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Since the Philippines is a country of islands, ferries are an important means of transport. Mike and I took a Super Cat ferry from Cebu to Bohol. This was an experience. First, we had to put our bags through an x-ray machine to enter the ferry terminal. People with pets or firearms and other weaponry had to check it in with the guards. We bought our tickets, then perused the food and gift shops. While we waited, I read the back of the ticket, which had an interesting rule: "Live animals and plants- No live animals will be allowed on board. The only exception are two (2) fighting cocks per passenger, upon submission of Quarantine Permit." (This exception must have been used a lot, because almost every house in Bohol had a game cock tied outside.) But the fun of the ferry didn't stop there. The ferry had a safety video that we watched. Part of the video was the pre-departure prayer. When the video announced, "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit," virtually everyone on the boat made the Sign of the Cross (this country is very religious and mainly Catholic). After this info video was finished, the crew put in a video for us to watch during the 1.5 hr journey. Something got horribly mixed up. The video began as a pan of a city. There was music, and soon I could hear a woman sort of panting. The camera wooshed over many buildings, and was drawing into one. The woman was louder, and was making rather suggestive high-pitched moans. (This had peaked one child's curiosity, and he stood in front of the TV to get a better look.) Now I figured that the camera would finally reveal the woman in the building doing some funny task that produced the noise. But when the camera finally entered the woman's room, she was buck-naked on a bed. One of the ferry employees quickly turned off the movie before we the camera pulled back all the way to reveal why she was making the noises. But one can imagine. The error was quickly corrected, and we were watching "The Santa Clause" before my cheeks had stopped burning red. Once we got to Bohol, we took a trike (motorcycle with enclosed side-car for 2 attached). It cost us 150 pesos for what was supposed to be a 45min ride. It wasn't. The driver was nice enough, but his motorcycle got a flat tire. So we stopped at a vulcanizing station along the (sparsely populated) way, which consisted of a covered bench and a few old motorcycle tires outside someone's house. We stopped there for almost 30 minutes, while the men repaired the tire.... It was done the old-fashioned way using a piece of rubber to cover the hole. This was clamped down and surrounded by an old tin can. Inside the can, a fire was lit, to melt (vulcanize) the piece of rubber to the tire. While we waited, I learned that the island had a lot of maize crop and that you can buy cigarettes by the cigarette. The place we stayed that night in Alona Beach, Panglao wasn't all that great. The shower didn't work, the bed was sandy (though we did get mosquito netting), and the toilet didn't have a seat (it's really hard to pee when you aren't standing or squatting, but somewhere in between). BUT, the place had one great restaurant. The food was good, at a fair price, friendly staff, and an amazing musical ensemble of 3 male guitarists and a female singer. WOW. Mike and I almost stayed because of the restaurant. Restaurant personnel all over the Philippines seemed extremely friendly. The might never have gotten our orders right, but they were always ready to sit down and have a chat with us. (If you don't like over-friendly waiters, you wouldn't like this country, because we never asked them to sit and chat.) As I might have said already, we spent most of our time on in Santa Fe, Bantayan Island. It took about 4 hrs to get there, so it wasn't easy to leave (only 2 times a day, unless we wanted to pay a lot of money to rent a boat, then not have a bus back to Cebu city). But that was fine. It was a great island with nice people. We spent our days eating, swimming, playing cards and Kniffel (Yatzee) with our German neighbors Dirk and Chris, and doing laundry. This island didn't have any tourist shops (that I saw), and didn't really have any phones either. Budyong Beach Resort, where we stayed wasn't getting phone service until Jan 1st. So how did people contact one another? You could go to the city center (police, hospital, post office, etc.) and fill out a form, then wait for a woman to ring the number. If it went through, you want to a booth and talked to the person on a horribly bad connection. I had to use this to call China Air (whose Manila # is wrong, I might add). (This was a big example of differences. In Manila, I saw lots of people with cellular phones, but on this island, no one had one. In fact, I think the island epitomizes the Philippines. Remote, poor, friendly, no phones, police with semi-automatic weapons, Catholic church.) That's about all that happened. We left early because neither of us were feeling well, and we wanted to save some vacation days. So, we thought we were going to do more stuff, but we put stuff off and ended up staying put. But we had a good time and were glad we did what we did. Valerie Straayer |