Above: Jeepney near Alona Beach.
I had bought three mangoes and a box of papayas last night. I have two luscious ones remaining for breakfast which went well with my muesli and milk. With a midday flight to Tagbilaran, I checked-out at 0930 allowing plenty of time in case of long queues at the airport especially during the holiday season.
Terminal 4 was a bit closer than expected and the taxi meter read PHP130. It is an old building that has been tarted up; I recognise it from my first visit when I transited from CEB-MNL-HKG but it was very rundown then. The queue for bagdrop wasn’t long and I was in the waiting area in no time catching up on my writing.
I packed up about 50 mins before departure to get a siopau and with the long queue, it was boarding time by the time I mannged to get my food.
The AirAsia Philippines plane was older than the usual AirAsia standard and had non-standard IAE engines instead of CFM; I suspect it was inherited from Zest Air which preceded the current entity. On the inside, there were signs in Spanish and Korean. The interesting thing about the Korean signs was that it employed a mix of hangul and hanja (Korean alphabet and Chinese characters) which I had never seen before! Checking with a knowledgeable friend, it is indeed very rare in the last few decades!
It is now rare to see hangul and hanja (Korean alphabet and Chinese characters) used together. Sign onboard on my flight.
I took a private taxi/van to my guesthouse on Panglao near Alona Beach. The rate was as recommended by the hotel and tourist counter. Quite far; PHP600 for 30 minutes drive. A tricycle would have cost about half that so I’ll do that for the return journey.
The Chill-out Guesthouse appears to have 8 rooms in their plot. It was adequately nice, clean and atmospheric. After a rest, I ventured out to Alona Beach which took 15 minutes. I checked out options for diving and a daytrip, both of which were much cheaper than booking through the hotel.
Alona Beach is a beautiful white sand beach the cloudy weather didn’t bring out the colour of the sea. I walked the length of it from one end to the other; both ends are demarcated by rocky outcrops. It was crowded. There were quite a few younger foreigners and it was nice to see that Philippines attracts more than older men in search of younger women.
I treated myself to a rather pricey fruit shake at PHP100; that was probably at the cheapest shop. Before heading back, I committed and paid for an excursion for tomorrow.
Around 1830, I returned to Alona Beach by tricycle (paid for by the guesthouse) for dinner. I tried to keep it healthy and opted for a grilled squid and plate of kangkung, accompanied with rice. All this was washed down with a bottle of San Miguel Lite advertised as being “only 100 calories” … but research shows that their normal beer is only 140 calories. Not much difference, really.
On my way leaving the restaurant, I ran into some people eating balut (semi-hatched egg with embryo inside). I plucked up the courage to take a look (too scaredy previous visits to Philippines). I took some picturse for your educational purpose 🙂
Balut, semi-hatched egg with its embryo inside.
There appears to be three steps in enjoying this local favourite:
- Make a hole at the top and sip the juice. Add some vinegar or sauce if you like.
- Once you’ve sipped the juice, start peeling.
- Once peeled, the balut is now ready to enjoy in full. Spit out any little bits of feathers, beak or feet.