Danika, Tristan, and I start our journey at 10pm, Thursday night. After an hour bus ride to the airport, we check in for our 1am flight. Nice time for a flight, eh? Three hours later, we are landing in Cebu, an island in the Philippines. Not our final destination. Tired, and unable to sleep through the flight, I am awaken by a gleaming orange and pink sign. DUNKIN DONUTS. You are shitting me. I tired to run to it until Tristan states, “Do you want to get tackled by 8 immigration officers?” It was on the departures side, not arrivals. UGH.
So after a short taxi ride through Cebu to the bus terminal, we are waiting at 4:30am to catch a 3 hour bus ride to the northern tip of Cebu Island. The bus terminal is not your typical city bus station that I am used to. Instead, it consists of small vendors, and natives running around, laughing, yelling, trying to sell you everything, and loving you if you take a picture of them. Reminder, this is 4:30am without sleeping yet. Plus side, THERE WAS A DDs. It was small, the hot coffee was instant with no flavors, BUT they had Munchkins. Kudos to them. They also had some weird stuff, including different donuts, teas, and orange drinks. I stuck with my long-needed and much-desired coffee and munchkins.
(exhausted, but so happy)
So our bus takes off and I am planning to sleep these 3 hours. But no. Yet I am glad I didn’t. I got to watch the sun rise over the coast and ocean. AMAZING. To say the Philippines are a tropical paradise is an understatement. Traveling through the city reminded me insanely of Haiti, with the fallen down cement walls, make-shift metal sheet houses, and everything out on the streets. They even had the colorful buses like Haiti.
(mid bus-ride stop)
(they loved them some bottled cola)
As we traveled further from the city into the countryside, I decided that it was a tropical paradise mixed with Vermont. Say what?? No kidding though. There were cows grazing in the mountains and the lush greenery and dewey smell were so reminiscent of home. The differences were that there were palm trees in the fields and the cabins were more like cabanas. It was the most beautiful and interesting bus ride I have ever taken. I say this heavily though, because everyone that we passed was obviously very poor. All of the houses were small huts. Yet they all seemed so happy and fine with just hanging out and whatnot. There were some astoundingly lavish houses that we passed; I personally would love to have a vaca house here, and it is super duper cheep. An ocean-front mansion on 3 acres runs around $150,000. Ballin. I was pleasantly surprised at the driver’s choice of music. When we got on the bus, it was all sappy 80s music I would normally hear in my mum’s car (I kinda missed it a little, no lie), then it moved to an hour of Nickelback and 3 Doors Down, and then to jammin’ beats of Nicki Minaj, Katie Perry, and even Justin Bieber. Lovin’ life whaddup.
(little child playing outside)
So we make it to Hagnaya, where we need to take a ferry to Bantayan Island, when we realize there is no ATM here. Soooo we ask around for the closest one, and take a motorized bike with a side cart to the ATM. Talk about off the walls. Driver tried to rip me off but I put him straight. Don’t worry.
(He was so excited to get his picture taken)
So 10:30am, we are on the ferry to Bantayan Island. FINALLY. Still with no sleep.
(Hagnaya Port)
(Looook at that water)
(In Bantayan!!)
We get to the island and we get a unmotorized-bike with a cart to drive us for 25 cents to our cottage we had a reservation for. Surprise surprise their toilet was broken in our cottage so we had to go somewhere new. We found another cottage, Onde, same price ($5 each a night). Comes with beds, bathroom (the shower is just a shower head that sprays over the sink and toilet…), a fan, and wifi only outside. What more can you expect for $5 a night??
(Hard Cock Cafe)
(Kiwi Cottages where we were supposed to stay)
(our room)
We went out to explore Santa Fe, the part of Bantayan Island we are staying, get some beach towels, and head for the water. Imagine the postcard images of tropical beaches with the little cabanas on the perfectly blue/green water? This is it. Except for it wasn’t created by some expensive resort where all the people are tourists. This is authentic. Everyone here is a local, or else they are a traveler that stumbled upon it, fell in love, and moved out here (because they have the money to).
We fry ourselves to a crisp at the beach (the water is so warmmmm, no hypothermia in New Hampshire here), then head over to The Floating Bar. Legitimately a bar that is a floating cabana. We could have swam to it, but we had our cameras and whatnot so they rowed us in a boat. Everyone there were the locals or semi-locals (those random travelers will now be called) and it seems that everyone on this island knows one another. You can say it is pretty small. We grab some drinks, and just chat with them. Everyone always asks so astounded that we found this island, because it is not a tourist area at all. They liked the fact that we were here though. I feel that the main difference between here an a resort island would be the shops and what you see. Here, everything is run down, make shift, and the locals obviously are poor. They are happy and love their island, but that’s all they have. I love it. What a way of life.
(floating bar)
(om nom Pineaple Sling)
(I love everything about this house)
We shower and head to find a spot for dinner, and notice a little bar/restaurant in the back of a local hotspot. This happens to be where all the semi-locals hang out. We chat with them more, find out that this is a relaxing place, not much to see. But we are fine with that. We are on a tropical island. Nuf said.
Let me just tell you this. I am so excited for food here. I got a lime chicken sandwich for dinner that was deliciously grilled to perfection. But even better, I can’t wait until morning. Breakfast is a HUGE thing here for some reason, and every place has regular American or European style breakfasts. None of this Asian crap. It’s gunna be off the wall.
Well, it is just after 8pm, I have not slept in 2 days, and I am about to crash. Just gunna spend a few minutes studying Cantonese. What the heck on vaca right?? But I have a test the day I get home. Sooooo. Ugh. Can’t do me no foreign languages…
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