When I did have a little explore the place seemed horrible and grim with some dodgy looking characters about. My opinion of the place would be best stated by saying that I had backed my bags and walked about 3 miles to the bus station by 7am the following morning!!!!!!
After a long day of bus rides I arrived in Surigao I didn't have to go into town to find accommodation because there was a place directly above the out of town bus station. Bit of a strange location but there was a common area to sit and talk to other people which was welcome. Had a walk into town which was a lot better than most in that country.
Headed out again the following day and made it to the town of Ormoc. Lake Danao was a place of interest so I stopped for 2 nights. However on my full day I discovered there was only one bus a day going there and I had missed it. Spent the afternoon talking to another westerner, had sunscreen bottle leak in my bag and got soaked in another downpour!!!!!!!!
Got the bumpy bus to Tacloban and found a gap in the weather to go to a hilltop viewpoint. I wanted to hire a mountain bike but the place was closed down and so had 2 tour places doing day trips. I was on the move again.
The following day I thought I had done well with 3 buses and only a 5 minute wait between each one. Then the ferry was delayed by about 3 hours. I got to the town of Legazpi late at night to find all the hotels in my guidebook full. I ended up in one costing about 4 times my usual budget!!!!!! That was the last ferry I had to catch as it was land all the way to Manila from that point.
I managed to get a cheaper place to stay the following morning and stopped a few more nights. Headed out to the short but steep hill near the airport to take some pictures. It was the only thing I could do that day as everywhere was closed.
It was around this time I knew that the lonely planet guidebook for the Philippines was the worst one I had ever owned. Vast areas of the country were covered in just a couple of pages. I did actually find a tourist information place which was a first for that country. The person inside had all the time in the world to help me out which was probably a good indicator of how many people he seen coming in there.
Armed with some useful information I headed to the Mayon volcano knowing beforehand I was unable to climb it due to it being active. There were some gates that were locked anyway.
I also went to explore the area on the opposite side via the town of Tabaco. It was a long walk to the skyline park and I didn't get all the way as it started getting dark.
It was good to get out and see something after all the bus and ferry rides............continued north the following day.
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