Roughin' it @ 100 Hundred Islands - Alaminos City, Pangasinan

We are so fortunate here that we've had visitors come since we got here, most especially for me since I look forward to these visits. Davey, our friend from Sydney who is now based in London came to visit on his way to Sydney and brought a friend a along, Tuyet, ex-DB London. They were over a few nights before going to Bohol to do some diving.

We hadn't seen Dave since his last visit with Tammy (his fiancee) 3 years ago when we were still in Sydney and so close to going to London.

Anyhow one of the planned trips after thier dive was to go to 100 Islands at Alaminos City, Pangasinan. I was really excited after researching the place though a little hesistant about the camping bit. Davey is an obvious boyscout anyhow so I felt safe in that regard.

Tuesday evening came and we were off to catch the last bus out to Alaminos City. It started pretty badly for me, let's just say it the first out of 3...the taxi driver parked right next to a whole pile of garbage. Before I knew it I lost my footing and I was in it hands and feet...I never felt so digustingly dirty my entire life and wanted to turn around and go home. I thought to myself, carry on through, just wash up at the bathroom. Thank goodness for wet ones and soap!!! BTW that soap, I coached the toilet keeper to let me buy the whole bottle of soap (the only one there) for P10!  Tuyet was soooooo understanding and poured alcohol all over my feet and hands even after I scrubbed the crap out of it! I thought breathe, just breathe...finally got onto the bus and tried to get some sleep...pretty hard when the bus was almost like a freakin' freezer!

The 2nd out of 3, the bus at around 3am in the morning busted a tyre, pretty obvious with the very loud sound it made since it woke me up from my light sleep. Here were are thinking they will change the tyre (because that is the safe thing to do) they stopped and then got back on and drove with a flat tyre for another hour with the lull sound of a very flat tyre drudging along the road. I thought to myself, FANTASTIC...so if somehow the driver looses control of the bus and plunge us into the ditch and having no seatbelts on the bus...if the impact doesn't get us, the freezing temperature in the bus will...I found myself praying the Our Father several times in my head.

After getting used to the rhythmic sound of the flat tyre flappin outside, at around 4am we get woken up to say we will be transferring to another bus...yeah we transferred alright to the DEATH BUS...no aircon and what I could only best describe as seats made for cattle...it was so hard and high that if we did get into an accident...we'd be dead when our head connects with the very hard steel like seats.

Our driver also thought he was a rally car driver...beleiving that 'momentum' of the bus will just propell us forward through blind spots going up and down a mountain IN THE FREAKIN DARK and that the use of breaks was just a waste of time, effort and money. I started to think is my life at this point in time worth just P2K (well that's the inclusive payment when you buy your bus ticket). There's only one thing to do...I prayed the Hail Mary and Our Father to get us to Alaminos City in one piece with no incident.

At 5.30am we finally reach our destination! Tired and grumpy as I've had no freakin' sleep I apologised for my crabbiness to Dave and Tuyet...because I was loosing it fast!

When we arrived at Lucap port...this was the scene that greeted us...the sun was rising.

After paying the park fees and hiring everything but the kitchen sink we were on our way to pick which out of the 3 islands (Quezon, Governor's and Children's Island) we were going to pitch our tent.

It doesn't seem like it here but it was pretty windy that day and the waves were pretty rough...there was one point when we were Island hopping that a wave nearly toppled our boat over. At the time I was thinking to myself 'why the heck doesn't this boat not have life jackets?', GREAT if it not on land that I'm in endanger...mothernature will get me on sea! Who the heck did I seriously tick off that this is happening to me on what is suppose to be an exciting break, I had that movie FINAL DESTINATION annoying replaying in my mind...anyways onwards and upwards...it can't get worse than this...or so I thought!

Apparently there were giant clams here...when Tuyet and I jumped all we saw was nothing but the deep blue! With the current being so strong we went back on the pontoon and just sun baked for a little bit.

Dave and I at Marcos Island view

The view from the top of Children's Island - WELCOME TO 100 ISLANDS ain't it beautiful?

We decided to do our island hopping earlier in the day so that we could get back and cook lunch. We were told there's absolutely nothing on the islands. Now this might reign true for some of the non-developed islands but where we ended up pitching our tent (Governor's Island) we were up high and right next to the shop where they served everything and could buy our supplies from (they even had TOBASCO SPAM - I thought of our friend Ods straight away who loves that aritificial meat in a can). It was fine, part of the adventure was to rough it up. Though Davey thought it was by far rough...well for it me if there was no flushing toilet or shower or even 4 walls that is my definition of roughin' it.

Here's the view from our camp site. We were high up and though the ground was hot from the heat of the day it was a beautiful view. Whilst we were pitching our tent later (as you are only allowed to pitch your tent at 6pm) the sun setting amongst the island was breathtaking!

Later in the evening our 6 man tent was up thanks to Tuyet and I complete with the mosquito net...the stars were amazing...I saw 3 shooting stars! Getting to sleep was another matter all together! It was cooler outside than in our tent, it felt like a flippin' sauna! I tried to sleep and think of cool air...after 10 mins I said bugger it I'll sit outside and fall asleep fanning myself! That idea didn't last long...one moment I was admiring the stars and the next I woke with the feeling something was crawling across my face...so back I went into the sauna...I'm surprised that I didn't loose any weight I must've been sweating like hell in there! Eventually I fell asleep...

Ok 3rd bad thing that happened I got stung by a jelly fish or something...I was itchy as hell and it hurt a little bit but I didn't get eaten alive by mosquitos. Our tent was a sauna so both Dave and I ended up sleeping with our heads outside hehehehe I seriously could not careless if I was eaten alive by mosquitos as long as I had cool air!

Did I forget to mention that shower...if you call it that, I set up a tank of water on top of our table so that gravity will just take it's course. I gracefully squatted underneath to take a shower and wash my hair I felt more of a human being (all in my swimsuit mind you).

To sum it up...I'm glad I went because I don't think I'll be back there for a very very very long time!

Thanks Davey and Tuyet for the company it was a memorable one :)