Bantayan – Relaxing, looking for the Virgin Island, working on our tans and eating as much adobo and pork as humanly possible...

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We arrived in Bantayan after a 4-hour bus ride and an hour-long ferry, which were both extremely cheap and well-organized, and the porters were easy to dissuade and no one tried to steal our luggage from the bays under the bus (you fearmongering travel bloggers, please stop writing useless advice!). We were picked up by a driver from our resort (this sounds much fancier than it is, though it did involve a printed! A4 sheet with our names on it) and soon realised that in our haste to get a nice place to stay that was not fully booked we had forgotten to check which side of the island we were on. However, it ended up being totally worth it, even though there was no beach to speak of really, and most of the time the water was so low we had to walk at least 30 minutes out before getting in up to our knees. We had a beachfront cottage, delicious food, and the whole place to ourselves for the first 3 days. We lounged in the sun, watched the endless parade of local fishermen pass by, rented a motorbike one day and drove both to Bantayan town (where we were reminded of the Philippino interest for cockfighting by the overwhelming amount of pawn shops, and of the earlier Spanish presence by the beautiful old church) and to the more appealing beach in Santa Fe.

We took a boat excursion to the “Virgin Island” one day, which has nothing virgin about it except perhaps its lack of a permanent source of electricity, but is nice and chilled-out and has a nice beach and was perfect for a day's escape. We ate well, we slept well, we lounged in the sun. We read our books. We made no plans. It was perfect. Klaus and his wife Maia are the ones who run Maia's Resort, which is where we stayed, in Basawon. They were so helpful and lovely and everyone there was so nice, it really did feel like a vacation...

Favourite part of our stay at Maia's: being able to have breakfast on our terrace, overlooking the sea, watching the fishermen with their bangkas...

Weirdest concoction tried so far: Halo-Halo, ordered “special”, this beats Chendol by a mile!

Remember to do in the Philippines: eat mangoes. As often as you can. They are the best mangoes you will ever try. Mango shake, mango juice, whole mangoes... Just do it.

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Photos

Sundown at Bantayan
Yet again we are able to enjoy some beautiful sunsets where ever we go

Jump of joy
Sadie is enjoying every beat of the Philippines

Hiding from the sun
The fishermen often rap their head in a t-shirt to protect themselves from the sun

The fleet at night
Not all fish at night, some just bop around in the harbour

First day in the sun
We figured it was time to spend some time in the sun

Friendly naighbours
These guys were crawling all over the resort we stayed at when night was falling

Getting ready for work
On their way out to get tomorrows fresh fish

Rush hour
when this is the most crowded the streets get, there is really no reason to complaint

coconut in transport
this is just a small batch of Sadies average coconut consumption during our stay. Man they have some great coconuts in the Philippines

Early morning
The tides leave all boats on solid ground every morning, and this makes for a quite beautiful scenery

Germs anyone?
Maybe not the best name for an eatery?

Sceptical
It is still a bit scary when big white tourists come to your family store to buy stuff