Bantayan Island, Philippines - March 13, 2008
First off, if anyone does go to Bantayan Island, I have to recommend Tickety Boo Beach Resort. It's owned by a British guy, and has a great little business with live music, a great ocean breeze and a lot of good food, pool tables, tv, etc. It was the only place with live music on the island as well. The ocean breeze really made it great, as the resort I did stay at, we were always eaten alive by mosquitos as the air was so still over there, as were the restaurants around it. We stayed Bupyeong Resort (or something similar to that, based on memory).
On the plus side, the resort we did stay at, was quite nice for the price and right on the ocean. Very convenient for walking around. The negative of Bantayan Island was there were way too many cyclo drivers who'd taken up the habit of strongly competing for tourist business. So whenever you left any business establishment whatsoever, and simply wanted to walk around, you were met by a half dozen of these guys following your around everywhere you went asking you if you wanted to take tours of the island later or tomorrow or the next day or whatever. Also when you ate at the restaurants, there were a good dozen or so always hanging out waiting for you to finish eating so they could harass you to take you home instead of the short several minute walk instead. Because of this, it made an otherwise very beautiful and interesting island with great beaches as a less desireable island to visit. Even though it was significantly more beach-oriented and everything else than Camiguin Island, I think Camiguin would be better as it's a stress-free place to visit. I should mention that I always felt very safe in Bantayan Island, no doubt about it, but I've never liked being followed around by hordes of people when I want to stroll around.
The little town of Santa Fe, which is the very beach-oriented part of Bantayan Island is an otherwise nice little place. If the people were like Mambajoa (Camiguin's big city), it would be a real nice to walk around and such. There also seemed to be nicer houses around Bantayan Island than other places in the Philippines, but the way the locals treated foreigners, you wouldn't guess that it would be like that.
I think because of Tickety Boo Beach Resort, I'd probably consider coming back to Bantayan Island, but I did want to at least see this place. The beaches are well-worth the trip for sure, and it has enormous potential here. From here, we will take a ferry to Negros Island and down to Bacolod, over to Iloilo, and then up to Boracay.
Continued journal entries in the Philippines:
March 14, 2008
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com