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Published: June 17th 2008
After 2 nights at Alona beach on Pangloa Island (where we enjoyed the fresh seafood restaurants along the beach front, the bars, a massage from an old lady that was quite clearly senile and the company of a transsexual called Fiona - see pic on previous blog) we headed back to Cebu city for a couple of nights. Cebu and the Pacific Pensionne guest house has very much become our base here in the Visaya's - we've called in 3 or 4 times in between islands. Cebu city itself is the 2nd largest in the Philippines after Manila and Cebu island the 9th largest at 300km long and 40km wide. The Rough Guide doesn't rate the city too highly attributing phrases such as 'urban nightmare', 'full of 'clutter, exhaust fumes and nondescript concrete malls' to it. But I have always quite enjoyed our visits there. Down towards the water front is the Basilica del Santo Nino, one of the most stunning churches I have seen. Built in the 1730's it is grand in size and design yet quite fragile looking due to the crumbling of the facade. At night time it is illuminated with soft lighting, its appearance is quite breathtaking.
The city feels much safer than Manila - neither of us minded wandering around at night on our own - and has many of the same draws, hustle and bustle, markets, street food vendors, bars, clubs and 'exotic' nightlife etc making it a great place to get a taste of the city in the Philippines.
MALAPASCUA ISLAND
A 4 hour bus journey to the top of cebu and a half hour banca (small motorised outrigger canoe) ride brought us to Malapascua Island, or as we liked to call it - Mascarpone Cheese Island. We had high hopes for Mascarpone Cheese, the guide book coining it the next Boracay (known as one of the most beautiful islands and the most visited island), and talking up its "dazzling beaches and laid back tropical nightlife". We were disappointed. The beach wasn't nearly as beautiful as Dumaluan, it was tatty and the whole place looked run down with piles of rubble everywhere. The only redeeming feature was the floating bar which really was very cool! wed sit out on it most nights and watch the sun set. One night a storm came in really fast, the wind whipped up so much all the lights went
Danny with his son and boat
if you want help with travel arrangements around cebu and the islands give him a call on +63 909 3077190 or email danztour@gmail.com he can arrange most things including airport dropoffs etcout, it was rocking up and own on the water and we were dashing about trying to gather everything up and dive onto the boat! The short ride to the shore was in the pitch black and waves were splashing in, it was very exciting! Just as we made it to the safety of another bar the heavens opened and it bucketed it down for a good hour or so.
on our second day on Mascarpone Cheese we got together with a German guy and an English guy and hired a boat and driver and went out snorkeling around the island for 3 hours. It was amazing, the water is so clear it felt like i was swimming in a giant bottle of very expensive mineral water!
BANTAYN ISLAND
after 5 nights on Mascarpone Cheese we were more than ready to leave. we had decided to head to Bantayn Island, or as we like to call it Batman Island. Batman Island is about 75km south west of Mascarpone Cheese island. The journey was going to take about 5 hours and would involve taking a banca back to the main land and then about 3 buses and a ferry,
all with my agonisingly heavy rucksack that i cant even pick up on my own! Luckily for us we met a nice local guy called Danny who offered to take us directly to batman Island on his boat for a reasonable price! He picked us up on the beach right in front of where we were staying and dropped us off on the nicest beach on Batman Island where he helped us negotiate a discount on our rooms. Then he went and got his cousins motorbike and drove us the 10kms to Bantayn town and back so we could use the only ATM on the island. Unfortunately for us the ATM was out of order! Paul, the guy that shared the boat over with us, very kindly subbed us what we needed to cover our share of the ride, then we set about counting up all of our foreign currencies! I had about 20 quid in Japanese yen, Dan the same plus about 50 quid in Danish Krone and 8USD. Between us we had LOADS of dosh! But no one would change any of it! The next day the ATM was still out of order! But the bank was open
Fresh fish at the market in Batman town
The very colourful ones are called parrot fish because they look like carrots! and they gave Danny 300P for his USDs - the trip there and back cost him 100! We were getting by by eating and drinking in the resort we were staying at and putting everything on tab! We figured if worst came to worst we could use the internet to wire money to ourselves and pick it up at western union! Luckily the ATM worked on day 3!
We liked Batman Island so much we stayed for a week. The beach we were on was magnificent, the village was right on our door step and gave us enough variety for dinner and sunset drinks. Our favourite places to eat were the Jungle Bar and White Sands both owned by the very charismatic French born Robert. Robert is not only a fantastic restaurateur and host but he has lead the kind of life movies are made from! And he will happily sit down, have a beer with you and tell you about some of his adventures! He got involved in the steel industry when he was young, set up on his own and was then bought out by one of the big players. That was back in 1968 when he
Heres Robert!!!
This is the weekend eat all you can buffet with unlimited ice tea! 250P (3quid) and its all fresh seafood and good meat! was just 29. He then proceeded to spend his fortunes travelling around the world. He spent 11 years driving across south and central America, some time in Africa and then Asia where he seems to have spent most of his older years. In Africa Robert gave a poor African man who only had 3 mangoes to sell 100USD. 2 years later the man was the number one mango farmer in his country! and every Xmas since then Robert has received a box of beautiful carved ornaments!
Towards the end of our week on Batman Island we spent a day relaxing on the very small Virgin Island. We went over with a South African guy called Brad who, like everyone else, insisted on calling Danny Andy! It all started when one of the locals misheard Dan and thought he said he was called Andy. With there only being half a dozen tourists around word spread fast and by the next morning the whole village was calling him Andy! Now because Brad was another tourist I actually told him Dan was called Dan not Andy, THREE TIMES! But it seemed to go in one ear and straight out the other because
The Virgin Island
This is for sale! Anyone with a spare 4million USD can snap it up! as soon as Dan cam round the corner he yelled out "hey Andy"! In the end i gave up and started calling him Andy as well! We had a nice day on the island, went snorkeling had a BBQ... The best thing that happened though was when Dan decided to play Robinson Crusoe! Desperate for the loo he hopped off behind a big rock, dug a hole in the sand, did his business and buried it! I laughed my ass off for the rest of the day!
BACK TO CEBU
After our week at Batman we had to head back to Cebu to renew our visas because they had expired! Luckily nothing bad happens to you in the Philippines if you do this and become 'illegal', you just pay an extra 6quid when you do sort it out! We hung around Cebu for a few days, went to the cinema, went out at night to the casino and bars. I treated myself to a manicure, pedicure, foot scrub and massage, it cost me a fiver!
CABILAO ISLAND
We spent our last 5 days on Cabilao Island which is off the west coast of Bohol (where we went when
we went to Panglao island). It was a last minute decision and we didn't know what to expect because there really want much in the guide book. It was GREAT! we stayed in a lovely resort called Polaris Dive which had a swimming pool! We stayed in a really cool 'tree house' and they gave us a good discount on the room rate. from 1400 to 800, which is about 9GBP! The best thing about this place though was the snorkeling! And i really wasn't expecting this so i was completely blown away when i went out for my little afternoon swim... There i was splashing away looking at all the nice little colourful fish, watching the locals spear fishing under the water (also very cool!) when this AMAZING coral reef appeared and then dropped nearly vertically 60metres! (after that it went down to 300metres!) the water just turned to an inky blue and was FULL of fish! a school of about 1000 little sardine type ones swan directly under me like a carpet, there were amazing coloured ones all around the coral shelf, bigger snappers swimming by a couple of metres down and then about 10 metres away from
me this massive metre long silver one with a big pointy nose, just sat there, looking at me! I don't think i can put into words how awesome this reef is! It really was the most amazing thing i have seen in my life
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Vince
non-member comment
Sea Shells
My god, how big they are. How do you cook or eat them anyways.