June 27 – Another Crazy Travel Day

Since I burnt my leg on the scooter I haven’t been able to walk a lot so I’ve mostly taken it easy – hanging out on the beach while Jacob swims or explores the island. We spent some time in the local Karaoke bars and eating lobster at what felt like our own private restaurant on the beach. Boracay was nice and although there are a lot of tourists, 99% of them are Korean, Chinese or Japanese so it kind of feels like we’re the only tourists here, if that makes sense. From Boracay we decided to go to Puerto Galera on another island nearby. We took a public ferry which was another very strange travel experience.

 

 

 

 

"beware of falling coconuts"

private beach

our private restaurant

First, there were cockroaches everywhere in the passenger area which we’re getting used to at this point, but they were climbing on our bags, seats and legs so we decided to go sit in the lobby area with the chickens and roosters. We were travelling through another major rainstorm so the boat was rocking severely. There were 3 older Filipino’s sitting across from us on a bench and one of them tried to get up but she fell flat on her face. I helped her up and back onto the bench while the 2 other people she was with basically ignored her. I don’t think they were all there mentally. The next hour was a little surreal; the woman would cry as if she was in pain but her companions would just yell at her. Another woman came to sit next to us and started throwing up, some kid was running around naked, the roosters were “cock-a-doodling”, the boat speakers were blasting Lady Gaga and then all of a sudden the older woman who had fallen started pissing all over herself and the floor. At this point Jacob and I could not help ourselves from laughing, not at the people but at the situation and that all these things were happening at once.

After 8 hours on the ferry (which was supposed to only be 4 hours), we arrived at the port to find out that the bus we needed to catch to Puerto Galera had stopped running for the day and we would need to spend the night at the outdoor ferry terminal in order to catch the first bus out at 5am. So we huddled up on a bench while it continued to pour, but at least this time we had some sort of a shelter.

local transport

 

ferry cockpit

overnight outdoors

Jacob's umbrella fort

After another long day of travel we arrived at Sabang beach in Puerto Galera where we can now relax and enjoy the 24 hour thumping music from bars, nightly (and daily) fireworks, people yelling all night long, pigs being slaughtered outside our window, and prostitutes constantly flirting with Jacob trying to give him a “massage”. I think we need a vacation :)