When a silver storm of playful fish circles you, just a few steps away from the coast .. When the white sand you’re stepping on is not located at the water’s edge , but in the middle of the sea .. When your umbrella is not situated on the beach , but into the water and even has a round wooden table halfway up the pole, having predicted that you won’t get out of the sea for no reason... When you stay in a beach cottage and your address is sugar and paradise beach corner... then you hardly believe that there is somewhere a big city waiting for your return soon . I have no idea if Kota was the best beach on the island , because I never left it to seek for another ! It’s not that easy to leave a perfect beach and a tropical garden of Eden - because the well kept gardens of Kota resort looked like this.. An Eden with tiny wooden bungalows scattered among trees , with a machine that is supposed to be aircon and otherwise completely spartan, with the bare essentials . Fortunately it includes the wooden overhanging balconies with baggy wooden rocker and incredible views . The cottage was not deluxe , but outside of it what a luxury ! Nature was very generous with the shores of Bantayan! The island is gifted with awesome beauty! The backpackers have discovered the island a long time ago, but the tourists overlooked it until the direct flights Cebu-Bantayan started and it was spread out the secret that there are beaches here that can rival in beauty the big star of the region , the neighboring island of Malapascua - nicknamed ‘the new Boracay’. The once tranquil fishing village of Santa Fe today receives daily ferries with travelers from the north coast of Cebu , but there’s yet a long way to go to become the new Boracay or Malapascua. The entertainment is limited to a few beach bars – one floating facing the Sugar beach – all rustic palapa roof huts playing nice music , reggae mostly , barefoot regulars and awesome cocktails. The interior of the island was delight full an endless green in harmony with the local bahay kubo, traditional Philippine huts made of bamboo tied side by side and woolly roof made of palm leaves nipa. Several were double-deckers and as they popped here and there through banana and palms clusters, they added an exotic look to the landscape . The island is known as 'Egg basket' of Visayas , since is the egg supplier of the surrounding islands and explains the unusual number of cartons with eggs that I saw arriving at the port the day we arrived. The nightlife is nothing special, but it’s the last thing I care about. A romantic walk along the beach with the powder white sand feeling sooo good under my feet and a drink in a quiet bar on the beach and I’m fully covered. In the morning the scenery changes... the benches were pulled out on the road and filled the area with colors and flavors from fruits , vegetables and spices. Cola bottles of 1.5 liter waited under the heat to be sold . No, nobody wants to buy warm coca cola , but some tricycles drivers would fill gasoline their tricycles. I was really confused the first time I saw a woman pouring a coke bottle into the gas tank, but then I saw that it was actually gasoline! These exotic constructions made of bamboo and palm leaf roofs are original gas stations standing around the small square, which was bustling with life with the dozens of pedicabs ringing the bels and tricycles blowing the horns to call the attention of the passengers. The school located opposite the Kota beach resort fills with children and the beach - that in the afternoon was a noisy playground for the local kids- now was empty . The few tourists were out on diving and snorkeling trips mostly around Virgin island and I was trying to guess where the sea shore will be today. All night long the sea was pulling itself into the deep ocean leaving the kiosk and the umbrellas standing awkwardly in the sand as if someone misplaced them. At low tide if you want to swim you have to walk up to the sandbar below. During noon as I enjoy my lunch at the resort’s restaurant, I see everything coming back at the normal location at last! The sea was returning slowly into first place. The kiosk was exactly on the water, the bar could now justify the name ‘floating’. The umbrellas got a reason to exist with the water going up to the middle of the pole just before the table, and invited me to come down with a cold choco-banana for an afternoon dip. Only the sand bar refuses to sink under the tide creating in collaboration with the coast a magnificent lagoon with palm trees leaning gently to be mirrored in its waters. Now the scenery is almost ready, the sun setting paints with the right shade the magnificent tropical landscape . We are all alone on the beach, the only sound is the song of tropical birds , exotic aromas and pink sunsets over the sea of Visayas. The whole atmosphere was so peaceful and enchanting that we feel feel being one step closer to paradise! [video=youtube;zYgadNryXfQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYgadNryXfQ[/video]
this post is total garbage in a lot of respects. Bantayan is arguably the most featureless of all the islands in the Visayas, there are almost no attractions at all in the 'interior'. A few bits of half-decent mangrove and that is about it. There is practically no coral except a very small amount at an offshore island, so there is no snorkelling. There is a beach, which is OK but not all that great and that is it. Camotes, Malapascua, Siquijor, Camiguin and Siargao all have a lot better selling points than Bantayan has, although I maintain that despite the tourism developments Santa Fe has never lost its charm as a town. My friends on there are saying they are almost back on their feet though after the typhoon and I hope people go there and visit. Although I have not bothered for a couple of years myself. There are just better islands out there than Bantayan. and what is all that stuff about Coke bottles and gasoline (and they would have been the glass one liter bottles, not the plastic 1.5 liter ones). There has been gas stations on Bantayan for years.
Where did you see me writing that there are attractions in the interior? I just say about endless green..is that an attraction to you? A beach can be OK to one, moderate or fantastic to someone else..The same with the islands. It's just a matter of taste. And that stuff about Coke bottles, is the ones in my video at 0.24 where the tricycle driver stopped to fill. You're right, it's not 1.5 liter but no matter the bottle's size, don't drink it anyway! By the way, the only garbage I see is your behavior..the only you had to do is to ask me the year of my trip to Bantayan.
There have been gasoline stations on Siquijor for years also, but that does not stop the multitude of SarX2 stores from selling gas in coke bottles, sometimes within a block of the gas station. Larry
that is something I don't really understand as on every island I know of where there used to be no gas stations and now there are (like Bantayan and Camotes) I pretty much stopped using bottled gas from that point forward. I think in the past two years I have bought bottled gas maybe one or two times. Gas stations have greatly improved things really, even in the provinces they nearly always seem to have change, certainly compared to nearly everywhere else, and it is very rare I offer less than a 500 to pay for gas that is never over about 170. the interior of Bantyan is not like some jungle or wilderness but is largely given over to farming now. The population of the island has skyrocketed and they need to farm to keep alive. The tourism is nowhere near enough despite the foreigner resort owners thinking theirs is the dominant industry on the island, this is not true and agriculture and fishing generates far more income than tourism does. People I know that first went there in the 1980s say there is no comparison between then and now, when it really was much wilder and emptier.
The answer to that is simple, "because that is the way we have always done it". Try showing many Filipinos a modern way of doing something. If it wasn't done that way when Magellan was here, that's simply not the right way to do it. I can show you many SariX2 stores within 5 km of my house that sell gasoline in coke bottles. Yes, plenty of gas stations hereabouts too! Larry
in my time here the Coke bottled gass was sold as a back up, where a trike driver would get low on gass after gass stations were closed, it also saved the driver / rider a walk back to the nearest gass station even when open, it is common still now for the locals to run out of gass, I still see riders pushing bikes towards gass stations, as far as I know all bikes have a reserve tank/tap?? I actually used the coke gass in my Suzuki cary when I was in Cadiz running very low on gass, took away the panic attack.
usually we have the money to fill the tank though right. I almost always fill up. I don't put one liter in like Filipinos. If any of the small motorbikes I have driven here like Honda Dreams, Waves and XRMs had a reserve tank than that's the first I ever realised it. I can't remember the last time I bought a bottle of gas, I think it may have been one time a couple of years ago when I ran out on Camiguin and there was a sari store closer than a gas station. And that was only because it was a dicky bike with no speedo or fuel gauge. Gas stations are much superior. I don't miss having to use bottles, though there have been times when I almost never refuelled any other way. You have to move the bottle quickly. You don't pour it in like it's a bottle of beer in a glass or anything, but in one quick movement.
