***** Firstly i Apologise for the lack of photos, transit days are hard to get lots as we have tight connections and navigating ***
Sunday Morning was a Early Rise, we had to be on our way to the Airport from the depths of inefficency at around 9AM
The hotel breakfast was the worst we had come across by far! rubber eggs , no fruit and bread that im sure was about a week old. I didnt each much and decided that i will just have a bigger lunch.
our departure from the hotel was easy, threw them the room key and told them that they had a few issues with the room and left abruptly.
marge had been on the mission of flagging down a Tricycle for us to go to the airport in so when I came outside we are ready to rock.
the trip to the Airport from the centre of town costs around 150Peso for the 2 of us and the ride takes around 10 minutes.
to Entre the Airport you must have a current booking for that day and show proof of it to the security at the gates on the main road.
Dumaguete Airport is a bout the same size as Nelson Airport, it has one runway, 6 checkin desks
-3 to Philipines Airways
-3 to Cebu Air
Airports here have mutiple security points that mind boggles me.
upon entering the Airport you have to put all bags on the huge security scanner and unload the following items : Camera’s, Power banks, metal object from pockets, cameras
after that you will find your check in desk and then stand there in the swealtering heat of the airport with no AC that makes me sweat and soak my cap so i look like im infected with covid and malaria just to make the security guards nervous.
check in at any Philipines Airport is amazing there is no system and to process one booking takes around 5 Minutes so when you have 20 people in a line it takes an hour and a half which drives me insane.
we finally check in and have to pass a second security checkpoint with the same process as before.
the Departures area is what you would expect alot of seats all lined up and you wait patiently for your flight to be called and that is usually done by someone holding a bilboard up infront of people with the flight number and destination – there are no audible annoucements.
our Plane is ready to depart at 10:50AM and it will land in Manila at 12PM sharp.
Marge used Grab – Taxi to book a car to take us down to the Bus terminal about 10KM towards the city centre, the taxi asked if we wanted to take the express way to avoid the traffic. this is a toll ring road that is on a Highway above the main city. being a toll road it costs 55 Peso and the driver on charges that to us.
the brilliance of Grab taxi is you can book a ride and pay cash . from there they will round it to the closest 10 peso to avoid the handling of coins, which means you don’t need a credit card to sign up to this service. it also means that Grab don’t take a hefty commission of the drivers.
if you use the Grab app and use your credit card or “g-Cash” here which is like an oyster card… but can be used for any purchase at shops or restaurant that accept G Cash payments – then the system will charge the driver their commission for the transaction and use of the service.
the flight was smooth while cursing at the ceiling of the sky, and on our descent it got horrifically bumpy from thermals which at one point i looked out the window to make sure we weren’t on fire hurtling towards the ground at Mach 1 (uncommon experience of turbulence).
the weirdest deplaning of an aircraft was carried out by the PA system on board and the Cabin crew call out the Seat rows for exiting the plane, the rows were called out from middle of the aircraft first, then front, then rear. I’m unsure if this was efficiency based as i don’t think it was particularly fast, however i do remember when booking online the paid seats were in the middle of the cabin and up the front so maybe its courtesy for the VIP travelers.
by the time we got off the plane our bags were already floating around the baggage carousel and we collected them, then made our way outside to the crazy streets that surround the airport.
the Manila Southern Bus terminal has around 100 Busses in the area, its littered with street touts trying to sell food and water to the potential travelers, depending on where your heading will determine what bus you get on. and from there they put your bag in a locker for that stop on the ride. this avoids anyone tampering with your luggage.
the bus leaves on time at around 1 PM and it will take us around 2 Hours to get to San Pablo, the best thing is they will drop us to our accommodation as its on the main bus line route.
I spend my time on the bus reading my book and Marge spends it snoring dribbling on the window she is using as a pillow.
when the bus arrives at our accommodation we check in, the rooms are small probably not much bigger than 20Meters squared, we are both hungry so i ask marge where is good to eat in San Pablo?
she tells me there is a great iced coffee café about 1KM Down the road and we agree closer the better so we head there to go and get some food. most of the food is western but as per usual they don’t have half the things in tock to make everything.
Marge has Pesto pasta and i have a Chicken pesto sandwich. they food is just okay. there is no food i have come across that makes you go wow, this is amazing. where in Europe you can find some amazing food of local stews and soups. but that’s okay.
we headed into town from there to the local lake which lies on the outskirts of San Pablo, its a nice waterfront and there is a staircase that leads up to a raised area on a hill looking across the lake.
Marge is certified in Taekwondo and her boxing gym is located near here so we climb the stairs and i go and meet Jovanni, he has just started this new boxing gym and is in the process of building furniture out of bamboo that he cuts himself.
the Gym is located on a Perch that looks our across the lake from around an elevation of 40 Meters above the road below.
Jovanni is 31 Years of age and behind hi main counter of bamboo there is a numerous amount of medals and awards.
Jovanni is a lean mean replica of Bruce lee with the same hair and everything, we have a light discussion about how the new gym is going and so forth, I ask him what award wins the most to him and he looked at the wall hard and initially said they all meant something… but he paused and went to a bronze medal with a Red ribbon which had the picture of a spartan helmet.
he competed in the USA with other international champions to win the overall placing for the 2021 Spartan championship, in doing so he also bet the record holder and when he spoke of this he had a glassy gaze in his eye. he was probably flashing back to the moment he realised he had won.
marge and i said our goodbyes and walked down to the local church which was Sunday Mass and there are people gathered out in the forecourt of the church listening to the service.
the sun is starting to set so Marge grabs us a Trike and we head back to the Accommodation.
when we arrived back we had to do some bookings, we headed to the hotel restaurant/ bar and had a few beers at the bar and Booked a Resort to stay over in Puerto Galera, from there you have to make a few extra steps.
according to S-Pass (Philippines QR code) there is no travel restrictions at a government level…however they need you to sign up to the local QR tourist code system…. unfortunately they don’t have an App for apple devices only android… and you need this to get a ferry ticket.
after 2 hours of flapping around we finally get our tourist QR codes. and from there we book a ferry ticked to Puerto Galera on a ferry. the ferry doesn’t accept Visa …. only G Cash so i have to convince marge to use her G Cash which is apparently a pain in the ass to load, you have to do it 7/11 stores as there is no official G Cash terminals in the Philippines odd i know.
we get the ferry booked for 1PM on Monday.
its around 9PM and I’m tired and starting to feel exhausted from the days of traveling.
time to call it a night without Dinner
Today we will leave on the note of the famous Bruce Lee, Martial arts guru
Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it
-Bruce Lee- 1940-1973
Quantum Entanglement 