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Published: September 22nd 2012
Malapascua & Bantayan Islands So here we are, almost 9 months into our trip, happier than ever and celebrating our 5
th wedding anniversary… in amazingly beautiful Philippines. Yes, we did plan this anniversary to be spent in
the Visayas and we worked and planned very hard (by hard I mean, skipping some places, rushing through some other amazing places etc) so that we could be there in this particular time of the year. Our honey moon was not a romantic gate away somewhere hot and tropical but historically rich and romance infused trip to Paris so we wanted the BIG 5 to be in one of those places.
We planned our stay in Philippines to be slow and mellow without rushing and island hopping every 2-3 days. We decided to visit a maximum of 4 places within the visa allowance of 21 days. Of course it had to be what we liked the most i.e. tiny, almost deserted islands and not touristy places. However we really wanted to see Boracay and Palawan that get their fair share of tourism. After tiring but nice night at the Singapore airport followed by a 5h flight to Manila (got it for free
interesting view
could have been in Spain, I supposethanks to Qantas FF Membership), then another short (1h) flight to Cebu, 5h bus ride and 30 min boat ride we finally landed in
Malapascua Island. It was all what we wanted at the first sight. The beach was small (takes max 10 min to walk along it), white sand and with palm trees scattering the beach and only handful of resorts/guesthouses to be seen. It was already after sunset so we were sure that the place would look even dreamier when we wake up. We met a nice English couple at the bus and we both decided to stay in Mr. Chang guesthouse just 2 min away from the beach (free Wi-Fi and low price of 500 Pesos/11$ really appealed to us). We had lovely dinner at islands only budget restaurant followed by fabulous and what must be the cheapest beer in the world (Red Horse around 1.5$ per litre). All was fabulous.
But only when the next day we saw the multilevel blue color of the ocean we were truly content. We loved the low profile of Malapascua, the fact that you can walk everywhere, splash in the amazingly blue-green water and then just lay down at
so beautiful
no picture can show its true beauty the white sand beach. We mastered the
‘hammock and a drink technique’ to perfection during our 5 day stay over there. We were amazed by how genuine local people were and the fact they never even tried to scam us or inflate prices (even in local shop we could buy beer, chocolate and fruit at local and very low prices). Just over the fence from our guesthouse there was a local food stall where we got to eat all the time as we could pre-order in the morning and at certain time in the evening freshly cooked food was waiting for us. We had the most amazing squid ever (BBQ-ued and in souse) for just under 2$ - what is there not to like?
There is not much to do over there and I guess that is the point of choosing this place. Malapascua is famous for scuba-diving but snorkel was actually not that great. We took a one day trip (900P/18$ for two of us) and the boatmen was really nice but we thought that coral and fish was not that amazing. Maybe we were spoiled by Perhentians’ marine life at this point already. We were also really
angry when the local coast-guard charged us for the marine park entrance and then we saw people dynamite-fishing. Unfortunately Phillipinos don’t care that much for wildlife and the whole thing with tickets is just for government to take money. Even our boatmen said that he thought it was a scam as no money was actually being invested in the well being of marine life. So sad.
Our English friends decided to head to
Bantayan Island just after two days and they were lucky enough to get a shared boat for just 300P each (2000P per boat). We did not plan to go there initially but then we thought of it as a good idea. We had to get there the hard way though. A boat ride, bus ride, rickshaw ride and big ferry ride later (350P each total cost and around 4h, so not bad) we set out feet in Bantayan port. Well, at first sight we did not like it as it did not have this small profile but later on, we learnt that only southern part of the island had beach therefore there was no need to go elsewhere. We walked for 10 min and only saw
big, luxurious hotels but finally found LP recommended resort that offered us a beach bungalow for just 500P/10$ (low season price). We just loved this place – nice, white sand, not crowded and bungalow basically at the beach. We had to look hard to find some budget eateries but as always if you look, you find ;-)
Every morning we treated ourselves to a bakery visit for 0.1$, fresh from the oven, bans and cakes and in the evening we visited our favorite stall near the pier that served massive BBQ chicken legs with rice for less than a dollar. Of course liters of Red Dragon were consumed every day to balance the heat – a kind of life we could easily get used to;-) Every evening we sat at the beach chairs, watching stars, drinking beer and talking about how lucky we are to be able to do all this. I guess it is needed to come to realization like that so that everything we do and every place we visit wasn’t taken for granted.
The only exception was our actual anniversary day (23rd of June) when we decided not to follow any budget,
drink and eat whatever we desired to. We started the day with fab breakfast and real coffee from an actual coffee machine (it is so hard to find one in Asia) at one of the luxurious resorts and then spent time at the beach with cocktails in our hands having a blast. For lunch we walked to the town and got some delicious food again. Then more drinks...and another fabulous meal with live music at our hotel. It seemed that the day evolved around food and drinks but I won’t be mentioning any bedroom details will I? ;-) It was the best 5th wedding anniversary we could dream of in terms of scenery, food and drink (appreciated more, due to a long term travel in Asia) and really nice quality one-to-one time in nearly deserted beach paradise. We live for moments like that and that was another place and time that makes us confident to say that we have seen our dream come true ….
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Happy 5th!
Visiting four gorgeous places in 21 days--I like your style! That photo of you two under the umbrellas is a classic, and the photos were great. May you have many more years of blissful travel together!