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  • Day 36

    Cebu day 2

    April 21, 2018 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    Up at 4.30am ready to be picked up at 5am. Got in the van to take us on our tour. Realised that we had the whole van to ourselves so we could spread out, although I ended up on the rubbish seat that meant I couldn’t lie down when everyone else could. We had 3 hours of very bumpy roads and ridiculously nuts driving which left us all feeling car sick but we made it to Oslob for 8am. Here we met our guide and paid for our tour. We then spoke to the guide about our diving experience so that he knew what to tell the dive master about how much help we would need. It was only me and Emma doing it as the other girls opted for snorkelling. Emma had never dived before and I haven’t done it for 10 years so both were going to need help. We met our dive master Bryan and shown to our diving gear and got into our wetsuits. At this point we could see into the bay and see all of the hundreds of people waiting for snorkelling so we were very glad we opted for diving. We were given a demo on how to use the equipment and then taken into the shallows to put on our tanks and flippers. I found it quite difficult at first and found the breathing a bit hard work but once I got used to it I was fine. We ventured out to about 10m down, passing corals and fish on the way. Got to the main site where we could see some boats above us. Then I saw my first one! Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely enormous and so majestic. I was in awe! It must have been at least 6m long but was difficult to estimate as it was so big. It was feeding directly above us so you could see it’s cute massive mouth sucking in all the water. So incredible, I don’t really have words to describe it. We saw about 7 in total and it was just completely amazing, I feel so lucky. One swam past my shoulder so close to me! We spent about an hour down there which was way longer than we thought we were getting. Came out of the water absolutely buzzing, both of us were so happy. Went to get changed and then meet the other girls who had been snorkelling who also loved it. Had a free breakfast of pancakes, banana and syrup with a coffee and then headed back to the van.
    We drove up a hill from there to get to Tumalog falls. We were dropped off and then had to get motorbikes to do the last bit of the journey. Arrived at the falls to see beautiful creamy waters in several layers cascading down from the main falls which were like a scene from avatar. Water falling of rocks from all angles created a sort of general rain shower over the main pool. We went for a dip which was absolutely freezing but very refreshing. Relaxed here for about an hour before heading back to the van.
    We then made a short trip to a heritage site which has some ruins and things which we didn’t actually really know what they were. Then got the 3 hour bus back to Cebu. Once at the hostel we decided we wanted some nugs as we hadn’t really eaten all day. Found a McDonalds not too far away in a mall. Came back to the hostel and chilled for a bit after that.
    We then all showered and got ready for a night out. We weren’t sure where was safe and so we decided to start by drinking at the hostel and take it from there. We were given 1 free welcome beer each anyway so started off with those. The hostel only had beer available so we just had to deal with it. Next door was a bbq place that had alcopops and so I went and got one of those at one point. Decided that we needed to make some friends and so beer pong seemed a good option. It worked as we almost immediately made about 5 new friends. Played drinking games for a while until we wanted to go out. Asked behind reception where was good and they suggested a place called Hype. We got taxis to take us there and when we arrived, realised it was right near the area where we nearly got mugged by the kids. The place next door to hype was offering free entry and so we decided to go in there at least for a bit. In here we got a mojito tower to share and did lots of dancing right through til about 2.30am. It was EDM vibe music so right up my street. At one point I requested a song and basically got told to go up and have photos with the DJ! Emma and Lisa were very drunk! Such a good night though.
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