I liked our tricycle ride (motorbike with sidecar) into Panagsama Beach town when we arrived. The deal was 150p ($4) to our hostel but he asked for an advance of 50P to get some gas. I thought it was very funny but afterwards when I chatted with someone about it they said that’s normal as they do not always know when the next fare will be so have to watch every penny- tells you how tough life is for many of them.
I got the crap scared out of me in the hostel. I was picking up pair of shorts and a GIGANTIC spider was on the wall…..I mean FRIGGING GIGANTIC! It was larger then my hand when I spread my fingers but even that was not as scary as when he ran across the wall. He was so fast he probably cover a 20 ft section in 1-2 seconds….holy crap. Kirsten asked how we could get rid of it and I said I hope it leaves by itself cause I sure can’t catch it! I opened the door and it left on it’s own…thank God. I never saw it again but it sure spooked me. After that the cockroaches were like little pets to us.
We started running short of cash in Moal Boal after 2 days so went in to town to an ATM. Found out they only had 1 and not the 2 we had been told. As luck would have it that one was out of cash and down and we kept hearing it would be repaired tomorrow, which never came. We ended to having to eat at the only restaurant that would take a credit card in town for our last 2 meals. We had 1100 pescos ($25) left to get a bus, two tricycle rides and a ferry to our next destination which was Dumagette- we made it with $3 to spare in our pocket!
Dumagete was a great town to stay in and Harolds is a great Hostel. The driving continues to amaze me as it’s a city of 120k people and there are no traffic lights and no stop or yield signs…I cannot figure out how they do it without killing each other. Met some great people and 12 of us went diving at Apo Island which turned out to be fantastic! Did a drift dive which means you go down 25 mtrs and just let the current take you to the end point…what a blast and the highlight of my 7 dive career.
Went to a restaurant with the same gang that night and drank way too much Red Beer which is 7%. Dan from Australia (excellent young guy who has worked in the Alberta oil patch) asked when he returned from the washroom if I had gone there yet. When I said no he replied not to use the urinal because he had. When he peed there it ran down on his foot as there was no pipe on the bottom. All of us at the table cracked up laughing and then later on another guy went and did exactly the same thing…he..he…he…
Left Dumagette yesterday and got a ferry to Tagbilaran. From there jumped a tricycle to the bus station and then the bus to Nuts Huts which is in the jungle about 3 kilometers outside of town. The driver of the bus dropped us off and started to leave. I jumped back on the bus because he forgot to give us our backpacks! We were dropped off on a dark highway with a 20 minute walk to the Huts. Luckily we had a flashlight and headlamp as it was pitch black and we had to follow what was little better that a path to find the place. We made it there aok but were soaked with the humidity and the heat. Only had to stop two times on the way, once was because there was the worlds biggest toad on the path in front of us -and he wasn’t moving- so we went around him. The next was when we were walking down the initial 145 steps to the huts when Kirsten said to me :hey Dad, see what you just walked by” and I stupidly turned around to ask what it was…it was the largest snake I have ever seen outside a cage. It’s head lay half was across the step and I had narrowly missed it by an inch or so…..after that spider even the snake didn’t look bad!
