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Published: September 19th 2010
(please forgive my vauge descriptions and lack of photos,internet connetion not so good and getting to grips with uploading. a far superior entry will most definatley follow ASAP)
My adventure began in the very dark early hours of wed sept 15th. I met jimi at heathrow after a teary goodbye to mum,winickle and dad. We were hassled by a strange drunk french man (the airport at 4 in the morning is probably one of the surrealist places to be)who called us 'fucking punks' as he staggered around our luggage trolly..we quickly checked in and boarded our plane bound for Doha.
Arriving in 40'c heat after a 6 and half hour plane journey is probably not the most graceful of entrances.at which point i considered wearing a bhurka like the majority of woman there.
Although only in Doha for a couple of hours it was a strange,strange place.i felt uncomfortable not knowing the customs and concerned if i was likely to offend..the male dominance was an immediate presence and im not sure if it was because i wasnt covered head to toe in material,because i am white or that im a woman..but one sure thing we learnt from being there for such a short time..is that it is ok for men to openly spit on the floor :/
One plus however was that jimi and i have never felt so tall as when we stood in the que to get on the plane to manila! ha.
The 8 hour plane journey to follow though wasn't so novel and was probably one of the lowest points of the past few days..turbulance and a full plane of people in the sky was not so nice. Qatar airways probably have THE best selection of music ive ever seen and stuck on my 90s headphones to listen to my own mix selected from their music collection from Rodrigo y gabriella,jeff buckley and vampire weekend ha.it soon calmed my nerves about contemplating how an earth this tin can was still in the air..
Arriving in manila we had mild panic when we got off the plane and jimi couuldnt find his passport. We went back on and off the plane and the crew hunted high and low but couldnt find it. Turns out he'd had a bright idea on the plane to hide it in a tiny pouch so 'it was safe' and i managed to find it..panic over we swiftly got onto our next and final plane of the journey to our destination,Bohol. On the philippine equivalent to Ryan Air. Except on this flight at the end, the had a scavenger hunt and you could win money and prizes!!what an amazing idea. ha.
We arrived in probably the smallest airport in the world..with a single carosell and no security or immegration..probably the size of a living room!
We were picked up by a smiley man from the place we are staying at for the next few days who happily carried all our bags single handedly and played 90's power ballads all the way to Cherrys.
Our room,thankfully had aircon and a western toilet which was a relief. We were tirrd but as it was only 2 in the afternoon so we made our way down to the beach which is right on our doorstep..we have truely,truely arrived in paradise. The white sand was blinding and the water so clear and warm ive never seen a beach like it.
We did our best to avoid all the people trying to sell us tours and massages and grabbed some food..a Massive meal and a drink which only cost me around £4.bargain. On the way back this guy called romanhito spoke to us about a tour and he'd do us a 'special price' .
Today we met him on the beach and sorted getting a tour tomorrow morning at 5 to go dolphin watching in his boat ,snorkelling and island hopping for the day. We woke up at 6 and figured jet lag had gone so started our day and it was already swelteringly hot.
We walked around to try and find somewhere else to stay after the weekend thats not so expensive and found somewhere for half the price..only 600 pesos which is about £6 with it own balcony.pretty sweet. After a brief and not so awful experience with a cockroach this morning its probably time to get used to it.
We had a sweet ass breakfast,again only about £3 and sat on the beach most of the afternoon. This evening we had 'the best pizza on the beach' whilst watching a lightening storm over the sea..it was so beautiful.
Since jimi had been complaining most of the day about a pain in his neck and the hordes of filipino women offering massages (not THAT kind)we were more than tempted to enduldge. I tried my first bit of bargaining and for 100 pesos knocked off the price and we laid in the moonlight on a ridiculously comfortable beach whilst 2 ladies gave us an all over massage for an hour for £3.50 :O :O it was the most amazing experience ever. It felt like every pore of my body had taken a chill pill and afterwards we just sat on the beach in awe of the amazing lightening show in front of us and how sweet we felt..this was beautifully tipped off by a bar playing reggae..and as jimi rightly put..'for a country thats so against drugs..this country knows how to do reggae.'
A SWEET FIRST couple of DAYS.
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Kayleigh
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Beautiful Beginning...
Aww Abi.. What a beautiful beginning for you... mmmm an all over massage for such a cheap price!!! :o) Im soo pleased you got there safe - how did the dolphin hunting go?? xxxxxx