March 17th 2015 Journey from Boracay Island to iliolo city

Before I left Boracay I had to buy a couple souvenirs. So I bought a coffee mug and 2 T-shirts

 

100 peso terminal fee to leave Boracay.

Yellow Ceres buses parked in little alleys outside of the main boat terminal in Caticlan.

Apparently this is the "Deluxe" room at ONG BUN and I can't tell the difference from a standard room except price.

I checked-out of the Trafalgar Cottages at 6:55am and grab a tricycle for 100 pesos and headed to the pump-boat terminal. I get out and some guy wearing a red T-shirt advertising the boat terminal and I assume he works there and he doesn't even ask but just grabs my suitcase and tells me to follow him to the boat. I purchase my pump-boat ticket for 25 pesos and have to pay 100 terminal fee to leave Boracay and then I board the boat and tip the guy 15 pesos even though I never asked for his help or needed his help and when I put 15 pesos in his hand he says "20 pesos sir" and I tell him "forget it" as I thought he was lucky he got anything as I didn't need his help. I got to the Caticlan terminal side at 7:22am so was making decent time and went over to where I had originally seen those yellow Ceres Buses parked with signs in the window for "iloilo" a couple weeks earlier and asked the driver what time he would be leaving and he said at 8am so I had 30 minutes to walk around Caticlan. After I walked just 2 blocks I see another yellow Ceres bus with iloilo destination displayed in the window and the guy asks me if I am going to ilioilo and I tell him yes and what time is he leaving and he says he is leaving right now so I run back 2 blocks and grab my suitcase from underneath the other bus and get on the Ceres bus that is leaving at 7:30am. There is no bus station here but the buses just park in little alleyways in front of the boat terminal as people coming from Boracay can see them and get on. We stopped for 10 minutes in Kalibo and then 10 minutes in Passi and got to iloilo city at 1:30pm so a 6 hour bus ride (350 pesos $10 cdn). 

I get my suitcase from the bus and grab a taxi into town. I had a good conversation with the taxi driver and he spoke very good english as he asked me about Boracay and if I saw a lot of Koreas there etc... and he also told me he used to be a seaman and because of his kids he came back to the Philippines to spend more time with them and that his wife is a Barangay which acts like an arbitrator in disputes in the area and things like that. There are barangays for every areas with 3-4 years terms as they are voted in. As the taxi-meter was getting close to 138 pesos and no sight of the downtown yet, I asked him "So why did it cost me 138 pesos to go from ONG BUN HOTEL to the same bus terminal you just picked me up at and your meter is already at 138 pesos and downtown iloilo is not in sight yet?". He told me it was rush hour and that he was avoiding traffic and that is very slow at this time and I said "Fair enough". It worked out to be 37 pesos more ($1 cdn). You never know if they are trying to pull a fast one on ya.

Got to the ONG BUN HOTEL and told them I have a reservation with them and they checked all their reservations and see mine but then they pull out a sheet that looked like it had all their customers in and I hear them speaking tagalog amongst each other and can sense some confusion amongst them like "it looks like there is someone still in his room. What should we do?". The one woman in charge asks me to take a seat which I do and then calls me up after 20 minutes of sitting and tells me that my DELUXE ROOM isn't quite ready but will put me in a temporary room until it is ready and I tell her I didn't reserve a deluxe room (495 pesos) but a standard Air-conditioned room (325 pesos) and she argues with me saying that I reserved a deluxe room so I say "fine" and pay the 495 pesos for the room and head up to it. I get online and check my emails for that reservation and see that I did reserve the standard Air-conditioned room and bring my laptop down to show her and she sees it and then more confusion and then she says "OK sir, I will have to ask my boss tonight and if he agrees we will give you a 170 pesos refund back". So after 2 hours in the "temporary room" they bring me to the "Deluxe room" and I see absolutely NO DIFFERENCE between a deluxe and standard room but price. 

Went a block down the road to where a woman usually sells really good deep fried chicken and she wasn't there but there was a similar stall nearby. I tell the guy I wanted 10 (10 pesos each) and as he is picking them and putting in the bag I count 9 pieces he put in the bag but I didn't want his hands going through the bag if I demanded a RECOUNT and I am sure he could use the 10 pesos more than I could. The chicken was horrible anyhow and I ended up chucking it away.
 
So tomorrow I will be grabbing a taxi to the iloilo international airport and flying to Davao city. I look forward to exploring Mindanao.