Around The World – Siquijor Island, Philippines
My next target is Siquijor, a small island to the south-east of Boracay, involving a couple of ferry rides, a couple of bus rides and a quick overnight stay. Going against the trend, everything went smoothly, if slowly…
I jumped in a trike to the dock for a quick bangka boat ride back across to Caticlan. Another trike to the bus station where I found the bus to Iloilo, the departing town for the ferry to the next island of Negros and the city of Bacolod. I was greeted by a magnificent coach bus with aircon and wifi, from the Ceres company, highly recommended. Pulled some money from an ATM and got bus snacks at the 7/11 next to the bus station.
The 9:10 bus left right on time at 9:22. Lonely Planet says it’s 6 hours to Iloilo, should be a good ride. Oh we have a movie on two big screens! Ah, Cowboys and Aliens, with Olivia Wilde and the James Bond guy… Second movie was an inner-city-kid hip-hop-dance movie, not my style. Then they played Barry Manilow’s Greatest Hits, and weeks later I still have Copacabana stuck in my mind, ugh!
We actually arrived in Iloilo almost right on time. Took a nice meter cab to the fast ferry port, bought my ticket for an aircon assigned seat and of course the ever-present terminal fee. I have to wait only about an hour before the ferry goes to Bacolod.
The ferry was just a little late, fairly comfortable seat, mild aircon and Olympus Has Fallen playing on a big screen. The boat was a two-deck catamaran, very smooth but only got up to 30 mph, I was expecting faster. The crossing to Bacolod took 1 hour.
Grabbed a trike from the dock to the hotel. Based on Lonely Planet, I told the driver to go to the 11th Street Bed & Breakfast so off we go. They don’t have any aircon rooms left so I get a fan room at the low, low price of $6.89. Inside is a square cinder block room with two fairly hard beds and a private bathroom. I discover later that this is a completely different hotel on the same street, called Pension Bacolan, no wonder the price was so good!
Walked about a kilometer in the heat to the Fresh Start organic restaurant that I read about in Lonely Planet. I had a chocolate+fruit shake, tofu adobo no onions! with rice, a fried egg and some kind of baked orange vegetable. Really good. Watched the new Terminator movie, was hoping for more from Daenerys, but still not bad.
The next morning I checked out, took a human-powered bicycle trike to a jeepney to Ceres South bus station to get the bus to Dumaguete in the far south-east of the island. Not quite as big as yesterday’s bus and full of people so a little tight. Right about 6 hours, quite windy and terrible roads through the high jungle.
The bus dropped most people about 100m from the ferry pier. I found that the next ferry to Siquijor was in about an hour, no problemo. Bought my ticket and terminal fee and went inside. Realized I lost my ticket somewhere, checked everything, walked around, no ticket to be found. Went back outside and bought another ticket and came back inside.
The boat was a single-deck high-speed people ferry, but only topped out about 17 mph. We were getting a lot of side-to-side rolling in the open water and a lady 2 seats away was puking up her guts and her child was screaming the whole time. No place for each passenger’s luggage so it was stuffed in the aisle or anywhere else there was a bit of room. Took about an hour to get over to Siquijor, not the best journey but hey I finally made it to my destination.
The island of Siquijor is known for witchcraft, or more specifically white magic healers, snorkeling, caves and hiking. The island is relatively small and there’s a big road that rings the island so I’ll get a motorbike and check things out. In the end it will be far cheaper than multiple trike fares and I can decided where and when to go.
I decided on a place to stay from Lonely Planet but of course my motor trike driver Phillip has a “friend” with a new guesthouse, aircon room, private bathroom, free breakfast, strong wifi, and beach across the road. I check it out and it’s quite nice, I bargain from $20 to $17.78 for 2 nights. I book a motorbike for 2 days with Phillip, he will drop it and a helmet off tomorrow morning about 10 AM.
I grab a trike back into town for dinner. Apparently there are only 2 restaurants in Siquijor Town, the first was all meat with onions cooked in everything and the second was a kind of burger shack. I spotted the chicken burger and after zero food or drink food all day, it was sounding good at 6pm. Chicken burger, fries and two iced teas was $2.48.
The next morning, Phillip delivered the motorbike at 10AM. It’s a 125cc semi-auto road/dirt bike, 4 gears but no clutch. I set out to go on the island ring road, 75 km around. I started heading west, putting along at 40 kph.
I stopped several times for pictures of the great jungle and water views. I stopped for a snack and a shallow swim, the shoreline is very shallow here, very gradual slope out to the ocean.
I spotted Sea Pearl Divers dive shop and had a chat with the owner’s wife. I agreed to go out on a 3-dive trip with them tomorrow. I need to be at the dive shop at 8 AM. The local diving area has holes, walls and an underwater island.
Continuing on around the island, I stopped at the ferry dock in Lorena town. Planning for my trip out, I found there is a ferry that goes at 2AM to Plaridel on the north shore of Mindanao, but it only goes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. It’s 4 hours so we arrive at 6 AM. I’ve got my eye on an aircon, lie-down bed for P480. I can buy the ticket after 9AM on Saturday and then be at the ferry at 11PM, the ferry goes late that night, early Sunday morning. I’ll have to stay one more night in the hotel, but no problem, cheap and excellent. Lonely Planet has nothing on buses out of Plaridel to Davao, I’ll have to figure it out when I get there. Should be straightforward to get to Davao.
I went for dinner back to the same place as last night, and as I’m riding through town all of the power for the whole town goes off. I waited for about 15 minutes at the restaurant and it came back on again.
I tried to call the dive shop to confirm but there is some kind of problem with their phone. Sent them email, I hope they get it. We’ll see at 8AM tomorrow!
Woke up at 7 the next morning to get ready for the diving day. Got to the dive shop about 10 minutes to 8, nobody there yet, but the owner Jay from Utrecht Netherlands showed up a bit later. Nobody else is on the schedule today so we got prepped and went out on the little pontoon boat, staffed by two great Filipino guys.
First we went to “The Wall”, a big dropoff. Jay ran through the safety and equipment procedures then I got my gear on and jumped in. I needed about 10 minutes to calm my breathing, then we headed out. We got to the ledge of the wall and went over and straight down to 25 meters. Lots of great colorful fish and coral and starfish. We spotted two turtles, got some good video on the GoPro, but there was a little fogging inside the lens and we were deep so the colors are washed out a bit on video. I got 34 minutes on the tank.
Dive 2 was to “Coral Garden” where we followed pathways through the many coral outcrops. Since we were shallower, there was better color and clarity on the GoPro. Saw a moray eel and a resting turtle who finally swam away. Got 47 minutes at 15 meters.
For lunch I went 200m down the road to Wreck Me, a snack bar on the beach, had a cheese and tomato sandwich and a DC.
Dive 3 was to “House Reef”. Shallower at 15m, so many colorful fish including a yellow trumpetfish, a brown-striped lionfish and a black and white lionfish. Turns out another turtle swam right past me when I was looking at some coral and I didn’t see it at all! Visibility was 25+ meters, Jay says this is the best time of year for clear visibility and warmer water. Just an awesome day. Paid $88.88 plus $5 for the boat guys.
Jay and I talked about the possibilities to get me to Davao tomorrow. I could take the ferry to Dumaguete then fly to Davao but all flights go all the way up to Manila then back down again and they all cost over $155, so not doing that. Another possibility is the ferry to Dumaguete then bus(es) to Cebu, then fly from Cebu to Davao. The flight will be around $73 plus ferry plus bus plus hotel since I can’t do it all in one day, so I’m sticking with my plan to take the night ferry, then bus to Davao.
I got a referral to a nice restaurant from Jay, called Chutsky’s (I think). I had mahi-mahi in a garlic & white wine sauce with roasted potatoes and salad with cucumber, tomato and mango. All for $5.89, awesome.
Rode home to the guest house, copied the photos and videos from the phone and GoPro to the laptop. I confirmed with Phillip that I will turn the bike back tomorrow at 6pm, then he will take me to the ferry in Lorena at 10pm.
Philip then invited me to go to “the disco”. So off we go, 4 people in a trike. After paying the 22 cent entry fee for myself, Philip and his 2 cousins, I find it’s a large outside bar, stage, seating and dancing area. I also end up buying a bucket of beer, 5 Red Horse for $3.33. I say Philip pays for the next bucket and he laughs, saying he only has gasoline money in his pocket. Well this will be the only bucket of the night… The band was pretty good, but after about 3 songs, they left the stage and a DJ pressed his Play button. Waited in vain for the band to come back so they dropped me back home.
I highly recommend this island for diving, scenery and the unspoiled, slow, quiet lifestyle. It’s hard to get to and back but if you’re persistent you can do it.
Seems I can’t connect to the Sea Pearl Divers Facebook page, so here is the direct link: https://www.facebook.com/seapearl.divers?fref=ts
Here’s a link to my GoPro diving video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5jYiKBQfMA
Next time, chaos reigns on the trip to Davao.
