Another slice of Frenglish by Gary

La dernière fois que j’ai écrit une mise à jour sur le blog, nous étions à Sihanoukville en Cambodge. Nous sommes maintenant à El Nido aux Philippines, trois semaines plus tard, donc j’essayerai de vous mettre au courant de nos activités pendant cette période.

Tout d’abord, nous avons visité les temples d’Angkor Wat, au nord ouest du pays. Ils ont été construits il y a 800 ans, et ils sont censés être parmi les plus importants sites historiques du monde. En fait, il y a plus de 70 temples individuels répandus sur la superficie d’une grande ville. Les plus fameux se trouvent près de la ville de Siem Riep, d’où nous avons loué des bicyclettes pour faire un tour de la région. Evidemment ce n’est pas possible de voir tous les temples en une journée, mais nous avons réussi à en voir cinq, y compris les plus fameux – Angkor Wat lui-même, et Bayon (dans une citadelle qui s’appelle Angkor Thom). Le plus intéressant de tous était le dernière temple que nous avons vu, qui a été laissé dans le même état dans lequel il a été trouvé, c'est à dire sans aucune reconstruction et envahi par les grands arbres. C’est difficile de décrire l’apparence des temples mais la prochaine fois que vous regardez un film et le héros découvre un magnifique temple au milieu de la jungle – tous les temples d’Angkor ressemblent à ça.

Après un voyage en bus et en avion dans lequel nous avons fait escale à Bangkok et Manille, nous sommes enfin arrivés à Cebu City, aux Philippines, où j’ai de la famille. Mon oncle, Alastair – qui est écossais comme toute ma famille – habite à Cebu depuis vingt ans, où il a rencontré ma tante Susan – qui est née et a été élevée à Cebu. Leur fille, et ma cousine, Veronica a maintenant quatorze ans. Après trois mois sur la route, c’était un plaisir de rester chez eux pendant une semaine, sans devoir faire et défaire nos bagages chaque jour.

Nous avons eu la chance d’arriver à la veille du Vendredi Saint, et comme fière catholique, Susan nous a pris avec elle le même soir pour faire un tour de cinq églises (avec des milliers d’autres Cebuanos) et puis le lendemain pour prendre part à une procession dans les rues avec des centaines de personnes portant des bougies et récitant des ”je vous salue Marie” à voix haute. Même pour un athée fervent comme moi, c’était une expérience mémorable, surtout c’était très intéressant à être témoin d’une tranche de vie vraiment Philippine, sans aucun autre touriste en vue. Malheureusement pour moi, la troisième partie des festivités du weekend de Pâques – une crucifixion ‘en-direct’ á l’église de Guadelupe (celle de ma tante) n’est pas arrivée, à cause de l’échec de se procurer de l’argent en sponsor pour le mec qui allait être crucifié – le catholicisme des Philippines est fanatique, mais ce n’est pas exactement intelligemment rigoureux…

Pendant le reste de la semaine, nous n’avons pas fait beaucoup – une journée au centre commercial avec Veronica, et une soirée que Susan a organisé pour fêter à la fois notre visite et le jour de Pâques. Nous avons terminé la semaine en allant à Moalboal, une station balnéaire sur la côte opposée à Cebu City. Nous y avons fait du snorkeling, pendant lequel nous avons vu beaucoup de corail et de poissons, et nous avons eu la chance de voir un serpent de mer, une espèce mortelle mais pas dangereuse si il est laissé tranquille.

Nous avons finalement dit nos ‘au revoirs’ le lundi, quand Veronica nous a donné un petit cadeau – un chien en peluche qui s’appelle ‘Wallee’, après le robot du film de Disney, mais aussi parce que ‘Wally’ en anglais veut dire un ‘simplet’, ce qui me rappelle des mauvais souvenirs de l’école de mon enfance, à cause de mon nom de famille ‘Wallace’ (merci Carine et Veronica pour ça…). Dorénavant nous allons l’apporter avec nous lors de nos voyages.

Bien, ça suffit pout maintenant, je écrirai plus au sujet de Palawan et El Nido plus dans quelques jours.

Gary

Off we go again

After a lovely week and a half spent being pampered by Susan, Alastair, Veronica and some of Susan’s family, it is time to move on…

Cebu has been a great experience, and the fact that we were looked after by locals probably made it even nicer. On Easter Sunday, Susan and Co. organized a party, partly to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, and partly our visit. About 50 of their friends and relatives gathered in the district’s communal area for some typical Filippino food (including the Lechon, a whole pig roasted on a spit) and some serious ballroom dancing! Susan is an absolute dancing queen and it was great to see everyone enjoy themselves so much on the dance floor. Gary and I also had a go, assisted by some of Alastair and Susan’s friends who were brave enough to invite each of us for a dance. Let’s just say I’m glad none of you got to see it.

Last week, we took a day trip out to Bohol, an island just an hour off the coast of Cebu City. We got to see its famous chocolate hills, which formed as a result of a build up of corals (when the island was under the sea millions of years ago) and the action of the waves. It made for some spectacular landscapes.

Last week end, Alastair drove us all up to Moal Boal, on the other side of Cebu island, and we stayed overnight in a seaside resort owned by old friends of theirs. It was absolutely beautiful – very comfy bungalows in the middle of a big leafy garden, about one minute walk away from a turquoise and transparent blue sea where you only had to swim a few meters to admire beautiful corals. On the opposite coast, deep green hills raised up in the sky, topped up by giant white fluffy clouds. Paradise!

Other than that, we got to enjoy the best of Cebu City’s shopping malls and are particularly fond of the Ayala Center, which we must have visited 3 or 4 times to stock up on wine and chocolate and to sit in coffee shops using WiFi internet. Quite the backpacker’s experience…

We left Cebu this afternoon and had an uneventful journey to Palawan, an island in the South West of the Philippines. In the taxi on the way to the airport, we realized that Gary’s cousin Veronica had sneaked her cuddly puppy toy Wallee into our bag!

We were a bit worried for a minute as we wondered if we’d be fit to look after him, but then we decided it would be nice to take him along with us and take pictures of him around the world to let Veronica keep up with how he’s doing. So here he is this afternoon at Cebu airport, leaving his hometown for the very first time… I think he looks quite excited at the prospect of going half way around the globe.

Until next time,

C.

Easter in The Philippines

We made it to the Temples of Angkor in the end - we hired two bikes and set off early in the morning. It was a nice day and the temples were beautiful - there are so many of them though, we cycled a loop of 30 kms but only got to see 5 sites! Most of the temples we saw dated back to the XIIth Century, and some of them were so old that huge trees have grown on top of their walls, cracking them open along the way. Here are a couple of photos, though if you're interested you will find dozens more on our Flickr site:Having done our bit of sightseeing, it was time to get back to Bangkok in time for our flight to the Philippines on Wednesday night. On the bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok, we got chatting to some nice French people, and two of them (Catherine and Haldo) came from Agon Coutainville, in Normandie. That's the town my mum comes from. It's not especially big or famous so it was one of these "it's-a-small-world" coincidence - meeting a girl who's been to school with one of my second cousins, at the border between Cambodia and Thailand! (by the way, Catherine and Haldo have a blog as well - in French - and you can find its address in our blog links list).

We had a couple of quiet, uneventful days in Bangkok, just enjoying the food and atmosphere and sorting out head wear for Gary:On Wednesday, with our flight due at 0.10 am, we heard there were no buses to the airport because of a demonstration against the current Thai Prime Minister. People all over the city were protesting, dressed in a red T-Shirt (showing support to the former Prime Minister, who is exiled in the UK and would be sent to jail if he were to set foot in Thailand again). We though we might be stuck in the city for a while (seeing how it went the last time there were protests in Bangkok, last December: the airport was brought to a standstill for a week or so) but thankfully everything went fine and, after travelling all night and not getting any sleep, we got to Cebu at 9am yesterday and were welcomed by Alastair, Susan, Veronica and her cousin Maui.

It is so nice to be staying in a house, eating home cooked food, chatting to people you know and visiting with someone who knows where they are going... yesterday after dinner Susan, Veronica and Alastair did the traditional Easter thing of visiting five churches in a row and paying homage to... well I'm not sure whom to! Gary and I are not at all religious so we just stood in the back, but it was really interesting to go around the city at night and to witness the atmosphere brought about by Easter. There were hundreds and hundreds of other people of all ages and walks of life doing the five churches thing, whole flocks of people from the same family or neighbourhood reciting prayers together... very interesting.

Gary is very disappointed this afternoon: he went off with Susan earlier to see a crucifixion at 3pm, but it had taken place early so they missed it all. Yes, you read it right, a crucifixion! There is actually a guy here who, every year, volunteers to be nailed up to a cross in front of the local church. I think the thing that shocks me the most about it is that other (presumably sane) people are willing to stick nails through that man's hands. If it was down to me, I would just take him down to the local psychiatric hospital...

Apparently the crucifixion will be shown again on telly later. Won't be watching that one myself!

C.

Gary and toilets

Having covered the "heavy" part of Cambodian history, it was time to head down to the seaside for some beach action ... so we went to Sihanoukville, in the South West, and stayed in the area for a few days.

On Clive and Nicky's recommendation, we took a boat out to Koh Russei (a.k.a. "Bamboo Island") and stayed there for two nights. It is a lovely, near deserted island, with a pretty beach and turquoise blue, transparent water. Unfortunately a storm raged for most of the first night and the first day, which we spent locked up in our bamboo hut, shoulders covered with a blanket (I did anyway... cleary I hadn't thought I'd need to pack any cardis to go to a beach island in the middle of the dry season). Thankfully the weather improved on the second day, enabling us to do some decent work on our tans... oh, the worries and pressures of travelling!
Yesterday we had to endure a long and sticky bus journey. Gary in particular suffered a lot... sitting right next to the coach toilet, he got regular whiffs of lotus flower scented air freshener mixed with the standard fragance of any old loo; he was sweating buckets, his knees were crushed against the seat in front of him, and a guy behind us kept on making a disgusting hocking/grunting sound which Gary described as "a pig in labour who's suffering a particularly severe form of hayfever allergy"... or something along those lines.

Anyway, we are now in Siem Reap and plan on hiring bikes to go and visit some of the temples of Angkor. Actually we were supposed to go today, but Gary is not feeling to great as a result of last night's curry - so we are just going to take it easy today. More toilet time for him to look forward to, I guess...

C.

P.S. For those of you who heard news about Cambodians and Thais firing at and killing each other near the temple of Preah Vihear which they are both claiming, on the Northern border of Cambodia - it is not too near (about 100kms), and we are planning on crossing the border in Poipet (in the East of Cambodia) to get to Bangkok next week. It is one of the most touristy crossing points, so should all be ok.