Shopping for planes and houses

Steve just before he left

Steve left today back to Hong Kong then to England. I wasn’t diving today so I woke up early to see him good bye. He was a nice guy and it was good diving with him. Afterwards, Daniel and I set off to go to Tagbilaran to look at plane tickets, get money, shop around, and take advantage of the mall’s air conditioning. We hired a tricycle to take us to Island City Mall (ICM).

"Harmless (decaf) coffee". Where's the "Harmful" coffee?

When we arrived at ICM, I went to the bookstore there and picked up an English to Cebuano (Filipino dialect here) conversational book and a travel guide to Tokyo. I was surprised to get the travel book at 65% off! After that, I went to the bank to withdraw money from the ATM. Thankfully, the US dollar is getting a little stronger; before, it was 39.5 pesos to $1 USD, now it’s 41 pesos to $1 USD. I found a coffee stand that looked decent and Daniel and I had some ice blended coffee drinks; they weren’t that bad.

After getting money, we went to a travel agent to book flights. I needed to book a domestic flight to Manila to catch my flight to Japan. Unfortunately, it was quite expensive -- 6900 pesos round trip.

When I came back to Alona Beach, I hung out with Mae and she wanted to go to a bar out where her friend was waiting for her. Mae borrowed her friends motorbike and drove me to the bar which happened to be in Doljo. The bar was small, clean, but had more mosquitos than customers. Doljo happened to be the area where Yoeri, a videographer I dived with, rented a house that he said was available.

The nice house for rent

Coincidentally, there was a house for rent ad at the bar which looked very nice. I called the number and later found out it was the same place Yoeri rented. The owner agreed to pick me up and take me to the place so I could see it. Mae and Rubi came along. The owner, is a older German guy with a Filipino wife that spoke fluent German. They seemed pretty educated.

I was impressed by the house for rent which was in the back of a larger houses complex. It was gated, clean, and fairly Westernized. It’s fully furnished with two bedrooms, a living room, and a private bathroom with kitchen. Water is included as well as laundry machine, a pool, and use of the owners outdoor pool table; all of this for 7000 pesos ($175 USD) per month. The only downside is it’s 7 km away (4.3 miles) so it would require I rent a motorbike. I told the owner I will let them know if I want to rent it by Monday (6 days).

- jason