Fast foward 4 months and i found myself back in the Philippines. I decided after flying back to Manila I would head back out to Boracay as I had such a good time the first time around, although a short stay. Seeing as there wasnt much accomodation available and prices had risen due to the upcoming holy week that I was yet to know about I only spent a couple of days relaxing on White Beach and Pukka Beach. There also seems to be green algae in the ocean in Boracay at this time of year so going in wasnt as appealing. I enquired about renting a scooter from a few places and found the price in Boracay is exteremly high, everyone was quoting something like 1,200 peso’s for a couple of hours! majority of places in the country you can hire a scooter for around 300 peso a day. I booked a flight to Cebu City and decided the next stop from there would be Siargao island, alot of people had reccomend this place.

So whilst in Cebu I booked a 9 hour ferry to the island on the 12go app (a must have if your travelling in asia) that went first to Surigao island and then you took another boat over to Siargao. The ferry was a night ride so you got given a bunk in a area with about 50 other people. I attempted to get some sleep but it was minimal. Once arriving in Surigao I walked to the ferry port and tried to avoid all the taxi drivers given me inflated prices. The ferry port was rammed with tourists trying to catch a boat to Siargao. Once I got to the front of the cue they told me the next boat was 1pm, it was 8am now so I went to find some food whilst I waited.

Once arriving in Siargao I shared a trike with a girl I met on the boat and arrived at my accomodation Kanto hostel in general luna. The host Jas was really nice and told me when I arrived if I wanted to stay longer than the three days I booked that I would struggle to find accomodation as it is HOLY WEEK. I made friends with an Italian guy in the hostel, who also wanted to stay longer but between us we could not find anything on the island. That evening Jas and her friends invited me to party. Every night on the island there is a party at a different location and that evening it was at her friends bar. So she insisted that as i was only there 3 nights that I must come out. After a heavy night drinking and making some friends I woke up in the hostel room the next morning, not recalling my journey home. The next day was sunny and after speaking to Jas she told me that it rains alot on the island and that I should try and see a few hot tourist sports whilst its nice and being that I only have one more night left. So I hired a scooter, Jas wrote me a list of spots to go and off I went around the island. After hitting a few spots next on the list was the coconut viewpoint. Whilst driving through a small village i dropped something from my scooter. As I stopped to pick it up a good looking filipino girl drove past beeping her horn and smiling at me, I smiled back and picked up the item. 15 minutes later I arrive at the viewpoint to see the same girl sitting on her bike looking out at the coconut trees. I say hello and a conversation starts. She asks how long i am on the island and I tell her I would like to stay longer but have to head back to Cebu tomorrow as I cant find accomodation. She then tells me someone in her village has a room to rent and if I am interested she can find out for me. We exchange numbers and I tell her I will call her later.

After getting to all the spots Jas recommended I decide I would like to extend my stay so I give the girl a call and she says the room is available. I ask what she’s up to tonight and she invites me out for techno night. We had a quality night with good techno music and alot of tourists, the girl gave me the address of the room and said meet me there tomorrow. I packed my stuff from the hostel and headed over in the morning. Turns out, the address was her house in the village and the room I was renting was her own room. I guess its some income but, I said to her you really will let a complete stranger rent your room out in your house? she said “i did think that but, you seem alright”. I felt bad moving her out of her room to make space for me but she insisted it was fine. Aswell as her living at the house so did her parents and they couldn’t be any more welcoming. Although they didn’t speak much english we managed. They made me dinner every day, did my washing and her brother even cut my hair and gave my back a shave, im sure he loved that. The girl was busy working most of the week so I explored the island and went to the gym. We went to the beach one day with her family and also to a village party on a basketball court. I was the only white person there and stood out like a sore thumb but the filipino people couldn’t be any friendlier. They really love karaoke aswell and I destroyed that a couple of times. After a week staying with the family I felt i didn’t want to overstay my welcome and by this point accomodation was now available. So I booked a guesthouse for a couple of days before I decided to leave the island and meet up with my friend I was travelling with the previous month.

I arrived back in Cebu with a hostel booked for a couple of nights. After a long day of travelling I arrived at pungko pungko hostel, situated behind a pungko pungko restaurant. I asked if the food was good as the restaurant was packed with filipinos at about 11am, which they insisted it was. So I jumped on a table in the restaurant with a few random filipino people and dove into what was like a giant tupperware box with assorted fried meat. Just put on a glove and take what you want and the staff will calculate the bill. 4am the next morning i woke up feeling not so great. I went to the toilet in the hostel dorm but, being the polite gentleman I am i didn’t want to make noise throwing up. So I tried to get back to sleep, waking up again at 7am sweating my nut off. I walked out to the reception and asked why the AC wasn’t working and they said ‘We turn it off at 6am’. This sucks. After going back to the dorm and puking up all the fried stuff from the restaurant I booked a hotel around the corner. I guess sometimes it doesn’t pay off to be adventurous with local food. I checked in early and went to the pharmacy for some medicine. I told the women behind the counter I had food poisoning and needed something which they seemed to find extremely funny, maybe I just cant be taken seriously. Then headed back to the hotel and slept a good 8 hours until my friends arrival. My friend arrived so I mustered some energy and managed to stomach some fruit that evening. The next day we decided to leave for Siquijor island, island of the witches they say.

End of part 2.