Island Hopping

Our other project is in Iloilo (pronounced eelo-eelo) on the island of Panay. We had notice from our client that this project was to kick off much earlier than originally planned so a trip to the site to obtain an understanding of the locale and logistical problems was suddenly necessary.

Organising accommodation and offices is a difficult process. It's not like the UK where you'd go and pick up the local newspaper and trawl through the "For Let" pages and make a few phone calls. Most of what is available here, as in most countries in Asia, is usually discovered by word of mouth and by being on the ground. Even in ultra-modern Singapore, the amount of information you can glean from the internet with regard to suppliers, contractors or property is surprisingly small.

Island Hopping

Whilst Iloilo is only approximately 100 miles from Toledo (a couple of hours on a good road) what must be factored into this is in order to get there you need to cross the island of Negros. This necessitates two ferry trips and a cross-island drive of Negros. Of course, we could fly from Cebu to Iloilo but then there would be the hassle of cases, cameras and arranging transport and as an essential element of the trip would be the freedom to move around, taking our own vehicle was a necessity rather than a luxury. Furthermore, because we have a large amount of equipment to ship from the Toledo site to Iloilo it was important to check out the feasibility of the route using trucks and containers.

The first ferry from Toledo departs at 7:30am so we were up early and on the quay side by 6:30am in order to buy our ticket and join the first-come, first-served queue for the ferry. Paying for the trip wasn’t as straight forward as you might imagine with it being necessary to visit several offices to pay for various different charges and taxes. Even once you make it onto the ferry you still have pay the passenger charges and there's also a compulsory tip for which no receipt is given but I'm told you have no option other than to pay unless you want to find yourself abandoned on the quay side. I couldn't help wondering that it would be so much easier if all this was lumped into one ticket and one price but that would be too easy, wouldn't it?

Dodgy Ferry

The ferry itself, when it arrived, was rather beaten and battered down its sides as though it had been banging against a quay side during a storm. This didn't inspire confidence. As I've said before, ferries in the Philippines have a notoriety for sinking. In addition, the waters between Toledo and San Carlos, normally as smooth as a mill pond, were being whipped up by high winds. I had it in mind to stay on the top deck throughout the journey, thinking that if the ferry did capsize then I didn't want to be caught below deck in a repeat of The Poseidon Adventure.

Open Deck Sleeping Arrangements

Loading of the ferry with vehicles and passengers was surprising smooth and easy. Oddly enough, the top deck was full of bunks for sleeping on. Bearing in mind it was only a 90 minute journey I considered it strange that there was the need to provide such extensive sleeping facilities. The trip across was unremarkable and uneventful. Currently there is a haze which means the island of Negros and the Kanlaon volcano are no longer visible from Toledo, so as Toledo disappeared into the haze, San Carlos began to appear, although such is the density of the haze (gawd blimey gov, a right pea-souper, ain't no mistake) that the volcano was no longer visible.

Disembarking was similarly straightforward. San Carlos is a small and relatively unremarkable town but more pleasant and engaging than Toledo. Just off its coastline is the island of Sipaway, which is noted for its white sandy beaches, its good scuba diving and is relatively unspoilt and undeveloped. I made a made a mental note to visit some time soon.

We had breakfast in the Jollibee (the Philippines equivalent of McDonalds) and then headed off for the cross island drive to the town of Bacolod for our next ferry connection.

Rice Terrace

Waterfall

Almost immediately Negros had a different feel to it. On the plains at the foot of the mountains there were fields of sugar cane, which I haven't seen growing anywhere on Cebu. As expected, the drive into the mountains was quite scenic, and even spectacular in places. The sugar cane fields quickly gave way to corn fields and then rice terraces, with the volcano of Kanlaon serving as a back drop, although due to the haze and low clouds the peak was never visible. High mountains, winding roads and deep river valleysmade the 50 mile drive interesting enough and as we weren't pushed for time we were able to stop and take photographs at our leisure. In one location there was an area that looked to be set up as a rest or picnic spot but was in fact a viewing area for a quite impressive waterfall that looked like something from The Land Time Forgot.

As the mountains gave way to the plains surrounding Bacolod there were fields of sugar cane as far as the eye could see. We arrived in Bacalod in the middle of a tropical downpour. This was probably the fringes of the typhoon that was battering Taiwan at this point in time. We had just missed a ferry that was due to depart and, looking at the condition of the sea and the visibility, I was quietly relieved and hoped that in time the weather would settle down.

After a wait of 3 hours for the next ferry the weather did indeed calm down considerably. The crossing from Bacolod to Iloilo was also unremarkable and took around 90 minutes as well.

We arrived at the ferry terminal of Damangas at sunset and as the terminal is quite a distance out of town and the road into the city is severely potholed it takes longer than expected to reach the city centre. By the time we arrived there, it was already dark so we found a budget hotel, had the local speciality La Paz Batchoy for dinner, and then called it a night.

The next day we were up early and went to visit the site. This took a while to locate as the power station is being constructed on the site of some old fish farms and the access roads are not clearly marked. There is quite

some controversy over this power station. Greenpeace has organised several demonstrations in the city and participated in disruptive action to protest what it calls "dirty" coal and the supposed impact on global warming. Personally, I think that for a third world country there are very few other options. Certainly, the ridiculous windmills being constructed in the UK wouldn't work. Nuclear isn't an option. Expanding the present facility, which is diesel fired, is surely more harmful and certainly more costly than the coal option so I'm not sure what the other alternatives are? Candle light perhaps? Besides, apart from the CO2 issue, which may or may not contribute to global warming, coal fired power stations have FGD (flue gas desulphurisation) units which deals with the acid rain issues and the discharge from the chimneys is barely visible. I remember working in Gravesend in 1984 and seeing the huge black cloud belched out by the chimneys on Tilbury power station across the Thames at times of peak electrical demand. Nowadays, you wouldn't even know the plant was operational so there have been significant improvements since then.

There wasn't much to see at the site as the construction work had only just started on the boiler house and site of the chimney was just a open area of reclaimed land.

After visiting the site and meeting our client we went back to Iloilo City for some exploring. We drove around looking at potential properties for rent, checking out hotels, suppliers and generally just getting a feel for the place. Interestingly enough, and as pointed out by my driver, there are no traffic lights in Iloilo and despite it being a busy and bustling city, the traffic seems to work just fine without them. We also went to have a look at the local golf club and the newly constructed Iloilo airport. Iloilo seemed to be a pleasant enough city with more of a street side cafe and restaurant culture so I reckon I'll be happier in Iloilo than Toledo.

Ferry Cargo

The following day we were up early again and heading to the Damangas ferry terminal at 6:00am to catch the first ferry to Bacalod. This was scheduled to leave at 8:00am but were told on arrival that it had been cancelled and the next ferry would be at 11:00am.

RoRo Ferry

There was little point in going back to the city so we just waited it out on the quayside. When the ferry did arrive there was quite a crowd waiting to board but it appeared that everyone was squeezed on board. There was no seating on the regular decks so I went topside and found a seat under the window of the bridge. Although it wasn't particularly sunny, in fact it was mostly grey and overcast, this didn't stop me from getting a very sunburnt face and arms.

Sunburn

As we had arrived much later in Bacolod (1:00pm) than originally planned we had no time to hang around and so had to head off immediately in order to catch the last ferry to Toledo, and so a rapid cross island dash was necessary in order to make it back to San Carlos by 3:00pm and back to Toledo for 5:50pm.