After Cebu City we headed north for a little island hopping. The first island is called Bantayan. On the bus ride we met a few local girls and spent some time with them during our stay.
Bantayan is a little fishing island with three main towns, one being Santa Fe. We stayed there as it is the only town with nice beaches and a bit of night life. Not much but enough to get some decent food.
On our way there we saw lots of boats, probably still in use but looked like shipwrecks.
On our second day we rented two scooters and went around the island a bit to see if there is something else to see. We found a hidden beach and a greek restaurant but the most resemblance to Greece was the name. Good food is not so easy to find here in my opinion. Most of the time dishes are very simple and sometimes not even tasty. It kind of makes sense if you think about it. The Philippines is considered a newly industrialised country but it very much feels like a developing country. If you struggle to survive and food is a necessity to do so, there is no time for exquisite cuisine or event trying to enhance flavours with spices. We literally had to ask for salt and pepper every time we went out to dine.
What really sets the Philippine apart from other countries are the beaches. Many of them are really nice with nearly white sand. Here is one at sunset at Santa Fe.
On our way back to Cebu Island and our journey to Malapascua, we stopped at this place to have some Siomai. I would consider Siomai to be the tastiest food in the Philippines.
It is dough with meat filling, soy sauce and spiced with some very hot chilli and lime. Here they were really great!
and then we came across what I consider a baby bottle of coke. 200ml If you’re thirsty you might as well buy three 😉
