Wanderlust Diary

It was an unusual trip for me, with a come what may attitude, my friends and I cut short our holiday celebrations back in the city and flew off to Cebu for our semi planned trip to Bantayan Island.

I was quite familiar with Cebu (thanks to my friends who usually bring me around the city) but outside Cebu, I’m clueless. We had to sandwiched our vacation, 1 night in Bantayan then the rest in Cebu because the island seemed so far from the city.

Hotel–check! Diplomat hotel in Cebu, Sta Fe resort in Bantayan
Transport--was still undecided at first (bus or taxi)..but upon rising the taxi, we just asked our driver to quote us his best price, our butts was glued to the seats! first was P 2,000 but going back, we got cheaper quote at P 1,500
Food–as long as there’s Cebu Lechon in one of our meals *happy*

Our ride to Bantayan was long and windy…I couldn’t sleep since I was seated in front. I turned on my Itouch, searching something familiar along the roads we passed by. My droopy eyes survived 2 hours of travel. I really hate it when I sit in front, I never get to sleep!

I noticed my voice became cranky..oh no…paos! Hard time talking the whole trip…I couldn’t speak well…I just smile and try to murmur.

Reaching the Hagnaya port, our taxi even asked for a tip for coffee (guess the junk food I was munching made him jealous) note: BBQ at the port, cheap!!!

After 2 hours of waiting to reach our destination, we sill had another 1.5 hours boat ride to the beach…was talking to my friend Reena the whole time, didn’t notice time flew so fast!

I caught a glimpse of our resort from afar (shoot! can’t swim, near the port!). We hurriedly went down the huge boat and heard someone screaming that they are from Sta Fe resort and the transport is free. Sta fe and Ogtong Cave resort are sister companies so guest on both resorts can use each other’s facilities minus the transport though (50 pesos per person).

It should be free, it was like 5 minutes away from the port! The resort reminded me of resorts in Puerto Galera, simple but clean but not much luxury to offer to guests. We wandered nearby to restaurants and tried some Portuguese cuisine, but I was disappointed with their “Paella” that tastes like curry rice..Booo!

After lunch, we went to see a nearby beach area, Marlin Beach resort which looks more pleasant because of their sandbar.

Not much to do in Bantayan island itself, it is a epitome of Rest & Relax. Out of 5 group guests the resort have that time, three of them are Koreans. We had to endure the drunken games they were having late at night, we had an early island hopping the next day. We gave the boatman 500 pesos to buy us lunch from the market (ihaw at the island).

Around sunrise, the boatman brought us to the most amazing part of Bantayan…which is Virgin Island. No other visitor around when we arrived. It was perfect!! The still water was very inviting. The sun was on our side that time amidst the cloudy weather the day before. I love it!!! We only had a couple of hours to spare because we need to head back to our resort and check out for our boat ride back to Hagnaya. If only Boracay was this peaceful and serene…I would go back every month! The sand in Virgin Island was white but a bit rocky. Nothing beats Boracay sands!!!

Our boatman was kind enough to ask someone in the island to grill the food for us. Huge fish, liempo and small rice…perfect! Either I was famished or the food seemed so sumptous and fresh!

By the way, the island is for sale!!

Rush rush rush…but still so much fun! Scratch off Sumilon and Bantayan from islands to visit in Cebu…only Malapascua left!