Island hopping

Some things I forgot yesterday. While on the Skywalk, the guy who took care that we don’t fall or hurt ourselves asked for my nationality. When I said Polish, someone from the crowd was saying: “Polish? As in nail polish?”… Later the same guy when talking to me about the Big Trip, he commented that I must be looking for something, something that I am missing… so, what am I missing?

Day 5: Islands…somewhere near Lapu-Lapu island

Some people spend their first day of Christmas in front of the TV, eating into obesity or going skiing. My day was a little bit different :)

So, today we woke up very early, to my surprise without bigger problems, we had breakfast at Jollibee and then departed from Mactan island on a fishing boat that looked kind of like a dragonfly to me, on an island hopping day trip. It was awesome. We swam with the fish – finding Nemo, sunbaked on the deck, dared to sit on the bow with feet in the water and breeze splashing in the face. Despite the weather forecasts of rain we had sun, a lot of sun actually (I even managed to get some color!). Good that Kim’s family isn’t so sun-phobic as most Asians (like the girls on the beach in Kenting – south of Taiwan, clad from toes to tips of hair). The water was warm and very clear, of my favorite turquoise color. The currents weren’t very strong but the some of us had problems swimming back to the boat, so there was a quick rescue mission – our steersman jumping in with a rope. We made a short stopover at one of the little islands and took a tricycle ride around the island. Hilarious part was trying to figure out how many people can fit into one. We were 9, and managed to fit into only two tricycles. The island was very pretty but poor, had a lot of little restaurants and small shops. My guess is that the people living there must be mostly fishermen. We also had delicious lunch in a “Live seafood” floating restaurant, which is exactly what it says it is. It’s away from the shore, the staff helps you dock and get up to the restaurant by crooked, unsafe looking stairs (ladder?). The floor is made of bamboo, it was funny walking around on it, seeing how thin it is (you could see the water and seabed clearly) and imagining what would happen if it broke. Well, nothing would happen, you’d probably just land in the sea – big deal! Menu was interesting, namely several bowls with scary looking sea creatures – yeas they were still alive! There were lobsters imprisoned in coke bottles that looked like giant bees, huge sea snails, Lapu-Lapu fish, and a lot of shell creatures. So you basically came up to the bowls and said what you wanted, the lady packed the still living to-be-food on a basket and after 20 min or so it came back edible :P I loved the calamari and mussels, but I’m not going to be a huge fan of the things in big shells (?). On the way back we all just chilled, sat on the bow and enjoyed the wavy ride.

Sorry folks, no drama or deep thoughts today. Only one observation: polish jokes ain’t funny around here :P