(Selected Born to be wild episodes in this link http://btbw-tvshow.blogspot.com/ )The wildlife and adventure TV series was not without visiting spectacular places by small boat or kayak. In Born to be Wild, my team travelled around the Philippines in search of wildlife, adventure and wonderful places.
Bucas Grande, Siargao – the Jelly Fish Lake!It was a surprise for me to have learned that Philippines actually have a jelly fish lake! I’ve seen and snorkeled in one, in Palau, and I just thought that it was awesome. Why? Oh imagine swimming with a thousand orange jelly, soft creatures! The Siargao version is a little bit different though, as the little lake is not technically a ‘lake’ but an enclosed water body – still connected to the main sea by a norrow passage. For some reason, the Jelly fish (w/c by the way are not really ‘fish’ hahaha!) seemed to have found refuge in this protected water body, maybe safe and away from predators. I am not sure to this day whether those species (there are 4 at least, I think) simply had evolved to be stingless (due to absence of predation similar to Palau story), or just born to be stingless. I am sure they are of no sting as I tested each and every type (by touching) ;) while I was swimming and free diving with them.
Bucas Grande offers good paddling opportunities; I somehow likened it to Coron – having similar little limestone islands. It could be a bit tricky to navigate the islets and narrow passageway though, as you can easily lose your way (from a little distance, you would not see the small passes). Then there are those hidden lagoons and ‘lakes’, where sometimes entering and exiting thru a narrow channel could be difficult as the water level rises up, or down (i.e. tides). During the ‘low tide process’, I felt the pull (as if riding class 1 river) coming from the inside (of the lagoon), and that can throw one off-balance or even cause an accidental head-smash against the sharp limestone ‘ceiling’ of the cavern-cum-channel.
But with a good guide, everything should be perfectly fine. ;) There are good opportunities to explore these passes, to snorkel the coral reefs, and swim with the jelly fishes.
Panay's Bugang – the Cleanest river!
Panay, as I’ve come to slowly realize is like little Palawan. It is till teeming with a good number of wildlife, and a relatively more preserved, albeit degrading, and bio-diverse eco-system.
Other than the forest, we of course visited their Bugang river, tagged as the cleanest river in the Philippines. The river eco-system is obviously in a healthy state, as you see aquatic plants (w/c acts as filters), nipa and mangroves along its banks. 
We used bamboo raft to ride the shallow portion of this river, we snorkel and video-document the riverhead (it has an underground source of flowing water), and banca-paddled the outer part where the river meets the sea.
The mood it offered? Calmness. Peace. Quiet reflection of one’s life. :) “meh ganun!”
Mangrove forest of Pagbilao Quezon
We also ran this story about mangroves, and one very good site where mangroves thrive is in the banks of the river in Pagbilao Quezon. As the Born team does not own a kayak (hehe), we borrowed a banca and I paddled the river as well as the nearby sea – where I ambush-interviewed some local fisher-folks about the supposedly-healthy marine and coastal environment. We also bumped with this old guy manually catching mangrove-crustaceans (a peculiar species armed with one giant claw) – in return for the video op, we bought his sack-full of this surprisingly tasty shrimp-creature. ;)
Pagbilao also offered bird-watching activity, but unfortunately for us – we arrived on the birding site noontime and found no birds except for the occasional fly-by of unidentified small birds.
Beyond the seemingly healthy eco-system image, is a not-so-perfect picture of man’s crave for more energy and something that is slowly destroying our environment – and us. Visible in the horizon is the big Coal-fired power plant, and as you may already know – coal produces a lot, lot, lot more CO2 waste compared to petrol, and this greenhouse gas increases the rate of global warming.
I was contented when I was paddling in the rich and healthy coastal environment, but felt a bit of annoyance when I saw the giant tower of the power plant looming from the distance. This is not about my own opinion, the world already knows – Coal is a global warmer!
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pic1. Romi strolling around Bucas Grande (using a tandem plastic sit-on-top kayak).
pic2. Bugang river flowing out to the sea. Notice the lush Nipa plants along its banks.
pic3. About to raft... (cameraman suddenly jumped aboard so Romi reacts... :)
pic4. Romi paddling in the river (using traditional banca), note the healthy mangrove forest at the background.
pic5. Greenpeace volunteers protesting the use of coal. Pagbilao power plant at the background.
