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Unlimited Tea?! Check Us In Now!
Although our flight doesn't leave until 9am we still had to get up 5:30am just so we could have our free breakfast in the hotel. They finish breakfast at 7am!
Afterwards we collected our bags and made our way over the road to the domestic terminal. It was differcult crossing the road, the cars and bikes don't drive around you, not like in Vietnam or Hong Kong, they just fly down the road!
The terminal was really small, it didn't take too long to check in and go through security. Chris was grumpy that we had to pay P1200 for extra baggage and also pay a P200 terminal fee each. But the flights were still cheap at only P2232 which is roughly £32 each. Funny our bags started at 9kgs and 12kgs, now they're 12kgs and 14kgs! Need to start posting some things back home we think.
The flight left at 9am and landed at 10:15am. We got a coffee and a pot noodle on the plane then started to drift back off to sleep. We were both woken by the sudden thud and bumpy landing of the plane. Chris hit his head quite hard on the wondow lol I thought we had crashed.
Security and baggage reclaim was quick. We went outside to find out about the bus to Maya port in the north of Cebu but were told they would all be fully booked now because it was Easter. We were also told that the journey would take at least six hours! We've done plenty of long trips so you would think we were used to it by now but we really didn't fancy it today, a taxi would take half the time to get to the port but it was P3000, so we chanced getting the bus. We asked a taxi driver to take us to the north bus terminal, he also said that we would be lucky to get one now. Then he offered to take us for a discounted price of P2500. He said his parents live near Maya and that he hasn't seen them for more than a year and a half because it's too expensive to drive there and back. It was hot, we were tired and we didn't want to miss the last boat to Malapascua so we agreed to let him take us all the way.
One hour felt like two, the journey was so bumpy and windy it was hard to sleep. The driver played hip hop R&B, we didn't mind but it kept losing signal so we listened to our own music on our iPods. Then he turned his music up even louder and everytime I drifted off to sleep he would speak to me! Chris just fell asleep with ease for most of the journey.
When we arrived at the port we were immediately shown to a boat. It only cost P80 each and took forty minutes to get to the island. I had my jeans and a black T shirt on, I was baking and couldn't wait to find a room and strip off.
As we reached the island the colour of the sea changed from royal blue to turquoise. The water was so clear and the sand was white, it was gorgeous.
We got talking to an English couple who were finishing their dive master training on the island. They had been on the island for six weeks! They were friendly, a bit hippyish and a tad bit weird. They walked with us through the village and recommend a few places to stay and eat. We could already tell it was a nice place to stay, all the locals greeted us with a smile as we walked passed them.
It was handy bumping into them as they also recommend a good diving company to us, Purple Snapper. They also told us that we shouldn't bother swimming with the whale sharks in Donsol, that it was way to commercialised and really busy, instead they recommended a small quiet town called Oslob south of Cebu. Apparently the fishermen have been feeding the whale sharks for many years now and they swim right up to their boats. We're not sure if it's a good or bad thing but it will be cheaper getting there than buying another flight so we have decided it's our next destination.
Its a good job Chris got money out as there are no ATMs on the island, we would've had to get the boat back to the mainland then an hour bus until we reached the closest ATM!
We had a look in Purple Snapper, the receptionist struggled to find us a room available for four nights because it was Easter. He said most places would be fully booked now. So we took a look at the room and was really pleased with it. It had bamboo walls and a great view of the swimming pool, which was just screaming for us to jump in! The room was quite expensive compared to other places we have stayed in but it looked like we had little choice so we took it. It included breakfast but what really sold it for Chris was the unlimited tea,coffee and juice lol. The receptionist also told us the room price would be discounted as long as we dive with them, so in total it wouldn't turn out too bad.
The receptionist left us to settle into our temporary home, I finally got to strip off my jeans. It was already lunch time now so we took a walk down to the beach to have a peak, then went to one of the cheap resturants that were recommended to us by that couple earlier.
They did really nice food but there were so many flies! I had to constantly wave a serviette over our plates. The staff stared at me from the back of the restaurant. Chris had a really nice sweet and sour fish and I had a really nice coconut milk curry. Just as we were finishing our meal we could hear heavy rain coming in from our left. The air suddenly felt less humid and was cooler. We paid our bill and slowly walked through the rain back to our hotel, it was really nice and refreshing.
The rain only lasted for about half an hour, in that time we played pool, not very well though because the table was crap and the cues were sticky from the rain.
So we went back to our room, showered and chilled out for a bit. Later we went back out for dinner, we tried somewhere else with a better pool table. I was still rubbish and Chris kept beating me. I think pool on the iPad has taken away all my amazing skills!
The bar looked very funky and had a lot of drinking quotes and deals written on the walls. We would have stayed out later but we have a dive planned for tomorrow morning, not with the sharks though, just a fun dive. We will swim with them the following morning.
Charlotte & Chris
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