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Published: December 30th 2010
Our early morning flight took us to Dumaguete, an island in the Visayas area of the Philippines. From there we took a ferry 1 hour to the island of Siquijor, our destination for the next 5 days. We stayed at Islander’s Paradise, a guesthouse with bungalows that were right on the water’s edge with a perfect view of sunset. For the majority of our stay we were the only people at the guesthouse (it’s low season right now and this island is relatively untouristed)! It was perfectly relaxing and just what we needed! We spent our days sleeping in, snorkeling, swimming, reading, riding motorbikes and playing cards. We could not have asked for a better place to recharge our batteries!
By the time we arrived on the first day, it was the afternoon and tide was in so we went for a quick dip to cool off then napped the afternoon away. Of course not understanding the concept of sea urchins, Mike quickly managed to get 5 or 6 stings (their needles break off in your skin if you make contact). After getting out of the water and working to get them out, with a small fear of what the
repercussions were (and were later reassured that their stings are not poisonous), we settled down to enjoy the night. We had a private viewing of sunset that night, with the entire beach to ourselves and what a spectacular sunset it was! We would soon learn that the Philippines has some of the best sunsets ever and spent the next 2 weeks getting spoiled with not only beauty sunsets every night, but great lightning shows and thunderstorms after dark as well!
The next day we felt adventurous so we rented a motor bike (400 pesos for the day -8$) from our guesthouse! It was my first time riding one and Mike’s first time driving a manual bike so we were both a little weary but since it was a small island, there was hardly any other option for getting around! Turns out Siquijor was the perfect place to ride for the first time because the roads were almost deserted! We took the coastal road and rode all the way around the island, stopping along the way in small towns and at a beach or two to try some snorkeling (seeing only very small fish, nothing special). All in all, our
first time with the bike was a success (minus two very sore bums at the end of the day) and this would become our favoured way of getting around for a great part of the rest of our trip!
Day 3 we spent relaxing again at our beach (ya, I call it OUR beach since there was no one else there except the stray dog who became ours while we were there!). We rented some snorkel gear from the hotel next to ours (Kiwi Dive Resort) and swam out in hopes of being wowed by the sealife below. Well, it was very cool for a first time snorkeler, but also somewhat disappointing. The bottom of the water was covered with coral reef, but 90% of it was dead and colourless. Regardless, we saw some spectacular bright blue and orange star fish, yellow reef and a few colourful fish! If it weren’t for slightly crappy goggles and snorkels that leaked salty water every 2 minutes we might never have left the water!
Yet another amazing sunset, followed by a great storm that evening and the delicious cooking of our guesthouse staff – man, we were living the life! This
calm would be ruined the following night by a grumpy rich Frenchman who was unhappy with everything at the hotel (hello, it’s budget place, what do you expect!) including the food. Mostly due to language barriers he ordered noodles for dinner and was told they had no noodles. To most Asians, ‘noodles’ means rice noodles or egg noodles, served in the place of rice with a meal. To him, ‘noodles’ meant pasta. Simple miscommunication, but shit hit the fan when I received my huge helping of vegetarian spaghetti! He was sure the staff had lied to him and, although I tried to explain to him (in French) the difference, he made the staff take back his food to bring him what I had. I also warned him (a very large man) that my meal was vegetarian, no meat, which he brushed off…until he received his meatless spaghetti (reminder: he pointed to my plate and said “I vant DAT one”) and it was eventually suggested by the staff that he leave the guesthouse and go somewhere that could better serve his needs! He became forever known to us for his famous phrase “I want feesh and noodelles” – aka fish and
pasta) and we would joke about it many times after this but that night was downright uncomfortable (especially for me, because I could understand him when he was complaining in French as well!)
We spent one more day with the wind blowing through our hair on motorbikes before we left the island. This time we took snorkel gear with us and some local’s advice on the best location to catch some colourful reef. When we arrived at the spot, we were repeatedly told that there was no snorkeling there. Bummed out but determined since we had paid for the gear rental, we went out to a nearby spot where we saw two boys spear fishing. There we managed to see some new fish and some neat coral but the water was so choppy that we both felt ill before too long. That day we also visited a 3-tiered waterfall that we were able to swim in. The water was freezing cold but the water was fresh and there was no one else there!
Driving back to the hotel just as the sun was about to start its show for the evening, we hit a pothole in the road
and punctured a tire! Of course we were in the middle of nowhere and had to push the bike 4km to the next village where we were lucky to find a vulcanizer who could put a new tube in right away without putting too much of a dent in our wallets!
That night was our last one in Boracay and the next morning we took the ferry back to Dumaguete where we stayed one night in the cheapest dorm room yet (250pesos, 5$!). We had a flight bright and early that would take us to Boracay, the famous beach in the Philippines, via Cebu.
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Lucki
non-member comment
Noodles & french?
The French man's complaints about the food is laughable. Thanks for sharing it. I never knew this has happened. My stuff has not mentioned it to us. Hmmm. Glad they've sorted it out and we hope it didn't put you off? Very, very glad you had a wonderful time there. Thanks for choosing to stay with us. Lucki