Small La Laguna

Getting here to our new location for our final week of beach was a comedy of errors, it seems. Things started out well - we were picked up even before 10 am by our driver in the nice big Toyota van with great air-conditioning and we set off for the Sofitel where the other couple who were to go with us were ostensibly waiting.

That didn't take too long, maybe 20 minutes - I had wondered why we were picked up so early since the story was that the couple would be ready at 11 am. Well, first we had to go through hotel car security and then weren't allowed to wait in front of the hotel. Security was serious - we had a sniffer dog to check us out. But we were shunted off to a parking lot where we were left by the driver - with the air-con on, at least - and were left there for about 30 minutes before he came back without them.

So they were at the airport? He had gotten a call from his office. Off we went to the airport where we parked again, and the guy checked - no passengers for him there. So back to Sofitel - and just before we arrived there he got another phone call - and only two blocks from the hotel we made a U-turn and went back to the airport - to another terminal (there are 3). More phone calls - I even got to talk to Katherine at our hotel who explained things a little and said she would make amends when we arrived.

Finally at the second terminal we found the couple - who were Americans here to dive at El Galleon (a present for Dave's 60th birthday from his wife Karen - nice - my 60th is coming up this year - wonder what I'll get?

So we spent almost two hours in the van before even finding Dave and Karen. There had obviously been lots of crossed wires. They were fun companions for the travel though and apparently Karen is going to be spending her time here knitting, so we can talk about that - lol - as well as hear about Dave's dive adventures.

The drive down to Batangas took another two hours - mostly on a good toll road so except for the bottle-necks of the toll booths, we made good time. Until we arrived in Batangas where it seemed every vehicle in the city was on the road - it was really a jam. Turns out one of the bridges that crosses whatever water course we had to get over, is out so everyone is channeled through the same route.

At the private pier where the hotels for Puerto Galera/Sabang moor their boats, we were ushered to our very large 50 seater boat - all four of us! The ride over took an hour through some decent swells - thank heaven the outriggers are flexible because they took lots of stress. At one point I was moved to the other side of the boat to help balance it out and then at another point a big wave breached the plastic water screen and drenched my shirt and pants. The sailors were quite apologetic and immediately came over to swab me, and the cushion I was sitting on, down. No other mishaps although when we arrived at the beach it took the pilot quite awhile to maneuver the boat into the wharf.

Our hotel, El Galleon, has a small pool and our room was right outside it - if someone had jumped in we might have been swamped there too since it was a foot lower than the pool. It was a nice room - smaller than expected but comfortable, and with hot water in the sink as well as in the shower (that's a luxury in this country). We relaxed there until the couple in the room above ours started moving the furniture around - maybe they are amateur interior decorators. It was quite noisy and accompanied by an odd wailing tone.

Later we realized that the couple was having a little tiff - this is an American man and his Filipina partner. She appeared to be in a little snit - cried, whined, went off in a huff - at one point the guy said sotto voce, "It's going to be a long night!" Geordie wasn't too thrilled with the sound effects so while I sat drinking a beer, he went off to the hotel desk and when he came back he announced that we were moved. He had been gone about 10 minutes which I thought was a little long, but in that time he had been offered an upstairs room and had moved all the stuff. Now we get to be the people who are redecorating the room for those below us.

Today it poured rain in the early morning - I slept in quite late, so missed the serious rain that G sat through wondering if I was ever going to arrive so he could have his breakfast with me. He is a patient man. The weather is really nice now though and since we seem to be in the shadow of a hill, it's actually cooler in our room at night so after awhile we didn't even need the air-con. That's nice.

Today we went exploring a little and found out that we can get a direct boat/bus transfer to Manila at a sensible hour - 9:15, for only about $7.00 for two. About a ninety percent saving from the hotel transfer costs. Guess we should be sensible and take it. It even gets us to the area near where we are staying so we can walk to our hotel.

Back in Manila two nights ago we had a great time with John (Vancouver), his good friend Gary from Manila, and James from LA/Mobile, Alabama. We ate in a really good Filipino restaurant - some of the best filipino food we've had on our trip. And so close to our hotel. Then we walked to the gay area of Malate and had a wonderful evening sitting outside the O bar with lot of great people watching and laughs with our friends. It was a late evening for us and made it hard for us to crawl out of bed at 8 am so we could have breakfast and get ready for that 10 am pickup.

We are back in Manila in a week - so we'll have to get in touch with Gary again - John will be flying home by then. It's a Saturday night so we could have a great time with all the people hanging out in our hotel neighbourhood. We will look forward to it.