Death of a server

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Leaving Malapascua meant we had 1 final ferry scam to encounter but, more worrying, was actually the act of getting on and off the boat. Boarding and disembarking the ferry were interesting balance exercises, complicated by carrying a 15kg backpack. Boarding involved climbing a narrow plank that moved up and down as the tide rose and fell. Disembarking required crossing to another boat then descending a steep plank to some flip flop-unfriendly rocks. My sense of balance behaved itself for once and I avoided plunging into the sea. To compensate, the rough seas on the journey itself (courtesy of an approaching typhoon) gave everyone a liberal dowsing with salt water, a parting gift from an island where I'd been showering in brine for the last week.

WIth an early flight to Clark the following day, we chose a hotel near Cebu airport once our bus journey from Maya to Cebu City was over. The price looked good, until the VAT was added in. Though VAT is something I know from the UK, there it's usually always included in advertised prices - here, you can never be sure.

Unfortunately my first Internet access in a week revealed that a crash on the Travelblog server had corrupted about 50 of my most recent blog entries (along with thousands of other bloggers' entries). Thanks to some sterling work from a friend who really should have better things to do with his time (thanks, JL), the recovery of most of these had been effected in my absence but I still had to salvage some photos, text, and even entire blog entries. This took up more than a few hours.

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