Looks like a nice day.
Today Martine, Erich, Sara and I planned to do an island hopping excursion with Timo and Nina. We ate breakfast at the Dutch owned restaurant where I ate eggs and toast and had coffee from a French press. By 9 AM we went out on a banca with four other people. Driving out to our first destination was beautiful as we passed several limestone rock islands and beaches.
Our first island destination where we went snorkeling.
Sara takes the plunge.
Our first destination was a snorkel spot just outside a beautiful beach resort. Snorkeling was more fun than I thought it would be. Swimming around, free diving, taking pictures and just goofing off was a nice change of pace compared to diving. The water was shallow enough that I didn’t need a flash on my camera to get decent photos. I cut my back on some rocks though when I was taking pictures of Sara and Martine at the surface when I was underwater.
Vista view from Snake Island.
The underwater "snake" of Snake Island.
The next stop we went to was Snake Island which had a nice small beach and vista view of the surrounding islands. Its called Snake Island because of a sand bar underwater that looks like a snake. You really can only see this after you climb up a small hill to the vista point. The island and the beach was the most beautiful I’ve seen in Philippines yet. Lots of pictures.
Sara as "Fiona".
Erich looking mighty, uh, femme.
We took a short boat ride to our next island which had a nice small white sand beach. Here, we settled in a little bit and ate lunch. The boat crew setup a small BBQ grill and grilled fresh fish accompanied with salad, rice, and fruit; it was delicious. This island hopping tour was more luxurious than I thought; I thought we would just eat sandwiches on the beach. It made the whole experience feel like I was more in paradise. I got a few mosquito bites on the beach so I tried staying in the water as much as I could.
The back of a wave seen underwater.
Self portrait with camera underwater.
I became obsessed with taking experimental pictures underwater while just sitting on the beach in shallow water. I was first interested in taking pictures of me being on a beautiful beach just sitting in the water. Then I was interested in taking pictures underwater of waves as they passed me. Next, I was interested in taking self portraits of myself with my camera underwater and my head above water. I think most people wondered what I was doing and thought I was a weird loner taking pictures of myself. After taking a ton of pictures, I swam around with the rest of the group.
Timo looking around inside the cave.
The fourth destination we went to was a cave on another island. The entrance to the cave is a small hole that we had to crawl into. Inside the cave smelled like bat urine which wasn’t that pleasant actually. In another chamber, people climbed up some rocks to get to a plateau. There, our tour guide climbed up a vertical rock face without any safety ropes. Erich climbed up also. It was all very scary to watch. After we crawled out of the cave, we did a little snorkeling in the area.
Sara looking below before free diving down.
Snorkeling was fun as we tried seeing who could free dive the deepest. My free diving abilities and breath holding improved a lot since just earlier in the morning. I was happy enough to descend down to 7 meters/21 feet which isn’t that much but better than what I was doing earlier. Erich had the record at 10 meters/33 feet. Descending down then looking up at the surface at depth was sometimes frightening because I would wonder if I had enough breath to make it to the surface. It was also strange to hold my breath and ascend quickly because in scuba diving those two things are the biggest things you shouldn’t do. Our fun was cut short because of impending rain in the distance.
Sara ascending after a free dive.
The weather got cold and it started to rain. All of a sudden, the paradise I enjoyed all day turned into cold undesirable weather. We had one more stop at another island which I didn’t really care for. I wanted the sun to come out or to just go home. We didn’t stay long at the last island as a good amount of people just remained on the boat. On the way back to El Nido beach, we saw wild monkeys playing on a beach on an island; it was cool to see there’s still a little wildness in the area.
Rain clouds coming straight for us.
At El Nido, we relaxed for the rest of the evening at Art Cafe. After some beers, Sara, Erich and I walked back to our room while Martine did some things she needed to do. Once we got to our room, it started raining a lot. The rain was so intense having an umbrella did little. How was Martine going to get back home? We had no electricity at our room so I took a shower in the dark with just my small flashlight. Eventually, Martine made it back to our room and Timo and Nina met up with us. We went out to dinner and at ate at a restaurant that also didn’t have any electricity.
Partying with the Filipinos.
After dinner, we decided to get some Tanduay rum and Coke and hang out on the beach. Shortly after we got our rum and Coke and sat on the beach, a group of Filipinos hung out with us. Among other things, they asked us where we were from, what our names were and who our boy/girlfriends were. We lied about everything.
My name was Daniel Kim from Korea and I had nukes while Erich was my gay lover mountain man from Lithuania. I stored my nukes his moutains. Sara and Martine were lesbians from some Eastern European country and Timo and Nina was a married couple. It was hilarious seeing the Filipino’s reaction after I told them Erich was my gay lover; it’s something that’s foreign to them, something they can’t comprehend. I asked them if it was okay, and they said it was.
A Filipino guy with us was passed out on the beach and Erich decided to use his “rescue skills” on him. Erich went up to the obviously unconscious guy and said to him: “Hello, my name is Erich, I’m an emergency first responder, can I help you?” No surprise, there was no response, so Erich put him in the “recovery position.” Watching this and hearing Erich speak with his Austrian accent made me laugh so much. It’s something one had to be there to laugh at because reading the story from my journal isn’t that funny.
The passed out "Exploited" Filipino that Erich rescued.
At some point after two bottles of Tanduay rum were consumed, nobody really remembered anything. The Filipinos, Timo, and Nina were gone as well as Saras money pouch (500 pesos) and cell phone. Erich, Sara, Martine and I looked for Sara’s stuff but couldn’t find it. I guess the Filipinos took it because when we called Sara’s phone it was off even though she knew it was left on. Regardless, it was a fun filled night.
- jason
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