At the port of Siquijor we immediately rented a scooter, it's the easiest and cheapest way to search for accomodation on the island, we payed 400 pesos for 2 days rental.
Although it was a big challenge to fit both of us, and all our luggage (unfortunately we carry a lot around) on the scooter, we still managed to do it. It was loaded just enough to make the philippinos turn their heads, they probably never seen western people loading a scooter before, and we sure looked like dumb & dumber. It wasn't comfortable, but doable.
We read about a place called JJ's backpacker village, and we went to check it out. It turned out very well. We got a tent (300 pesos per night) right on the beach, with matress, pillows and sheets. The place had a outdoor kitchen, hammocks in the coconut palms and a cosy little restaurant.
It was without comparison the most fantastic and idyllic place we have seen. It was like the pictures you only see on postcards.. and all of a sudden we were IN the postcard... Really felt lucky and felt like we had found a hidden treasure. Siquijor already had made a really good first impression. This perfect place got even more perfect with a beer in our hands.
We shared stories with a danish girl, Laura and her australian friend Jes. This place was really intimate, and everyone was very social and friendly. So it only took a few hours before we all "knew" each other. For dinner we drove to a place called "Get wrecked", owned by an australian guy, he served us some really good food and cheap drinks. We probably shouldn't have driven the motorbike the few km home, but we took the change, and survived.
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Our tent is on the leftside
Wednesday 5th Feb.
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First night in the tent went fine, we both had a good sleep and woke up early due to the hot tent, the noisy roosters and the barking dogs. It was amazing to open the tent and have the stunning view over the beach, we felt amazed and everything seemed so peaceful.
We enjoyed breakfast in the charming restaurant, and then we went for a motorbike trip around the island. Went swimming in a bright blue waterfall, discovered breathtaking beaches, visited a big resort, shared a huge Italian pizza for lunch and fell madly in love with Siquijor Island.
We got back to JJ's, and started sharing stories with all the other travellers. Went for dinner at the Danish Lagoon, with Laura, Jes, a israeli guy and a really drunk american guy. 2 motorbikes, 2 helmets and 6 people. Ahem ahem..! The danish lagoon served the biggest and most juicy burgers, plus a lot of danish dishes.. I had a big portion of burning love and Erik couldn't live without trying out the famous burger. The night passed by with drinking rum & coke on the beach, while an americano/philippino family kept the bonfire going.
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| One of the many fancy jeepneys (public busses) |
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| Cambugahay waterfall |
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| On the jeepneys, it's all about the decoration.. |
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| Salagdoong beach |
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| Marine sanctuary |
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| Buying gasoline for our motorbike |
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| Someone has got some money around here |
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| This is a kiosk, and that's how they all look like |
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| Another stunning sunset (Apo island in the back) |
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| Burning love at the Danish Lagoon |
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| A clear sign of a Danish restaurant. |
We enjoyed our last hours at this amazing place, and then we delivered the motorbike back at the port before we left, with the so called ferry, towards Dumaguete. Harolds Mansions hotel was almost fully booked, so the only room we could get was a suite, lucikly we could fit all four in there, so it was good enough.
We tried in vain to search for a redfilter to our Go pro camera, it would make the movies from diving brighter and more colourful. We had no luck in either of the places we tried, and specially Erik was annoyed, because it really would make the movies from underwater so much better. To comfort each other we ate a Mc D. That helped a little bit, specially the sundae ice made me forget about the camera... Haha! Finally we had wifi again, so at night when we got back to the hotel, and catched up with friends and family.
Friday 7th Feb.
Got up early to set up our diving gear. We checked out aswell, and already arranged that the boat should drop us off on Apo Island after todays dives. As always in Asia we had some waiting time, first we waited for the people who woke up late and should set up their gear, and after we waited for the bangka (a wooden boat with outtriggers) to arrive at the beach.
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| Our two roomies in the tent |
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| Not a bad way to start the day |
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| Dumb & Dumber |
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| Philippinos tricycles |
Siquijor Island
Got up early to set up our diving gear. We checked out aswell, and already arranged that the boat should drop us off on Apo Island after todays dives. As always in Asia we had some waiting time, first we waited for the people who woke up late and should set up their gear, and after we waited for the bangka (a wooden boat with outtriggers) to arrive at the beach.
Eventually we were ready for take off and sailed on rough waves out to Apo Island. Our Gopro cameras housing was leaking already on 10 meters depth, sadly we kept diving instead of interrupt the dive.
That made the dive terrible, but also the fact that the sealife was really poor, and our divemaster didn't really care about us. She didn't show us anything, or didn't look back and checked if eveything was okay etc.
So this whole experience wasn't really nice. And when we finally got back up, some water had found it's way into the camera and we couldn't turn it on again. The wind had picked up, rain was pouring down and we got really cold. Bad luck to us this day. Our surface time felt quite long and I just felt like I wanted to get through the next dive, so we could get into Apo Island and get some dry clothes on.
Next dive was better though, we got to see massive turtles, getting cleaned from small fishes. A nice dive after all, also with a lot of different corals. Luciky the weather got better and as we were dropped off on the island, the sun was shinning from a clear blue sky.
There's only two places to stay on the island so we booked a room, at Mario's homestay, in advance, to make sure they would have space for us, when we arrived. Electricity on the island was only on from 6pm to 9pm. Erik went for a nab while I wrote blog. We booked a set menu at Mario's for dinner and the night went by with rum & coke and blog working.
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| Apo island beach and bay |
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| Simply became a sunset junkie |
Saturday 8th Feb.
We then went snorkeling in the shallow bay, and we swimmed with a lot of turtles.. They look like water birds when they're swimming, so cool. Some of them was the same size as us. We wanted to snorkel on the other side of the island too, but getting there was a bigger challenge than first assummed, and the burning sun didn't make it easier. All right, we might have taken a detour, but how could I know it would be that long and so much up and down. We walked on a lot of steep paths, which was unsafe, specially walking in flip flops. Erik got a bit annoyed, but I tried to remain calm and act cool. And I succeeded.
Eventually we got to the other side, but there wasn't any possibilities for snorkeling there, waves were too big and there were too many rocks. We found an easier way back to the village again, and in the end it was a nice walk, and we saw a lot of the island by walking.
Had to snorkel with the turtles again, since we never know when we get that opportunity again, and that's what Apo Island is famous for, so went in the water again and saw big turtles once again.
We wanted a shower before we got picked up, by one of Harolds Mansions diving boats, but sadly the staff, back at the hotel, didn't fix our water issue, and it started to smell bad in our room, since we couldn't flush the toilet. I complained about this to the staff. It got really disqusting in that room before we left, but after my complain they decided not to charge us anything for the room. Sweet!
Had a long and wet boattrip back to Dumaguete, where we checked in at Harolds Mansion again.
The place have a really nice rooftop terrace, with couches, pooltable, food and wifi. The rain was pouring down, so we placed ourselves in one of the dry spots on the terrace, and did some research for our next destination: Moalboal. Philippines have, without a doubt the most unpredictable weather that we have experienced so far in S.E.A. We have had more rainy days during this month, than the first 4 month of our travels.
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| Stunning view from the top of Apo island |
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| A cool little boat |
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| Crossed fingers for these people.. We were in the same boat just 5 min before woth all our luggage... Risky..! |
First a tricycle to Sibulan port, then a bangka to Liloan, then a tricycle to Bato bus terminal, a bus towards Cebu stopping in Moalboal, and last but not least two motorbikes excluding helmets to Panagsama beach. All together around 4.5 hours of travels.
Erik booked a room in advance, and it turned out to be a great choice, because everything was booked. Backpackers lodge was a cosy place with kitchen facilities, a nice chilling area with hammocks and a outdoor terrace. We got a small room with shared bathroom for 480 pesos per night. Great deal for us, and we looked forward to be able to cook our own food.. But not before the next day though, where we could get some groceries. This day we ate out, and since we came to a tourist area again the food was a bit overpriced.
We were told that diving with the sardines here is suppose to be a really special thing, so we compared prices at different diveshops around the beach, to get the best offer. For some reason we were tired and went to bed early, and that turned out as a bad idea, cause during the night, as people got more and more drunk, they also got louder. So in the middle of the night I woke up and those people kept me up all night. Erik had been busy on his laptop, so he didn't sleep before late. Our room was on the second floor, but the windows fronted the street and with those paper thin walls you can hear everything. I was sooo annoyed and was ready to kill someone.
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| Bangka from Sibulan port to Liloan |
Monday 10th Feb.
Went grocery shopping and made burning love for dinner, we got so full from that hot heavy dinner. As promised to ourselves we went out for drinks at the one and only bar on the beach, Chilibar. On our way home we realized that we lost our room key somewhere.. Trying to think back of what we had done, and in the end all the staff in the bar was looking for the key. We went back to the lodge and searched for it there.. No luck! I kind of knew that I had it the last time, so Erik was giving me shit about losing it. A big surprise! And yes of cause you loose your key on purpose! We were desperate to get to bed, and since it was only a padlock that seperated us from our bed I decided to lend a screwdriver at a resort nearby. The guy was friendly and helped me out of my misery, and luckily we got into our room. This night I didn't get a lot of sleep. I was trying to find the key in my mind, and couldn't stop thinking about it.
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| Homemade breakfast |
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| Happy with rum & coke |
A bangka took us out to Pescador island, and we dived from there. None of us were really impressed about the diving, too poor sealife and the strong current made the diving difficult. Maybe we're just too hard to impress after diving at Similian Islands & Richelieu Rock. Maybe a bad decision to dive at one of the best places in Asia first, and then do the others after. This was another rainy day, so we napped during the day.
In the afternoon we went diving on the house reef, from Cebu divers. This was the dive with the sardines, and a very nice and different one. When we looked at the big schools of sardines, it was easy to get desorientated, because they move in so many different directions, and sometimes they were like a dark cloud over us, so the visibility got bad. There was millions of them, without exaggeration... Millions & millions!!
We were happy that we did this dive, for sure a special diving experience. Life is just so amazing under water. We had homemade spaghetti carbonara for dinner. Yummi. And by the way it goes good together with rum & coke. This night got a bit messy and uncontrolable. Philippino rum is really good and very cheap, only 82 pesos for a bottle, and we only live once, so we celebrated life this night, and I let some people know my opinion of them.
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| Survival gear in the rain |
Diving with sardines
To be continued...!
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