SHORT STAY AT SULU SUNSET

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The time came for us to finally leave Max and his lovely family. Max kindly dropped us off at the bus station where there was already a bus waiting to take us to our next destination. The bus didn’t have air con, but it had lots of open windows to let the breeze through. As we were pulling away from the station I noticed our bags were still laying on the ground. I had to stick my head out of the window and shout at the top of my voice before someone realised and stopped the bus to put them in the luggage compartment. It seems that leaving your luggage with the person in charge of loading the luggage was not good enough - we would have to be more careful in future.

After a while we arrived at a station. We were told that we needed to change busses and that there was only one bus going in our direction. When we looked over at the bus it was full, and when I say full I mean to bursting point. We managed to squeeze ourselves between all the other people standing in the isle and cling on to the back of the seats, this proved a little uncomfortable for Andy who was too tall and had to stoop down. The bus took us up hill on a winding road at a frightening speed. At one point the driver broke so hard that the entire bus screamed as we were thrown forward and almost ended up in a pile at the front.

The closer we got to our destination the worse the weather was getting. This worried us somewhat as we were on our way to a beach island for a bit of relaxation. We were imagining sun, sand and cocktails so the thought of spending a few days on a soggy beach watching the rain fall was not appealing. We drove for another 30 minutes and luckily just before we reached our destination the sun broke through the clouds and the rain started to dry up. The sky still didn’t look that friendly but we had come all this way so we decided to give it a go anyway. We called Yogi the owner at Sulu Sunset who sent a boat to come and collect us.

Our chosen destination was sugar beach. It named not because it has beautiful white sand, but because sometimes the crumbled shells are washed up on the beach, making it look like its had sugar sprinkled on it. It’s reached by boat making it feel quiet and remote. There are a number of resorts along the beach, but as they are all nestled behind palm trees the beach still has that cast away feel. After a beautiful journey during the most stunning sunset we were met from the boat in the dark by the owner of our resort Yogi. We were shown to a lovely beach hut and invited to join everyone at the bar for a welcome drink. When Yogi asked us how long we would like to stay we told him only a few days. His reply was simply “we’ll see, that’s what everyone says”……


The days that followed we spent relaxing, reading, swimming and enjoying a beer in the evening. Yogi would spend the evenings with us and we learned how he had built the place himself over the past 10 years. Without wanting to sound like a review, he really has done a fantastic job. The bar is somewhere you want to spend time and the rooms are all lovely. He has thought of simple things that make life easy such as a bedside light switch that you can reach from the bed and more than one plug socket so you can have the fan on and charge your phone at the same time - we’ve stayed in so many places where there is only one plug socket that we’ve ended up dragging an extension cable around with us!

After a few days some other guests arrived. First were Henry and Anja from Germany and a few days later we were joined by Zoe and Ady, from Bolton and Cedric and Chelsea from Canada. With more people around it made us a little more energetic. We had been meaning to go out on the boat to snorkel a small shipwreck, but as the conditions were better in the morning we couldn’t be bothered to get up early - you could say we were getting used to being beach bums. One morning Ady knocked on our door and asked if we wanted to join them on the snorkel trip. With sleep in our eyes we stepped onto the boat. We were glad we went as not only was the wreck a great snorkelling spot, but unbeknown to us this would be our last chance in a while to get out on the boat.

That evening we were all enjoying a few drinks at the bar. One by one as the evening wore on we all stared to drift off to our beds. In the end there was only myself Chelsea, Zoe left. I was just about to leave them to it when suddenly they decided it was a good idea to order some tequila shots. Try as they might they couldn’t get me to drink them. I looked around at the empty bar and realised it was definitely time for bed not spirits. After their shots they decided it was time to go for a swim. I hadn’t had nearly enough beer to make this sound like a good idea, but I was more than happy to laugh at them. I wandered down to the beach to say goodnight, I couldn’t see them but I could hear Zoe shouting “Emma I’ve lost me dress” I went off to bed and thought no more about it. A short while later I could hear giggling outside our door. I thought that Chelsea and Zoe were playing a prank on us, so I waited until they went quiet before going to investigate. I peered through the curtains and was surprised to find Zoe sat on our porch looking a little less than sober. I opened the door and asked if she was ok, but this only confused her more. She had a look on her face that said “what are you doing in my bungalow” I had to explain that Chelsea had dropped her off at the wrong hut, but I could tell that she couldn’t really understand what was going on. I walked her back to her room, but she didn’t want to wake up Ady. It didn’t seem wise to leave her outside on her own, she could have wandered off anywhere so we sat on the hammock while I tried to convince her to go inside and she tried to convince me that they were top birds and I had ruined the whole night because I didn’t drink the shots or go for a swim. Bless her I think those tequila shots may be regretted in the morning!

The next morning it was all a bit of a drama. It seemed that Ady wasn’t that keen on the state in which Zoe came home and was leaving the island on the next boat. Apparently the story didn’t end with me taking Zoe back to her bungalow. What followed was quite a lot of sick and some arguments. Also prior to Zoe turning up on our porch there had been some dancing on the pool table and running around the gardens in underwear. Our quiet beach island was turning into a soap opera!

Eventually it all calmed down and the quiet life and Ady returned. We had all stayed longer than planned and were due to leave in dribs and drabs over the next few days. As it happened that the weather had other plans for us…..

There was a typhoon heading our way meaning that the boats had to be brought ashore and until it passed there would be no way to leave. Everyone started to prepare for the storm. Yogi started to put up his typhoon netting to take the edge off the wind and protect his place from flying debris.

All of a sudden the sky turned black, the rain fell and the wind blew making the palm trees look like they would topple like dominoes - this continued for days. The typhoon was only moving at around 13km per hour so we knew it was going to take a while to pass. We all made the most of it by spending our days reading, playing pool and of course making good use of the bar. Yogi was a great host, assuring us that although the menu may be reduced as they couldn’t get to the market, there would be no chance of the beer running out. He spent every evening with us keeping us amused with puzzles, magic tricks and his endless supply of music from every genre. We also had a birthday party for one of the long term residents Dusi.

Days passed and during a short break in the wind and rain we waved goodbye to Chelsea, Cedric, Zoe and Ady while Yogi played “one more night” on the stereo. They left with just enough time to catch their flights, although the break in the weather didn’t last long so we wondered if we would be seeing them again.

During the next few days the weather finally broke and we were blessed with sunshine again. However The beach didn’t look quite the same with so much debris washed up and the once beautiful blue sea was still pretty churned up.

One afternoon we were enjoying a lunch time beer when we caught a whiff of a BBQ. The resort next door to us was mostly used by locals. Usually they would turn up with everything they needed for a long weekend. This would mean not just food and drink but fans, stoves, cooking pots and pans - I wouldn’t have been surprised to see someone turning up with a kitchen sink. They would then spend most of their time eating, drinking and on the karaoke! The amazing BBQ smell was coming from a group of men who were cooking Lechon (spit roast pig). They must have seen us looking at them because we were soon invited over to help with the cooking.

The large group of men were all enjoying a weekend away courtesy of their boss - the mayor of Sipalay. He had been so happy with their work that he had provided accommodation, food and enough beer and spirits to fill a bar - the guys were already pretty squiffy. They insisted we had a go at turning the lechon and then told us we could have us a couple of kilos once it was ready. This soon turned into “come and eat with us” which soon became “you must come and party with us!!”

The lechon was amazing, which was surprising as the chef fell out of a hammock drunk shortly after finishing the cooking and had to be put to bed. I decided to head back to our bar, but Andy stayed and partied with them………

Andy came back just before midnight with a slightly glazed look in his eyes. “they kept giving me beer” he giggled “what a wicked night” he slurred. Apparently he had spent the night watching them all sing awful karaoke while they insisted he didn’t buy a beer. “The mayor pay for your beer” they kept saying - the Mayor also paid for quite a lot of whisky and brandy!

The weather was now fine, but Andy and I and Henry and Anja were finding it difficult to leave. Every evening we would say “maybe we leave tomorrow” and every morning at breakfast we would say “just one more day” It would seem that Yogi’s comment on the first night about everyone staying longer than intended was true.

We did eventually make plans to leave, but we wouldn’t be leaving Sulu Sunset completely. Yogi was taking a trip with his partner Jean and since we were heading in the same direction we planned to meet up for the evening.

With great sadness after 19 days we waved goodbye to Sulu Sunset and vowed that we would definitely return.

We caught the bus to Bacolod in the rain. It got a little uncomfortable when we had to shut the windows, but Yogi and Jean were travelling there on a motorbike so I guess we had it lucky.

We had a lovely evening out with Yogi and Jean. After dinner Yogi took us to a bar he knew where we listened to some rather awful singing and watched some rather drunk men dancing on the stage - some people really should know their limits.

Part way through the evening we got a text informing us that our flight had been cancelled. The new flight we were offered would mean us having to spend an afternoon and evening in Manila. The idea of this didn’t really appeal so we decided to sleep on it and have a rethink in the morning.

In the morning things were still not going to plan. I tried to be healthy ordering fruit salad. This would have been fine had the fruit not been completely covered in condensed milk and cream! To make things worse there was the rather strange addition of sweet corn - not just totally unhealthy but totally bizarre! Andy asked the waiter for some butter to go on his toast, but got a surprise when he tried to spread it and found he had been served a plate of cheese!

We spent a rather rainy day in Bacolod trying to decide what to do next. In the end after much discussion we chose to head to Malapascua. We were due to go there anyway in a few days to meet up with Vin and Karen, but decided to go early and meet up with James from Australia who happened to be diving there.

It turns out that some things happen for a reason - at the time our flight was cancelled we thought it was annoying - but we soon heard that the area we would have travelled through had experienced flooding and land slides so we had a lucky escape.

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