- Hey, it's Mike Corey, Fearless and Far,
and thank you for joining me on this Filipino adventure
I have concocted for you today.
If you're new to the channel,
you're not gonna find videos
about beaches or luxury travel or top five (mumbles)
I don't do it.
(sigh)
What I do here
is we do adventure travel.
We find places that people don't normally know about
and we make ourselves uncomfortable.
I feel...
No, I don't feel, I know
Philippines is one of the most unique countries
in the entire world and what breaks my heart, YouTube,
is that people only go see the beaches.
The beaches are world-class, I know.
They're incredible.
The white sand, the blue water, the palm trees,
the buccos, the haluhalo.
That's all great.
I love it.
I can't say that I don't like it,
but I feel if you're gonna travel,
you wanna experience culture.
You wanna meet people.
How much culture is there on a beach?
Not that much.
So, let's jump into the list
and let's get a little weird.
(upbeat music)
First of all, there's a video sponsor today.
Trover is an app I've been using
for the past six months that I'm in love with.
It helps you discover the world around you.
It's free.
You can add locations to it,
you can find locations around you,
and you can have brand new discoveries
just by flipping open the app.
All of the locations I'm naming today,
I've added into the app itself.
You can check out my profile,
you can see locations, all that kinda stuff.
It's in the app store,
and it's free.
(tapping sound)
Okay, jumping into number one.
If you go far north in the Philippines,
you'll find yourself in the land of the headhunters.
And while there's no more headhunters left,
at least I don't think so,
you'll find a particular old lady who's beginning
to get quite famous around the entire world
and is probably one of the most famous ladies
in the Philippines.
Her name is Apo Whang-Od.
She is a Kalinga tattoo artist,
also known as a mambabatok tattoo artist.
She is the last remaining true mambabatok tattoo artist.
(intriguing music and tapping sound)
This is how it used to work.
A man would cut off another man's head.
(vocalizing)
He'd bring it back to a mambabatok tattoo artist
and he would receive a badge of honor, a tattoo,
done with a piece of bamboo, a single pomelo thorn,
like a grapefruit tree thorn, and pine ash.
He'd have a design tattooed into his chest.
The more tattoos he had, the more fame he had
and the more ladies he would have, too.
After a while the ladies started tattooing themselves
because they thought it looked beautiful.
Then, fast forward for a thousand years or a hundred years,
I don't exactly know,
you have an entire culture built around tattoos.
(tapping sound)
Also though, something that they don't tell you,
and a risk that might not be as apparent,
especially for male foreign visitors.
(laughing)
Also up north in the Philippines is a spot
that's incredibly unique.
Another true Philippine gem that I don't think exists
anywhere else in the world.
It's called the Blue Soil Hills.
When people go to Sagada it's generally not for this,
it's for something else, that'll come up next,
but there's a hike you can do
called the Marlboro hike to see sunrise.
You can add on a quick other hike,
that's maybe an hour to see this phenomenon.
(upbeat music)
So, I heard stories about magic,
and I heard stories about chemical dumps,
but the most plausible story for me,
knowing a little bit about science,
is that there is copper in the ground.
And if you have an old penny, a copper coin,
it turns blue-green by oxidization.
Oxygen eating away at the copper molecules,
and develops a patina,
a funny fancy word for just a sheen
of blue-green that goes on top of it.
Though magic would be definitely cool,
but unfortunately I have a hard time
finding a real actual magic in this world.
It's probably copper.
It's probably one of the coolest things
you're gonna miss if you go up north.
Check it out.
(haunting music)
The main thing people go see
when they go to Sagada is The Hanging Coffins,
which is our number three.
The thing is though,
while hanging coffins might not be that much undiscovered,
I have to argue that point.
Echo Valley is the most common spot to see hanging coffins,
and if you go there, it looks a little bit like this.
(tourists talking)
Definitely not a quiet, powerful, pensive,
mind-opening travel experience.
However, that's not the only spot the coffin exists.
When I went there, I asked a local guide,
my friend Chris, "Is there any other spots
that we can see hanging coffins?"
And he said, "Yeah they're everywhere."
And I said, "Well, damn man, let's go everywhere."
And so we had an experience like this.
(inspirational music)
If you're going up there,
I would recommend doing it this way.
Asking your tour guide if he can take you
to different locations that aren't Echo Valley.
There's just too many people there.
(underwater echo)
Keeping up with the dark tourism theme,
which will be a recurring theme in this video,
is the sunken cemetery off of the Island of Fire.
(haunting music)
1871, Mount Vulcan on Camiguin Island exploded,
dropping the surrounding land down eight meters.
About 20 feet.
Unfortunately for the town of Catarman,
it was at the base of this volcano,
and it also fell 20 feet into the ocean.
The city was mostly destroyed, but the cemetery remained.
And you can even go snorkel it to this day.
(haunting music)
There are two giant cross memorials there,
placed after the fact,
to remind us that there are bodies buried there.
Not once,
not twice,
but three times.
When they died,
when the volcano exploded,
and also by the ocean.
There's nowhere else like this on the planet earth.
(haunting music)
This is not the only unique graveyard
in the Philippines under the ocean.
Head to Coron,
our next location.
People often go to see the beautiful Coronch mountains,
the lakes, the color blue,
oh my god it's amazing there.
Those places get very crowded.
One place that does not get very crowded
is the Warship Graveyard,
found just a little bit farther west
of the world class island hopping.
(inspirational music)
About 70 years ago, at the end of World War II,
110 hell-diver bombers and fighter planes
left the American aircraft carrier
and went all the over to find a retreating,
a fleeing, Japanese war fleet
that was sheltered in Coron Bay.
The Japanese believed they were
out of the range of the pilots,
but actually they were just on the edge of the range
of these fighter planes.
What they didn't know, is the Americans had 15 minutes
to blast as many holes in the war fleet as they could.
And they did so with brutal efficiency.
(gunshots)
(haunting music)
They are underwater cathedrals of rusted steel,
and they are an incredible experience to see.
Okay, at this point it's no secret that I love
the northern part of the Philippines, Northern Luzon.
There is some incredible things there,
but also, if you go all the way south to Mindanao,
(claps) damn guys, there are some gems down there as well.
(inspirational music)
The first thing, number seven on the list,
the Britania Islands in Surigao del Sur.
Just north,
I mean south,
of Siargao.
These islands are incredibly unique,
and I went there with the Fighter Boys last year.
If you're not familiar with the Fighter Boys trip,
it's a bunch of expat vloggers,
we get together and travel to locations in the Philippines
that are brand new, for the most part, to tourism.
I love those guys.
Fingers crossed, Fighter Boys Three.
The Britania Islands hold some secrets
and they are world-class,
and they're worth checking out if you're down there.
(upbeat music)
Matigol Falls is another gem
that you can find in southern Mindanao.
This waterfall, I still have daydreams
about going back to,
because I felt like we only saw 10 percent
and it was so incredibly beautiful.
Not only the falls itself,
but the people in the Arakan valley.
- [Mike Off-Screen] You can't catch me!
(children talking and laughing)
- And when we got there,
we flew the drone up and realized
"Oh my god, we have to leave,
and we've only seen one
of the probably 20 different cascades
that makes up this giant waterfall system,
and we have to come back, oh my god can we--
No, it's gonna get dark soon.
Can we stay?
We can't stay."
Ahh.
And the road trip had to continue,
and I have FOMO,
I have the one that got away syndrome of this waterfall.
(inspirational music)
However, there is another waterfall down there as well.
On the island of Basilan.
Basilan probably has one of the poorest reputations
in Mindanao
as far as terrorism goes.
And while I can't recommend you do go to Basilan
because that stuff still does happen, unfortunately,
I can tell you to pin this one on the map for later
when things seem to settle down.
I was able to go with Kyle Kulas Jennermann
of BecomingFilipino.
We had a security team and we traveled the island,
and what we found was some of
the most amazing world class attractions,
but unfortunately,
in a place that's not very accessible right now,
especially for foreigners,
whereas Filipino's can have a bit easier time there.
Anyway, back to the point,
this waterfall,
just watch this.
(inspirational music)
So, that's columnar basalt,
an incredibly rare
rock formation found only in a handful of places
around the world.
The most famous being
Giant's Causeway in Europe.
This waterfall is
one of the most unique things on the planet,
so pin it for later and come back there in the future.
Basilan might need a few more years to settle itself out.
(upbeat music)
So number nine,
torpedo boats.
We were in Northern Samar,
again with the Fighter Boys,
and we found this place
that had an interesting spin on sustainable tourism.
This location in Northern Samar
had an incredibly big problem with illegal logging.
People cutting down the forest
and putting these logs through these
small narrow alleyways of rock and stone
to get them downriver to sell for money.
The people didn't have very many options
to be able to sustain themselves,
after, especially, the big typhoon that hit the area,
near Leyte.
So they resorted to things that were not so kosher.
But what happened about 10 years ago
is people stepped in and said,
"Hey, how about we stop cutting down the forest,
cause it's bad,
and we start using these boats to carry tourists in."
Because it's ridiculous what you do with these things.
These are the rockiest boats
and they're jamming them like,
I don't even know how fast we're going.
Way too fast,
through small little cracks in rock,
up waterfalls,
getting drenched,
thinking we're gonna fall out or hit rocks the entire time.
So why not load tourists in there,
freak them the hell out,
and sell tickets?
And that will pay more
than the illegal logging would.
Turns out, it works that way.
(engine roar)
(water splashing)
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
We almost hit that.
We almost hit the cliff.
Well, we're almost done.
Wrapping up the list is Filipino food.
Listen to me.
(sighs)
As a westerner,
I can understand the perspective of other westerners
calling Filipino food gross and weird.
Thing is though, I have tried literally every single thing
put on my plate in the Philippines.
I've even sought out things
that Filipino's won't eat in their own country,
and made videos about them.
This is etag.
A pork dish smoked by village elders,
covered in mold and insects.
While, for the average western palate,
Filipino food is not normal fare,
I have to tell you
that a lot of it is really good.
Dinuguan,
chopped pig intestines with blood,
is really good.
Sisig,
chopped pig face,
fried up,
is really good.
Isaw,
chicken intestines barbecued on the street,
it's really good.
Some food though,
papaitan,
bullshit soup where they squeeze the intestines out,
and fry the,
and then boil it in the intestines,
poop water.
Mm.
Etag with the maggots and the,
eh.
But whether the food is good or not
is irrelevant,
because you can't deny the fact
that Filipino food is some of the most unique
in the entire planet.
And when I travel,
I wanna try things I've never tried before.
I wanna try things that challenge me.
And I wanna try things that make me uncomfortable,
served with the love of a host
who has put all day into making them,
and oh my god, Philippines,
you have satiated that part of my travel life,
my travel needs.
Like I said in the beginning,
Trover is the sponsor for this video.
I've put all of these locations in the Trover app
with a geo tag and some more information.
As well as in the description below,
there's videos about all of these locations.
So head to Trover or head in the description
to check out more
if you're interested in seeing any of these for yourself.
Or just learning
more about this beautiful country called the Philippines.
Also big love to my Patreon patrons.
You guys make this channel possible.
I don't always film the most regular stuff,
and often my videos get demonetized,
and often I film things
that I can't put on YouTube
because it's a little bit too much
and it'll probably get flagged.
I post that content on Patreon,
and you guys support me there.
If you wanna be a patron,
check out the link below.
I love all you guys,
and I can't wait to share more with you
on Fearless and Far.
Experiences over possessions.
I'll catch you in the next video,
and keep (murmurs).
(upbeat music)