Siargoa

From Amsterdam, I flew to Manilla with a transfer at Jeddah. The first flight was together with my sister and her family. Which made the flight more enjoyable, especially because I had another pore seat selection.

The second flight wasn’t full, so I had a full row to myself. Which slept very comfortably.

When I arrived at Manilla, I was really confused because the hotel was supposed to be on the opposite side of the airport. But the airline I took was very cheap and thus I arrived at departure hall 3 instead of 1. It took some figuring out bit there was a shuttle. It took forever to arrive so 2 hours later than I landed I was at my hotel.

The next day the flight to Siargoa was without problem and soon I was on a tropical Island with palm trees everywhere. I am meeting my friend here, but unfortunately, Flor’s flight got canceled so she will arrive early the next day. In the hostel, 3 others just arrived after I unpacked. Two British and an Italian. They let me hang- out with them for the night. But after two cocktails and a meal, I felt really weak and actually, it became black for my eyes. Despite it being only 7:30 p.m., I went to bed. However, due to the jetlag, I woke up two hours later and couldn’t sleep until deep in the night.

The next morning, Flor had arrived and we went for breakfast! What a luxurious feeling! Beach views, ice coffee, and seeing Flor after a year! However, the temperatures and humidity are no joke for my sweaty unadapted body!

The rest of the day we lay at the beach and some more incredible food and discovered that our chosen hostel was a full-on party mode. The welcome drink, free shots, and every tour they offered had free booze. The one Flor and I booked (Sohoton swimming with non-stinging jellyfish) didn’t have free booze because it wasn’t allowed. But we didn’t have to worry they added an hour of free drinking at their bar!! Flor and I both laughed very hard at this.

The next day we rented a scooter and visited beautiful sites. For all touristy spots you need to pay a small entrance fee, but it’s worth it. The dive of a higher cliff did have the usual stutter because it was surprisingly high. On a 4-lane road with no traffic, I had my first scooter lesson. Went really well. It’s a perfect combination between cycling and driving. The location of Palm Tree Drive remains a mystery because everywhere were palm trees and nowhere were there exceptionally many.

In the evening we joined a pub quiz. With 2 really good rounds and two really bad rounds. Cartoon characters and drink slogans are not my or my teammate’s things.

The next day we got up really early for our tour of the jellyfish only to discover that the boat didn’t have the required permits and we couldn’t go. Why they didn’t tell us this yesterday evening when we confirmed the departure time is a puzzle to us. We found another tour operator to take us on a tri-island tour. Which definitely wasn’t the same but still really nice. Similar to the Filipino’s we did a full-on photoshoot, however, our laughing at ourselves didn’t make for very photogenic pictures. On the way back a thunderstorm rolled in. Being on the water with lightning isn’t the best and on top of that, the motor broke down. Flor and I weren’t worried, the thunder was still away from us and there were so many tourist boats that surely one would give us a tow. However, not everyone was so calm. Some hide their head down and near tears. But 10 min later we were towed and arrived safely in the dock.

In the evening we did another quiz ‘category’. This time with the support of Steffie. Or as the locals would call hete Sophie. 10 different categories you need to name a right answer with the letter that is drawn. If your answer is correct and no one else thought of it, you get a point. Surprisingly we got a point for ice cream flavour with an ‘A’ Ananas. Which made us laugh very hard.

Thursday was already our last day. We rented a scooter again to go to a more sandy beach for a surf lesson. On our way, we stopped at a cold spring. Oooh so refreshing!! After the constant heat. At the moment of departure, a tropical rainstorm hit. So we waited for more than an hour. After that, we weren’t in the mood to continue. So we went back and took a lesson at Cloud 9 beach. We had individual instructors mine was named Jack Sparrow. Why not. The surfing was amazing!! Some tough exercise for my arms and with a beautiful sunset view. It was so enjoyable. The instructors had some interesting comments. Jack wanted to compliment me on my strength but halfway through got scared it was insulting. Thus eventually this what he said ‘Wow you’re shoulders are …. Working’. The advice for Flor, who struggled a bit more with standing up, was: ‘Just balance!’

Videos coming – but not sure when😅

We finished when darkness fell and with an early flight, we went to bed after dinner. We need the rest because next on the list is hiking the highest mountain of the Philippines: Mt. Apo.