The Philippine Diaries – Day Thirteen

I slept extremely well and woke up around 4:30AM, a half hour before my alarm was set to go off. I was awake so I got up and boiled some water so I could enjoy a coffee in bed. My bag was already packed so there wasn’t much to do but wait.

On the boat from Panglao to Oslob

I set out around 5:45AM to meet with a guy who had sold me a ticket for a boat from Panglao to Oslob. He showed up with a motorcycle and took me over to where the boat would pick me up. On the ride over, I was thinking about how easy it was to put trust into a person that you don’t even know in a strange country. How did I know he was going to take me to the boat? Yet, he did exactly that.

I was dropped off at a different beach and told to wait. A few other people were there but not many. About a half hour later, we were told to follow a guy. We had to wade in the ocean for some time, making me a bit nervous as I had all my belongings with me, before hopping onto a tiny boat. We were then taken out to a bigger boat with a handful of people on it. It looked old and was smaller than the dive boat I was on last week. I hoped it would make it on the two-hour journey over to Oslob.

Upon arrival, the sea was rough and the shoreline was rocky. I was, again, slightly worried about how we would get our stuff from the boat to the shore without it getting wet. Five guys came down to the boat to help our two boat guys, a father and son, get the boat as close as possible to the shore. They also brought a long ladder. I looked at the guy on the boat and asked him to help me with my big bag and the men started a line passing the bags off the boat. They took everyone’s luggage off, even our little bag and purses. When it came time to get off the boat, we got wet up to our waists. That’s one way to get to an island, I suppose!

I hired a tricycle to take me to my hotel for 300PHP. The name of my newest hotel was the Lantawan Resort. It was quite possible that I was their only guest for my three night stay. The resort sits directly across from the ocean though it’s a rocky shore that’s not great for swimming. I was in the middle of nowhere and the only way to get into the city (10 minutes one way) or to the diving shop (ten minutes the other way) was by tricycle or by renting a scooter. I opted to rent a scooter from the resort for 600PHP/day.

I ordered some breakfast from the restaurant at the resort and made friends with an adorable kitten. I had a ham and egg sandwich and a hot coffee for 135PHP. It hit the spot. I then asked for some information about boats back to Panglao before hopping on my newly rented scooter and heading to the dive shop. I had already booked a morning dive with the whale sharks the following day online. (3,000PHP)

I went in to the Deep Zone Dive Center to talk to them about diving over the next couple of days, as it didn’t seem like there was much else to do in the area. There was a waterfall nearby but it apparently had no water, so I didn’t want to waste my time.

Thankfully my room had a balcony that overlooked the ocean. The breeze coming off of the water was wonderful so I decided to spend the afternoon on the balcony enjoying the views and the breeze and catching up on my journal. The reviews of this place suggested they had fast Wi-Fi. They did not.

At some point in the afternoon, I hopped back on my scooter and headed in the opposite direction of the dive shop to the town of Oslob. It was very tiny and there wasn’t much there. I ate at a place called VLK Pizza that I had found on Google Maps. It had decent reviews and who doesn’t love a good pizza?

I ordered a pepperoni pizza with a cold beer. (340PHP) The pizza was delicious and I had a few slices left over so I took them to snack on later. I then hit the 7-11 to stock up on a few snacks for diving over the next couple of days and picked up two cold beers for the evening.

I went back to my room, watched the sunset from my balcony and retired early for the night. I watched a bit of TV and had my lights out by 8:00PM. My alarm was set for 4:40AM as I had a 6:00AM dive.