A Month In The Philippines
--Day By Day Journal--
August 4th- May 1st
August 4th
FLY TO CEBU
I had to land in Manila for a connecting flight to Cebu. I didn’t like it at all. It was shady. One worker keep trying to get all my information while another worker was yelling at me to keep moving. Don’t tell anyone your information. They don’t need to know unless they are a window. I landed in Cebu an hour before my two new friends Rebecca and Johan. I was so happy to see them. This is the first time going to a third world country and everyone back home was worried. I had so many bad things going through my head. We all took a Uber with Ronad Ancero, a cop there and gave us information to stay safe as he drove us to a Cebu Guesthouse where their friend Albin was staying at. I did not feel comfortable coming out of the taxi into the guesthouse. People were all around us right away asking for money and getting to close for my comfort. To be honest, if I went back there today I probably wouldn’t think the same thing, now that I have travel experience. To be safe don’t tell people every detail about yourself or your travels, keep you bags close (never hold someone else bag for them, unless you know them of course haha!) and don’t walk by yourself at night in bad areas. Do your research and you will be fine.
Bus Ride from Cebu to Maya
August 5th
All four of us walked two blocks to a Starbucks and got breakfast. Expect to see people standing with Machine Guns on the the inside and outside. After breakfast we took a Uber to a bus stop that took us to another bus stop, that was not as nice as the one in the picture that took us all the way to Maya. I was happy to get out of the town Cebu because I didn’t feel very safe there, like I said earlier. The second bus was an experience all in its own. The bus was full to its max. People smashed together in the seats as well as standing in the isles. Every stop people would get on the bus trying to sell things. There were roasters and chickens and no real windows. It was suppose to take 5hr, but ended up taking about 8 hours in total. We were all covered in dirt by the we got off the bus in Maya at the D&N Lodge. I felt like I was on all those movies with people in foreign places. I can now say for certain it really is like that. The hosts at D&N Lodge were very friendly showed us our rooms and pointed up to the food stand at the road where we could buy our dinner. We ate and chatted a bit before going to bed. By now I was missing the American toilet.
August 6th
Boat ride from maya to Malapascua Island
We ate breakfast and chatted with the most adorable Philippino ladies that ran the B&B. Albin shorta looks like Thor, so when the host that is in the picture above first saw him she squealed and put her hand over her mouth in excitement. It was adorable. She explained to us that Thor is her grandson’s favorite character. So of course, she had to take a picture with him to show him later. She was so kind and told us how much we should pay for the boat ride and she let me eat all the bananas I wanted. I didn’t know that they could taste different…. but let me tell you the small bananas off a tree are to die for. I really contemplated moving there just to be able to eat more of them.
August 7th
A day of rest and relaxation Malapascua Island
With the lady at the front desk hatting us… I mean me because I was the one that called customer service. We all decided to move to a bungalow right off the beach, because we didn’t want to fight with the lady again. We took it easy all day. Rebecca and I tanned while Johan and Albin went free-diving. Who know sitting on your butt on a bus all day would be so exhausting. While we were tanning I watched Albin and John; they swam out so far you could only spot the fins go in the air faintly. I was extremely impressed. I thought to myself maybe I will more used to the water in a couple weeks I could do it too. I sure hope so anyway.
We ate at a place called Ging Ging’s Restaurant and Flower Garden (we ended up eating here a lot, as it was inside the island with better prices and ok food. We meet three other swedes from Stockholm (Amanda, Stephen and Patricia). I found I like Swede culture. I have learned a little Swedish, not enough to understand. I enjoyed listening to them talk in Swedish, it is a pretty language. They all thought I sounded pretty funny, but I think they appreciate that I was trying. We all got to talking and ended up staying after hours. The ladies that owned the restaurant started screaming at us to leave. I think we were so distracted talking we never heard them warn us. Opps…. It was an honest accident. It was late anyway and I was ready for bed.
August 8th
Day Trip to Kalangaman Island
We ended up deciding to take a day trip from one of the guys walking around selling trips. I’m so glad we did because it is still one of the prettiest island I have every been to. No on lives on it and it is privately owned so you have to pay for admission to get on the island, but it is so relaxing and peaceful. You can walk around the whole island in about 20min. The water is so clear. Great place to snorkel.
August 9th
Frist Class of Open Water Malapascua Island
The others had to get up at 4am for their dive so I woke up alone and still nervous, but I don’t want to be scare-die cat my whole life so there no way I could cancel. I went to get breakfast at Dano Restaurant as it was right next to the bungalow we were staying at. There was a sign outside with pancakes and bananas so I assumed they would sell pancakes with bananas. NO! It is Asia. Be ready for false advertising. Sadly! Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, white bread toast with butter and jam, instant coffee, and ham or bacon (sadly the ham or bacon is really really small pieces!)
I felt like a kid going to the first day of class. What if I forget my pants. Haha! Thats funny, because you wear a swimsuit. haha! Dor my dive instructor showed up a little late, which was good so I had time to calm myself. He was tall with long brown dreads and spuriously he was from the states. I don’t meet a lot of people from the states sense I have been traveling. He was very chill and relaxed. Which is what I need in a teacher for learning something I’m nervous about. He went through my homework with detail. Making sure I understood everything.
August 10th
Second Day of Open Water Malapascua Island
I wasn’t as nervous going to class today, but when I got there Dor had to leave to take care of a babysitting situation for his kids so he had me listen to another instructor for the class part. Umm… He didn’t teach like Dor. He talked a lot faster and as he was explaining what were would have to do in water I was slowing building a panic attack. It seemed like a lot. He talked about taking off my mask under water and gear and then putting it all back on under water. He also talked about taking my dive mask off completely underwater and putting it back on without going to the surface and using my regulator to clear the water. He sometime would look at me and I would shake my head yes and try to look calm and cool, but in my head I was thinking WHAT I thought you keep your gear on so you could breath and see under water.
August 11th
third Day of Open Water Malapascua Island
I woke up a lot more excited to go to class. I was even more excited when I learned we were doing our dive part of class at Kalanggaman Island. We did our book part of the lesson on the boat ride there. Dor pause our lessons a little so we could watch dolphins! I was happy he did because I was getting distracted by them. We did our training close to the sandy beach. We finished our training at the prefect time to eat lunch. I sat and ate my lunch with all the dive-masters. I wanted to get to know them more. They seem like truly good people and they treated each-other like family. I couldn’t help myself think maybe I could become a dive-master and move to Malapascua Island myself. Maybe one day…
August 12th
Become Open Water Certified Malapascua Island
At 8am I had to be at Fun & Sun to do my written test. It was open book, which I was happy about, even though I think I knew almost all the answers. Dor did a great job getting my educated. I was happy to find out I passed! I hate tests. I still had to go one one last dive to complete my certification. So for the fun part of the lessons we took a boat to The Deep Slope. This dive was mostly fun. I didn’t have to do any test underwater, that I remember.When we got to the surface I was pretty happy, I really enjoyed scuba diving.
Can you believe a couple days I was having a panic attack and now I was Officially Open Water Certified!
August 13th
Moved from Malapascua Island to Moalboal
I thought I couldn’t do anything cooler than the day before, but I DID. I woke up at 4am to go to Fun & Sun for a chance to dive with Thresher Sharks and to do my deep dive part of Advanced Lessons. I just had to at least start with my lessons on the island that made it all possible in the first place. The boat arrived at Monod Shoal, also called Shark Point, at sunrise about 6am I think. This dive site is world famous and I get to dive her on my fifth time scuba diving. It is considered a cleaning station for Thresher Sharks which are rare and timid sharks. In the back of my head I told myself we wouldn’t see one. I didn’t feel scared I think because I grew to really trust Dor in the time he has worked with me…
August 14th
Moalboal- explore The city/leg wax
We took our time getting up in the morning. I didn’t like the breakfast at the Emoik Guest House. At breakfast Rebecca and I decided that we would try to find a place to get our legs waxed. We agreed to pay 250p for a bike taxi to take us on a round trip to the city mall. Now that being sad… When we got to the city the taxi drive said “Mall closed for holy week!” before he even turned into the mall parking-lot. He knew it was closed the whole time. What a Scammer!…
August 15th
Moalboal- Day trip to Kawasan Falls
We woke up early to go on a day trip we booked to Kawasan Falls with Island Trek Tours. We took a bus to a place where we got a helmet, life jacket and a pair of tennis shoes from a ton of old ones plied on the floor. They had us sign a waver, just saying if anything happens they wont be liable. We then had to pair-up and jump on the back of motorcycles. Three people on a small motorcycle on bad roads is not fun I’ll tell you that……
!!!! Link Coming Soon!!!!!
One Comment
Cherie
Thank you, I hope I can help you plan your trip. I will be working on more information this week that I will post. You wont regret going. It is amazing!