Our Trip, part 1

We started our trip by going to Carrefoure (think a 2 story Walmart) to get a few items, such as bug spray (it was taken at the airport because it was in an aerosol can), a power converter (we left ours in the states), some snack bars and leech socks (Actually we read somewhere that you can use pantyhose in place of the leech socks. Guess what we were getting at Carrefoure) Parking was interesting and here is the result:


To get to the next picture, we flew to Manilla, Philippines on a Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, we caught a flight to the island of Cebu in the Philippines. Once there, we caught a metered taxi which took us to the bus station where we then caught a bus to Malapascua Island (The bus did not have air conditioning and all the windows were opened) We road that for a little over 4 hours. When we arrived into Cebu, it was 2 pm and when we left, it was around 3:30, so by the time we got to the pier to catch a boat to Malapascua island it was around 7:30 and it was pitch dark. We had asked the guy taking tickets on the bus if there was a place where we could stay for the night. He pointed into the town and said somewhere in there. We were literally the last people to get off the bus and it was literally in the middle of nowhere. At the same time, we were told by some guys hanging out at the pier that they could take us to the island for php 1500 ($30). We had read that we could catch a ferry for php 100 ($2.00) so we said we were not interested. We did ask if there was a hotel somewhere we could stay at. They then said that they would take us to this hotel along with our baggage. Between the two of us, we had 1 small roller bag, 1 large roller bag, 1 camera bag, 1 purse and 1 backpack with a laptop in it, so when they pulled up with 2 motorcycles, we were a little worried about where they were 1. going to take us and 2. what we were going to do with our stuff.

Somehow they got us onto the motorcycles. The big suitcase was put between the guy that Phil was riding with and Phil. He was a little worried. Also, this was the first time I have ever ridden on a motorcycle and so when we took off at night with no helmets, I was a little worried. Also, we were trusting on God that these guys weren't going to take us to the middle of nowhere, take our money and run (without us). The entire time we were riding, I was trying not to scream and also I was praying. Luckily, they took us to a hotel which also had food. (another good thing as the hotel was in the middle of nowhere) We were releaved.

The next morning, we caught the following to the island. Here is a picture of Phil trying to save php 20 ($.50) by carrying the bags himself. I was impressed.


(He is saving it not because he is cheap, but because were really annoyed to have to continuously give out money every 2 seconds for someone doing literally nothing) Another picture from our sweet ride.


I am certain that Phil will write more about our trip to Malapascua, but here was the view from our first hotel room. We moved from this place not because the trees were in the way, but because the toilet did not have a seat and because were trying to avoid being bothered about going snorkeling with some guys who were a little shady. Besides the small inconveniences of getting to the island it was a beautiful place.