Whippy. Motorbike Logistics?

[sandwichmaker]

The way you move around the Philippines is especially interesting.

I know you travel with 2 soft waterproof bags, which hold your cooking stuff, and a waterproof laptop bag. All this on an XRM!

May I ask, please elaborate on your motorbikes. How many do you own in the Philippines? I know you own one in Cebu, which you leave in a small town near Cebu. How did you determine who you trust to leave the bike with, the case of Cebu and in the case of any other bike? I think I understood that you leave one in northern Mindanao too. Is this also an XRM? Did you ever consider other bikes? Personally I would want something with a wider seat to support my rear better.

Also, how far do you travel with a bike? Is the roro ferry network wide enough to allow you to explore, or do you try to stay off ferries? How much is a ticket for a motorbike usually?

Lots of questions there, hope you can get through some or all them in your own time :)

[the_whipster]

I only have one XRM and it is not in Cebu but near Iligan. I hire them everywhere else. Ferry fees are quite expensive. If I was going to like Siquijor from Cebu, I would think twice, about bringing a bike. It would probably cost 1000 bike and driver on the ferry. When you can hire one there for only 250 a day. And it is usually quite a big hassle waiting around to load bikes on to ferries. Prices vary a lot. With the Camotes, bike ands driver is only 500 from Danao. Dumaguete, being practically swimming distance, is the cheapest there is at only 200 bike and driver.

 

but paying the sometimes quite high shipping fees can be worth it for sure. Because driving a bike off a ferry with a bird on the back, and on to an island neither of you have ever been before, is one of the biggest buzzes out there as far as moving around the Philippines goes.

 

waterproof bags are essential. I just tie them up with string on the back rail. There is still room to seat two.

 

with range I have quite a low daily limit. Even 100 km per day would be quite a lot for me. If I was coming from Dumaguete and intending to go to the Camotes, i would overnight twice. Once in Argao and once in Compostela.

 

you can't beat the flexibility with having a bike. In December I set off from Lapu Lapu to go to Moalboal with the intention of stopping off in Carcar for one night on the way (although plenty of other people would just do Lapu Lapu-Moalboal in one go, it is not so far). But on the way, I changed my mind. I thought the hell with that and when I passed Naga I thought I'll zip 20km over the mountain and stop over a night in Toledo instead.

[Americano]

Whippy,

 

Since you are living in the UK, are these trips on your motorbike around the Philippines real or just your imagination from looking at maps of the Philippines. You sure do know a lot about the distances between cities which people living in the Philippines don't know, but distances between cities are on maps. It sounds like you are quoting from maps when you say distances between cities.

[the_whipster]

at least three regular posters on on this forum have met me an in the Philippines in the real life and on different islands too. Sandwichmaker, the OP here, in Manila. Davehoundriver, in Biliran. MikeB, in Argao. I have spent a total of 4.5 years, in the Philippines in all and i have always moved around it. I have never stayed more than one month, in any one place. It adds up to quite a long time.And I have spent nearly as much time in other countries in south east Asia than I have in the Philippines. I am just not there full time. And neither would I want to be there full time as I like my life the way is. It is true I know the distances between towns in Cebu from using a map though, because I have a good map to assist me in transit while i am there (it is essential to have a good map as well as waterproof gear and bags when you are going round by 125). So I know that it is 24km from Balamban to Asturias, 12km from Consolacion to Compostela, 25km from Carcar to Argao, and so on. From a map. So what. And distances between Philippines towns are not on most maps, where you would have to reference the scale and guess. But the map I have for Cebu does give distances between the towns. But of the maps I have, only the Cebu island map shows distances between towns. The maps I have of other islands, and have used similarly to the Cebu one, like Leyte, Negros and Mindanao do not give distances between towns.

 

sometimes I know the distance between two places not from a map. Like I know it is 17km from Benoni, to Mambajao, Camiguin. Not because I looked it up in any map, But because I must have driven it back and forth between the two maybe 30 times at least.

[sandwichmaker]

whippy is totally fake. All the hotels he told me to visit were holograms. Indeed, I met his hologram in manila once :D

 

Edit: 

(whoops, I forgot about his cute hologram girlfriend, who I also saw)

 

Whippy also told me about Big Z pension house in camotes, where I woke up to this view yesturday morning

 

 

As you can see, fake ocean. 

 

How long can I milk this joke for ? hehehe.

Edited May 14, 2014 by sandwichmaker

[the_whipster]

find some of your own, you dozy git. They are out there :)

[sandwichmaker]

See? He has no manners! That's what you get when you deal with a hologram!  ;)

[the_whipster]

 

 

Edit: 

(whoops, I forgot about his cute hologram girlfriend, who I also saw)

 

 

that particular hologram has changed in character as she has now pitched up in Riyadh, Saudi. She's sent me all these pictures of her airconditioned room and these new pinoy friends she has already met. She seems to be enjoying it. Even though she has to put on a tent every time she goes outside. Makes a change, from Quezon city, I suppose.

[davewe]

Whippy,

 

Since you are living in the UK, are these trips on your motorbike around the Philippines real or just your imagination from looking at maps of the Philippines. You sure do know a lot about the distances between cities which people living in the Philippines don't know, but distances between cities are on maps. It sounds like you are quoting from maps when you say distances between cities.

Gee. I assumed everyone knows who Whippy is from that other Philippines forum. His problem if he has one, is not that he is fake :)