Philippines "Cruise" and Samar Arrival

We ended our time at Tipolo Beach Resort and have been to Cebu since my last post. We really liked our stay at Tipolo. This picture, of me downloading the pictures from our cameras, says it all. This little unstaffed gazebo in the center of the U formed by the cabins was a great place to sit and type. To my left, just out of the picture, was a water jug, the kind we see in offices in the US. We were encouraged to refill our water bottles there instead of buying more plastic bottles. A good idea to save on the trash.

Instead of riding in another overcrowded van to return to Cebu, we hired a car and driver through the hotel. A Toyota model, bigger than my Camry, arrived at 9 am to drive us to Cebu. Much more comfortable for our 3 hour ride (2 hours shorter than the overcrowded van had been!) and our driver stopped at the pier for me to buy the boat tickets. It briefly seemed decadent to me to have a car and driver, but the memory of that last van ride wiped out any hesitation. Cebu R Hotel, where we stayed for one night, was nice, clean, and modern, with a uniformed and efficient staff. Our highlight in Cebu was finding Ice Cream Giant. It’s an ice cream restaurant that sells huge bowls of ice cream. We did not order one of these, but Phillip had a sundae and I had a (much smaller) bowl of mango ice cream. Even the locals who ordered the specialty bowls were amazed. Cebu is a fairly large city, not as large as Manila. We were not near any points of interest, so we just walked around, ending up at a small Robinson’s Mall where we bought a microfiber beach towel (Daniela had used one and I liked it).


All day Wednesday before we left for the pier, I checked the weather on the hotel computer. The

newspaper had a story about Peipah, a tropical depression headed for the Philippines. Fortunately, the storm slowed down and hopefully headed in a different direction, as it hasn’t hit yet. We arrived at the pier in plenty of time. The terminal area was nicer than many airport terminal areas. Plenty of seating and stanchions to basically keep the passengers in an orderly line to board the buses that took us to the boat. This is a picture of our “cruise ship.” I don’t have a better picture because freight was being loaded onto the boat when we boarded, so stepping away to get a  picture was not an option. I’d have been run over by forklifts.

I had booked a cabin, but the ticket counter lady said it was a six-person cabin. Once we found our room, it was actually a four-person cabin with a porthole. Two bunks, a TV, and a sink. We left our luggage and walked around the boat. In the terminal, we had heard and seen the roosters that were to be passengers with us. We wondered if they had a special hold for them. Nope, they stayed, in wicker satchels with air holes, with their owners in the economy class bunk area. Five classes of service: the cabins (there were six just like ours), business class (about 16 bunks in a

small room with each bunk having a curtain and room to place luggage at the foot of each bunk) and the three dormitory-type classes. This is the tourist class. Another large room had the economy class, similar to this, but the bedframes were metal pipe and the beds were narrower. Tourist class is air conditioned, as is business class and the cabins. Economy isn’t, but it does have a wall with windows. We saw another set of bunks on the level above us. They were covered, but had no wall. Those folks would be getting wet if the rain blew during a storm. We figured that was the super-economy class.

Except for sleeping, we spent most of our time in the cafeteria, playing gin rummy. No steak and lobster on this cruise. Phillip and I shared a bowl of instant ramen noodles. Water, beer, cookies, and Ramen noodles. The extent of food available for purchase. Next time, we’ll bring food on-board. We saw a lot of folks doing that. Notice the yellow machine in the cafeteria picture. It was a karioke machine. We had entertainment! Two women did sing and weren’t awful. Not great, but not awful. We did have to leave a few times when a particular song was really loud and grating. The only place to go, however, was outside along the railing. We were amazed at the lack of boat motion. This cruise, motion-wise, was better than some of the real cruises we’ve taken. Cokaliong is a shipping line that takes passengers, so the bottom half of the boat was full of goods, giving a lot of stability to the boat. Our cabin was in the front of the ship, so we had no engine noise. It was a perfectly fine cruise and we would travel this way again. We had our cabin to ourselves as no one had booked for the other two bunks.

We were two hours later than scheduled on our arrival at the Samar pier. The pier in Calbayog is being repaired, so the boat actually docked about 30 km north of where we thought it would, in another town. A motorcycle taxi took us to the Calbayog office where Burt was waiting for us. He had sold his truck a few years ago, so we rode a motorcycle taxi about 8 km to his house. Mom was glad to see us. She looks fine and has apparently been eating enough. Burt’s wife, Lin, is the sweetest person in the world. She fussed over us and had a huge lunch waiting for us. After lunch, Burt took us across the road to see his roosters. Phillip and I thought that fighting roosters would be mean and jump at us, but that is not the way it is. His roosters are actually

quite tame with people. He petted them like they were a cat or dog. He had young (two month old) roosters and then roosters at various ages. He had one that had been injured but not killed in a fight that he uses for breeding – kinda like putting a good racehorse to stud after his racing days are over. And I thought all fighting chickens were black and red. Nope, depends on the genetics. Burt has a line of these white and gold chickens that are sturdy scrappers in a fight. Since none of the roosters puffed up and got aggressive with us,

Burt showed us how they do that by getting a rooster (a younger, less strong one) out and moving it near another rooster. The roosters we had just been petting  saw each other and turned into different critters. He didn’t let these two fight, but you could tell they wanted a piece of each other! As soon as he put the one in his hands back in the cage, they both settled down like nothing had happened.

Today, we are going to walk around Calbayog with Mom and Burt, perhaps do some shopping. I’ll get pictures of this hotel (our first with a swimming pool!) and of Mom, Burt and Lin for my next post. Tomorrow, Phillip will go with Burt to a cockfight.