Budgeting, Cabilao, and Karaoke

Cabilao soft corals thrive in the sand

My intended budget for food and drinks per day is 400 pesos ($10 USD).

Two days ago I decided to try to track how much I spend on food and drinks and try to budget myself out of vacation spending towards saving money because I don’t have a job; I’m already behind. I’m finding it hard not to spend tourist prices because I’m situated in a tourist location hanging out with tourists. Though it may sound bad, and it feels like I am spending a lot, relative to what I was spending in the US, I’m not spending much at all.

I guess the problem is that I’m not looking at the whole picture but rather just how much I spend on food and drinks. Here, I just pay a third of what my rent was in the US, and I don’t have to pay for utilities, a cell phone plan, gas, internet, and even coffee (free instant coffee). I feel bad when I spend $15 USD on food and drinks in a day here. Though, the equivalent amount of food and drinks in the US would easily equal $40-50 USD. I cannot also forget things I’m taking for granted -- like eating, emailing, and writing right on a tropical beach with fresh mango juice. Okay, now I need to stop worrying so much.

I was excited to go to a new dive site location today -- Cabilao Island. The island is a two hour boat ride northwest of Alona Beach. I was hopeful water visibility will be better and I can see some new things. The boat left at 7 am and so I slept a little on the boat ride out. Noel was my dive guide and I dived with Daniel, Steve, and someone else.

A small shrimp hides under the protection of an anemone

I could tell visibility was already better from the surface. The dive site was different from most around Alona in that there were a lot of branching soft corals growing out of the sand. On our first dive, I got to see a small school of squid for the first time. Visibility was excellent and the overall scenery was beautiful.

Dancing to the songs of karaoke

Noel asked me after the dives if I wanted to join him for some rum and cokes and karaoke. I was a little reluctant but since Daniel was going, I decided to join them. We had the usual bottle of Tanduay rum and coke behind Oops bar with a bunch of the Genesis boat crew. Afterwards we went to the same karaoke place I went to before. Shortly after we arrived, Nic, Daniel and I took a motorbike to get some bbq chicken. Daniel and I paid for 2 chickens and rice that was more than enough to feed at least 6 people. We had a great time dancing, singing, and eating good BBQ chicken.

- jason