Off to Miniloc Island

After a good night’s sleep (only interrupted to check a disappointing football result), we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the Funny Lion. We then went for a walk in the town to change some money. It took a while to find the money changer and it was very hot walking around, so afterwards we were glad to chill in a nice coffee shop with a view of the bay.

We went back to the hotel mid morning to cool off and repack the few things we'd needed overnight. At 11.30 we were picked up and taken to the jetty for the boat to Miniloc Island. There was an open sided lounge area to wait in, where were greeted with music and offered cold water, iced tea and Filipino snacks.

The speedboat ride to the island was great fun, if a bit splashy at times, and the surrounding views of the bay dotted with islands was fabulous!

We were given a ginger drink on arrival and had some details of the resort explained to us. Our full board officially started with tonight’s dinner but as we would be leaving early on our departure day and not having lunch then, we were told we could have some today. It was served as a buffet in the open-sided restaurant with cooling sea breezes. I just took some salad and a roll, followed by some fresh fruit and a small cake. It was all very good, but the juices we ordered to accompany it were expensive compared to anywhere else we stayed on this trip.

After lunch we finished checking in and were shown to our room. Although one of the garden cottages (as opposed to a sea or beach view) we did in fact have a lovely view through the palm trees to the sea beyond. The room was very attractive, with traditional Filipino window screens and a wooden deck with seating.

We changed and went to the pool. Unsurprisingly at this time of day, all the shady sun loungers were taken but we found some in partial shade by the small beach. We had a paddle and I went in the pool a couple of times before the heat of the sun made us decide to retreat to our shady terrace.

Towards the end of the afternoon a troupe of macaques came through the grounds and we hurried to grab photos as they jumped across the roofs.

We went to the bar for a drink before dinner. The happy hour cocktail list was quite limited so I chose one from the main list, an excellent basil mojito. We discovered that prices here are way higher than anywhere else we'd stayed on this trip, e.g. 500 pesos for a beer compared with 100 to 160 elsewhere. But we'd spent relatively little so far so could afford to splurge a bit for these last few days.

Dinner was a buffet, which isn’t my preferred option. The food was good (I liked the fish in mango salsa in particular) although none of it was really served hot enough for my taste. Afterwards we had a walk along the jetty to enjoy the cooling air and starry sky before going back to our room.