Disturbing Siquijor

I’ve been to this mystical island for the nth time and every time I come here, something amazing happens to me. 

When friends started planning for the visit, they told me to go with them, acting as their tour guide.

They had booked our stay in Salagdoong Beach without me knowing. They were sure of themselves on what to do, where to go. Of course, I will be the tour guide since they have laid out plans and didn’t know the way.

Okay. So be it.

We started late from Cebu. When you take a land trip to Dumaguete, the starting point for Siquijor island, you should consider the traveling time that usually takes almost four hours + ferry boat transfers. But there are princesses that need grand preparations and wanted grand entrances. In short, we were still in Cebu two hours late of our agreed time of travel and we sure were running very late.

We arrived in Dumaguete City almost ten in the evening with no hotel reservations and no dinner and someone was pissing us off because she was heartbroken and crying since we left from Cebu  and like we should all be concerned with issues between her and her love of a lifetime. In short, tempers were as thin as our egos.

The night was a disaster.

Rainy days are here to stay?

The next morning, everyone was late again. The gloomy morning did not only brought rains but also bad tempers.

Jinx must have followed us everywhere because we were greeted by long lines at the Dumaguete port. It was a Saturday, people came in droves, and some shipping company cancelled its trip for the day for religious reasons.

Long lines greeted us at Dumaguete port

When we arrived in Larena port, we waited for multicabs that seemed not available because we were there. So we opted for a tricycle that we found outside of the port premises because my friends wanted cheaper transportation without considering the distance between Larena and Maria where Salagdoong is located. The tricycle heaved its way to Salagdoong beach overloaded with tired, nasty, broken-hearted, irritating and irritated passengers.

The view at Salagdoong was extremely spectacular. Men and women guests were interestingly in different stages of undress. The sea was calm and blue. The wind blowing constantly.

We could not be accommodated at our reserved room because we were too many and they were full. We have to climb to Hotel Agripino so we can have rooms to stay.

We have to rest to extinguish the bad vibes we brought in with us.

Salagdoong was calm. Not like us.

We each went our ways to discover what Salagdoong could offer to the tired soul. The men drowned several Red Horses to forget the day. The women and halfs, sensing indifference amongst them, had their cliques huddled together ignoring past friendships.

We were appeased the next morning by the presence of a male macaque that the hotel staff claimed, had not visited the hotel for so many years. This is not a good sign, the staff woefully informed us. He further told us that this alpha male caused the destruction of their WiFi and cable TV connections, several of their aircon units and even attacked some guests. Surprisingly, the alpha monkey stayed, hopping between our terraces and the women’s, eyeing at our closed glass doors as if wanting to decipher us individually. He might have sensed we have done more damages than himself, so he went out silently unnoticed.

Naughty monkey

We checked out tired from Salagdoong and purchased an expensive ticket for a fastcraft so we could get home fast. Like the macaque, we silently went our separate ways.

A group travel is not always an assurance that you could have an enjoyable experience.

Lessons learned from this travel:

1. If you travel by group, always inform everyone joining of the plans and itineraries involving the journey.
2. Know the schedules of your bus, boats, ferries, fastcrafts, etc. and the locations of your hotel and resort before embarking on a journey.
3. Always confer with your hotel if they can accommodate extra persons especially if extra means three more persons. 
4. Be sensitive to the group. If you do not want to join the trip at the last minute, DON’T! Do not expect the group to sympathize with your whining and tantrums.
5. Bamboos don’t break because they bend with the wind.
6. The next time your group goes on an adventure trip without them informing you- it’s obvious. You are the problem.