First Impression of the Philippines

Stepping off the five and a half hour flight from Tokyo in Cebu, it was like reverting back to Morocco: Everyone was staring at me, everyone was friendly, trying to say hello, asking taxi? taxi?, and everything was chaotic. It was pretty much night and day from the neat and orderly reserved Japanese way of life.

First order of business was of course to get cash, which naturally ATMs only provide big bills that are fairly useless as no one ever has change. Next order of business, get a cab to my hostel. I got in the cab line and waited, and when it was my turn the guy asked my destination, told the cab driver and demanded a tip, which is fabulous when I have no small bills nor was I sure he deserved one. He helpfully suggested I borrow money from the driver, who also had no small bills but had much smaller than mine, so I over-tipped the guy by about 500% since he wouldn’t let us go until I tipped him. Bitter first impression.

After about an hour sitting in rush hour traffic, we made it to my hostel, and it was already dark. From there, I’d love to say it was uphill, but I’d be lying. I checked in and fortunately my room was just me and one other person. At this point I was starving having only had chips since breakfast. The lady at reception was too busy hanging out with her friends to pay attention to anyone else so waved me next door when I asked for a food recommendation. I walked there and it did look delicious but was super crowded, there were no tables, and you order it in a stand up pointing system I was too tired and hungry to deal with, so I returned and scoured my phone to find out where I was. Turns out there was a supermarket 0.3 miles away taking major roads, so off I went to just pick something up.

All went well, I found it with no problem, including crossing the crowded streets without becoming roadkill and being greeted by everyone I passed. On my way back though my face was met very solidly with a man’s hand who had flung it out vigorously to stop the passing jeepney. To be honest, I’m not sure which one of us was more shocked, but I know he was more appalled as I immediately grasped my nose to check for blood and continued walking while his jaw just dropped to the floor as he muttered repeatedly how sorry he was. I returned to my room, turned on the fan and laid down to attempt to cool off as it was impressively humid and my face was slightly numb.

I ate a bit and then ventured out to the common area to use the Internet and be a recluse for a few hours before bed. Eventually it was an acceptable time for bed and I decided to shower since I was gross from all of the heat and humidity. This seems like a small task, but Cebu is in a drought, there’s not enough water or water pressure to even get water through the shower, so I had a less than delightful shower by dumping cups of cold water over me until I was too fed up to care anymore. (Not that it really mattered as there was no real way to dry off with the high temperatures and crazy humidity.) To top it all off, it was practically too hot to sleep so it was a restless night.

I awoke early and figured I’d get ready and head out to Bantayan Island in the North. After realizing it was too humid to try to put any makeup on, like mascara was unable to dry/solidify, I gave up and finished packing. My roommate awoke at this point and introduced himself. I was not feeling very social with the lack of sleep and he was seriously entertained when I said my name was Julia as his was Romeo, which he went on to prove in case I thought he was lying. From there he showed me a number of apps useful for travel within the Philippines – he was from Manila. I eventually managed to get out the door as he was also heading out for breakfast. I was going to ask reception the best way to get to Bantayan, but it was closed and Romeo was still talking so I grabbed a cab (with Romeo’s help) and was on my way to the bus station. No sooner had I left that the quiet set in (ah, sweet silence), and I realized I forgot to leave my room key. Oops…

Arriving at the bus station, there’s a fee for taxis to pull in so I paid that and the driver kept the change which was not much, but I considered it his tip and exited and was escorted to an almost full air-conditioned express van headed to Hagnaya (my destination) and a few others places. I had read there were buses leaving at regular intervals both air-conditioned and unair-conditioned take an air-conditioned one), the varying prices, and all of the rest of the details and as the van was labeled, in the right price range, and the FIlipino next to me verified cost and destination for me, off we went. The driver was either practicing to be a race car driver or simply really impatient as we zigzagged in and out of traffic passing everyone possible, but eventually I arrived at my destination alive and alert.

From there I caught the hour and a half ferry to the island, a tricycle from the ferry to my hotel, and finally was able to truly relax for the first time in over 24 hours – in paradise.