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We had quite a big journey ahead of us and we knew it would take two days. We had to get from the west coast of Negros to Malapascua which is a small island north of Cebu. We had arranged for someone to take us on the boat at 6am to leave Sugar Beach. The french guy was leaving at the same time too. As we went down to the boat we found out we couldn't leave because the tide was too low - french guy said he knew a different way to get to Sipilay so we followed him. We had a long walk behind all the resorts, through a little village, walk round the side of a big hill and then had to get a paddle boat over the river, because it was so early we had to wake the boatman up. We paddled over this pretty river and then had to find a tricycle to get us to the main road. The boatman went to a little house and came out with a boy who looked like he was about 12 years old. I think he might have been some sort of relative as he was proudly patting him on his shoulder. The 12 year old got a tricycle out - it was alot smaller than most, the side car was about the same size as a go-cart. Me and kam squeezed into the side car with our rucksacks and french guys bags, the 12 year old drove, the boatman came along for the ride on the back of the moped and french guy stood on the back of the side car which amused us greatly - he was very swarthy we imagined him with a bandana on and rifle strapped to his back as he was whizzing along like french rambo! At one point the tricycle conked out but 12 year old undid the petrol cap, blew in it and we were off again! I think it was the most amusing journey we had for a while! When we got to the main road we went our seperate way from french rambo. As we were waiting for the bus there was a bag on the floor that suddenly started moving and then a cockerels head popped out, there was also a man standing there with a huge machete!
Our bus finally arrived and we had a quite uneventful 4 and a half hour journey to Bacolod, the biggest city in the north of Negros, we thought we would have to get a tricycle to the northern bus terminal when we got there but there was a bus leaving straight away for San Carlos on the east coast so we hopped on and had a lovely drive through mountains and spectacular scenery, the only annoying thing was on the bus they were playing a horrible violent gangster film full blast - little kids were watching it! About another 4 hours later we arrived in San Carlos and we knew the last ferry over to Toledo was at 3 30 - it was about 3pm when we got to the bus terminal, we were swarmed by tricycle drivers all quoting over inflated prices to get to the harbour. Kam got annoyed with them and we marched off out onto the main road - we didn't have a clue where the harbour was but we knew we had to get there quickly. We knew we were paying to much but got a slightly lower priced tricycle to the harbour. The ferry was just getting ready to leave so we ran on just in time. It took an hour and a half to get to Toledo, to the east of Cebu. We had only eaten a packet of crisps between us all day and were so tired we decided to call it a day when we arrived there, we couldn't face trying to look around for cheap rooms and arguing with tricycle drivers and there was a posh looking hotel right by the harbour so we headed straight there. We went well over our budget but we were knackered - we had a toblerone and a coke for dinner and both were out for the count by 9pm!
The following day we had a nice breakfast and got a minibus to Cebu at 7am, the drive took a few hours as the traffic was very heavy in Cebu. We then made our way by taxi to the North bus terminal where a bus was just leaving for Maya - it was an open window bus and the seats were very narrow. As we left Cebu two guys got on and told us we were both very beautiful and they were smiling at all the other passengers - we didn't take much notice of them and thought they were talking to eachother really loudly but then we saw everyone giving them money, they came up to us beaming and asked us if we had enjoyed their rap! We did give them some money because they were so cheeky and cute!!!
The journey to Maya was about 4 and a half hours, when we got there we then had to get a boat across to Malapascua, it was low tide so we had to get a tiny rowing boat out to the bigger boat. Because it was Easter or Holy Week as they call it in the Philippines we had to book ahead with our accomodation a few weeks before as its like Christmas at home where everyone goes back to their families or on holiday. We went by Lonely planets recommendation for a place called Mr Kwiz. We got off the boat and as the island was so small just walked to the other side where we found Mr Kwiz, our hearts sank when we saw the room it has to be in our top 5 skankiest of this and our previous trip. It was painted dark blue and had hardly any daylight - the bathroom was behind a corrigated iron door with no handle and was just a toilet with no seat, no sink and a shower with green stuff hanging out! We wouldn't have minded too much if it was cheap but it was fairly expensive.
So because of Holy Week we were sort of stranded on the island for nearly four days as public transport was limited and we would probably not been able to get a room anywhere else. There are worse places to be stranded though! The beach was really stunning and we had some good food, mango shakes and of course San miguels to keep us going!
We had one night where two of the biggest cockroaches we'd ever seen had made it into our bathroom - we can usually catch them in old cut up water bottles but they wouldn't fit so we had to get one of the staff to get rid of them - yukky! We got chatting to one of the guys who worked in a bar - his name was Roosevelt and he was moaning about all the Koreans who come on holiday with suitcases full of instant noodles and then use up loads of hot water to eat them!
So that was Malapascua - we definately wouldn't recommend Mr Kwiz's again - we were quite thankful to leave but Malapascua was very pretty!!
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