Philippines
The happiest people:
After a great time in Vietnam where I enjoyed the local culture, I did expect to find the same kind of people in the Philippines but just a tad happier.
After I left Saigon, the plane was flying over a chaos of houses built by the river. I never experienced nothing like it before, it took 45 minutes to drive 3km. Cars, bus, bicycles motorbikes and people everywhere. There was traffic everywhere, where road rules didn’t seem apply. We finally managed to reach terminal 3 and board to Kalibu in order to catch a bus, a boat, a taxi and finally reach Assiatou Beach Resort.
Boracay is typically a post card island, covered in palm trees with white sand. It can easily be seen as paradise. I arrived at night and woke up for a light wind day at one of the most paradisiacal places in my life. After breakfast I met the crew from Assiatou. We unpacked the brand new Rocas but again the wind was light. Perfect to fly a kite but not enough to drag you over the water. It was a perfect time to use three stacked kites! Yes you got it right – three kites one bar, one board and one dude. I pulled out some lines I had prepared for this occasion and asked the beach boys to give me a hand to set up the three kites together. After a couple of tries I had full control on the three kite set-up and I was ready to shred. On that light wind day, I can say I was one of the luckiest kiters. I was the only one riding up and down, pulling back rolls. A great way to start your day.
Later that day as the wind dropped I went along with Jenn and an Italian dude we meet at the beach. We visited Puka beach and as I walked along the local crowd and the back streets, it made me realized just how content the people are here.
The next day the wind was better and Habagat beach was crowded. I rode there for a few minutes with Mark Magliquian a young bloke from the Philippines that was out testing the new Roca kites from Best Kiteboarding. After a while of crazy riding between beginners, learners, intermediate and advance riders all over. I moved east to the next bay to find no one around and an incredible beautiful natural scenario, fishermen, returning boats back from the sea.
After that session I landed my kite and got to explore the bay only to encounter the friendliest people of this journey. Construction workers having a relaxed Sunday seating by the shadow of the palm threes away from the tourists sipping local rum, eating, fish, chicken and pork with rice. They offered me a drink. So after I said no they insisted and I got surrounded by a cheering group shouting: Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! I had to do it.
I was able to share a meal, sat down and ate delicious food. I was enjoying the moments with these wonderful people. For a moment I thought about them living in simple conditions. Yet we called them third world and consider them poor. To me this is this just a perspective of the western world put on some of the Eastern countries. Sure there is unhappy and frustrated people here. But I found them hard to spot, as what I saw was an grateful, joyful, and honestly group of happy people. Toward sunset that night, the seclude beach became a crowded bustling tourist jungle. It was impossible to photograph the sunset with out a tourist photobombing your shot. I must say it’s one of the most fantastic beaches I have ever been to. Apparently Christmas season is their busiest time and it gets triple the crowd of incoming tourist. As for me, I rather have a quieter beach, but if you are looking to party BIG and this is a hell of a place to do it at.
After a few days in Boracay, we had a short long trip to Palawan starting at the crack of dawn. We jumped on a taxi, caught a boat, followed by a bus onto a flight to Manila. We flew to Palawan, got picked up by Paola Rosales and Victoria Soloveykina and they dropped us off by Blue Palawan in Puerto Princesa.
Palawan is the largest province and one of the 7107 islands. Its wild , untouched with white sandy beaches. Hurricane Nona was passing by, so the day after we kitesurfed and surfed on the west coast of Palawan.
At the end of the day the wind died and the sea became serene glass, the next day we were blessed with three days of swell generated thanks to hurricane Nona. All the beauty I was surrounded by, only made me re-evaluate the way I see the world.
People here are polite, friendly. When I look into the local people’s eyes, is like there is a special shine of happiness and gratefulness for life it self.
You can be misled by your initial impression, thinking how can people who may look poor be happy? Most of them have goals and aspirations they live by daily. For them fishing on a boat , fixing their motorbikes, homes is what makes them get up every morning. Kids always play in groups outside and share everything. Most of the people don’t drive and the ones that drive. Drive bikes and home made cars, with almost no commodities, happiness seems to rule and everything around looks in harmony.
Their way of life is very different to the west. Our children seem to play with iPhones inside buildings. As adults we have all the commodities, financial security, yet at same time I rarely see that special shine of happiness and gratefulness in peoples eyes as I did in the Philippines.
After the hurricane passed, the winds go back to normal I finally had the chance to kitesurf at Blue Kiteboarding. Flat butter water is not enough to describe the water that place has available. Depending from the ocean tides that place can make you walk for a decent distance but with the high tide is sick. On December 20th I went for a birthday board a T-shirt ride and found group of kids swimming close by that where so exited to have the kiters around and that made my day. I was enjoying that place and wish I could have stayed for the Blue Palawan Open in January but Christmas was ahead and I have not been home for the last ten Christmas. This journey was awesome, Dubai, Honk Kong, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines all taught me something different, it opened my mind, giving me new perceptions and showing me different ways to understand what I see. I’m now ready to visit my hometown and absorb all the experiences from this trip and I am looking forward to start editing the images from this adventure over Asia.
Peace
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