To See The World

Above is Sangat Island. A small dive resort is the only occupant of the island, and part of that is a private villa with its own private beach.

To get there from Manila first you need one of these:

Then you need a minibus. When the first thing you see on leaving the airport grounds is this, you know you’re in the Philippines:

After a bumpy 20 minute ride you arrive at the, erm, “port”:

For a 20 minute boat ride to the island:

The few huts in the main part of the resort are nice enough:

But now you have to take a rickety old walkway, loosely “attached” to the coral cliff:

Only for the residents of the villa:

And at the end, past the monkeys, first glimpse of my own private beach. Everything in this shot is only for me:

More of the villa in the next post because wifi on the island is almost completely useless. It’s taken 90 minutes to upload this post. That’s 3 pina coladas in private beach terms.

private beach villa location

Never heard of EVA and given the price I didn’t expect much.

The lounges were poor, and seating is 2-2-2, but with few passengers up front, I could choose a window seat without anyone sitting next to me.

The service was surprisingly very good. Delivered with a grace a professionalism that many airlines can only dream of and at half the price.

Another great meal, but why does every recent movie release have that rock man in it? He’s the world’s worst actor.

Brilliant sunset views on the approach to Manila, not captured in these photos.

The hotel car failed to turn up so I had to ride the shuttle bus, like a commoner. Manila traffic is utter chaos but the bus driver spotted a particularly bad jam ahead and avoided a twenty minute queue by reversing a full size coach the wrong way 3/4 of the way around a roundabout against a million scooters and cars and trucks, to cheat his way into the hotel zone.

Speaking of hotels, despite arriving much later than planned I get upgraded to a suite (not all that special but a nice result from booking with a few thousand freely earned points)

and the exec lounge is over-supplied and under-populated, so all’s well.