I'm on Malapascua Island, Cebu, Philippines
I'm on Malapascua Island, Cebu, Philippines
I'm on Malapascua Island, Cebu, Philippines. The internet connection here is terrible, so I'm only going to type this entry.
Malapascua is a beautiful little island at the northern tip of Cebu in the Philippines. It has white sand beaches and palm trees. I was trying to figure out if it is overdeveloped: does it have big hotels, and so on. It does not. It has these little "resorts", which are mostly huts. Many are near the beach and they are reasonably priced. I am staying at Dano Beach Resort. My hut is right on the beach. It is 900 Philippine pesos a night, or about US$18, and includes breakfast, which costs about 100 pesos.
On the local bus that I took from Cebu the conductor, a Filipino of about 30 years of age, told me that Malapascua likes to call itself "Little Boracay". Boracay is the long wide sand beach on an island further north halfway to Manila. I have talked to several people and Boracay sounds indeed quite nice; I've heard phrases such as "the most beautiful beach I've ever seen". I wondered if it was overdeveloped, but they told me that it was not. The Filipinos have done a nice job with it, with no multistory hotels. Plus it is a very long and wide white sand beach, so it can accommodate some resorts.
I have been here three days. I leave early tomorrow morning to take a boat and bus to Cebu and then fly to Manila. When I am in Manila I will have several days before I fly to Bangkok.
While here I at first just enjoyed the restaurants and the nice setting and met some of the locals and tourists. It has been quite pleasant talking to these people. Yesterday I finally gave in and did a scuba dive; diving is one of the main attractions for tourists here. It is one of the only places in the world you can see thresher sharks. I did not make it on a thresher shark dive, but I did two nice dives: one on an artificial reef with a sunken jeepney (converted long jeeps used for public transport in the Philippines) and a natural reef at Lapu Lapu Island. I took dives for US$28 from Exotica dive shop; but there are several shops to choose from.
Tomorrow morning I leave early. I have to catch a boat and then a bus to Cebu. The boat will take about an hour to reach Cebu Island and the bus will take three hours or so to reach Cebu. I should be able to get an air-conditioned bus on Ceres Tours for about 105 pesos; I traveled with the locals on Ceres Liner, the ordinary bus, for sixty pesos. It took more than three and a half hours and stopped frequently.
A week from tonight I fly from Bangkok to New York City. I have reached the end of my year of travel. The end keeps surfacing to the forefront of my mind. I am looking forward to seeing my friends and family; but I am also uncertain about my future. But we can't live life worrying about the future, can we? A definitive "No" to that. So my return will just be the next step in my adventure in this one-time opportunity called life.
I'm on Malapascua Island, Cebu, Philippines
