Phew! That felt like a long story, and now, I am happy to move on to lighter topics like snorkeling, hustling for local delicacies, struggling for routine, and the jarring lack of menty-Bs 😮. This is going to be a super small chapter, because after Vipassana, we just spent some five more days in the Philippines before we headed to Indonesia, but I don’t want you to miss out on those gorgeous five days 😀

The transition out of the Vipassana trance to regular life happened for the most part over these five days: starting with when Niki picked me up from the Cebu City Airport. The huge shift in energy was palpable, and almost a shock to my senses. After this, there was an unforgettable cab ride from Cebu to Moalboal, full of traffic, honking, broken roads, and my first challenge out of Vipassana: dealing with three-hour-long motion sickness. Looking back, I am surprised at the relaxed tone of voice in which I asked the cab driver to stop at the next grocery store, and I am even more surprised at how I went and picked up a small bag of nuts and yogurt (and nothing else!) to calm my stomach, without getting overwhelmed at the many sugary treat options that presented themselves. I could almost see, in slow motion, all my triggers going past me without touching me, and perhaps this feeling doesn’t last, but in those initial moments, it felt excellent to be absolutely untouchable by several types of small inconveniences.

The next few days, we spent at a beautiful guesthouse in Moalboal. I slowly learned about Niki’s crazy surfing days in Siargao as well as his shark diving in Malapascua. I did not feel FOMO then, but I would be lying if I said I don’t feel at least a little FOMO as I write this now 🤦‍♀️. Have you seen thresher sharks? They are arguably among the goofiest-looking cartoon characters of the sea, and regardless of how seriously you want to take a shark dive, I imagine most divers are giggling through their regulators while they struggle to keep their buoyancy. For reference, this is how they look up close:

But moving on to the fun I was able to participate in: on one of these days, we hopped on our bike and casually made our way to see the “sardine run.” But Shubha, sardines don’t run now, do they? Great observation, and I have no clue why it is called a run either, but it was pretty high on our list of adventures, and we did categorically pick Cebu out of the 28,993,828,921 islands in the Philippines just for this beautiful natural phenomenon, and we were not disappointed.

In this part of the world, millions of sardines gather in a giant, swirling school just a few meters off the coast of Moalboal. It's a year-round wonder that does not require any special planning to participate. We parked our bike in what seemed like a construction site (some parts of this island are really just all about the underwater stuff, best not to look too hard for beauty above the water), rented some snorkeling gear from the nearest shop, and walked into the water. Just a few meters of swimming brought us to the breathtaking, swirling masses of sardines. They form what is known as the "bait ball" effect; as a defense mechanism against predators (such as jacks, barracudas, and occasional thresher sharks), the sardines pack together, creating mesmerizing, shifting formations that resemble underwater tornadoes or clouds. It was magical to watch! We even got lucky and hung out with a turtle towards the end!

On another day, we hung out with the beautiful dogs of Moalboal Animal Welfare! There was a moment in our planning that I had gotten in touch with this shelter in order to volunteer here, but I cancelled it thinking about the accessibility situation. I was right to call that off, because even a visit here made me very sad for the dogs. Don’t get me wrong, Ala and Lyndon, who took in some 150 dogs just to take care of them and keep them off the roads until they could be adopted by someone, seem to be doing their best, while surviving on only donations from tourists and taking help from volunteers.

However, coming from the Lanta shelter, I could clearly see how difficult it is to run a place without proper support, a structure, some kind of revenue stream, socialization and training staff, and hard rules around how many dogs the shelter can accept. Regardless, we were happy to spend some time there with the puppies, help them socialize, and give them some extra cuddles. But looking down at the tiny, innocent faces of the puppies just made the cold math hit harder. Mathematically, one unsterilized female dog can theoretically produce up to 67,000 puppies in just six years, and even with low puppy survival rates, disease, and high mortality due to accidents, etc., a single unsterilized pair can easily spark a local population of hundreds of stray dogs in just a few generations.

This fact makes me very sad, and it is nearly impossible to ignore. My heart kept breaking for the many dogs I could see suffering on the streets and could not help, and so I was incredibly grateful for our friends at the shelter in Moalboal. While most of these dogs may never get adopted, at least they have a somewhat safe life at the shelter, and they get love from several tourists throughout the day.

In the food department, if I am honest, I am yet to discover food from the Philippines. Niki did have some more time (while I was at the retreat) and managed to discover a few things he enjoyed, one of them being the breakfast routine of “hot pandesal” from the iconic mobile bakeries (throwback to the choon paan in Sri Lanka, anyone remember those?? :D).

The difference between the ones in Sri Lanka and here is that here, the heavy-duty motorcycle or sidecar tricycle is modified to carry a compact gas-powered oven, stainless steel trays, and raw dough, allowing vendors to bake batches on the go. This means the fluffy buns are as fresh as they get when you get them, and go down super well with a hot cup of the local coffee. These turned out to be the perfect rainy-day breakfasts for Niki.

With this, I will close our trip to the Philippines. I can see us returning to those pristine waters someday, as we have at least one or two dive sites on the list for the future—just an excuse to return and maybe this time give Filipino food a proper chance. But for now, our compass is spinning towards something wild. Hope you are ready, because next up, we are heading to Tasikoki!

Thanks for sticking around! We love you 🙂

P.S. Just in case you are feeling generous, donate to the Moalboal animal shelter here <3