here are my perspectives on siquijor that you can't read in travel blogs online. my aunt asked me to send her my unorthodox perspectives on siquijor so she can forward it to the island's tourism department. unfortunately, i just realized that some of the reasons that make siquijor better than the popular tropical destinations is because it's not yet that popular. however, there are still many reasons that will continue to make siquijor better than boracay and palawan even after siquijor becomes one of the popular destinations.
1) if you are coming from cebu city, the TRAVEL TIME is practically ZERO. there are overnight boat trips from cebu city direct to siquijor. you board at around 10pm, you sleep then the boat arrives at around 7am when you wake up. the schedule changes a lot but even if it's during the day, for me the boat trip is already part of the vacation enjoyment plus you can work on your laptop and use the restroom while you enjoy the ocean cruise. it's inter island therefore the seas are normally calm unless there is a storm nearby. right now the direct boat trip from cebu city is only 3 times a week but maybe more trips will be scheduled as the pandemic subsides. if you want to splurge, i even saw a private luxury cabin option from george and peter lines online but it's not available anymore maybe because of the pandemic. if you travel as a group, you can rent an entire airconditioned tourist cabin for less than P500 a person. other travel options also gives you a lot of flexibility in case there are unexpected hiccups and you need to cut your trip short. there are bus-ferry trips many times a day. because there was a typhoon in luzon, i drove my car so that in case the typhoon changes course i can just turn back. i don't recommend driving your car during peak dates such as holidays because the barge slots are limited and you can't really book the barge space for your car in advance.
2) if i want to get to know a person and i see that person adopt a supposedly disgusting stray cat or dog and loves it to death anyway, that already says a lot about that person. i don't judge a book by it's cover but i judge a tropical paradise destination by it's pier, delta, estuaries and slums. the pier in siquijor of all places is where you immediately get a shock and awe from it's crystal clear emerald green and torquoise blue waters. i heard stories of tourists who already start swimming in the pier. normally a person will cringe from just the thought of swimming at the pier. but the pier in siquijor already has a public white sand beach that can give boracay a run for it's money. while the boat was being docked i looked down on the water and became breathless from the crystal clear emerald green water. aside from beautiful fishes, i even saw a star star fish at the bottom of the sea. you are not suppose to see a star fish beneath where a big commercial passenger boat unloads it's passengers because it's suppose to be too deep and dirty. the deltas and estuaries that's normally littered with trash looks like the beach of a 5 star resort. the parking area near the pier is normally and understandably a disgusting and slimy area in other tropical paradises but in siquijor, it's a young mangrove ecosystem you would love to have as your house backyard.
3) i did not experience hustlers ruining the island paradise ambience. in other places your street smart instincts has to immediately kick in and you feel like a prey as soon as you get off the van from the airport or seaport.
4) i saw something in siquijor which you will never read anywhere else. siquijor's development is anticipatory towards future population growth instead of reactionary. this is unprecedented in the history of the philippines because usually roads are built to relieve congestion or connect populated areas which means as soon as the road is completed it's full of cars and trucks. in siquijor, you can savor the natural beauty and fresh mountain breeze by cruising the inner mountain roads on a scooter or motorbike. what makes it very unique is there are very few cars whizzing by, mostly just occasional motorbikes which i don't mind because they don't endanger me and it's the danger that ruins the relaxing and therapeutic experience. cars are like lethal missiles so if there is less of them it parabolically decreases the probability of a serious accident. maybe it's also because folks in siquijor travel by air when they go from barrio to barrio. surprisingly you can ride for many kilometers without passing any village. ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS !!! cruising at night when the stars are out or the moon is shining bright is almost a religious experience. just make sure the headlight is working before you rent because rural folks are notorious for ignoring burnt out headlights.
i beg you not to go over 50 kph because although the deadly missiles are scarce, speed also kills. we can never prevent accidents but we can at least minimize the probability. this applies to driving a car especially in provincial roads where the probability of a deadly head on collision is high because there are no middle barriers. even in a 50 kph head on collission, your entire family won't survive. but at least with 50 kph, you have more control and more reaction time to avoid the head on. it really frustrates me that i'm suppose to be the degenerate of society yet too many supposedly responsible and upstanding citizens UNNECESSARILY endanger their entire family by driving too fast as if they will win a trophy or big prize money if they arrive 15 minutes earlier in their 2 hour journey. if you drive slow, relax, listen to your favorite podcast or talk to your family and enjoy the sceneries along the way the travel time will be longer but virtually ZERO because the drive is already part of the enjoymen instead of driving fast which unknowingly stresses you out, subconsciously wears you down, and lessen your energy to enjoy your vacation. overtake a tricycle only when coast is very clear. never push it.
every time i ride with other people i always feel my head will explode because it's like, "thank you lord for all my blessings in life i studied hard in school i worked hard to have a successful career, i have a wonderful family who is happy and well provided for so now i will UNNECESSARILY expose my entire family to an unimaginable tragedy and put them 1 step closer to their grave by driving like michael schumacher because god forbid we will arrive 30 minutes later which is scarier than a lifetime of depression for the family members who is UNLUCKY enough to survive the accident. i pray to God i got my point across.
5) siquijor has a UNIQUE INDIGENOUS culture and tradition that wasn't architected in a board meeting with the department of tourism and hotel owners. at a healing festival tent, i was the last in line and the festival was already closed and the tourists already left but the festival staff allowed the healers to complete my session (maybe after they knew my aunt was the provincial director of department of trade and industry. hehehe). while i was being healed, the healers (or witchdoctors, which is their less politically correct label), started panicking, and blaming each other for the missing sign up list. i asked what's the problem and one of them told me they need the list because they still need to pray over all the names they healed that day at 2:30 in the morning. they looked geniunely devastated. i understood why names are very important to them because it is well known that a person's name is a key component when their wicked counterparts in the island perform voodoo so logically names should also be needed when performing a healing ritual. note there was no one else around and the department of tourism staff who was suppose to give them a ride home was waiting at their service van so the drama was not a performance for tourists. i told them that the staff who gave them their meal box was the one who took the list and they simply need to request a xerox copy because i'm sure their office need the original for records or maybe contact tracing purposes. maybe they did not understand what photocopy or xerox is because they continued to harp on the issue. note the healers were at least in their late 80's who probably lived in the mountain barrios their entire life.
i no longer have strong faith in supernatural myths but i appreciate and maybe even envy those with strong faith and conviction. i used to be a true believer of the supernatural and as i became more knowledgeable, my faith became less and less but my life became less meaningful and adventurous. i remember just passing under a huge acacia tree alone in the middle of the night was so thrilling and scary because i felt an agta will snatch me and imprison me in their dimension. i felt pride and honor because my great grandmother lola minggay was known to be a healer (actually a white witch but maybe this label carries racist overtones nowadays).
but i do get turned off by plastic cultural shows and performances. i once visited an indian reservation in colorado where after the cultural show i saw one of the performers wearing cool ivy league attire. turns out he was a university student and it was his summer job. so i asked if he can at least cross the mojave desert for days without any provisions and know how to scavenge for water and food? he said not a chance he will die in 5 minutes. hahaha !!! don't get me wrong i still admire an aborigine who uses a cell phone as long as that aborigine knows how to throw a boomerang.
i know the following reasoning does not really follow correct logic but if you are a healer, you should at least be able to heal yourself. while waiting in line at the healing booth, one of the healers named maria vidav valos (i got her name and where she lives because they did not allow smoke healing in the festival and i want to experience it when i visit siquijor again) who was 89 years old but looked like she was 100 years old and looked like she can barely walk, said she needed to urinate. everyone was shocked when she started running towards the bathroom and even skipped over the rain puddles. something inside me made me feel she was not really running. she was probably flying and she only pretended to run to avoid scaring the tourists. it is well known that folks in siquijor travel by air (siquijor airlines). joking aside, she gave me a feeling that she really had natural healing knowledge because of her superb health. she did not even know that at her age, sprinting like usain bolt is unheard of because when the tourists roared in amazement, she stopped and looked back at us with a genuinely worried and guilty look on her face. at first i thought she was scared that we found out she can fly. turns out she thought the crowd was angry she used the bathroom even if there were so many tourists waiting in line. so the tourists assured her they were just amazed at her physical health and she should take as much time as she needs to use the bathroom.
6) the low prices in siquijor will also shock you. in boracay the cheapest beach side room is P5,000/night. but in siquijor i was able to get a nice beach side room at the bruce resort for P1,500/night. it even had a fridge and basic kitchen amenities so i can do groceries and not interrupt my daily prebiotic regiments. the affordability of beach side room is probably because the the ratio of white sand beaches to the population and island size is very high. i also prefer the brute natural beauty of unmanicured white sand beaches just like an unshaven woman without makeup and foundation showing her warts and pimples. in boracay i usually stay in a low budget accommodation because i stay long term and don't mind walking a few minutes to the beach. what i really care about is mobility so i need to rent a motorbike. in siquijor you can easily rent a motorbike for P350 a day but in boracay it's freakin' P2,000 for only 8 hours. quality and price of food in siquijor is also much better. just to give you an idea, in siquijor's dagsa restaurant i ordered chopsuey good for 3 for only P195 and it was almost 80% shrimp, squid and fish and 20% veggies.
7) i loved that island viewing tower at the peak of mt. bandilan. the exercise climbing up the stairs also contributes to my good night sleep. it was during a healing festival so all the tower levels and stairs were packed with tourists and when i got to the top, i remebered the balcony of an apartment in berkely california that collapsed and killed a bunch of students who were hanging out at the balcony during a party. i told the other tourists to google this story in their phone and also realize building codes in america are much stricter. some tourists got so scared one of them even told me his knees were trembling. what really made me laugh so hard was that we can't just go down quickly because the stairs were also packed with people. i joked to my aunt about this but she told me my concern was actually legitimate and she will ask the department of tourism to have a structural engineer inspect it to make sure the tower has no potential capacity or occupancy issues. but i'm 99.99% sure the tower can easily withstand the maximum amount of tourist that can fit because after a read the berkley balcony tragedy in wikipedia, turns out it was dry rot that caused the collapse, not even over capacity. the viewing tower in mt. bandilaan is made of cement and steel. but we can never be too careful so it's still good to have the tower inspected by a structural engineer to verify it's capacity.
8) siquijor has beautiful waterfalls and caves (search the web for more info)
9) i read an article that says a blogger discovered a secluded patch of white sand beach in siquijor that locals don't even know about. i'm sure there are more of this and it's not really that hard to find. stretches of rock cliff type of shore (like duawon of mactan) are usually ignored by property speculators or developers. however, little do they know that there will normally be tiny patches of white sand shore under the mushroom type rock whose base got carved out by erosion. what's great about it is you have a natural shade and privacy under the rock. most of the time the white sand only protrudes during low tide but if you get lucky you can find small patches that are above water even during highest of tides.
just rent a pumpboat and ride around the island to find these small patches. then you mark your findings on a map and fly a drone to pinpoint the exact location and survey the best possible trail to access your secret beach from the main road. maybe hire locals to clear diffcult terrain.
this is what my brother and our friends manster, dino ordonez, marty manguera and john melendrez did 30 years ago when they went camping in santa rosa island. but there were no drones yet at that time. i arrived 1 week late because i had to finish a school project. there were hardly any tourists yet at that time so to find them, i simply asked the locals if they saw a bunch of dudes camping in the island and they immediately knew what i was talking about. when i arrived i was shocked when they all screamed like starving animals who found food. turns out they miscalculated their provisions and they were starving. they did not even expect me to arrive so when they saw me with a backpack full of canned goods, it's as if a miracle just fell from heaven. the pumpboat they arranged to pick them up won't arrive after 3 more days. they were not aware that there was a barrio nearby they could buy food from and even go home anytime because there was a passenger pumpboat that goes back and forth a few times a day. the town even had a pharmacy i was able to buy my asthma medicine from. hahaha.
3 years ago just a few months before john melendrez passed away from brain cancer we met at an auto shop. he told the story to the mechanics and owner of the shop and his deep thundering voice (he was also a locally popular DJ aside from being a master scuba diver) accurately portrayed the dramatic moment when i arrived with a backpack full of canned goods.
just make sure there is no risk of tresspassing. property feud tensions are usually reminiscent of mature tourist destinations such as mactan, panglao and bantayan where rapid urbanization elevated property prices to sky high valuations which would make any common sense property owner insecure. but i think you can feel the tension level by the "no tresspassing" signs all over. i did not see a single "no trespassing" sign in siquijor so that's a positive indicator.
or maybe inquire if the property is for sale. if you are poor like me gather a few friends to co-own which also serves as their nest egg or retirement investment. maybe just assemble a couple of P180k smart house and add a rooftop balcony and porch. add aircon and rent it out to airbnb while none of the owners are using it.
(complete list of my knowledge bombs - https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2018/12/table-of-contents.html)
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