Immi

-

Today's task was to extend our Philippines visa at the immigration office. We ate breakfast at the accommodation but it started to rain. We decided to stay put and spoke to another guest about diving at Balicasag island. Eventually the rain stopped and we hit the road. The immigration center was approximately 3 km away - a 45 minute walk and on the way we grabbed lunch for a beach picnic. We also stopped to visit Saint Augustin's church and there was a wedding. The inside of the church was beautiful and there was a nice park beside it.

The immigration center was busy and people were waiting two hours for their passports to be returned. We gave our passports in, paid the fee and waited for a short while and then were told to return in the afternoon to pick them up.

Next we walked to the pier where the boats go to Balicasag. We watched people collecting seaweed amongst the mangroves. Next place we were heading for was Doljo point. It was a little too far to walk because we had to be back to collect our passports. We took a tricycle for about 20 minutes. To reach the point we entered through a fancy resort. The beach was deserted apart from the resort staff, a horse and  some dogs. We swam beyond the fishing nets that lined the beach. There was some great coral and plenty fish. The dogs wanted to share lunch but that didn't happen!

We walked back to immigration for 3:00 pm. We collected our passports but noticed we had been charged for an express service. We asked if this was normal and was assured it was. We explained we were in no rush as our first visa waiver doesn't expire for a month but we still had to pay it.

On our way back we stopped for a sweet 5 peso coffee from a machine. They needed to turn it on to heat the water. This is something we had a lot of last time we were in the Philippines and we could not believe it still existed. The world wide coffee culture means fancy filter coffee generally costs 70 pesos now - a slight difference! Budget backpacking is being replaced by glampacking!

No partying tonight ...

Popular posts from this blog

First Day Explorers

-
Image
After a good night's sleep, we woke early...ish for breakfast. We were hoping for a traditional Indian spicy fair but got a traditional boiled egg, bread and jam. We washed it down with a hot cup of Chai, so all was good. We ventured out in search of a few sites, however were easily distracted by fresh fruit platters, mango lassis and mobile phone cover shops. Next, an ATM stop to test various SBI machines. One small branch failed but the head office one worked. This was near the Mumbai stock exchange, complete with bull outside. We ended up at Horniman circular garden. An interesting name but the garden was being 'refurbished' - dug up. Marine drive is famous amongst the people of Mumbai. A huge boulevard next to the sea for romantic strolls. The stroll today wasn't filled with romance, more noise pollution as the whole sea defence boulevard was being fixed. Almost all of it for mile after mile. We had to walk on the dual carriageway but soon got fed up and headed inla
Read more

Le Havre to Nevers (7th-18th March)

-
Image
We have been cycling for 2 weeks now and have covered a lot of ground.  We have had varying weather of heavy rain, scattered showers and dry but cold.  Night's in the tent have been pretty cold! THE ROUTE (Le Havre) After our last night in a 'proper bed' for a while, we stocked up on food and headed out of Le Havre. We cycled through farmland to a pretty little town called Harfleur and then on to Lillebonne. We saw 2 massive birds nesting at the top of a post. Our first night camping was beside the river, very tranquil. (First night camping on the River Seine) We followed the Seine down to Rouen. This is funky town with lots of bars and restaurants all along the river. Unfortunately the heavens opened just as we approached so, after taking shelter for a while we continued on to find a camping spot for the night, this time near a railway line. From Rouen we headed throy St Aubin Les Ebeuf and Les Andleys following the river.  We saw lots of beautiful houses and chateau
Read more

Around Valence 22nd March to 9th April

-
Image
We are now staying with friends. One lives one side of the Rhone in the Ardeche and the other on the other side, in the Drome Region. We had originally planned to visit for a few days, however, due to the weather we have been here over 2 weeks! The day we arrived we had blue skies and sunshine, which lasted the first day! Since then we have had a lot of rain, thunder, lightning and hail. Our friends have very kindly said we can stay as long as we like. We have spent some time mending broken things eg. the bike repair kit bag, which virtually disintegrated and the sleeping mat, which we have now accepted cannot be fixed easily! We went to the Salon des Vin de France for a wine tasting event and tasted many wines from around France - some good, some not to our taste and not worth the high price. One sunny day we explored Valence. There are some very pretty parks and lots of historical buildings. We saw the Maison de Tete and a house where Napoleon used to live. We wandered the
Read more