On to Negros Island---January 2015

It began to rain while I was eating breakfast at the Woodruff Beach Resorts so I changed my plans to skip the whale shark adventure in Oslob and continue by bus to the ferry boat at Lilo-an to Dumaguete. I was told to just go out to the road and signal the bus to stop. I only had to wait a minute before a yellow Ceres bus pulled up for me. Again the fare was 83 pesos to the ferryboat landing. The rain continued as we passed by village after village.

At the ferryboat landing, I finally saw other western travelers that were noteworthy with their huge backpacks and sometimes front packs as well yet they usually wore just flip flops, shorts, and tee shirts. Who knows what they are carrying in those packs. After a 1/2 hour wait and paying 62 pesos for the hour boat crossing, we boarded the "fast" boat. Other boats in the area carried cars and trucks.

Some of them were former WWII landing craft made over as ferryboats. Fortunately, the seas were calm and the rain had dissipated as we crossed.

As we got off the boat, all passengers were swarmed by touts offering rides into town. My tout offered a motorcycle ride into town so I said that would be good at 30 pesos. He said 100 so I continued to walk until I spotted a jeepney. That ride was 11 pesos so I crammed aboard with another 20 passengers. I rode it to the end of the line and then walked another two blocks to the waterfront.
I had lunch at the WhyNot Restobar---a hangout for ex-pats and their Filipina wives/girlfriends and searched the internet. My lunch was pancit with chicken and seafood---noodles--which was more than enough for both lunch and dinner.

Nearby I met an Australian who told me he lives here for about 7 months out of the year and returns to Australia the other five months to make enough money as an electrician to return here to his Filipina girlfriend.

While there, I was searching the internet for accommodations since the one I was going to stay at was too far from the waterfront and most restaurants. While I was doing that, the Australian recommended the Check Inn. He told me it was clean, cheap, and fairly new. That is where I stayed.

As the sunset, a whole group of people started to do some synchronized exercise following a DVD projected on a screen right along the Malecon. It was quite a sight.