Bantayan Island

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After our noon flight from Puerto Princesa to Cebu city, we headed to the north of Cebu island by bus, a three hour trip that brought us to the little port of Hagnaya where the ferry to Bantayan Island leaves. A lunch consisting of barbequed chicken and San Miguel gave us the energy needed for the one and a half hour boat trip to Santa Fe on Bantanyan Island.
Immediately after arrival brochures off all kinds were stuffed in our faces, displaying accomodation ranging from 4 star resorts for unaffordable prices to beach bungalows that were more in line with our budget. Some Norwegian I talked to on the boat had already given me the thumbs up about Budyong beach, so when the the guy charged with dragging tourists to this place, we hopped on the back of his motorbike. Unfortunately our arrival on the island was in the dark, but of what we could make out of the place seemed allright, so we decided on the one bungalow left; A semi-detached one that stood about 6 meters from the beach, sideways though, so you had to twitch your neck to see the actual beach.
Nevertheless, a very nice place. I couldn't wait to get into the water, and the little light that was there promised us a lovely scene the next morning. We swam a bit in the dark, after which we looked for a place to eat. And guess what; hundreds of kilometers away from Inner Mongolia, the place I live, we found a Mongolian barbeque..!

Of course we had to try it out, and it was amazing! Just like my last trip into South East Asia in June to Vietnam, I decided on the gambas. These particular ones were served with chili sauce, and my god they were nice! The largest, freshest, most succulent prawns I've ever come accross! (Am I making you jealous yet?)
Back at the bungalow we met up with David and Sarah from the UK, and it was with them we spend the evening chatting and drinking one litre bottles of San Miguel.
They had just booked a snorkling trip for the next day, so we decided we would get up early the next day to try and convince the guy to take on another two. With that we said good night and slept like babies..

It wasn't a problem at all, and so we were picked up by a banca that took us to our first spot. Just off an island, of which the name I forgot, it was ok. It was Zhu's first time, so a little exciting but he did much better than my first time and picked up on it pretty quickly. There was a variety of fish and some coral and we spend an hour or so checking it out.
From there the banca went on to another island, I think that one was called Virgin Island, but I'm not sure.
Here we went on land, and had a fantastic lunch of fresh fish, cooked over an open fire.

Zhu went walk about and started plucking sea stars from the shallows, so upon returning to where we were seated, he had his hands full of the creatures. Very interesting things though, and they are everywhere! So we didn't pass the opportunity to take some photo's of them. Snorkling was allright here, you had to look for the fish a bit, but along the rocky shore it was interesting. In some places a whole school of fish gathered under the rocks.
The afternoon was an excellent opportunity for some sunbathing, so there was plenty of that too! A beautiful island, very nice to hang out on for an afternoon.

That evening we went back to the Mongolian barbeque with the four of us, seeing it had a special 'all you can eat buffee' and unlimited cold ice-tea for as little as 245 Pesos! It was really great and with full bellies we explored a little of the tiny town.
Every town in the Philippines seems to have a large concrete hall, perhaps for town gatherings or emergencies. Anyway, that evening the one in Santa Fe seemed to have a large scale sale going on, which was an invitation in itself. Mostly clothes and household goods, it seemed a little overpriced when we asked how much things were. But maybe that was just the special tourist price. I did end up with a nice pair of shorts though...

Tired and satisfied with a great day, but not yet tired enough to go to bed, we played some cards with the others.
Shithead and Cheat respectively, it was good fun. One thing though; A litre bottle of beer warms up pretty quickly....
So drink quickley too, otherwise you end up sipping luke-warm beer...

We would've liked to stay a little longer on the island, but David and Sarah had decided it was time to move on to the next island, being Malapasqua. This could've been done the long way, meaning taking a ferry back to Hagnaya, a bus further north to the tip of Cebu island and another banca to Malapascua.
Instead, a direct banca could take us from our beach on Bantayan to the beach on Malapascua! This was arranged directly with the boatman of the day for a mere 1700 Pesos! That defenitely was a good price, shared with 4 people, so me and Zhu decided to come along and save ourselves the longer trip to Malapascua where we wanted to go anyway.

So after chilling out in a hammock for a bit and then packing our bags again, we fell asleep dreaming of sitting in a banca, sipping cocktails with dolphins jumping in and out of the water all around us...

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Photos

Fishing hut out in the water
I love the colours of the sea in this pic!

Zhu lazing in a hammock
Note the size of the 1 litre San Miguel bottle in comparison with Zhu... It's massive!