Day 1 - Ferry to Siquijor
Today's topic: STUDENT ID CARDS by ISIC. Before leaving on our grand trip we did research on the best credit cards, backpacks, etc. One thing Nadine had to get, but didn't fully research, were student cards! Although neither of us are actually students anymore, we like to consider ourselves students of the world, and it usually gives us discounts on things. So Nadine did what she does and vualá, we purchased two student IDs from ISIC website. All around Europe they give student discounts for just about anything, so we thought it couldn't hurt to spend $25 each on a card that could potentially save us at least the each cards worth. Thus far, this investment has not paid off. To this day January 23, 2020, we have not only not reached $50 for the combined purchase, but we haven't even reached the $25 for one card! In calculating we have saved about $15 all together and this is mostly in the Philippines were it seems they value education a lot more than all the other Asian countries we have been to. This $15 has not come easy to save, we have had to basically beg and lie to merchants for the discount. Most of them beg and lie to us for our business, so it only seems fair. Let's just say it has proved to be very hard to convince people we are still students. In our heart of hearts we will always think of ourselves as students and we will continue to strive for the discount until our expiration dates of June 2020!
So on our quest to purchase our student discounted tickets to Larena, we were of course questioned, but Nadine has the system down. She simply gives the exact amount of change that it would be for two student tickets and slides it in with the two student cards. It usually has some back and forth but after about 30 seconds they give in. We purchased two tickets to Larena for 173P original price, 204P (62P savings $1.22 @ 50.91P=$1).
Since we never win with karma and fate, the terminal fee was 20P each, bringing down our money count. Foreigners and locals alike are required to pay the terminal fee, so strangely that made us feel better.
We boarded the SSMontenegro to Siquijor a 2.5hr journey to travel 39.2 kilometers
We arrived at Larena Port, only to be swarmed by local drivers pressing us to hire their overpriced tricycle to the city of Siquijor. The two towns are only 11.4Km away, about a 20-25 minute ride, which was a 20P ride for locals. After a few tried Ben managed to get a private ride for 100P, at this point it was a win! We arrived at our humble abode, D's Ocean View Beach Resort, to be greeted by none other than D herself. Although we never knew her real name, we called her Ann, since she seemed like an Ann, fearless and dependable. After about two minutes though we saw D's cheap side. Not only did she not have filtered water or a kettle on the premisses for the guests, she wanted to charge 15 P per cup of hot water (the cost of the water + the cost of heating it up). There was also a 5 peso charge for using a cup or a spoon! Cheapskate. While down the road a coffee was 5 P total and already included the hot water. We politely declined and asked if she had a restaurant in the hotel or near by. She replied the hotel's restaurant was closed and the nearest place to get food was going to be in Siquijor town which is about a 10 minute tricycle ride. If we wanted, she noted, we could rent a motorbike from her for 350 P a dy. Till this day we do not know why D lied to us about the there being no food other than to get us to use her bike when two minutes down the beach there were a handfull of resorts with restaurants.
Our small cottage was perfect for what we were looking for. It had everything we needed except a kettle: WiFi, aircon, a bed, a porch, and a bathroom (not in any specific order). A few things to note though, the place could have been made more homey. The walls were plastered with DO's and DON'Ts. There were no decorations or paintings, just read and black warnings everywhere you looked. It was just a side note we would recommend D change, since the place itself is great.
As she usually does when we get to a place with running water and a good balcony, Nadine went into the bathroom and washed the dirty laundry. Ben also does the laundry, but he hasn't perfected the Nadine method yet. He prefers to let things soak, while she prefers to give it a good scrub, as seen in this video:
That afternoon we spent the day at the resort next door, Tori's Paradise eating cordon bleu and french fries. For dinner we went back to the same place and ordered Hawaiian pizza and french fries. It's nearly impossible to eat healthy since there are no vegetables anywhere in site. We try our best though. It was a good day.
Day 2 - Paliton Beach
The next beautiful morning we had breakfast at Tori's, an all you can eat breakfast buffet for 200P; it was well worth it. We then caught a tricycle to Paliton Beach with a Canadian Expat who was on his way to the bar to see a UFC match. He told us how he loves going to Paliton Beach with his metal detector to pick up the lost items of drunken tourists. He said he once found a diamond engagement ring worth $1,000 and that he sold it for $500. Somehow we think he got the short end of the stick on this one. We paid the driver 50 well deserved Pesos, and we were off to the beach.
Paliton Beach is a small underdeveloped beach, so there are not many boats, hotels and/or restaurants..yet. We found a nice spot and we snorkeled for a good hour. We spotted over five different species of star fish.
On the way back we hopped on a jeepney and rode it until the end which was the town of Siquijor (Locals paid 10P we paid 20P). Siquijor is a simple town, a few shops, restaurants, and pharmacies. Our lunch was yet again cordon bleu, but it was terrible, just as it was at Tori's. Last time we would order this dish on the island. Ben's food arrived came out twenty minutes before Nadine's, which came out peppery and undersized. We enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.
On our way out we saw how short handed they really were, they were in desperate need of a cook, didn't matter if they were male or female and more importantly if they were single or married. Just had to be responsible and honest. Ben left his application inside.
Another great sign we saw was a hog (pig) for hire. And fish being dried on a string rack with clothes on its sides. Very cultural experience.
Down the road was also the local pharmacy. Ben worked in a pharmacy for many years, so to see one he always gets him nostalgic of his days working at Kaiser Permanente (or its real name Capon Permanente). When he sees local pharmacies he can't help but wonder what kind of system they use to find certain medications and where they are stored. This pharmacy was a little different than Kaiser. Not only did it sell alcohol, oh no wait, it was totally different, it sold alcohol!
By the end of the day we made it back for dinner at Tori's. This was the day Ben fell in love with Hawaiian style pizza, we have ordered it four times after today!
It was a very important moment, I needed to document it. 👆🏽
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