Chad Is Everywhere

I am sure most have been in the situation I found myself, staring up at a ceiling, unable to move a limb, wondering how the light will turn off, writing out lines in my head like Bart Simpson in the credits of a Simpsons episode.   I am not 25 anymore. I am not 25 anymore. I am not 25 anymore. I am not 25 anymore.   Not sure I'll learn from this experience. However I survived!   Where did my planning process go wrong. I do remember looking at the day tour before departing Australia. Oh look, snorkeling, zipline, and canyoning in the one day. Sounds fun. Sign me up. What could go wrong. In my defense when I was in the planning stages of my trip to Philippines Moalboal had come up as a must see. Initially I watched the YouTube videos, and started to investigate my options around the concept of staying in Moalboal for a few days, completing the snorkeling one day, and the canyoning the next. Then reality of distances and organising trips from afar started to muddy the waters...

Upon leaving Subic Bay I transported down to Bantayan Island. Not that transiting is a true depiction of travel days in the Philippines. The truth was getting anywhere in the Philippines is a journey. The exit flight from Angeles Clark Airport to Cebu City was re-scheduled to become 5 hours later into the evening than planned. Fortunately my assigned drop off from the office was able to adapt. And then the next morning from Cebu I then spent 5 hours sitting on a bus and ferry ride to my tropical destination, Bantayan Island. Included was an hour waiting on the 8am bus to depart for the Hagnaya port apparently only 2.5 hours away.  Alas I didn't know it at the time but these were my my first experiences of "Philippine time". I received a bit of an explanation from an experienced Australian expat traveler I found on the bus. The buses always wait to fill right up, and everything is at least a half hour after the schedule. Only once had he nearly missed the 8am bus. He had a...