Cebu Part 3: Virgin Island, Bantayan

Sorry for the delay, but here's the 3rd installment of my Cebu trip last May. Anyway this was our island hopping adventure with our Bantatay (our boat driver who is the coolest ever) and Kuya Jun (our hip-hop tour guide).

We got to wake up early this time cos we made sure we had a wake up call. Call time was around 8am, and even before that, they were already knocking on our door. We had a quick breakfast at the resort, then we walked to the shore to where our boat was waiting. Our destination: VIRGIN ISLAND.

The boat ride from Bantayan Island to Virgin Island takes about 30 minutes. Waters are usually calm in the morning, so it's going to be a smooth ride for sure. When we got there, it was beautiful! It was like Boracay, the sand was fine and WHITE! Plus it's really clean.


According to Kuya Jun the island is privately owned by some rich clan in Cebu - that's why the place is really, really clean. While we were swimming the said family arrived and had lunch and swam in the waters. Ain't that cool? Owning your own island and have people pay you to spend half the day in it? Hahaha!

After several hours in the water, it was time for lunch. Kuya Jun had the food that we bought in the market the previous day cooked in the island. Boy, did we have a HUGE FEAST! We had rice, hotdogs, fish, and liempo...and the best part is that everything IS GRILLED!! :))



To help our digestive systems and since it was too hot out to swim, we walked around the island to check it out. It's pretty big actually, and there were other families and barkadas having their lunch too. It was just a chill day at the beach. It was right smack in the middle of the day but the wind was cool. Really good to take a short nap with the waves lulling you to sleep. Even the dogs loved Virgin Island too!







After Virgin Island we went to another island with a Bisaya name I couldn't even pronounce. But since it was low tide, we had to just anchor off in the middle of the sea and swim around. It was so fun! I finally got the tan I've been lusting for since I was getting paranoid that I was losing the tan I've always had. Tan is LOVE!! :)

Oh and by the way, your stay in virgin Island is NOT FREE! You have an entrance fee per person, and if you cook food there you have to pay again. I think we ended up paying almost P400 for everything. Well kind of expensive, but vacations are really usually expensive anyways! Hahaha!

When we got back to Bantayan Island, we just showered and changed, then it was off to another destination: the town of Madridejos. It's at the other end of Bantayan Island, and that's where we took our epic habal-habal ride just to get there. Stay tuned for that! :D

You might want to read my past entries on our Cebu trip:
Cebu Part 1: The Cebu Pacific fiasco, NS Royal Pensione, Casa Verde and Tops
Cebu Part 2: Hello Bantayan Island

Cebu Part 2: Hello Bantayan Island

After a hectic tour of the city, Trency and I woke up LATE the next day. We wanted to wake up at 6AM but since we were both tired from the day before we overslept and instead woke up at 9AM. After a quick breakfast, we checked out, and hailed a cab to take us to the North Bus Terminal. Good thing our hotel was only about 15 minutes away from the bus terminal, so we got there pretty quick.

As promised more photos, less words. :D

NORTH BUS TERMINAL. Take a bus going to HAGNAYA PIER. It's a good 3 hours away. Bus fare Php130. This bus ride actually reminded me of our Manila-Laoag-Pagudpud-Laoag-Vigan-Manila trip earlier in the year. But it was scenic drive so it's pretty much ok! :)



HAGNAYA PIER. Take boat that will go to STA.FE in BANTAYAN ISLAND. Fee costs Php170, terminal fee i think was Php2.



We were to stay at the Hard K Kafe & Kiwi Kottages. They were kind enough to pick us up from the pier. After checking-in and had our bags brought in to our rooms, we decided it was time to get our late asses moving. We had already arranged our island hopping tour (more on that on the next blog), but for that day we decided to go to the Bantayan town proper to get to an ATM, look around the town, and to go to the palengke (market) for the food we were to eat during the island hopping. We hopped on the trike that took us from the pier to the resort, and went on a 15 minute ride to the town. We paid Php300 for that.



BANTAYAN WET MARKET. I usually get disgusted with markets because they can get pretty stinky and dirty. But not in Bantayan! It was clean and it didn't reek of anything out-of-this-world. So going around wasn't a problem! :D



THE OLDEST CHURCH IN THE ISLAND: STS. PETER & PAUL CHURCH BUILT IN 1580.




KOTA BEACH & SUNSET


FOOD TRIPPING. I swear Cebu is a city of sin, but more on GLUTTONY. Case in point, this eat-all-you-can buffet for only Php295 with unlimited iced tea. I swear I gained about 20 pounds here! But it was so good. They had a wide variety of dishes, from pancit, spaghetti, fish, adobo to native kakanins like biko and maja blanca.






To cap off the night, Trency and I drank by the bar. We started up a conversation with the most hospitable resort owner I've ever encountered, GING. She married a Kiwi, hence the name of the resort, and they have a daughter named Steffi. It was a fun night of trilingual conversations, switching from Tagalog to Bisaya to English. Funny!

For the next, and the last entry, on Bantayan Island. It's going to be about our island hopping escapade with Bantatay and Kuya Jun and our habal-habal ride to the town of Madridejos. STAY TUNED!! :p

Ilocos Tour Part 1: Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte

I have never ridden so many buses in a span of 3 days. I love long road trips, the view relaxes me despite the growing pain in my butt and legs. To those who were able to read my teaser blog, yes it was a long bus trip to Ilocos - land of the bagnet, longganisa, the Marcoses, Crisologos and Singsons.

We left Manila for Pagudpud, Thursday, 11PM. We took a bus (Partas in Cubao) up to Laoag, Ilocos Norte. We arrived in Laoag a little past 7.45AM, then we had to take a trike to get to the station of the mini-buses that go to Pagudpud. We finally got to Pagudpud at around 10.30AM. We were all happy our trip took less than 12 hours!

After enduring an almost-12 hour trip, 2 bus rides, and 2 trike rides, we were more than happy to plop down on the bed in Polaris Beach House in Barangay Saud. Owner, Ate Mhe-Ann still remembers me (I've been here THRICE and feel very much at home here, plus there's FREE WIFI NOW! :D) and had been of great help during our trip.

This was our room, the room we also slept in when we were in Pagudpud in 2008. It's a small room with one queen-sized bed and one single bed. But what I love about this room is the balcony, great place to hang out in and look out in to the ocean.



After a brief rest, we all went down to have late brunch. The food in Polaris is good for sharing, they're used to having huge families staying here.

I suggested we order Sinigang na Baboy. I remember the first time we went to Pagudpud, we were 3rd year college students in DLSU, we had the sinigang every single meal!

It's been almost 5 years, their sinigang still tastes the same. Still yummy and generous with the servings.

We also had Adobong Manok.

I liked this dish, it's not exactly our helper's adobo (she makes great adobo by the way), but it'll do. The chicken was tender, and when you mix the sauce with rice it was a big WOW! :)

Our trip was short, so we decided to go on the tour right away. We just waited for the rains to stop (yes, it was raining and it was COLD) before asking our tricycle driver to pick us up. Funny cos after lunch we all lounged around and FELL ASLEEP. We asked our trike driver to pick us up at 1PM, but we woke up at 1.30PM! It was a good thing he really waited for us! :)

We couldn't do the North Tour because it was raining. So we had to make do with the South Tour which covers the towns of Burgos and Bangui.

So first stop, is the famous Bangui Windmills. Seen in postcards and even in the Magic Sing, the windmills have become an iconic landmark in Ilocos Norte.


Completed in June of 2008 and spearheaded by then Gov. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., the 20 wind turbines powers the electricity for the towns of Burgos, Bangui, and Pagudpud.

The winds are so strong it made really cool ripples in the sand. Check this out! It's like the Sahara Desert out there!

After fighting to not get blown away, we then trudged on our little trike to go to the Bangui Viewdeck. Nothing really great here except that you get to have a bird's eye view of the town of Bangui.


There are also vendors here who sell wooden replicas of the wind turbines. They're actually really cute, and I couldn't resist buying one of them for P60. And they actually work!

From the viewdeck, we chugged on further south to the town of Burgos to get to the famed Cape Bojeador Lighthouse.

Built in 1890, the lighthouse has served as a guide for boats since 1892. Despite it looking like it's about to collapse, the lighthouse is actually beautiful! Plus it provides a great view of the town of Burgos and the South China Sea.



After the Lighthouse, it was time to go back to Pagudpud. But we just had to make a short stop at this beach. It was low tide, and the coral formations were jutting out of the water. It was stunning.


And just like in Baler, we used a trike to go around. Unfortunately, comfort wasn't part of this trip hahaha! Here's Milds and Kim cramped in that tiny space of a trike!

We got back to Pagudpud after a short sight seeing trip care of Kuya Mark our trike driver. Thanks to him, we got our group pictures!


We got back to Polaris in time for the sunset. Good thing the rains stopped, and we had one beautiful bright orange sunset. We just hung out at Saud beach, savoring the fact that we were the only ones there. Too bad it was too damn cold to swim!


The next day, we once again woke up to gloomy, rainy morning. We packed our bags and went down for breakfast, all set to get on a bus that'll take us to Laoag, then to Vigan.

We made a promise to return to Pagudpud when the sun is actually high up in the sky. Kim and Milds still have to see the Northern part of Pagudpud which we had to miss out on due to bad weather. There's still so much to see!

Tips for your trip to Pagudpud via bus:
1. Take a bus from Manila. We took Partas in their Cubao station. The trip costs P701.
2. When you get to Laoag, take a trike and tell the drivers to take you to the mini-bus station that goes to Pagudpud. The short trike ride costs P70. DO NOT TAKE THE DRIVER'S OFFER TO TAKE YOU ALL THE WAY TO PAGUDPUD! THEY'LL CHARGE YOU P1500 AND THAT'S REALLY WAY TOO MUCH!
3. Take the mini-bus that goes to Pagudpud, it costs P60. When you reach Pagudpud get down in front of the municipal hall and hire a trike to take you to your resort. Our driver asked for P40 for the ride from the municipal hall to Polaris.
4. For the tour, they already have an organized thing going on. Both the North and South tours costs P600 each.

Here are the numbers for our resort, bus, and trike driver:
1. Partas -> 727-8278
2. Ate Mhe-Ann (owner of Polaris Beach House) -> (0919)3078803
3. Kuya Mark (trike driver) -> (0929)5962524