I slept on the hour and a half trip across the water and felt a lot better on the other side on the island of Mindoro. I got a jeepney (the cheaper travel option in the Philippines) 3km to Sabang beach (tourist beach) which cost 20 pesos, or 35p.......bloody brilliant. Sabang beach had all your typical beach tourist attractions, loads of bars and restaurants, a hand full of dive shops and a range of hotels. Only one thing was missing, the tourists. With it being the low season in the Philippines at this time there were hardly any westerners about anywhere. It was great for me, since everywhere offered discounted accomodation, food and diving rates. Too perfect. I randomly met a lady who's niece owned the hostel I was searching for and she took me to the door. I got a brilliant rate for a lovely ensuite room with a TV, double bed, and a great balcony view over the sea. About 5 quid a night. It was still really early but I resisted going to bed, I didnt want to mess up my sleep pattern anymore. So I grabbed some of the local speciality of pork abodo (too good) and a mango shake! Since there in season here, another high point of my day!
For the rest of the day I basically lounged around at Small Laguna beach, tanning, reading and sleeping. After updating all of the blog, I headed back for an early night, sneaking a bit of television in before going to sleep. It felt good.
The following day whilst eating breakfast I met a bloke called Manny who wanted me to come on a fishing trip with him. After much negotiation I managed to settle at 500 pesos for two hours fishing. Good to say he started at 1500. We planned to meet early the following day. I hired a mountain bike (pretty decent GT at that) for 50 pesos an hour, and did a long days cycling. I first off went to Tamaraw falls about 20km from town, where I had some sweet banana with some sweet old ladies. I had a quick dip (in the falls) then moved on to find white beach, which was about 10km from Sabang. The cycling was made really difficult because of the intense heat so I had to play some Prodigy on my i-pod for motivational purposes. It did the trick. White beach was a beautiful beach with perfect sand and sea. I took another dive into the water here to cool off before heading back to town. When I arrived back I was c ompletely drenched in sweat, and after taking the bike back and only paying 200 pesos for 5 hours (shuffle) I walked the streets topless and got some very confused looks. Why is this boy so wet? I know the post title says that I rested, but come on, its me.
Got up at 5 before 6 the next day for my fishing trip with Manny. At first I thought the bastard had stood me up, but he showed up about twenty-past with some lame excuse . Anyways, from there we took his boat over to a calm quayside area where a few other fishing boats were doing their thing. Manny ditched me and left me in the hands of his brother, who could speak reasonably good English I guess. This was not the typical fishing trip your thinking of by the way, this was Philipino/South East-Asia style fishing.......no floats, no nets and not even a god damn rod! We used some little bamboo pieces with fishing wire wrapped around them, a metal screw tied to the end for use of a sinker, and what looked like a broken paperclip for the hook, it was so funny to witness. It was a great experience to be fair too. We used some chopped up fish for bait and went at it. The were hundreds of fish down below, I know this since the water was clear enough to see them. After several failed attempts at hooking one of em, and them making away with my bait, we switched areas to try again. I was just as pathetic in this new location but my teacher (I forget his name?) was a PRO! He kept pulling out fish after fish and I just felt bad for wasting the bait, it was really hard work and takes great skills, I was very impressed. Dad, I think you should use this style of fishing in future on your Sundays, maybe I can teach you when I get home :)
Teacher kept asking me to go snorkeling after fishing to see some gigantic clams in the water, I wasnt too fussed at first, but gave in to his consistency. It was worth it. The water was beautiful and clear and it helped wake my ass up a little too, dont forget it was still about 8am at this point. You know, me and mornings, its like John Burrell and Marmite, they don't go.
After snorkeling, we headed over to Manny's crib where his darling wife grilled the fish we caught (well, teacher caught). Served with rice of course, and it was delicious. I dont know if it was the greatest breakfast option, but made a good early lunch.
I got taken back to Sabang beach, watched some little kids do backflips off of a boat, then got my daily mango milkshake intake, yummy. I had a long day ahead and virtually no plans. I freestyled a route over to a lighthouse about 2km from Sabang, where I found an awesome secluded beach, completely deserted. I took this opportunity to tan the booty (no lie) and get a bit of reading done. The bathing came to an abrupt end when a boat full of divers pulled into the bay. I dont think I have ever moved so fast in my life, tore my bloody sarong aswell. Ughh!
On my way home whilst grabbing a cheap bite to eat, I was approached by a semi drunk dude (who was really nice by the way) who wanted me to join him and his cousins for some day time Philipino Tequila drinking, who could resist an offer like that? Not me. I went round to his cousins place and had a few shots of the vile liquor, whilst getting the usual 221 questions about my life and my travels. I was molly coddled by the first guy to take a motorbike taxi back to Sabang, since he said 'I' was drunk and it could be dangerous. It was 4 in the afternoon and the only people I passed were school kids on their ways home. I had my slingshot ready. Just in case.
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