Up at 7.30am as the staff was knocking on our door for our free breakfast. We got the supposed American breakfast which was an egg, sort of toast, something like a piece of devon, a hotdog sausage no bun and coffee !!! Anyway it was included in the 450 peso price so better than nothing, I think Tracey thought nothing may have been better,
We sent a text to our new friend Alvin and waited for him to arrive. As promised he turned up round 9.30a.m full of energy and a big smile. We hit the road for a bit of a local walking tour. He pointed out the local mall where everybody actually shopped ‘cause it was cheap. They had a complete floor of mobile phones and mobile phone repair shops. They seemed to be selling Nokia phones really cheaply but Alvin pointed out they were actually rip offs !! They looked like the real deal and I was tempted but I did not buy any.
We headed on our way and jumped on the local Jeepneys. These one were the same price as Manila which was pretty much 7 pesos for anywhere on the Jeepney's route. Alvin knew where to hop on and get the connecting Jeepney so we covered a lot of territory for bugger all. He took us down to the port to meet his dad who worked down there and tried to see if his dad could get us some free ferry tickets for the next day, but he couldn't but he gave us his card and said if we had any trouble at any of the ferry ports let him know. He was a nice guy like his son. After that we jumped on the Jeepneys and headed down to the beach area for seafood. We went to Alvin's favorite place that he liked to go. I think it was about 15k’s and it took us 2 Jeepney rides so it cost all 3 of us just over a dollar for the trip down there! It was called Stanleys in Villya. We ordered a pile of food including 2 crabs, plate of prawns, fish, calamari, a dozen skewer things, fish soup, a big pile of rice, drinks and what I thought was half a dozen fresh oysters. The oysters turn up in this basket piled up high and I said they had made a mistake but no that’s how they sell them by the basket full. Tracey pigged out on the crab until it attacked her and cut her finger. Never mind a quick bandage and she was back in action. Man we had that much food I could not eat it all. Well expecting a huge bill we were shocked when it came to a grand total of about $15 aussie. You do have to keep in mind this is not a 5 star eating place as it has dirt floor, mostly made out of bamboo and well the toilets you sort of get used to. And you probably don’t want to go into the kitchen!!! But the food is divine! Anyway we left there and headed to one of Alvin's friends new bar and restaurant. It was called “Stuffyerface” in Paseo de archangelus. It was a 2 story place and we had a few beers. Still searching for the legendary Happy Horse!!! Whats the legend you may well ask. Well I had taken to drinking Red Horse beer which they advertise as being extra strong but they don’t put the alcohol content on the bottle, but I bought a can once and it was on the can as 6.9% which is a pretty big kick for a beer anyway. When Alvin saw I was drinking this he said I need to find one with the horse logo that had a big cheesy grin instead of its more normal look and the writing on the back of the bottle is in a different colour. The story goes that 1 in 24 are supposedly the Happy Horse and if you get one of these it has 2 or 3 times the alcohol of the normal Red Horse!!! Sounds like an urban legend as I have not found any yet, but Alvin swore that it was true. It looks like it’s a tough job but I will just have to keep trying!! After a couple of normal horse beers at the bar we went over the road to check out the SM Mall. Apparently the huge mall originally used to be a small shoe market on the side of the road, hence its name. (the old shoe seller is now a multi millionaire) . We had a donut and a basic coffee, Trace bought 3 books as she was excited as they were heaps cheaper than home. (Interestingly I have taken to reading her left over books, pretty good for me as I had previously read 3 books in the last 15 years)
We then grabbed a taxi back to our Pension house for a nanny nap as Alvin wanted to take us to the MO2 Ice bar which was the hot place to go and he played there.
Travel tip: taxis in the Philippines are cheap if they use their meter. If you get in one insist they turn the meter on if they refuse jump out and get another one. Our trip from the mall to the motel was probably 7 or 8k’s and we dropped Alvin off on the way and the fare was 50 pesos about $1.25 !!!! After a sort of nanny nap we went to our accommodations restaurant for some grub for our night out. Food was good and cheap plus as I mentioned the atmosphere was really cool. Alvin swung by around 9.30 and off we went. All places have a gun ban!!! Darn you are not allowed to take your gun anywhere anymore!!! Go figure!! They have security everywhere but we just get waved through. As Alvin said its good to be with white people sometimes. Ordered some Red Horse darn no luck they weren’t happy. The band was awesome! These guys can play all sorts of music and play it really well. They let some guy from America jam with one of their guitars and he played hard and broke a string. They didn’t mind. Alvin got up and rocked the house, then he called Trace up and she sang I Will Survive with the band and back up singers it was great the crowd was clapping and taking her photo it was awesome and you could tell she loved it. We had a few more drinks danced to the band and then it was disco time. Me being a shade older and my ears hurting we went across the road for a quiet drink. I actually had a Jack and Coke!! First whiskey since leaving Australia. Finished our drinks and said our goodbyes. Back to our room for sleepy time.
Family Pension, Iloilo, Panay Island (The Visayas) Philippines
Up early as we had to get to the other side of the island to get to our next port of call. Little did we know what a day this was going to be. Out of bed 7.30 pack up and get our dodgey breakfast before grabbing a taxi to the ferry. That was about 40 pesos. Grabbed the ferry tickets….. Ferry left around 9.00am about an hour to the next island. Off the ferry and on a Jeepney to the bus depot (40p) Got to the bus terminal and a bus was about to go but was not air-con made the call to jump on. I mean after all how bad could a bus ride on an old bus with no air-con be ??? It was only supposedly a 6 hour bus trip. Well whoever made up that time did not make allowance for the bus stopping every 100 metres to pick people up or let them off. That I could probably put up with until the bus filled up and I mean filled up. We ended up sitting together which was ok until the bus conductor came up and said the seats were for 3 people and they squeezed someone in next to us. Yep they make the seats for 3 Filipinos who weigh 50 kilo’s. Of course the road was not actually too bad in spots but most of they way they were doing road works and they don’t have “stop and go” its first in best dressed so if there is 6 km’s of traffic coming the other way they don’t stop, so you have to wait, not really a great option when no air-con and bus jammed with smelly people and chickens. We were pretty much brown from the dust coming in the windows. We finally chugged into Dumaguette after 6.30pm and discovered the ferry did not go until 7.40. great !!! We got the security guys to mind our bags and went into town looking for food. Of course we turned right instead of left and missed all the real food. So it was mini bananas and bread rolls. We had a quick talk to a couple of Aussie guys at a Bar but it was too late to order food. We had to get the bike back to the port to catch our ferry. Bumpy ride in the dark on the ferry not my favorite thing to do. We finally got to the island just before 9.00pm. The Aussie guys told us the Tricycle taxis were gonna rip us off as there was no other option this late a night. Well we had to get to our resort so we resigned ourselves to being screwed over.
As we were walking up the wharf we could not believe our eyes a Jeepney with the name of the place we were staying!!! Had they sent it to pick us up??? No he just happened to be there to pick some supplies up off another ferry. About time something went our way after a hell trip that took around 13 hrs. Finally at the resort, the room looked good, clean and comfy beds we grabbed a beer and hit the pool. We were stuffed. Few beers and a chat to the owner and his mate and off to bed for some serious rest.
