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Published: September 9th 2007
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Malapascua Island is only a 30 minute boat ride from Maya but making that short journey means avoiding a couple of tedious scams, which fortunately we'd read about. On arriving at the dock, a guy immediately attempted scam number 1, saying there were only 2 other passengers wanting to go to the island, and the boat wouldn't leave until there were 24 people on board, so maybe we'd like to hire a boat specifically to take us across. We knew this would cost 10 times the correct price, plus a crowd of local people would avail themselves of the opportunity for a free ride, so we declined and sat down to wait. Some more passengers turned up soon after, at which point another guy approached us with scam number 2 to say that the boat would leave if we were willing to pay PHP100 each. Since we knew the correct price was PHP40, we blew that out too. Without batting an eyelid, he then told us to get our (PHP40) tickets from the booth and get on board.
Malapascua's name comes from the Spanish for "Bad Easter", though I don't know the derivation of that. It is perhaps best known
for its scuba diving, in particular the unrivalled opportunity to see large gatherings of thresher sharks, but I was told I'd have to take my Advanced PADI course before I could do that dive. This would have entailed more expense and bookwork than I was mentally prepared for - that and the cloudy weather we generally had ensured I did no diving.
The beaches we found were narrow and composed of shells/rocks rather than sand. Only a couple of resorts seemed to be making regular attempts to remove debris in the form of coconuts, driftwood, discarded cigarette packets, etc. The water wasn't particularly clear and occasional sewage smells would waft by. Given the gushing reviews that most people give of the beaches here, I can only assume that their poor state when we visited was due to it being typhoon season. Walking the beach at night required some caution, to avoid encountering the mooring lines looming out of the darkness at neck and ankle level.
I'd read about a ruling implemented a couple of years ago that had made illegal any buildings closer to the water's edge than 20m away - this had been introduced in an attempt
to protect the beaches, and the army had come through demolishing buildings encroaching on this, but there were mysterious exceptions granted to buildings owned by the local mayor and his mates. You can still see the skeletons of some of the abandoned buildings now, awaiting the next sweep by the army.
On several evenings we heard the sound of drumming carrying through the night air, and tracked it down to a schoolyard where a large number of kids were practising what seemed to be a dance routine, perhaps for an upcoming festival, using circular woven "shields" held either on their heads or behind their backs. Seeing this brought home one thing that's been enormously noticeable about the Philippines - the sheer number of children around. I think this is partly due to the contrast with China, the previous country on the trip, where the number of children per family was so low.
Overall we found the island pretty relaxing and there weren't many other tourists around. Our days were spent on leisurely pursuits including visiting the various beachfront Happy Hours near our hotel. We also found an Italian restaurant serving what must be the best pizza in Southeast
Asia. However with our visas running out fast, and my overall feelings about the Philippines not sufficiently positive to want a renewal, we had to make tracks to Cebu City for a flight out to Malaysia.
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anonymous
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Difference in Experience
Sorry to hear you won't be returning back to the Philippines. Erik [blogger=esaav22] and Oded/Romi [blogger=odedromi] seemed to have enjoyed their stay in the Philippnes immensely having completely different experience than yours. What is it that makes people look at things and places differently ?