Philippines: Stink water, the Hugh Hefner of the philippines, and finding Nemo

So Bantayan island was amazing. We stayed in this awesome little bungalow on the right on the Budyong beach. For 500P ($10) per night, we had a double bed with a porch and a private bathroom. The only problem was that every once in a while, the water that came out of the faucets and shower would smell like sulfer. We'd say "Oh no, the stink water is back..." But other than that, we loved our little beach home!


Bantayan is a really laid back town. You don't see many foreigners (or "pale faces" as one foul-mouthed Scotsman named Gus calls them). We would usually bum around the beach during the day - swimming, playing frisbee in the water, reading in the shade...but at night we always find the party.

One of our favorite hang out spots was a placed called d'Jungle. It is owned by the virtual Hugh Hephner of the Philippines - a 72 year old French man who claims to have many beautiful filipino girlfriends. One time he had a one too many San Miguel beers and we overheard him trying to woo a young lady by saying that he was "the smartest man on Bantayan Island". What a character...





We also hung out with locals at the karaoke bar, singing your standard Bon Jovi, Bed of Roses over rum and coke...Afterward I hopped on top of Don Don's tricycle and Erik climbed on the bike and we drove Don Don around the streets....







We took a ferry from Bantayan back to Cebu and stayed with Chen and her roommates for one more night. The got up at 4am the next morning and the 11 of us hopped on a bus to Moalboal. They brought along mangos, pineapple, and a bunch of meat to BBQ on the beach. After our yummy feast, we got a bunch of snorkeling gear and went out in the water for a couple hours. Only one out of the 9 of them knew how to swim! Unreal right? How do you grow up in the philippines and not know how to swim? From what I gathered, for them at least, it has to do with wanting to stay away from the beaches to keep from tanning. Chel said in her most innocent voice: "When we go to the beach, we burn, and we don't want to turn into little negritos". Crazy stuff.

Anyway, we went swimming along a coral reef for a couple hours - saw a couple nemos, floated around. We taught them how to swim with their goofy life vests on. It was great!

When we parted ways at the end of the day, they gave Erik and I Moal Boal t-shirts that they had bought for us on the beach (which were so small that they practically came up to our bellybutton haha) and a couple other little souvenirs. SO SWEET. Filipinos are probably the nicest people I have ever met.





Erik and stayed overnight in an amazing private room at Cora's Palm Court - it had its own porch looking out directly over the ocean. And because the shower suddenly stopped working and we ended up having to do manual showers from a bucket, she ended up knocking it down to 500P for the night (about $10).