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Published: October 18th 2011
So we spent two nights at Carlos place and then we headed for the beach. San Pedro a lovely resort with basic huts on the beach. When I say basic I mean, no flush toilets and not hot water. Believe it or not on the day we checked into the huts (Saturday) it was raining. We get our hut and it smells of damp and the floor was covered with ants that were looking for shelter from the rain. So ants everywhere and everything was wet or damp. SO anyway we said that we would give it one night at least. We didn’t sleep much at all. Sunday came and we started our diving course the weather changed to the better and we did an introductory dive at first and then started the real course. Peter our instructor was really good and he took his time and was very relaxed. Very pleased with our first diving session. We also managed to change hut to one that wasn’t as damp and we also got a mosquito net.
Monday was a lovely day and we continued the diving course. Everything went well and in the evening we went for dinner at a local bar. Tuesday morning we arranged to meet Peter at his place and go on the boat and dive in a different place from the two previous days. We arrive and he informed us that there was a typhoon heading towards Romblon and we should probably think if we want to leave the island straight away as there won’t be any flights or ferries after today. As we had already missed todays flight so the only option was to take the ferry and then bus to Manila total travel time of 16 hours. The ferry was fully booked so they had reserved a cabin for Per and I and another couple from Germany (Katja and Marcus) who were also traveling back to Manila. It turns out that we are not only sharing a cabin with Katja and Marcus but another 240 Philippines anyway we survived however wouldn’t like to do it again and if we are going to Romblon again we are defiantly not going during the typhoon season. We arrived in Manila at 5 in the morning and found a hotel checked in early, had a great breakfast buffet, a shower and a long nap.
I the afternoon Katja, Marcus, Per and I went out to do some sighting and I can confirm that there is not much to see in Manila. We managed to change our flight to Sydney so instead of flying on Saturday we flew out from Manila on Thursday night. And we were so looking forward to a civilised country. Anyway I learnt a few things when during our time in the Philippines:
Don’t go there during the typhoon season
Always make sure that taxi driver has got a meter and it is on BEFORE you sit down in the cab.
Be prepared that people are smoking everywhere (a packet of cigarettes cost around £0.50 so might not be strange that all people smoke).
I know the list is longer but can’t think of anything more just now…
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misspeppichan
non-member comment
An experience!
It's a shame, we have romantic images of Philippines and South East Asia but I guess it's a bit basic too! Still you learned some diving skills and it's all great memories - better than having a sniffly cold in UK! Keep us posted on Sydney x