A mad dash
Mat, Gina, and I woke up at 7am and had a quick breakfast of pancakes. We then checked out and got a tricycle to the bus stop where we got off when we arrived. Without knowing, we caught the bus with only minutes to spare, that was a close one. There was only one ferry to Siquijor per day, around noon, and we didn’t want to miss it! The bus took an hour and a half, and dropped us about 5km from Liloan Port. This meant we had to take another tricycle to get there. There was a German fellow called Giacomo who was on the bus, also going to Siquijor. He tagged along with us, so the tricycle was pretty tight!
Check out this post where we took a ferry in Thailand.
We arrived at the ferry port and bought our tickets to Siquijor, with 20 minutes to spare! It only cost us about 200 PHP, around £3, so we couldn’t complain! The ferry company was called Maayo Shipping, similar to my surname, so that was amusing. We settled in for what turned out to be a 4-hour journey on the ferry. By settling in, I mean hugging our backpacks and sleeping with them for the duration. When we arrived in Larena, a town in the north of Siquijor, we parted ways with Giacomo.
A chilled evening
We took another tricycle to our hostel, which was in the San Juan region on the west side of Siquijor. It took another 30 minutes to get there in our very cramped makeshift taxi. We checked in to Tori’s Backpacker Paradise, a pretty homely and friendly hostel, with the beach and an amazing sunset at the far end of the hostel. It had a nice vibe to it, and it was pretty busy, with a full 12-person dorm. There’s a bar and restaurant, so we had a late lunch here, and it was pretty tasty at decent prices. After food, we chilled in the dorm and I spoke with Chris, a dude from Norwich in the UK, who had been travelling for 7 years. The people you meet whilst travelling are amazing.
We decided to go to the beach for sunset, as it was a 30-second walk from our room. It was spectacular, really colourful and vibrant colours. When the tide was out, the rocky reef was exposed, and it was absolutely riddled with starfish wriggling about. Chris mentioned he was going skydiving tomorrow, and I shared this information with Mat and Gina. It didn’t take long for us to decide we wanted to try it out too, but the day after tomorrow. Once the Sun had set, we retreated back to the hostel and had dinner at the restaurant. It was a pretty funny night with us three and Chris. The day had been an adventurous one, and we were all ready for bed when it was time.
