south of Cebu Island were a bumpy ride (above).

We were also surprised by the lack of accessible beaches.

Above: Many waterfronts were taken up by shanty housing, or private "resorts".

We wondered whether bike touring the Philippines had been a bad call ...

... so it was a great relief to hit the glorious smooth tarmac of Negros Island, after jumping onto the westbound Liloan-Dumaguete ferry.

This one was a "Roll-On, Roll-Off" (RORO) so we could just walk the bikes up the vehicle ramp, no unloading or carrying. No problem !

Sugar cane is a major crop in Negros. Workers cut it by hand with machetes, piling trucks high via bamboo ladders. 

Above: Hard graft in the sugar cane fields of Negros Island

We cycled inland into the mountains of Negros, to the town of Canlaon: under high alert after recent smoke plumes from the nearby Mount Kanlaon volcano.

Google Maps warned us that our route may be affected by volcanic eruption !

Locals later warned us to stay out of the mountains, not due to volcanoes but ongoing clashes between Communist rebels (New People's Army) and government forces.

So we stuck to coastal roads for the rest of the trip. These were largely flat or rolling, populated, and not particularly scenic.

Silay in north Negros was home to many sugar barons in bygone days, and was a good stopover before the next ferry ...

The next ferry: another RORO, heading west from Bacolod (Negros Island) to Iloilo on Panay Island.

More good roads, which got quieter outside of the cities.

We were unsure about visiting the tiny island of Boracay, a notorious tourist hotspot just north of Panay. The ferry port at Caticlan was crazy-busy, but well-organised. We were ushered onto a small boat before we could change our minds !

Above: Our bikes travelled unsecured on the roof of the tiny boat to Boracay. Luckily it was a smooth crossing !

Like Alice stepping through the looking-glass: just off the busy, built-up road from Boracay port, a long and very narrow alleyway opened onto the beautiful (if busy) tropical sands of White Beach.

This was the first "proper" public-access beach we had found in the Philippines, after no less than ? miles of pedalling.

We made a lucky decision to stay in a suspiciously cheap hotel in North Boracay. It turned out to be comfortable and peaceful, with a secluded beach just down the road. So nice, we stayed an extra day.

We also shared the roads with rice husks being dried out on sheets (below).

Back in Panay: having completed our island loop, it was a short ferry ride from Iloilo City to the small island of Guimaras: famous for its succulent mangoes. 

The Guimaras loop was a great couple of days' peaceful pedalling: smooth roads and rustic scenery.

"Videoke" (karaoke to us) is massive in the Philippines. A few big differences: it's a sober activity, enjoyed throughout the day, often at home by families. Delivery is beautifully unselfconscious, with total acceptance of even the poorest voices. So we went for it, paying for an hour's videoke access at our out-of-the-way (it needed to be!) beach hotel.

Fortunately there's no audio of this one-off special 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️

From Guimaras: we returned to Panay for the ferry back to Negros. Sipalay in east Negros made a good stopover, with its swim-friendly public beach, beachfront food court and live music.

Cock fighting is a big part of everyday life in the Philippines.

We didn't seek it out, but stumbled upon a buzzing local cockpit one afternoon in Zamboanguita, Negros.

Above: This cockfight was over very quickly.

With our Negros Island loop complete, we headed east from Dumaguete back to Cebu Island. 

Moalboal, the backpackers' magnet on Cebu's east coast, was a mixed bag. Never mind swimming with the shoals of sardines ! The main tourist drag was so congested, we felt like human sardines and didn't even make it to Panagsama beach.

Escaping the madness, we found a perfect Airbnb at a much quieter spot just out of town. A tiny "secret" beach with epic sunsets and glassy ocean was just a short stroll away. We stayed for several days, swimming with the turtles.

Above: "Secret beach" sunset, Tongo,Moalboal. No filters !

Below: The quieter side of Moalboal

Super Typhoon Odette hit the Central Visayas in 2021, causing massive destruction.

Gerald and Janice, our hosts in Moalboal, described how the roof of their house was torn away as they sheltered under the bed.

Many communities were left without power and supplies for weeks, and had to cope on their own.

Every community (barangay) we saw had its own evacuation centre, often serving as a community hall and basketball court too !

Continuing up to the northern tip of Cebu Island: the road quality improved, with some nice peaceful sections.

This didn't last as we approached Cebu City, completing another island loop.

Above - cycling into the outskirts of Cebu City and Charlie had to stop for this photo opportunity. The guy kindly allowed him to take his photo as he sharpened a machete on his 'leg power' grinding stone!

"Think" you're working 'hard' on your touring bike!? Think again!!

With a few more days in hand, we took the ferry to Bohol: our sixth and final touring island, known for its "Chocolate Hills". 

This unusual landscape was formed from coral (later becoming limestone), and rainwater. Apparently they look more chocolatey in the dry season !

Above: Charlie bravely hid his disappointment about the lack of actual chocolate.

Bohol was the one island we didn't loop fully, as we were laid low with the shits for a few days. Not sure what from, but handwashing had admittedly been lax at times 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️

From what we did pedal, Bohol's roads were good.

Of note: the ferry port from Cebu City (to Bohol) was the least smooth of our trip.

It was super-busy at Pier 3. We had been warned to refuse the "fixers", but it was hard to figure out which ticket booth to use. We ended up with Clemer Lines to Getafe, which turned out not to be the RORO.

Although the bikes wheeled onboard fine with panniers off, the mandatory shuttle bus from the passenger terminal was a very tight squeeze (below) !

Food & Accommodation 

Food in the Philippines was a learning curve.

After our initial disappointment that Filipino 7-11s were a poor relation of those in Taiwan and Japan,

And adapting to the standard "silog" breakfasts (processed meat + fried egg + garlic rice (!), often served stone-cold) ...

... we slowly discovered local "eateries", serving canteen-style bargains

Fresh fruit was easy to find on street stalls, and inexpensive (approx.15p/banana, 20p/mandarin, 50p/mango). 

The mangoes were sweet, smooth and utterly delicious.

Refreshing buko juice, made fresh from young coconuts, was a winning roadside drink.

Evening meals in local restaurants averaged about £7/head, including a Filipino San Miguel beer or two.

Charlie's favourite was pork sisig, served with rice on a sizzling plate.

Cycling in the Phillipines: Ups & Downs

🤗 Beautiful people. Safe, friendly feel. Easy communication. Universally superb service, even though tips are not expected. "Sir" and "Ma'am" were the common forms of address !

🤗 Island-hopping was a breeze thanks to the well-run, frequent inter-island ferries and "can-do" attitude of the staff. Scheduling/ ticketing is best done in person at the ferry ports themselves (online info was a bit patchy).

🤗 Buckets of sunshine, but also !! Extremely hot and humid. Rainy season (typically from June) started early, some biblical downpours !

🤦‍♀️ Shocking poverty

🤦‍♂️ Pitiful stray dogs

🤦‍♀️ Ants, everywhere !!

🤦‍♂️ Coastal roads were often busy and noisy, there were rarely options to bypass these (no Google Maps Bike option at the time of writing). Coast less scenic than we expected.

Cycling the Philippines:

Practical Pointers

"Brown-outs" (power outages) are so common, some hotels have their own back-up generators ! Keep a headtorch handy. 

Visa extensions: required at 1 month and 2 months. The website was impenetrable, but we had great experiences in person at the helpful Bureaus of Immigration in Roxas (Negros) and Lapu-Lapu City (Cebu).

^

Below - are you ever in need of INSPIRATION?

Meet John Kenneth and Chris John (CJ to his friends) DECATHLON store assistants (Iloilo City, Capital of Panay store). Both so helpful and enthusiastic.

CJ a triathlete aiming to one day complete a IRONMAN and John K WOW! What a guy, a accident in his younger years leaving him with injuries that would cause most of us to question our existence! NOT JOHN K.... he's a cyclist and they are both an inspiration to us all.

Oh and DECATHLON should be immensely proud that they have such AMAZING work colleagues.