In just 25 minutes, the Dodecanisos catamaran takes us across to Leros at a speed of 60 kilometres per hour. The island is completely different to Kalymnos: quite green, varied and confusing. With its many bays, no island in the world has ever managed to confuse me so often. Only shortly before departure do we realise from which harbour we are heading.
The Paradisso Studios on Vromolitos beach deserve their name. A Garden of Eden full of fruit to eat is guarded by rather snappy geese. They don’t mind stealing – but they do mind being approached. We hire a fine 125cc Symphony scooter with plenty of steam and immediately swing up to the medieval castle on one of the highest mountains above the old marina of Leros. (more…)
Driving on the moon @ Kalymnos
Early the next morning, we jump on the spaceship to the moon. On the upper deck, the Meltemi blows in our faces at a good 40 knots. The moon doesn’t seem to have a slipstream. But there are much cheaper means of transport. You can hire a small old car on the moon for a quarter of the price of Kos, starting at €30 per day. Let’s treat ourselves.
Our accommodation is located at the end of a road that winds into the steep slopes of Melitsahas on a small private beach with a view of the barely inhabited neighbouring island of Telendos and the sunset. Perfect – only the high cliffs on both sides stop me from kiting. We set off. Oleander bushes and wild thyme grow next to the steep mountain roads. Otherwise, Kalymnos really is like the moon: abundantly bare and rocky. For climbers, the moon is pure paradise. Dozens of them hang in every halfway shady shell limestone wall. (more…)
Kos
Kos is beautiful but offers less greenery than Corfu, for example, and significantly less variety and historical buildings than Rhodes, for example. As car hire prices have risen in recent weeks to at least €125 a day for a small car, we switch to a 50cc scooter. We tour to the western end of Kos, climbing steep hills in the blazing sun and gazing out at the endless blue. We stay away from the few tourist hotspots that are approached every day by an armada of large buses.
At sunset, we drive to the highest mountain village of Zia. It’s all hustle and bustle here, but that’s to be expected given the panorama. The moon rises over the mountains. Clouds sweep over the ridge. After a hard climb, we roll back down to Tigaki, which is much warmer despite the difference in altitude of only 300 metres. (more…)
Dodecanese @ Kos
Behind us all lies a year and a half of pandemic restrictions. I also have a year of digital promotion behind me with web design jobs until I drop. We want to be free again and enjoy life. The day before we leave for our honeymoon, the German government declares our holiday destination Greece a risk area. Of course I’m pleased that, as fully vaccinated travellers, we don’t have to go into quarantine on either the outward or return journey. But Delta is giggling expectantly in the background. Tests are not even mandatory.
Shortly before Munich Airport, my car’s oil warning light comes on for the first time in 13 years. During the last oil change, I must have given the engine oil more freedom in the form of a half-closed top-up cap. It was obsessively steaming and waving at me from the oil pan with a shiny black colour. I immediately impose a hard lockdown and wonder how pandemics can promote the ability to interpret oracles. (more…)
Rostock is colourful!
The only thing I knew about Rostock was the Sonnenblumenhaus. A good quarter of a century later, I knew little about it either. Or maybe never? So I wanted to see Rostock. The greeting in the middle of the KTV district, which is more colourful than Berlin, is “Welcome to the commune!”. A little surprised, I grin invisibly to myself.
Rostock is hard to grasp. Full of contradictions, colourful and still cruel in many areas. Cars drive on the left. That’s how you express your attitude. By parking in the centre of intersections you express your social vein. Every traffic light on main roads is red if you drive correctly. The speed cameras are at close intervals and the parking attendants love foreign licence plates. In the morning everything jams into the centre – in the evening outwards. Fortunately, kiters have the opposite rhythm. (more…)
Fear of death in the third typhoon
I have seen a lot. I have experienced a lot. Today I’m just surviving. I’ve never been so scared of death in my life. The third typhoon hits Bulalacao on 25 December with full force and gusts of around 200 km/h. The roof of our emergency shelter is partially torn off. The roof of our emergency shelter is partially torn off. The Day After. Ground zero. Complete destruction.
A few weeks ago, my Liverpool kiter Buddy King George joked that I would be honoured with a third typhoon during my two months in the Philippines. I studied Windy in disbelief until just before Fiji. I found nothing. About a fortnight ago, a cyclone actually formed. First it was a tropical storm, then it became a typhoon. It hit Bulalacao with a category four out of five, making it the strongest typhoon in 50 years. (more…)
King of Cuyo
The second typhoon costs us a whole week. Sunday evening, the Milagrosa finally leaves Iloilo. Everyone is overjoyed. Together with a Cuyo policeman from our last visit, we empty a few Red Horses on deck. He confirms all my prejudices about Cuyo. Up to six police officers have up to six incidents per 24-hour shift. To. To.
The red horses are the fuel for my master’s examination in seaworthiness. During the night, the wind picks up to 35 knots. With it comes the heaviest swell of my five crossings of the notorious Sulu Sea. The stable lateral position becomes very unstable. Sleeping is only possible – and not very much – on my back. I hum Tom Petty on the way down, Joe Cocker on the way up. Breakers up to five metres high fly over the bow and shake the hull of the 40-metre Milagrosa J5. (more…)
Easter bunny! Travel tips Philippines
Despite having plenty of travelling experience in the Philippines, it takes me a full eight days to cover the 150 km from Mindoro to Cuyo as the crow flies. Only four of these are due to the typhoon. It’s true that Cuyo is more difficult to reach than the hotspots. But when I read on Facebook how many destinations some travellers want to tick off in such a short time, I can only advise one thing: plan wisely![Travel tips Philippines]
I sit out Typhoon Tisoy alone for four days in San Jose. The ferry to Coron is stuck on the wrong side for at least another four days. Minivan back to Bulalacao via the mountain road that has just been cleared of half a metre of tree trunks. The next morning, a five-hour journey on the now very slow FastCat to Caticlan. (more…)
Typhoon Tisoy / Kamuri over Mindoro
The PCA rightly fled early from the next typhoon. Although Typhoon Tisoy/Kamuri initially had much lower wind speeds than our last typhoon on Palawan at the beginning of November, it will cause much more damage. Its eye is currently crossing northern Mindoro with elemental forces.
Typhoon Tisoy / Kamuri gained quite a bit of energy before it made landfall in the eastern Philippines near Bicol on Sunday night with peak winds of almost 200 kilometres per hour. 70.000 people were evacuated before the typhoon arrived. Manila Airport and many other airports were completely closed for several days and all shipping traffic was suspended. (more…)
Odiongan, Tablas
Just four hours and a slightly delayed 2Go ferry later, Tablas is finally back to what I love about the Philippines: silence, peace and simple, pure life. My local kiter buddy Cocoy picks me up directly from the harbour in Odiongan and takes me to the nearby Hiland Resort right on the kiteable beach. I wander through the cockfights and night market, watch a basketball match and celebrate the opening of the island’s first Jollibee with the locals.
The small international local kite community from Tablas drops by the next morning. After 25 days of travelling with just one kiteable day, I’m incredibly happy about the mild 17 knots and 50 cm ramps in the bay of Odiongan. The Amihan finally gets going. With a northerly wind, it is fully onshore. If it turns to the north-east, which is typical of the Amihan, it is more stubborn due to the mountains in the hinterland – then it is better to head to the east coast, e.g. to Aglicay Beach Resort. (more…)
Boracry
Seven years ago, Borawhy won the race as the best island nickname for New Year’s Eve. Today Boracry wins. I could cry when I see what we are doing to this beautiful little island. I have lost all hope that this can ever be changed. My only option after seven visits: Bye bye Boracay! Please stay away from this island!
Yes, Boracay is beautiful, the White Beach is unique. The palm trees are tropical, the jungle in the north is dense and the water at Ilig-Iligan Beach is a crystal-clear aquarium full of colourful fish. The selection of restaurants and bars is gigantic and the wind at Bulabog is usually very good for kitesurfing. But that’s about it. There is a lot that is extremely poor. (more…)
Mindoro’s Silence
Due to the lack of a bus, we end up in the same minivan to Bulalacao as on our last visit, but this time with “only” a discreet 14 passengers. The trikeros at the harbour unsuccessfully try their hand at price gouging. It’s raining again, and the driver refuses to drive us down the steep, slippery road to kitesurf-mindoro.com, probably with good reason. Only the gatekeeper with his motorbike can manage that, on two trips.
Bislig Beach was my favourite kitesurfing spot in the Philippines last time. In just three years, Kathrin has set up a chilled-out camp with safari tents, bungalows and great fusion cuisine. As the tents are not yet up, we get an upgrade to the panorama bungalow in the first row of the beach. Thank you very much! (more…)
The children of Cuyo
The first post-taifun crossing from Puerto Princesa to Cuyo is surprisingly mild. The captain of the “Blessed Sea Journey” is a real sparrow: after seeing his girlfriend shivering in full winter gear, he turns down the air conditioning in the icebox tourist class to such an extent that 17 Filipinos will probably die of heatstroke by the next morning. Mild waves rock us to sleep.
Some magical places make you cry when you leave. Cuyo does this even on arrival. Early the next morning, the landlady of Niki’s guesthouse greets me by name after almost a year. All the children wave. Every second one of them wants to fondle Steffi’s curls and take a photo to prove that her curls are completely unknown in the Philippines. (more…)
Stormy Banka Tour @ Port Barton
As the typhoon is blocking our further route to Coron, we drive three and a half hours south again by minivan. Shortly after Roxas, we change to a trike. It takes us an hour through the mist-shrouded rainforest mountains to the west side of Palawan to the small coastal town of Port Barton. At some point, the trike driver says “Oh oh, the road is in bad condition.”. An euphenism par excellence.
The road ends up being a single 15 cm deep muddy track with deep ruts and large puddles. Our driver rocks them all and gets a big tip. We get into our accommodation right on the beach and walk a few minutes over to the “centre”. Port Barton is the first place on this trip that really feels Filipino. Bankas in the bay, not too many and not too few people. Good cheap restaurants right under the palm trees on the cosy sandy beach slow us down nicely. (more…)
Taifun Slow Down @ Palawan
The most intense three months of work in 20 years of web design are 10,000 kilometres behind me. The same goes for the all-encompassing porn soundtrack from the Eching esoteric sauna at Kuwait airport. After a 28-hour journey, even the topics of conversation of the quartet of paragliding terrorists melt into nothingness in the five-hour speedvan from Puerto Princessa to El Nido.
Seven years ago, we were stuck in 40 cm of mud on a jungle track in the mountains on the more than one-day journey in the other direction by jeepney. Today it’s tarmac and dogs sleeping on it. I look out of the window through the heavy rain. Water buffaloes graze in rice paddies. Herons vulture around them in tag teams after startled speculoos. (more…)
Road trip Slovenia
The journey to the Triglav National Park takes eight hours and small country roads over high passes to the Predil fortress from the First World War on the border between Italy and Slovenia. The lake glistens silver in the sun between the white Julian Alps. After the descent, we land at the small Toprafting camp. Colourful travellers full of stories from all over the world celebrate under the roof in the approaching downpour.
Our tent leaks on the very first night. It is bitterly cold under the thick rain clouds. I have reactivated my winter sleeping bag after my recent Fehmarn cold trauma – but Steffi only has a small summer sleeping bag. On the very first morning, we set off on a three-hour canyoning tour with a good Chilean guide. The half-hour approach to the entrance leads steeply up the mountain at first – and then steeply down into the canyon at the end. (more…)
Mindoro, Bislig Beach
I was super sceptical before my last kitespot. You usually only find so many good reports on the web if someone pays a lot for promotion. But kitesuf-mindoro.com on Bislig Beach near Bulalacao really is an absolute kitesurfing paradise. I immediately decide to stay here for my last week.
The accommodation in five-metre-diameter safari tents or bungalows on the beach is a dream under palm trees rustling in the wind. The turquoise 300 metre wide bay at Bislig Beach points exactly towards Amihan and is just big enough for 20 kiters. As the small resort is already geared towards soft tourism and sustainability, as well as the involvement of the local Magayan tribe, it is still not crowded here. (more…)
Libagau & Nabagat
15 kiters travel from Camp Kitesurf Mindoro to the village by minivan and take a banka to the island of Libagau, an hour off Mindoro. The spray spills refreshingly over the deck from the crisp swell. In front of the island, we pull the banca on foot over some sea urchin nests through the shallows of today’s low tide towards the beach. Starfish RGB shine in the crystal-clear water.
The island of Libagau looks like the ultimate kitesurfing paradise: turquoise water, white beach, blue sky, green trees. The wind blows sideoff at a good 18 to 22 knots over the spot, which is not without danger. At low tide, the water in the choppy bay behind the sandbank in the south-west of the island is very shallow. There are some rocks and sea urchins. There are also a few sharp pieces of coral on the beach. (more…)
Overload
I rarely have an overload when travelling, almost never the feeling that it’s just too much. Today I have met my match. I miss the last non-stop night bus from Pagudpud for a good schnitzel. The competition catches up with the bus as far as Laoag. I rush through the city on a trike and jump on the night bus to Manila at the last minute.
Even before five o’clock in the morning, the traffic is absolutely crazy again. Taxi to the next bus two hours down to Batangas, up on the Speed Cat to Mindoro. In Calapan there are only minivans. The block attendant squeezes 18 passengers into mine, four on each bench and especially the last bench – mine – has ten centimetres of negative legroom. (more…)
Pagudpud
The windiest spot in Asia is located in the very north-west of the Philippine main island of Luzon. Pagudpud is a completely different world again. In the 70s, the Markos regime sent many people here to Hawaii to obtain foreign currency. Today, they are a good deal richer than the rest of the Philippines. The houses are solidly built, some of them real castles, and many of them are fronted by really big cars.
I put up in a cheap homestay. Seas of green rice fields stretch from the village to the high mountains in the south. Saud Beach is pretty much the most idyllic tropical beach I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, Amihan is fully covered by the wind from the coastline. (more…)
Fun facts from a clean country
Early in the morning, Phlippinos sit mesmerised in the waiting room of the ferry to Batangas in front of the bloody news on TV. Here, only good people have coloured faces. The faces of the violent criminals are discoloured. It looks like one of those black and white art photographs from the early nineties with a single coloured element – only reversed.
The bloodier the news, the calmer the Filipinos become. You can literally feel their pulse. Every pool of blood brings minus ten BPM. Pre-school children giggle enthusiastically to the most brutal zombie butchers from comfortable bunks on the eleven-hour Starlines ferry. For two days, I am travelling by boat, bus, minivan and trike to the strongest wind area in Asia at the remote northern tip of the Philippines. (more…)
PKA Kite Championship Lakawon
I had already put Lakawon on my list of spots at home. A rather luxurious resort occupies a small paradise island full of palm trees surrounded by turquoise shallow water. The banka takes me from Sicogon to Estancia, by minivan to Concepción and then two more large bankas two hours over to the next kiteboarding paradise five kilometres north of Negros.
The Philippine Kitesurfing Championships in Airstyle, Hangtime and Race will take place here over the next four days. More than 50 kiters from all over the world will be competing for the throne. The imported beer, which is actually banned, and several bottles of rum are professionally distributed to the rooms by tractor. Howard Hughes from the Philippines throws one funny round of “Who’s afraid of Duterte?” after another. (more…)
PKA @ Sicogon
A few weeks ago, the good people at Hangin Kite on Boracay suggested that I visit the Philippine Kitesurfing Championship on Sicogon. Thanks to a delay of just eight hours on the ferry from Cuyo back to Antique, the plan worked out. Together with a Spanish instructor and a competitor from Hamburg, I race two and a half hours from Iloilo to Estancia in the Speedvan.
The next afternoon, a banka full of competitors takes me three quarters of an hour over to Sicogon. The venue is the classy Huni Resort. The infinity pool flows directly into the endless white-blue horizon above the spot. Thanks to rooms beyond the €100 mark, we stay at the slightly cheaper Balay Kogon. The path there is currently still so narrow that only motorbikes can get you there over two kilometres. (more…)
Cuyohuuuuu!
Sometimes it seems as if the harder goals are to achieve, the more valuable they become. Cuyo fully belongs in this category. Located just 100 kilometres as the crow flies from my second kitespot Malalison in the Palawan Sea, the journey takes a good 27 hours. Banka to the mainland, trike, six hours by backfish bus without air conditioning through numerous landslides behind San Jose to Iloilo that have not yet been repaired by the last rainy season.
As nobody could reliably say when the ferry to Cuyo would leave, I arrive six hours early as a precaution. It departs almost on time and, thanks to enough paint on 40-year-old steel, arrives in Cuyo in one piece after 14 hours, even through three metres of swell. Compared to the 29 hours of seasickness caused by a storm from two Swedes for the trip from the other side, which actually took eight hours, my ship was the purest speedboat. (more…)
Malalison
After nine days, I’ve had enough of the overcrowded Chinese mall of Boracay. The magic of the Philippines lies elsewhere. It’s a two-hour bus journey south through the windswept green seas of rice paddies and crops drying by the roadside. In Culasi, I take a banka to the small fishing island of Malalison near the coast of Antique.
The satellite images promised waves in front of and shallow water behind a small sandbank directly in front of my Nipa hut on the beach. The receptionist at my accommodation Casa Preta provided me with good information over the days via Facebook. On arrival, he turned out to be the warm pole of the village community, which is apparently a legal requirement in the Philippines. (more…)
The Author
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.