Philippines, Siargao
You can get from Manila with a change in Cebu. The cost of each ticket is approximately 2.000 rubles. We recommend flying with Cebu Pacific, because from Cebu to Siargao, only Cebu Pacific flies. During the rainy season, flights are periodically canceled, so if tickets are purchased by different airlines, one of the tickets may be canceled (if you buy tickets from one airline, you must be provided with a replacement for the second flight that you miss).
From the airport to Cloud 9 can be reached for 400 pesos.
Accommodation - approximate cost of 350 pesos without air conditioning (with fan). Condo is especially not needed there. We highly recommend the wayfarer hotel (it is run by a German - a chic man)
Meals - a lot of cafes, the average bill for two is 500-700 pesos.
Wheelchair - we and our brothers from Russia could not find professional instructors, only local residents who supposedly know how to surf. The average cost is 500 pesos per day (need to bargain hard). They will only select the best places for a wheelchair, taking into account the required wave height for training, push you and yell rowing, get up on the board. There are two main skiing spots for beginners: Dapo Beach (from Cloud 9, about 20 minutes by bike, 20 km), Daco Island (you need to get there by boat - 500-700 pesos, 15 minutes), and of course Cloud 9 itself, but this is for the pros only.
Equipment rental 400 pesos per day. Study the equipment very carefully, because. not only we, but also other tourists from Russia are faced with the fact that it breaks down. I got the impression that the locals raise money very strongly on the fact that newcomers pay a lot for the fact that their junk breaks down.
Way of transportation - we highly recommend removing the bike, because. you will have to constantly move over distances that cannot be covered on foot.
The cost per day is 400-500 pesos. Do not pay all at once, because. this can also be a problem. Our friends stole a motik by the owner himself after receiving 100% payment for it. The police did not help them. We paid every day.
Here is our history:
12/24/2013 - a verbal agreement was made with a local resident (named Mark) that he would teach us (two tourists from Russia) to surf and provide us with equipment (two surf boards) for 5 days. The cost of these services was estimated at PHP 3.000 per day. The total cost for 5 days is 15.000 Philippine pesos for two people, including equipment.
No documents were issued at the same time: neither for training, nor for renting equipment.
Mark received money from us for equipment rental for 5 days in the amount of 5.000 Philippine pesos.
12/25/2013 - equipment was broken during the first lesson (one surfboard). Circumstances: The instructor left the student in order to ride the wave. A wave rolled over the student, knocked him down and twisted him. When the student floated to the surface, he saw a board next to him, broken into two parts. According to the instructor, all the blame for what happened lies with the student. The fact that the teacher did not follow the student, the chosen place did not meet the safety conditions, and so on - our teacher did not take into account.
We said that before making a decision regarding the current situation, we need to understand the cost at which the equipment is estimated.
In the evening, we were given a new board to replace the broken one, so that we could continue our studies.
26.12. 2013
The owner of the equipment is not in the area, so they promised to provide information tomorrow. The instructor said the board was called aloha boardsports. We were unable to find data on the Internet to navigate the price.
27.12. 2013
We came to the hotel (cloud 9 resort) in the evening, where our instructor rented surf equipment for us, and talked with the owner of the boards.
The owner of the boards billed us a cost of Php14.000 (assuming she would keep the broken equipment). We were also told that this is a new Australian board. There was no logo on the board, so there was no way to identify the affiliation of a particular company. The owner stated that the board was bought in a store 3 months ago. After that, we asked to provide purchase documents in order to know the real volumes of the loss. She gave us a promise to provide payment documents for the equipment tomorrow.
We took another instructor who advised us to change one of the boards we rented, so we returned one board to the hotel.
We returned to the hotel again in the evening. The owner said that there were no documents and she could not justify the cost of the equipment in any way, but she handed us a document that they printed on their own, which very briefly outlined the circumstances of the case and indicated the amount required from us for compensation for the damage suffered. They indicated 22.000 pesos (in case we take a broken board for ourselves)
We asked to show the price of this board on the Internet, but none of the participants in the process could do this. We also draw your attention to the fact that another manufacturer of the board was already indicated in the letter.
After lengthy negotiations, we came to the conclusion that we need the help of the authorities to resolve the situation.
After a while, 2 people came up to us. One woman in the form of a policeman and a man with a weapon in the form of a military man. We asked for documents that they did not have with them. After a short conversation, we managed to inform the authorities to provide us with the documents. The police returned with documents, but the man's papers were expired, and the woman's were up-to-date, so we continued talking with her.
Having stated the essence of the issue, the policemen were very surprised at the cost that they announced to us, they offered to divide the declared amount by sex, because. The incident happened during training. We said that until we can find out the real cost of the equipment, it is not logical to take any measures. Now we were ready to pay for the repair of the board in full, despite the fact that there are no documents confirming that we rented equipment.
The police ended the conversation with us, did not comment on anything and left.
We waited at the hotel for another 30 minutes, no one approached us, and we left without resolving the issue.
In the evening we wrote a letter to the embassy of the Russian Federation, so that they took control of this situation, because. were not sure of their own safety and put the Philippine side in a copy of the message.
29.12. 2013
In the morning we returned the second board to the hotel. continuing to keep surf equipment at home seemed unsafe. As we later learned from Russian tourists visiting Siargao Island, our suspicions were not in vain (their bike (the owner of the bike himself) was stolen from them and thieves climbed into the house every night).
We went on an excursion for the whole day. In the evening we handed over the bike that we rented. And after dinner, a police patrol car with an augmented squad was waiting for us. None of them showed us their documents. They took me to a nearby store to talk. Without providing us with a single document, on the basis of which they have the right to detain us without reason. I said that we can talk on the territory of the hotel where we live, because. As part of this conversation, the hostess of the boards said that she had sent me a letter by mail indicating the cost of the boards. I had no way to check my mail outside the hotel.
They started to stop me, blocked the road and forcibly kept me against our will. Then they tied us up, handcuffed us and put us in a car. Ten minutes later we were at the police station. We were put in a cell, all things and documents were taken away.
Realizing that our situation is simply monstrous and there is no one to expect help from, we said that we were ready to pay the full cost to be released from the cells, but we were told that all negotiations were postponed until tomorrow.
We spent the whole night in the cells. I will not describe that there was not even a place to sleep, we were not given the opportunity to contact our parents or the embassy.
I hid my mobile phone and miraculously managed to contact the embassy. The embassy told me that they can’t help us now, that the law in the Philippines is such that anyone can be arrested and detained only on the basis of a statement from a person without any documents (equipment rental contract, etc. ) that we were arrested without a warrant, also did not bother anyone. The consul said that we need to pay what they say, and if we're lucky, we'll be released immediately, but we shouldn't hope too much.
In the morning we paid out 14.000 Philippine pesos. They wrote us a piece of paper that we paid for the broken board, but they didn’t give us any documents in our hands.
Conclusion: be careful!
