Moalboal

Day One

We had all decided that we had pretty much done Oslob so we should go somewhere else and after checking the map and making an online hotel booking we decided on going up the west coast of Cebu for a place named Moalboal.

After breakfast and getting a bit of travel advice from the staff at the resort we pulled our bags to the side of the main road and waited for a yellow bus to take us to the coach station where we would catch the coach to Moaboal.  After 10 or 15 minutes we got a bit bored waiting and flagged down a Jeepney and negotiated a price to the coach station.  It’s always hard when negotiating as you do not know how far the trip is, but Daryll did his best and in this case we felt a bit guilty when we finally got to the coach station, it was quite far.

 

Fortunately just as we arrived a coach to Moalboal was just leaving so we boarded and were on our way again, the coach was very comfy, all of us getting our own two seats and they even had TV screens playing English TV.

The journey took around 1 ½ - 2 hours, only a brief interlude happened where I thought the conductor signalled to me and I tried to get us all off only to be told it wasn’t our stop.  Also when we finally arrived at our destination I managed to try and take out one of the overhead TV’s on the way off of the coach, much to Daryll’s and Shell’s amusement.

Once off the coach we looked for some transport to our accommodation but we thought the asking price was too high so we convened to a nearby bar for some refreshments and a bit of lunch whilst we considered our next move.  There happened to be quite a few drunk German guys there who started singing songs from the fatherland which prompted us to leave fairly quickly after eating (Daryll & Glenn, not Shell).

So having no option we got the rather expensive tricycle to our accommodation for the night.  Once there we found that we were staying in some fairly basic bungalows, but the resort itself was very nice with a good bar/restaurant area and a decent sized swimming pool that looked over the sea.

 

Once unpacked we had a quick beer in the bar before commandeering another tricycle to take us to a nearby beach – White Beach.  On our way there the driver tried to sell us all sorts of services, but we did manage to barter with him on a taxi transfer to the airport the next day for about half as much as the hotel wanted to charge (he just urged us not to let the hotel people know!).

When we got to the entrance to white beach we were charged around 15p each for the privilege and we said goodbye to the tricycle driver although he was more than willing to wait for our return.

The beach itself was a beautiful little stretch of white sand with only a few people on it, most of them locals and across the bay you could see some of the other Philippine islands.  So we sat down there for a while and had a swim.

 

We started to roast a bit so we found what was a bit of shanty bar and took some shade and had a few beers whist enjoying the view, only problem being the toilet run as I (Not Daryll or Shell) had a problem locating the toilet behind the beach, which resulted in a couple of extra sea dips for me.

 

As the sun started to set we thought we would go and check out another beach nearby to get our evening meal.  So we left White Beach and got another Tricycle to take us to Pangsama Beach.

 

When we got there it was a bit livelier with a few bars and restaurants along a small strip facing the water.  As it was still quite early we sat in one of the bars and had a couple of drinks before finding a nice fish restaurant along the way where we had dinner on a terrace overlooking the sea (Squid, Prawn’s and Fish I think), along with quite a few more Red Horse’s.

 Once back we thought we would take advantage of a night dip in the pool, so Daryll went to check it out whilst we got changed (although we don’t remember this bit).

When we got down to the pool we found Daryll terrorizing some large Korean Tourists who were getting amorous with some purchased Filipino girls that they had brought back for a night of fun, this was done by Daryll by dive bombing them in the pool.  Being drunk and finding it quite funny Shell and I joined in!

After this we thought it was time we should go to bed so we headed up the hill to our bungalows only to discover that the key had been lost.  Slating Shell all the way back down the hill to Daryll for losing the key, I then found reception to be closed for the night and after a few shouts realised that no one was around.

Fortunately just as we thought we would all be spending the night in Daryll’s room (Daryll wasn’t very keen on this idea) we spoke to the security guard on the gate who once he grasped what we were saying handed us a key to one of the other unoccupied bungalows, which was a result. (Bloody Drunken British Tourists!!!).