Island Hopping - Tour A

All was not well at our new abode. After killing 4 mosquitoes, more appeared. Where the heck were they coming from?! We checked the doors, the windows, the walls. Then we looked at the ceiling. It was bamboo thatched and there were holes. Matthew guessed that the space between the first and second floors was infested with mosquito larvae, hence the mosquito army attack. AHHHH! That night, we smeared on Deet, wrapped ourselves in thin sheet blanket and directed the air-con and fan (set on high) at our faces. I barely slept. At 6am, the fan and air-con went dead and we got up.

By now we had stayed at 5 different places for the past 5 nights. Counting backwards - this place, the 1500 peso place, Century Park Hotel in Malate, Isabelle Royal in Makati, George's in Sagada. We told the hotel guy about mosquitoes and he offered us a 2nd floor room. I didn't want to look for yet another hostel so we said okay.

Once again we were on time and no one else was. Ben said he'd gotten up early but the restaurant was taking forever with his breakfast. Matthew went to find Nico and Graeme at their hostel. He pounded on their door and shouted their names. Then he opened the door and saw them passed out on their beds. Nico roused for a bit and said, "no, it tiz imposibol" went back to sleep. Another night of hard partying.

Matthew and I got on the boat while we waited for Ben to finish his breakfast 200 meters away. We said hi to Steve who was joining us on the tour. He had thin calves and very pretty eyes. San Diego dude, concluding 6 months of solo backpacking. In the distance I saw Ben run along the shore toward us. He stopped halfway and ran back to the restaurant. Later he told us that when he saw us get on the boat, he thought that we were going to leave him behind, so he ran out. When he saw that we were just waiting, he ran back to finish his pancake.

Tour A (Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Simesu Island and 7 Commandos Beach) was even more beautiful than Tour C. Also, we had switched boat operators and our boat guide was leagues better than the Jezebel guys. He spoke good English and told us what to expect. He shook his head in disapproval when we told him we lost money yesterday.

COOKING

Lunch was largely the same fare as the day before. I walked over to look at how the fish was grilled. Just put a bunch of rocks in a circular formation, add charcoal in the middle, put a web on top, and put whole fish on it. Tada. Then I watched our boat chef make the sauce for the fish and salad dressing. Pre-slice cucumbers, cabbage, and tomatoes. Dice onions and garlic. Slice 5-10 calamansi in half and squeeze juice onto onion and garlic. Add 2 parts soy sauce and 1 part chili vinegar. Add one spoonful of sugar. Spinkle freshly ground pepper. Mix together and ladle onto fish and rice. YUM. Might I add that the ground pepper was super fresh. For salad dressing, just forgo the onion and garlic, and sprinkle pepper directly on vegetables.

There were two whole fish left, which our boat crew packed and ate later.

SNAKE

A snake appeared and people scurried around. Our guide said it was not poisonous. Still, scary. I don't like how fast they move.

EVENING

At the end of our tour, I was island-hopped out. I had gotten nauseous snorkeling in a moderate current that bobbed me up and down. Still, we saw some cool stuff. My favorite was the puffer fish.

Ben needed to charge his iPod and blackberry but didn't have the right adaptors, so Matthew lent him his. We agreed to meet at 7pm to get our adaptors back. However, Matthew and I broke our promise. We went to eat at Balay Tubay at 6:45pm, thinking that Ben would probably stand us up again.

Balay Tubay was the Els Quatre Gats of El Nido back in the day. Now it is known for live music at 8pm every night. I had bad pasta and Matthew found weird metal bits in his mango smoothie. They made him a new one. The owner was watching a taped boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. They gave each other really deep cuts above the eye and their coaches stuffed wax into the wounds. Manny took the featherweight champion title from Marquez in a controversial draw. I was amazed at how fast the jabbed each other and thought about my friend Justin who said he used to weigh 30 pounds less when he did wrestling. Impressive.

At 8pm, the live music began with an energetic bongo and djembe ensemble that pumped my blood so I decided to stay while Matthew went to the internet cafe to figure out how we could get out of El Nido tomorrow. There were only 3 of us in the audience and I felt a little exposed making eye contact with the musicians. After drums, they alternated between reggae and Filipino ballads.

MEETING BEN

Walking back, we saw Ben, Graeme and Nico at the same beach-front restaurant again with a big group of people. Ben had our adaptors with him. He said he didn't want to stand us up again so he was on time and waited for us but we didn't show. We said sorry. Graeme came over and apologized for ditching us. Nico didn't come over to say anything. We bid our farewells.

Island Hopping - Tour C

Electricity cut off at 6am, so Matthew and I got up. While he packed, I walked to Balay Tubay II, a brother restaurant of the famous Balay Tubay further down the street, to order breakfast. By now we know that breakfasts take at least 30 minutes to make, even if you order only eggs and longanisa sausage. I told the lady that I would be back and she looked confused.

Back at our original hotel, we slapped down our 1500 pesos, looked at the hotel owner, said thank you, and left. We walked to another hotel that Matthew had seen the day before for 800 pesos. The young guy looking after the property was happy to see us. He took off his shoes to enter the room to show us, but we walked in with our hiking shoes on.

At Balay Tubay, Matthew had the American Breakfast (eggs, bread, jam, tea, juice) and I had Filipino Breakfast (eggs, rice, corned beef, coffee, juice). He got some really nice soft bread which surprised both of us. We ate till I was really full and satisfied. 10 bucks total. Not the cheapest but still damn good considering in the Bay Area a pancake costs $8.99 if not more!

Thanks to our foresight on breakfast timing, we got to our meeting place in time for our 8am departure. The boatmen said that the guys (Ben, Nico, Graeme) were over in another restaurant. We walked over and they had just ordered their food. Ben said sorry, and Nico said it's just as well since most boats leave at 9am anyway. Whatever Nico. Nico, Ben, and Graeme had been out partying. They first went to a dance club, then around 2am they met this rich Australian party guy who rolled out a huge ensemble of liquor on a beach mat and invited everyone to join him. After some drunken 3am swimming and climbing into bangkas parked by the shore, most people went home except Nico who stayed out on the beach till 5am.

We departed at around 9am for "Tour C" (Secret Beach, Hidden Beach, Helicopter Island, Mantiloc Island, Tapiutan) and saw very beautiful islands and lagoons with nice snorkeling. I was a little scared snorkeling because there were sea urchins and jelly fish. I also really didn't want to see snakes of any kind. I think it is healthy to fear for your life once in a while. It makes you realize your everyday social fears of other people are silly.

While snorkeling, Nico would go off on his own and do his lone wolf thing. Graeme would yell to us if he saw anything cool. Graeme also taught me and Matthew how to duck dive which is holding your breath and diving a few meters below to see the fish up close. Ben kind of hovered in between.

For lunch our boatmen cooked a delicious meal of grilled tuna, rice, and fresh cucumber, lettuce, and tomato salad. We ate close to a Norwegian-Filipino family. Norwegian father, Filipino mother (nurse in Norway), hapa adolescent/teenage daughter (pretty) and son, and daughter's Norwegian boyfriend (very blond, minor PDA with his girlfriend). Ben said that he would never take his daughter's boyfriend on a family trip, but I thought it was very open of the parents.

For one of the lagoons we needed to swim into a small tunnel to enter the lagoon. When we came out, a boatman from another party had speared a blue fish and was jumping up and down in glee. I lost my hair tie and watched it float away as our boat departed.

At Mantiloc Island, we all (including boatmen) got off to see a Virgin Mary sculpture. When we got back to the boat, Ben noticed that his bag had been opened. He showed us how he would always leave his bag (buckles fastened in a particular way) and it wasn't that way now. (Side note: Ben also takes 3 showers a day and is very particular about washing his hands before eating.) He checked his wallet and 1000 pesos were missing. He suspected it was one of the boatmen. We all checked our wallets too and Matthew was missing a US twenty dollar bill. We looked at each other and didn't know what to do. Ben was really bummed and when the boat got to shore he wanted to grab a beer.

We made plans to meet at 7pm for dinner, but they were no show again, so Matthew and I went to The Alternative to eat dinner. The tide was super high and the ocean lapped at its doorstep, so we had to enter from the back. They have nice "nests" that jut out of the building on the second floor facing the ocean. The nest has nice cushions and you sit cross legged to eat your food. I ordered spicy banana heart curry and Matthew got a pork dish. Service was very good. I had read on a blog that all the workers there used to work at an island resort before it got shut down, so they have good comraderie. In the nest next to us was a gorgeous, tall and blond couple, probably on a honey moon. We saw a string of lights in the distance on the ocean and asked the wait staff what it was. A few moments later, the blond girl asked the same question to her waitress. How come I can hear her but she couldn't hear me? Anyhow, they were boats fishing for squid, which only occurs after dark.

After dinner, we passed by the beach front restaurant and Ben called out to us. They had napped and overslept, and they are now getting dinner with several other backpackers. We made plans to do "Tour A" tomorrow.