Philippines: Siquijor

After our adventure at Apo Island Dayton and I were severely sunburned. We spent the next two rainy days in Harold's Mansion resting and trying to get some relief from our painful backs and shoulders. We tried to find some more sunscreen but in Asia all you can find is whitening cream. After lying around watching old NBA slam-dunk competitions from the 80's on t.v. I was ready to hit the road again but this time, it was the sea. We attended church in Dumaguete with our packs on and while still dressed in our white shirts we boarded a small boat to Siquijor. We were both mistaken as missionaries; even our scruffy beards didn't indicate that we weren't. Arriving at Siquijor and not knowing where to go we found a guy willing to take us to the Coral Cay Beach Resort on his motorbike. Dayton had a room reserved for us and we were soon basking in the sun on a white sand beach at this luxurious resort. Surrounded by palm trees and calm, clear water, I was in heaven. The only thing that could make it better was a fresh mango shake, which they made right on the beach at their open-air bar! This was true paradise. They even had a swimming pool, huge book collection, pool table and t.v. Our room was a bamboo hut with super loud roosters right outside our window to wake us up nice and early. I would enjoy a good run on the beach in the morning when the tide was low and the sun just coming up. I immediately fell in love with this glorious place. The resort is about 5K outside the town of San Juan. We found a great place for fried rice and mango shakes called Castaway Cafe. We spent many a peso on this fine establishment with great mango shakes and nice beach front dining. Back at our resort I paddled out in the ocean on a kayak while the sunset one evening and the view was spectacular! I kept asking myself "Why do you live in Utah?". One day while staying at the Coral Cay we rented motorbikes and decided to ride around the island. We cruised around, getting used to the bikes and made our way through the center of the island up a large mountain. The views from this higher elevation were dreamlike. Cruising through tropical forests of palm trees made me lament the fact that I would one day have to leave the island. We ended up losing ourselves on the mountain roads and eventually found a waterfall towards the top of the island. We parked our motorbikes in a paid parking lot where lots of Filipino ladies tried to sell us some drinks but we had our own. We walked down a stair path to the falls and were welcomed by clear blue water and gorgeous green surroundings. There were some teenagers hanging out at the top of the falls so after taking a couple of photos I got ready for a swim and made my way up to talk with them. They showed me a good place to jump off the falls and demonstrated by going first. The falls (which we later dubbed Cowabunga Falls) weren't too high and the water was a perfect temperature. See the video:

Hanging out at these falls was a real treat during our ride around the island and for me was a highlight of the whole Philippines trip. After jumping in a few times and feeling great we made our way back to our bikes where the Filipino ladies offered us more drinks and told us we'd have to pay for parking. The price wasn't much but we didn't have any change so I gave them a U.S. dollar and they were more than happy to accept it. We rode down the mountain back to San Juan and had the "Friend Size" vegetarian fried rice at Castaway Cafe. We were quickly becoming good friends with the waitresses there who made the most delicious mango shakes. After enjoying another great meal we made our way back to the Coral Cay and hung out for the rest of the night around the beach bar. It's a nice quiet place which makes for a good reading atmosphere and the pleasure of making new friends with other guests. I overheard a large group of people speaking Chinese so I started to play pool with their kids. Once the parents found out I had been to their native Taiwan we had a great conversation about my experience there and my reason for going. Back in Dumaguete I had picked up a book called "A Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins. This inspired me to meet more people and to look for new experiences. I'm glad I had been reading this book and was able to meet these nice people from Taiwan. We were about to culminate our time at Siquijor island and this was a great way to spend our final evening. The following day we packed our bags once again and walked away from another great experience. We had no way to get back to the ferry about 20k away so we just started walking. Hoping for a miracle a nice man in a truck pulled over and offered us a ride to town. This was proof to me yet again that people in this world are good at heart. When we are good to those around us we will receive good in return. I think the idea of Karma was really shown to me that day and in days to follow. Next stop: Bangkok

Philippines: Cebu

We took a late night flight out of Hong Kong and arrived in Cebu around 3:30 am. Cebu Pacific is a fantastic airline to fly. They don't care much about anything. We sprawled out across the seats and slept pretty well on the flight. Shortly before arriving we woke up and looked out the window to see a full moon reflecting on the water as we flew over many small islands. The view was nothing short of heavenly. We descended upon the city of Cebu and after arrival and customs we met a mob of taxi drivers trying to give us a ride to wherever we wanted to go. We found an ATM to get some pesos before finding a decently priced taxi to take us to our hotel where we had a reservation for the following night. The Diplomat Hotel offers decent rooms at a fair price and is right downtown. Upon arrival we were told our room wouldn't be ready until noon. (It was about 4 am) We were exhausted and asked if they had any available rooms that we could take until then. Luckily enough, we got a room that we could crash in until our room was ready. We slept for a few hours then made our way down the street to a mall. There are many many malls in every city of the Philippines. I began to notice all the older white men with young, attractive Filipino women walking around. I later found out that most of them are ex-military men from the states who live there on the pension that they receive from the U.S. government. The dollar goes a lot further down there than it does here in the states. We happened upon a little cafe where we could get some bread and mango shakes. I think I paid about 90 pesos for a mango shake (about 2 dollars). It was so delicious and was the first of many shakes to come. We explored around Cebu for the next few days, checking out malls and best of all, the food! About 100 feet outside our hotel we ran into a woman who sells mango shakes ranging from 5 to 20 pesos. It was at this moment that I really felt like I had been ripped off on my first day in the Philippines when I had paid 90 pesos for a small! The fresh mango shake quickly changed my mood as I sipped it's deliciousness while walking around the city. We decided to walk to a newer mall which was further away. We traversed busy city streets, dodging Jeepneys carrying tons of people around the city. Seems like people would jump on and off while they were still moving. We never quite figured out how they worked so didn't use one. Once we arrived to the Ayala Center we found a restaurant called Lemon Grass. This restaurant offers outdoor dining of Vietnamese and Thai food. It was quite good except the portions were small. The Mango Sticky Rice was absolutely amazing though. We had to make our way to another mall across town in order to buy our boat tickets for the trip to Dumaguete. As we pulled up to the front doors of the mall we tried to make our way in but came to find out that the mall was actually closed and we'd have to wait an hour or so before it opened. Sitting on a bench outside the mall we were both reading when a man approached me to ask about my book (Louis L'Amour's Haunted Mesa). We eventually got into a discussion about religion and he said that he's been searching for the true church. The missionary in me couldn't pass this up and I taught him about the Book of Mormon. He was pretty excited about this new knowledge and agreed to go to church the next day. Cebu has quite a few chapels so I gave him the website to find the closest to his house. I don't know if he went or not, or what came of him, but it sure was great to be able to have a good discussion with someone about religion. This left me feeling really good as we walked through the mall once it was finally opened. Of course, the man I had just conversed with then hit me up for some spare money. Pretty typical as an American traveler to be asked for money. I told him that what I just shared with him was more valuable than money and that I didn't have any to give him. He was still satisfied with our conversation and went on his way. We eventually found the place to buy our boat tickets on the other side of the mall and it turns out it was open the whole time, just on the opposite side of the mall. We got our tickets and spent the rest of our Saturday exploring Cebu. I wasn't really impressed with the city. It was pretty dirty and there was a lot of poverty. As we made our way back to the hotel we looked up the nearest church. Turns out it was just about a 3 minute walk from where we were staying. It couldn't have worked out any better. Most of the church members spoke English and most of church was in English. It was nice to feel at home among strangers. Since the gate to the church grounds was open, the local children came in to run around and play basketball in the parking lot. After church I couldn't help but get a photo to remember that place. We went back to our hotel, shouldered our packs and went to the pier for the next leg of our journey.
Next stop: Dumaguete