Moonlight Hostel
I'm starting with this memory, not only because it was the first one made on the island, but because it was also kinda the craziest. So we had booked our first AirBnB, with no idea what we were expecting and booking it only a day in advance with no confirmation, we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, but we were soon going to discover.
We got into the taxi from the airport and with no address and tried to find Moonlight. Our taxi spoke to a few locals to try work out where Moonlight was, being a small island he thought he knew all the hostels and homestays, but Moonlight seemed to be a new listing. One guy we asked fortunately turned out to be the son of the owner of moonlight, so we followed him on his bike. Her son was very useful sorted us out with motorbikes to rent.
When we turned up we we met the owner, named Mama Vivian, she didn't stop talking it was annoying but I stayed polite with a smile on my face. We got a room with an ensuite it was more than we were asking for, we were the only people here and it seemed like the whole hostel was still undergoing building work. A Danish guy called Anton turned up at the hostel but it seemed there were no more rooms available, he ended up sleeping on our floor.
We were then chucked out of our room as it started to get popular and more and more people kept turning up, wondering where we were going to sleep as there wasn't even room for Anton (the Danish guy.) This was on our third day. We watched a team of guys building bunkbeds right into the night, these were our next beds. Two were made in time by 10pm and we were the hamsters to test them out. They worked through the night and by the morning there were 5 bunkbeds in total. They moved them into our room, we were chucked out again as the room was getting painted, ends up they only painted half the celling and nothing else. I would have preferred it if they didn't, not only was our room covered in saw dust we now had the headache of fresh paint emerging.
By this stage a Canadian/Korean girl named holly arrived and us 4 made a great team. We laughed out loud about of this so called hostel as it was just a joke scenario, this made it all the worthwhile; an experience indeed. However odd the hostel seemed, we ended up extending our stay each night because the people made it an enjoyable place and we got used to the sawdust, it seemed to become our home from home; thanks to the people we experienced this hostel with. I've never been so unsure about where I will be resting my head for the night but I also was very strangely content at the same time, and that's the end of my memory at Moonlight. It'll be making an appearance later on in my stories.
Power-cuts and Night Rides
Onto the second memory, we'd been on the island a few nights now and it was dinner time. We ventured off to find a place to eat on our motorbikes. I'll start with them, our motorbike had no lights on it, well it did but they didn't work and the streets have no streetlights; so this was going to interesting. Using our flashlights on our phones which gave us he visibility of a mere meter ahead of us our adventure began. Dan and I came across a lovely half Italian place, I would class it as half Italian because they didn't seem to have a genre when it came to the menu but it was predominantly Italian just without pizza hence the half.
Our meals had just arrived and they looked delicious we started to tuck in and we were under half way through eating and suddenly all the power went not just at our restaurant, the whole island. We were lucky our food had arrived otherwise we wouldn't have had dinner. The blackout lasted the whole night and it meant it was even darker, the streets didn't have the occasional shop light gleaming onto the road, which helps a lot when you have no lights on your bike. But back to the restaurant all the waiters and waitresses had to grab there phones and we had a personal light holder above us as we ate. It was hilariously awkward but some what an enjoyable experience, before everyone was eating with their partners or friends and each kept themselves to themselves, now the whole restaurant was all talking together in one large conversation. It's amazing how a blackout can make socialisation come to a whole new level and allows meeting the people a table next to you so much easier and funnier.
Surfing
One day, 'the team' (including Dan, holly, Anton and I) decided to go surfing. We got Mama Vivian's son to take us to a secluded space, which he really did. The place he took us to was called secret spot, we had to trek 10 mins from the road through a off beaten jungle path whilst holding our surf boards to get to the bay.
The surf was okay, better for beginners, which Dan and holly were but it was on rock not sand which wasn't great. Holly went out first as her and I were sharing a surf board, and she didn't manage to get up on the board but her efforts were incredible. She came back out of the water and we switched, I surfed through two heavy rain storms but this didn't mean I gave up. I had never surfed on a hard board and one actually my size, because in the past I'd always used foam and shared boards with people who were 6 ft. So it was unusual being on such a small board, and it not being foam which I can now say I way prefer. I finally was tired and went back in, the boys stayed out in the sea and that's when holly told me she lost her motorbike key, we came to the conclusion they were in her pockets when she went surfing and had lost them.
We had no idea how we were going to get her home with her surf board. It was also not going to be a fun conversation with Mama Vivan's son who was surfing with us. Holly took the balls she had and straight up told him he responded with nothing else just 'holy shit'. He stayed really calm which surprised all of us. But it was chill in the end as it turns out he can hot wire a bike and get it started, which was rad to watch. As Holly's bike came to life, his own bike then didn't. All awkwardly waiting as he was the only one who knew the route back his bike suddenly came to life after constant trying for five minutes. (He didn't want to hot wire his nice bike, compared to our slightly shitty ones). And that's the end of my memory of the surfing and losing keys experience; onto the next.
Flip-Flops
I didn't want to give the memory away by the title and that's why it's just called flip-flops. It had been a good week or so being on the island, and I was shocked just by how many random shoes I'd spot everywhere you look, it was unavoidable. I always pondered why this was and I was about to find out, rather holly was. We all decided that tonight we weren't going to take our bikes and visit a happy hour down at Kermit's (which apparently has the best pizza on the island). Their cocktails were lush, their pizzas were okay.
Anyway it had been heavily raining that day and if you've read my previous blog post about Siargao, you will know that there are no drainage systems on the roads, which made them a mud bath. We took the least muddiest route and we all ventured out in our flip flops. Suddenly, we came to one puddle which blocked the whole road and the only way to the other side of this extremely large puddle was to go through it. Fortunately everyone was in shorts because it ended up to be a knee deep puddle.
The mud was thick and sticky and I took my flip flops off unafraid of what I would stand on, I knew the mud would make it a suction for my shoes. I stupidly didn't tell everyone else in the group to do this, and holly already on her second pair of flip flops whilst being on the island was walking and boom. Her flip flop came off. We then were not only knee deep but arm deep searching for her one flip flop, a good 5 minutes gave by and we gave up. That's when I learnt why so many random flip flops were scattered round the island and Holly's now add to that collection
Panda
I didn't want to end my 'Memory Making in Siargao' on a sad note, so this is my second to last snippet of my memory highlights. You might be thinking pandas? In Siargao? Sorry to disappoint but there are no pandas in this part of Asia; but is in about an animal.
One afternoon after arriving back at Moonlight from a glorious day at our private beach that we found, I was in the kitchen filling up my water bottle where I heard an animal whimpering, I wasn't sure what animal it was but I wasn't going to leave it until I found the source of the noise.
At first I thought the whimpering was coming from the roof, so I went round the back of the kitchen which was just a dumping ground of rubbish. I followed the noise and found a litter of abandoned puppies. I found two adorable puppies, they were so soft and so small. I picked them both up and took them to outside my room, which was upstairs and out of direct sunlight. I made them a little cardboard pen and made sure they had water supply. One of the many dogs at moonlight followed me upstairs when carrying the puppies and I came to the realisation that they were hers. She sat in the pen with them and fed them her milk, I was so happy that they weren't abandoned.
I made it my priority was to keep the mother healthy and the two puppies. Moonlight are quite poor in helping their animals, there were some that were skinny. I immediately got Anton my Danish friend to drive me to the nearest pet store to buy some puppy food, this is higher in fat so worked well for even the older dogs that were skinny. We found the store and I bought a bag of food, I split it evenly between the dogs who needed it most.
I then came to the realisation that a litter of 2 puppies was a small number, so I went back round to the heap of rubbish where I found them lying to go look for any more left behind. That's when I saw panda. Panda had moved herself under a heavy wooden box, she was whimpering lots and they were all so young that they were still blind and hadn't opened their eyes yet. I picked her up and was in shock I could see that she was injured but until I picked her up I didn't know the extent of it. She had been attacked by dog, and had wounds all over her, bite marks and one big lasseration to her back, her wounds were riddled with maggots. I didn't take her upstairs to the others I put her on our common room table. Anton came next to me, saw panda lying there and said the words: 'Oh my God.' I immediately had a shaken voice, he then said 'please don't cry' and since those words came out of his mouth I just broke into tears. I felt helpless, I didn't know what to do but in my opinion there was only one thing I could do. Fight for this puppy.
At this time people staying at moonlight were coming home from their day trips to discover an injured barely week old puppy. Some came to help, others just asked questions and others got in the way. One very useful man, who I never asked of his name got his phone out and started googling the best treatment for this puppy. He then went out on his scooter and bought some peroxide. In the mean time I had got some tweezers, a warmed towel for panda to lie on and began taking maggots out of her flesh. The peroxide really helped, it kills the maggots but it takes a while to kill them, but it forces them to the surface so I could grab them with my tweezers. However, this is a really painful treatment for a puppy so young without any painkillers or anything.
Hours in and we were eventually getting somewhere the maggots were lessening, panda had fallen asleep as the pain was too much but I continued to work on her. It got until 9-10pm and we were seriously hungry we hadn't eaten and panda needed a break, I stayed with her whilst the boys went out and brought back some pizzas. They ate first and then Anton took over whilst I could eat, panda needed constant warmth of a hand or she got really scared and cold.
Mama Vivan came in and got angry at us for trying to help this puppy, which made me angry so I snapped at her but apologised all at the same time. The really frustrating thing was was that she had some medication for animals but she kept saying 'its a pain killer it's a pain killer, for dog, for dog'. But I wasn't prepared so stick any needle in her before I googled it, also I wouldn't know the dosage required for a newly born pup.Thank goodness I hadn't done this and fought off mama Vivan as this guy googled it for it it ended up not only to be conjunctivitis medication (so for your eyes) but it was for horses.
It was getting super late and we were all so tired, so I said to everyone that they can go to bed I'll stay here with panda. I did for hours and it looked like there were no maggots left, it was going well but the worst was about to happen. Through all the mosquitos landing and covering me with bites all I could think of was this poor puppy, and suddenly I noticed a patch of eggs that hadn't been cut from her fur, and the teeny tiny maggots where hatching live in front of me. They were instantly burying themselves into her skin and I burst out into a cry. All this hard work and it was going to be never ending, these baby maggots were a tipping point.
For half an hour I thought in depth about doing the right thing for this puppy and it seemed so cruel to leave her in this world, she was suffering immensely and despite my efforts I was fighting a losing battle. In my hands she had two mini heart attacks was still alive. The heart attacks were awful I watched and felt her whole body pulsing to keep alive, she was moving in ways I'd never seen before. After this at 3am I covered her in a clothe took her upstairs and went into my room. Anton heard the door open so was immediately awake and was attentive to care and help the through the whole event, he asked what's up and I said she's got to go, we can't save her we have to do the right thing.
Everyone was aware that it was a life or death situation and knew there would possibly come a point where we might have to kill her. We woke Dan up and they both said to me they would do it but I can't watch or be apart of this bit, they told me to go upstairs so I did I'd said my goodbyes already before I even went into my room, however much I didn't want to. I went onto the balcony sat in the hammock and just cried and cried. I was so sad a puppy I'd been saving for 16 hours. She had been in my hands and I had to give her away to be killed. Panda. Not fun for anyone but especially not for an animal lover/vegetarian that I am; but it was the ethical thing to do.
That is the story of a gorgeous courageous puppy called Panda and I will never forget her.
Motorbikes and Mud
My final story. It was our second to last day in Siargao and we were moving back to Manila the following day. We had run out of cash and the nearest cash point was over an hours drive away. Dan was quite ill and I would go by myself but if I came off I'd have no help so wasn't willing to do this. So we drove to Dapa and it a nice ride. I feel like in Pacifico where we were currently staying it never rains but in Dapa it's always raining.
We got our money and it was hot, Dan decided to take his tank off as it typically began to rain so we pulled over and then continued on our drive. We had gotten to the constructive roads where they were half built. It was really muddy and we reduced our speed to 15kph, Dan was silly and drove directly behind the guy in front leaving breaking distance. But he was about to discover that you will slip if you break on a surface like this, as a car driver I feel I would of known this when in this situation but we can never know how I would have reacted as I wasn't driving. This guy with no surprise slowed down, which meant in order for us to not go into the back of him Dan tapped the breaks.
With no helmets on we fall to the ground skidding with the bike. We got up Dan in shock didn't say much. I tried to lift the bike up but couldn't by myself, this lovely couple with a newborn stopped their bikes and the man helped me lift the bike up. We then left it 5 minutes to cool off and just adjust to our new situation and got back on the now very slippy seated bike, with no mirrors as they were covered in mud and were on our way again. We stopped at a couple places looking for someone with a water supply to wash ourselves down. This Christian family waved at us and we pulled over and they let us use their hose and got us some pure 70% medicinal alcohol to stop infection.
Falling off the bike was now not the worst part, it was the pouring of this alcohol on our wounds. Soon enough the villages children were all standing round staring as Dan (mainly) swore screamed and shouted in pain. He was worst off injury wise than I. We still had a fairly long drive until we reached our bed and breakfast place in Pacifico. But we eventually made it home, with the bike intact which was good as I didn't want to pair to now repair a bike. I found the whole thing fairly amusing other than the fact I now couldn't swim for a while.
I should probably end this post better but that was the end of my memory making in Siargao. I wouldn't exchange these memories for the world as I met some amazing people and had the time of my life!
In Memory Of Panda:
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