Hundred Islands, Philippines Trip (Day 7)

30th July 2014, Wednesday

Island that we stayed overnight

Woke up on the hard floor and was still feeling tired, my phone totally don't want to on which we may have problem as we need the phone to be up to contact my friend's brothers for picking us up later. But my friend still managed to get her old iphone to work and called her brother for the pickup time tonight. Then we still dragged ourselves up, i even gave up brushing my teeth and we smell. There was no water in the toilet too. Then we just bought a cup instant noodles from the stall and had our milo for breakfast while waiting for the boatman to come back to fetch us. After breakfast, we walked around the island (it is called Quezon Island) first, then we left the island out to the sea for snorkeling.The boatman brought us to a floating platform and we wore our life vests. We jumped onto the floating platform and put on the goggles. My friend was teaching me how to breathe through the goggles...hahaa....The goggles was made of plastic and it really doesn't taste nice...

Mouth of the Cave

Then we went down into the water (the water damn salty...@_@), there was a rope and we can use the rope to support. But the water wasn't very clear, still able to see giant clams and some small fishes swimming. Then later, we tried to swim away from the rope, my friend went away from the rope first..i was still clinging on the rope. And she was also yelling at me not to swim too near to her, she scared she will drag me down into the water...hahhaaa..After some time, i also swam away from the rope and was swimming far away from them...ops...she was saying that i swam too far away...hahaha...After some time in the water, we went back up to the floating platform. But we had a problem to climb up the platform, as we need to use the climb the rope up. And i was wearing my normal clothes to swim and my pants was collecting water. So tiring to climb and my leg got cut and bleed abit....also don't know how i got the cuts. Then after that, we went to another island called Marcos Island, the boatman (who was actually a young kid) told us there was a cave (named after Marco's wife) on the island and we need to jump off the rocks to get into the water. When we reached the cave, there was bats up in the cave and the height look high to jump. Me and my friend were discussing who to jump first, and i let my friend jumped first.

Islands

She really jumped down, and she waited for me in the water. She said she will kill me if i dont jump..hahaaa...But i couldn't find the courage to jump into the water, i was like standing at the edge for like more than 15 minutes (or more). Until my friend had to swim back to the shore and come up again and it started to rain again. Really...no courage to jump... >_<....and cannot jump together due the area was surrounded by rocks. So it is a bit dangerous for 2 to jump together. So we turned back up to the shore....and then we swam to the back by going from the shore side. Then when looking up to the rocks (where need to jump down)...it doesn't look so high...When we were swimming, i noticed there were tiny poos floating in the water...all from the bats above. Then the boat chap also wants to jump down from the rocks, after seeing us previously and laughing at me too...hehee...and he really jumped down. Then we swam back to the boat..really tired from the swimming. My energy is almost used up, and plus my pants are still collecting water. Very hard to climb up to the boat, then we went to the next island, where we had halo halo for snacks first. We were told that actually there were 123 islands now, not 100 anymore. And there was a small island, separated out from the others. They called it Lonely island...kekekee....After eating the halo halo, we need to climb up 100 plus stair steps up to get a nice view of the islands from above. The boatman told us there was an island called Virgin Island, and it was called that as the people said there were once 3 ladies who came to the island and went into the cave. But they lost their virginity when they came out of the cave.

Poh Piahs

Then we went off after taking photos and went to Children's Island. It was called Children's Island as the water near the island was very shallow (more for children). We went to swim again...but there was nothing much to do and cannot see 'nemo' fishes too. We stayed until around 12 plus (i think), then we went back to the boat. Then we went back to the city where we went to have a shower for 20 peso per pax. I went in to shower first, when i came out my friend was saying this was my longest shower. But i think this was my fastest shower and our bags were all wet cos the bags were placed on the board in the boat (with water inside). Feel good sia after the shower.....and then we left to the bus terminal to take bus to Tarloc..Then we went to have lunch in ChowKing (which i keep seeing around Philippines city). My friend was saying the food quite good, but i don't find the rice very nice (abit disappointing). And she was saying it was expensive, compared to those food we ate earlier. But the fried poh pians are still not bad. She said the soft drink was from the dispenser, so she still don't let me drink....@_@...So i had to drink my mineral water. After lunch, we went to the bus terminal and the bus haven't come yet. We just sat there and wait for the bus to come, got a otak-like snack too.

TV in the bus

Later the bus came, we got up and sat down and the bus left after all the passengers went up. And it was a long ride (around 3 hrs plus) to Tarloc. There was tv on the bus too and the driver on the tv for the passengers to watch. But i think most of the people are sleeping, i think i was disturbing my friend from sleeping....hahahaa....We reached Tarloc like around 7 plus, then we went into a restaurant to wait for her brothers to come pick us up. We ordered something to eat too while waiting. My phone was still dead, cannot power up with battery pack too. So have to depend on my friend's phone to contact, but she said her brother didn't reply her from her smses. We also don't know whether her brothers will be able to find us too. Luckily her brothers still able to find us at the restaurant. She looked happy upon seeing her brothers...hehee...Then we went off, her brother was driving a jeepney and it was his personal one. We sat at the back, and the ride was also very long. And i was dozing off with the wind blowing too.

BBQ Catfish

Then we stopped at a restaurant on the roadside, and they ordered bbq catfishes. They ordered 3 catfishes and some small dishes. The catfish tastes quite nice too....After eating, her brothers were trying to fix the car and me and my friend waited in the restaurant when it is ready. After a long time, it was really ready and we can hit the road again. We reached my friend's sister-in-law house @ around 10 pm plus..i was so tired and sleepy already...Inside the house, they were starting to have supper..got to eat again...@_@....I can't eat much too...hahhaa...after eating, they started to have family discussion, which i don't feel right to sit there (although i don't understand what they were saying but can see they were like going towards heated arguments soon). Kind of weird too, so i went to sit on the sofa to watch tv first. Then later my friend asked me whether i wan to go shower and rest in the room first. She brought me up to the room first, got aircon and 2 single beds and got tv too.. :P....But my friend needs to go back down to discuss her family issues first...and it was getting so late already. She ended up going to bed at around 2 am plus and still ended up arguing with them. And there was a lizard in the room, making noises too. I fell asleep while writing my notes.

'Hotel' Stayed:
Tent @ Quezon Island

Baguio, Philippines Trip (Day 6)

29th July 2014, Tuesday

Dragon splitting water

The beds were so nice to sleep until we were so lazy to get off the beds...hahahaa...So we lazed on the beds until 7 plus, and my friend was feeling feverish again...And i told her we just skip the 100 islands next and just proceeded to her hometown instead, so that she can rest there. But she doesn't want to, so we just woke up to go to the bell church again. Then we went out and took a cab back to the bell church, along the way, my friend was saying there got people carrying ta ho (like our tou hua) going to house to house to sell. But we were in the cab, cannot buy...and she kept telling me is very nice... -_-" (make me wanting to eat it). Then we arrived at the bell church, and went in. There were alot of bells and dragons statues in the temple. But i don't recognize the gods inside, doesn't look like buddhist too. And we were also wondering why it is being called Bell Church when it is not even a church...hahaha....Since there were nothing much to see, then we left and went to find breakfast.

Pandesal Breads

We came to a small shop, which is selling breads. And my friend bought some small breads and a milo. The breads were very nice to eat and soft soft, and i dipped inside my milo to eat too...heheee....And it was a super cheap breakfast, we kept ordering the breads to eat...After the breakfast, we went and took a cab to go to Wright Park for our horse ride. There were a lot of horses there, waiting for people to ride them. The rate is $300 peso/1 hr and $200 peso/half an hour, so we took the half an hour ride, just go round the park. Then we got on our horses, but my horse don't want to work today. It wasn't willing to move, so the owner was trying to get it move...hahaha...Luckily it started to walk. The 2 horses owners were 2 young boys, still schooling. Then the horse owners just pulled the horses to walk around the park, it was also muddy on the ground too. My friend started to chat with the boy who was pulling her horse, then we rode the horses out to The Mansion. The boy pulling my horse was wondering why they walked out to the road...kekeke...But we had to breathe in the smoke along the way.

Horses to ride

Then we got off the horses and got to know the names of the 2 horses, Tori and Black Hawk. Then we walked to the mansion but it wasn't open to public. Then we looked at our map and see where to go next. So i chose to go to the botanical gardens to see, then we made our way there by walking. Along the way, there was a guy selling poh pians and we bought 2 to eat. It was nice, different from ours. Then we continued to walk to the garden, and we reached the garden. When we walked, i see the garden like not very nice and no flowers to see. So we didn't walk much in there and it was also about time to go back to our hotel for check-out. Then we took a cab back to the hotel. During the ride, the cab was behind a jeepney and the driver can't overtake it. And we were like breathing all the smoke coming out from the jeepney. >_<....After we reached the hotel, we went around to explore the hotel and the garden until is about time to check-out. They even have a corner for fortune-telling. After packing our bags, we checked out from the hotel. The hotel staff still gave a green colour tea to drink, it was refreshing. Then we took cab to go the bus terminal to take our bus to another town (don't know what name.... :P), so that we can change bus to Alaminos city. We had our lunch at the nearby stall too, dishes simple but it was still nice to eat. Think it was about 3 hours plus journey...Then we reached the bus terminal, and when waiting in the another bus, my friend went down to buy snacks again. Got a fried chicken skins and ice candy, then she went to the opposite streets to get some rice cakes. But the bus driver wanted to go off, i shouted on the bus driver to wait for my friend. Then he pressed on his honk to get my friend's attention, hehee....but she didn't know. Then later she hurried back to the bus. And off we go......Along the way, my friend chatted with a lady from Phuket, who just went to hundred islands earlier. She was telling my friend that we can go buy food and stuffs to bbq there.

Hotdogs and Sasuages

We reached Alaminos city after 1 hour plus ride. Once reached, we got a motor tricycle, to go to the wet market. We bought 3 big sotongs, pork belly and other stuffs (water, charcoals, a big bottle of water,etc) and we went to the tourist center first. Then at there, my friend went and discuss with the people there and got the package. We are going to pitch tent and stay overnight in the island...heheee...Then later she went with them to settle some documents, which took quite a long time. I was already very hungry and after she came back, we took the tricycle to the port for our boat. It wasn't really a port, instead we need to climb down the rocks and onto the boat. By then, it was already 6 plus, going to 7 pm. Then we went off and it was getting very very dark. And there was lightning too, then it started to rain abit too. Along the way, my handphone battery got too hot and my friend asked me to off the phone first. And when we reached the island, it was super super dark, there was a building there with light though. As the wind was very strong and it looks like going to have thunderstorm, the boatmen told us that they will pitch the tent under the roof first, then move out to the sands when it is not so strong. But later they told us they were not going to stay with us over the night. So we will be there on our own....hahaa...It was really pitch dark, even the bbq area don't even have light. Was just depending on the torchlight by the boatman. Then they helped us to pitch the tent and bbq our food and while we waited to eat. The tent was kind of hot, the wind is not blowing into the tent. Then my friend told me that we going to go out with her sister when we reach her hometown. I got kind of moody and told her don't want. She felt upset about it. Then we saw 3 people walking around the beach with a pail and scooping. My friend asked the boatman what are they doing. Then my friend very exciting pulled me along out to go see...ohh...the people were catching crabs in the sand. They looked at the holes in the sand and started to dig and try to catch the crabs out. And they did it very fast, like just seconds they caught the crabs already. My friend dragged me to try hold the crabs. But i don't feel like holding, and was pulling her away... :P...

Then later we went back to eat the food, it was ok though but just the sotongs were too chewy, cannot bite or chew off. We even had a beer, and then the boatmen went off with some of our food, leaving us there. There was really nothing to do there, except there was cats meowing away and like looking for food in the dustbins (My friend hates cats and worried the cats will come and dig our leftover food...heheee). And it was really dark, and my lightsticks were not bright enough too. Then we went into our tent to get ready to sleep. It was kind of hot inside the tent, and we don't have pillow, except my travel pillow and we were sleeping on the floor (which was hard)...Then my friend took out some paper and started to fan me so that i can sleep...hehehee....I was super tired anyway and i just fell asleep quite fast. But still woke up in the middle of the night due to the heat, we we were like sweating while we sleep and my phone went dead too....hahahaa...And so this day ended.