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.