The next day we made for the small island of Siquijor. We assumed that given its small size two days to explore would be ample, especially as we planned to rent a motorbike and drive ourselves to the major stops. Still excited about the Apo snorkeling we asked at our hotel if there was a good beach nearby. We took her advice and set off early. The day went sideways from there, with us in decreasing control of our decisions.
We found the beach she recommended not far from the hotel, it was empty and looked amazing. I saw that a sign was posted about a snorkeling fee; so I found some locals to see who I needed to pay. They offered drinks while I waited for another man, the “fee collector" to arrive by boat. I declined the drinks but we did eventually take up there offer to boat us out to the reef as we (read: Hoang) had some difficulty making out the 100 meters past all the sea urchins. The snorkeling was not as good as Apo, but the company was just as good. They guys were happy to show us around and dive for shells to pull up and tell us stories. They even ate a sea urchin on the way back.
Once back on the island the again asked me to take a shot with them. So I did. Then they offered another and after that the food started to show up. First it was some raw fish, then cooked. We followed that up with more drinks and stores. It was time for something more substantial so we ran to get some rice and chicken prepared in the traditional way, and served off a bamboo leaf. Drinks, drinks, and more drinks and then someone brings up Karaoke. I don’t sing much, but we decided to go all in and abandon our plans for the day. Karaoke of course included many more drinks, before we were finally able to call it a night.
All told, in and entire day; we made it only 15 degrees around the island despite our estimates that we could do it in 4 hours.
