Siquijor


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November 11th 2011
Published: November 11th 2011
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On friday morning I caught a motorbike trike with 11 locals (somehow we managed to fit in the small cab) to Bantayan to catch the pump boat to Sagay on the island of Negros. The boat was due to leave at 10.30am but by the time they loaded the cargo which mainly consisted of thousands of eggs we didn't leave until after 11am. It was a pleasant 2 and a half hour trip which I passed the time by talking to a couple of locals and listening to some music. I found listening to Jack Johnson quite suitable when you are traveling in a small boat passing all these small tropical islands. Once at the port they squeezed 6 of us into a small trike to take us to the bus terminal about 10kms away. There I decided that instead of going to Bacolod and spending the night before heading to Dumaguete the next day,that I would try to reach it that day by going down the less traveled east side of the island. I hopped on the bus for San Carlos which was supposed to be a 2 hour trip but by the time we dropped off and picked up passengers it took us over 2 and a half hours. It was getting towards 5 pm and with another 4 hour hour bus trip ahead of me I decided that I would stay the night in San Carlos and catch the bus to Dumaguete the following day. The little I saw of San Carlos I quite liked, it seems like a large business centre for the surrounding area and around the main plaza it was fairly busy.

The following day I caught the bus about 11am and it took over 4 and a half hours to reach Dumaguete but it was a pleasant trip with some nice scenery along the way. There are a lot of sugar cane fields on Negros and with the mountains as a backdrop it is quite nice and also different to the other areas I have seen in the Philippines. Once in Dumaguete I caught a short trike ride to a hotel mentioned in the Lonely Planet but they only had sweatbox rooms available on the top floor so I found a suitable hotel with cable tv and aircon just up the road for a good price. I only spent 2 nights there but found the small city to have a bit of style to it, with some hip cafes and a youthful vibe, I assume due to the fact that it is a university town.

Then it was off to Siquijor Island on the slow ferry which took an hour and a quarter and cost only $3. I caught a trike who took me to a place mentioned in the Lonely Planet but I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay there so he took me to Villa Marmarine Resort where I found a nice but basic room for $12 a night. The resort and staff were very nice with a beach out the front and free tennis, table tennis, and badminton. The only downside was that the resort was a couple of kilometers out of town and the water at the beach was very shallow with a lot of seagrass. I spent a total of six nights here and liked it very much. I spent 3 days riding to different parts of the island on a motorbike and the rest of the time I filled in by playing tennis with the staff or playing basketball with the locals. On my first day on the motorbike I stopped at a small village to have a coke and to watch a couple of women singing karaoke. Ten minutes later I was invited a few hundred metres up the road to a nice house to celebrate an old mans birthday with about 30 of the villagers. I was given lunch, some rum, and also tried some coconut wine. I think I upset the birthday boy a little when I was asked how the wine was and replied that it tasted a little vinegary and a few of the men started laughing at the host. It was a very pleasant experience and after about an hour said thanks and hopped on the bike to do a circuit of the island. The road around the island is just over 70 kms long and a really good ride because of very little traffic and no large towns. I really enjoy the eastern side of the island which seems to have very few tourists and some nice little rice fields along the way. I also took a couple of different routes across the middle of the island which has some nice mountain scenery, tiny villages, waterfalls, and a small national park. I really love riding the motorbike in the late afternoon in asia when it starts getting cooler and the locals come out to play, have a chat, go for a walk, and just generally see what is going on. For me it is the best and most interesting time of the day.

After 6 pleasant days spent at Villa Marmarine I decided to move to San Juan on the western side of the island where I had booked a place at Hambilica Resort for $14 a night for 5 nights. It was quite easy for me to get there, I got a lift off Villa Marmarine to Siquijor Town and then caught the small bus to the door of Hambilica for 55 cents. Again I hired a motorbike for 3 days and just cruised around different parts of the island. On one of these days I went to Salagdoong Beach Resort on the eastern side of the island where for 55 cents I could use their facilities and swim and snorkel at their beach. At least here the water is deeper and there is ok snorkeling and they even have a couple of waterslides and diving platforms built onto a large rock in front of the resort. I visited a very nice little waterfall called Lugnasan falls just a few kms from San Juan and seeing it is not on the tourist maps I don't think many tourists go there at all. So if anyone is coming to Siquijor just ask your hotel how to get to this waterfall, it is worth it. There is also a bigger waterfall called Cambughay falls on the road from Lazi to Larena that cuts across the middle of the island. It is a set of three picturesque falls but when I was there the water was quite brown due to the fact that it had been raining that night in the mountains. Supposedly it is very nice and the water clear if it hasn't rained for a couple of days. Mainly I just cruised around stopping at random villages for a coke or a few shots of basketball and a chat with the locals. For me one of the best things about traveling is just to stop at small villages and meet the locals. A lot of these people rarely get a chance to speak to foreigners so they are very welcoming and forever offering food or a drink of rum or coconut wine.

I absolutely loved staying at Hambilica Resort which I found very relaxing with a very nice owner and staff. You can snorkel right out the front of the resort and it has a lovely garden setting including Papaya trees which I enjoyed their fruits with most of my meals. I thoroughly recommend staying here and it is only about 1 km or a 15 minute walk to San Juan and its spring fed swimming pool which I unfortunately didn't try out. The owner of Hambilica organised me to join a diving safari boat for the trip to Bohol which saves me the hassle of getting back to Siquijor Town, catching 2 ferries, and another bus. Sweet. Just like Bantayan Island I am starting to love this place and wish I could stay longer. It is a nice feeling when you walk down the road and people are calling out your name, it starts to feel like home in a way.



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17th October 2012

Hello! Thanks for sharing. I learned a lot of things from this blog before we went to Siquijor. It is very helpful. I also want to do a favor to our very kind driver and tour guide when we went to Siquijor. He took care of our valuable belongings while we were walking around, he is very kind and did not complain even if we ended the tour very late, he is a very careful driver and knowledgeable about the island. You can try to haggle with him. Make sure to contact him before going to the island. Other drivers would give you very high prices and they will follow you like bees. His rates are very cheap!!! Joseph's contact number: 0906-953-4204

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