Cebu Part 4: Madridejos, Bantayan Island

Hi guys! I know it's been on and off again for me when it comes to blogging. I had NO IDEA Grad School can suck the life out of you hahaha and to think I still have more than 2 years to endure (gah!) :D

So to complete (FINALLY) my Cebu Diaries, here's my take on our last stop during our tour of Bantayan Island. I am about to leave for another Visayan province this weekend for my Uncle's birthday, so I decided to wrap this baby up already! :)

So after our island hopping tour earlier in the day, Trency and I just showered and rushed back outside to hop on our rented habal-habal (motorbike) which will take us to the town of Madridejos. Trency really wanted to go here because she heard they had incredible sunsets here.

We had our very cool, hip-hop tour guide with us, Kuya Jun, as our driver. Below are pictures I took while precariously balancing myself on the edge of the motorcycle. With Kuya Jun's crazy-ass driving, I am amazed I was still able to take pictures of the countryside. I tell you this was the CUHRAZIEST motorcycle ride I've ever been on. IT was Trency's first time on a motorcycle and I think she won't ride one again after this experience hahahaha!!






It took about 30-minutes for us to get there, and the first thing we went to is this old fort, much like the one we see in Intramuros. There's really nothing much there, except for some old artifacts recovered from shipwrecks.


From there, we walked on towards the beach. They had this really long boardwalk, but since it was low tide, Trency and I decided to walk on the coral deposits. If you guys are wondering about the old woman, she's scraping shells stuck on the corals. According to Kuya Jun, it's edible and they have it as ulam. The old lady must have been there for quite some time cos she was about to fill that water gallon she brought with her.




But while walking around, Trency and I were treated to another surprise: A RAINBOW! I had already blogged about it before cos I saw another rainbow after this one. A clearer photo of the rainbow is on this blog entry too. It was so beautiful! I felt like it was a sign from Heaven; I knew Trency and I had a good trip together! :)

We waited around for the sunset, and when the sun started setting, Trency and I just sat down at the boardwalk completely ENTHRALLED! It was breathtaking, and it gave the sky a nice orange hue (my favorite color).



It was a great trip with my BFF! Although it would've been sooo sooo much better had BFF Amanda went with us. We kinda just rushed through our activities, but it still gave me and Trency that much needed break from the city. Vacations are really precious for us, and we always make sure we make the most out of it! :)

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

Nobody Almost Always Looks Up....

...to see what's up in the sky. I've watched way too many CSI episodes to know that a lot of them miss vital evidence/clues because they don't LOOK UP.

But here in the hustle and bustle of city life, either people are just too busy, too pissed off at the traffic jam or simply too blase for stuff. But not me. One of the best things in living high up in the mountains of Rizal is that going to work, you obviously have to go down from the mountain making you see the horizon. And today while driving off to work, as soon as I turned right on Ortigas Avenue Ext from our village, I saw A RAINBOW.


This is the 2nd time I've seen a rainbow over at Ortigas Avenue Ext. whilst battling really awful traffic jam with light rains. It was raining in the Rizal area this morning, but the sun still managed to sneak out from behind the dark, rain clouds. For me it was perfect irony - dark clouds, awful weather, bad traffic jam but out there in the distance is something precious. A once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence. I knew it was going to be a good sign, perhaps a good week or month coming up ahead.

It's cool because this is like the 2nd rainbow I've seen in 2 months. The first rainbow I saw this year was during my BFF Trency and mine's trip to Cebu (see photo below). We went to the town of Madridejos to watch the sunset, but I think God wanted to make that 30-minute habal-habal ride worth it by giving us not one, but two of his beautiful handy works! :)


It's such a spirit-lifter, don't you think? A rainbow is just there for a little while, but the emotions that stay with you after last several days, or you know deep inside you that you'll never forget that certain feeling you felt while you stood there marveling at that wonderful sight.

I remember the first time I saw that rainbow over an overcast sky some 9 months ago (photo of it below), my Mom and I were having some trouble. I'm not one who writes emo blogs, it gave me hope that there will be good days after. Nothing lasts forever, and problems just maybe the first ones to go.


And this rainbow I saw this morning, it gave me the strength to push forward. Had a talk with the Mother just this Saturday, and it got me thinking a lot about myself. I still see myself as free-spirited, enjoying life, and just taking things as is. But I'm sure as hell 100% sure that I am not taking things lying down because I don't want to disappoint her when I stop something I already started. I got work and I'm taking my masters degree. Sure I whine a lot, I'm not Hercules nor God, but I'm trying to make something for myself in the future. And with that talk I had with my Mom, I want to change a certain perception she has of me. And that rainbow, I took it as a sign that I should not lose any hope, that I should strive harder, that I would finish my masters degree. After all, before it helping my cause, it's all for my Mom first anyways! :)

So what about you guys? Do you guys have anything you see that inspires you the moment you see it? Share it with me! :)

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