We slept really badly. The air-conditioning was very noisy and my friends insisted on running it despite the fact that it wasn't really needed. I won the argument at about 4am. The two girls also lie in bed chatting and using their phones for chatting after "lights out" and that makes falling asleep very difficult. We all exchanged stories of a bad night the next morning. Nomel said that he only slept 1 hour.
We were really lucky with the hotel shuttle bus, it was leaving at a perfect time, about 7.40am but we had to skip breakfast in the hotel. The journey to the terminal was only about 15 minutes. The hotel said that it was "not their policy" to print out boarding passes which I thought was rather mean-spirited and so we navigated the terminal with the boarding passes on my phone which worked fine. Swiping the screen moved between the four people.
We had our delayed breakfast at leisure air side and went to the gate. There was a late change to the gate but that was no problem. What shocked me was that at no time were IDs checked. I could have been anyone! And the departure was a shambles, we sat in the plane on the stand for an hour while the ground staff desperately juggled passengers. I think they had over-allocated some of the seats.
The flight when it finally happened was a little over an hour and soon we arrived in Cebu from which we would take the ferry to our final destination, the island of Barangay which is where I'm writing this now. First we had to take a taxi to the bus station on the mainland, the airport is on an island. We were very lucky withe the bus. We were running an hour late, of course, and we just managed to catch the last bus which would synchronise with the ferry (after hurried visits to the CR as they call it. In my simplified English, I call it a pee!
The first half of the journey was awful, most of it in second gear. We stopped for 15 minutes for some food but then the road was much better, up through tropical forests and then down to the port. The bus journey was over four hours. We arrived at the port in plenty of time for the ferry which left at 5.30pm - the crossing was a little over an hour, very slow. The resort offered to pick us up at the ferry port which was fortunate for me. I had misjudged how far it was from the port and we would have had a terrible time finding it. Our transport was a motor-bike with trike. We all piled in complete with our bags and we were soon at the resort. It is right on the beach and our room on the first floor is perfect, one very large double bed for the three, and one bed for me. By the way, I shared a bed with Mila in the airport hotel - it was fine! We are family!
Our first night here, we all slept very well and we're now enjoying our idyll on a tropical island. The beach is rather disappointing because, despite looking absolutely wonderful, there are many loose "rocks" of coral under the surface which makes walking rather perilous and painful. What do I expect? The beach is coral. Maybe I will have to come back in 1000 years when it's all been reduced to sand by the sea.
I just tried to upload some photos but it's not working for some reason, so I'll add them later.Now I've uploaded them!
One thing that was rather funny! I asked at the bar if they had any tea. They said that they had green tea and yellow tea. I asked what was yellow tea. They showed me a packet of Lipton's Yellow Label! I said that would be fine! But I waited for ever, maybe they were milking the cow. Then they explained that the packet they showed me was empty. Later I bought some Earl Grey decafeinated tea. The staff are very bright and intelligent so I don't like to tell a story which makes them appear stupid. One girl serving us is also a ladyboy, so that makes four of us. Plus one real woman, Mila the mum!
My friends waited in the taxi while I visited an ATM.
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