Day 9 - Relax and debrief
Today we had an early start... we decided that we would get up early and watch the sun rise, so we were out by the beach at around 5am. After watching the sunrise, we did our devotions and sang some worship songs at the beach. While we were there a guy set himself up not too far away from us and was doing stretches etc. I wondered if he was able to hear us, and if so what he thought.
Today Aliesha and Fredz had arranged a morning out at one of the nearby islands called Nalusuan Island. Our goal was to get back around 12noon as two of our team were heading back to New Zealand today. After breakfast we jumped in a van which took us to the area where the boat was gonna depart from.
The boat team had prepared some snacks for us to eat as we made our way via a scenic route to Nalusuan Island. Some parts of the sea were very shallow so we could see the ocean floor. From time to time we could see starfish on the ocean floor which was cool. It was very interesting how the colour of the ocean would change from Navy blue to Turquoise.
When we got to Nalusuan Island we got up on the wharf, and then walked down a wee way where there was a ladder that we could go down into the sea and do some snorkeling. It was my first time snorkeling, and as I can’t swim I used a life jacket… Once I had worked out how to breathe using the snorkel I was able to move around and see lots of different types of fish… There were lots of different shapes and sizes, and lots of different colours, it was a great experience.
When it was time to get out we walked across the island to the other side. On the way we passed a few turtles in a pool. When we got to the other side of the island (it was a small island so only took a few mins to walk across it) we were able to try out the hammocks in the ocean, and also try play volley ball (using a basket ball cos they didn’t have a volley ball handy). I enjoyed the volley ball, but didn’t really like the hammocks cos they were kinda bouncing around (not surprisingly cos they were in the ocean and touching the water)
When it was time to go, we headed back to the wharf to get back onto the boat. It had moved away from wharf in an effort to not disturb the fish while we were snorkeling. Below a video of the boat coming back to the dock (the loud motor you can hear is not our boat, its a different one)
When as we were getting back in the boat several other boats were arriving with loads of people, so it worked out quite well that we were here early, and had to leave by a certain time in the morning.
On the way back we had lunch on the boat. While we were on the island these had been cooked on a charcoal barbecue on the boat.
We took a more direct route back to the main island, as our goal was to be back on time to send two of our team off to the airport. They were leaving a day early as they had a wedding to get to in New Zealand. When we got back to the main island we took the van back to the hotel, and farewelled the two who were leaving. They had to take a taxi as there were not vehicles around for the Grab app to work. (Grab is like uber).
That afternoon we went for a walk through the area that we were staying in. This area looked more structured than the previous areas we had visited/walked thru. We visited an opshop and had look around.
After our walk we headed to the top of the hotel to watch the sunset, but again there were clouds so we couldn’t really see it. However it was great to have time to chat with Fredz about things that are going on in and around the Philippines, and things that are affecting their every day lives, that in New Zealand we do not hear much about.
After the sunset we went down for dinner - Today was our last full day in the Philippines, I felt sad that we were leaving the next day, but also was looking forward seeing Christine and Nathan again. I completed my Philippines departure card, and also my New Zealand re-entry card. We also did a Singapore transit card as we were planning to exit Singapore immigration during our stopover.
After dinner was done I had a night swim (paddle/walk) in the pool. There was only one or two other people in the pool so it was nice and relaxing - it was a nice way to end a great day.
