Malapascua? Malissimmo!

When a country is so dependent on tourism as a catalyst for its economic growth, one would expect all those who work in the industry to provide travelers with nothing less than a perfect glimpse of paradise. This is especially true for the Philippines, which offers 7,107 island versions of a traveler’s paradise, each one promising a unique and phenomenal experience for adventure-seeking locals and globetrotting foreigners alike. Sadly, this was far from what my friends and I encountered during a recent visit to Malapascua Island.

We’d been planning the trip for months; Malapascua was at the top of our checklist of islands in the Philippines to visit. Four months after meticulous planning and making arrangements for transportation and accommodations, the five of us jumped on a plane that shotgunned us to Cebu for the beach trip we’d all been dreaming of.

The various articles I read about Malapascua spoke of an island getaway that rivaled the overly commercialized Boracay, with marine biodiversity, well-preserved beaches and the laid-back seclusion tourists no longer find in the better-known spot. Upon our arrival, my friends and I were ecstatic to discover that all these claims were true. There were no malls, ATMs or franchise restaurants on the island and we welcomed the peace and quiet it had to offer. We had arranged to stay at what our online research told us was the most beautiful private resort on the island, located far away from the busy strip of resorts, bars and restaurants on Bounty Beach. The owner of the resort was extremely accommodating upon our arrival and even prepared a home-cooked lunch for us with fresh vegetables and herbs from her organic garden. Her jovial personality was difficult to ignore and I couldn’t help but be excited about all the activities she encouraged us to try on the island.

After loading up on fresh, grilled king prawns, my friends and I ran to our beach cottages to change into our swimsuits and explore the island. After getting lost in a residential area and turning the heads of many locals while we wandered the streets, we finally found our way to Bounty Beach and immediately jumped in the water to swim out. One of my friends chose not to brave the high tide and strong current and instead offered to keep an eye on our belongings. He was approached by a local almost immediately, who offered to take our group on a boat trip around Malapascua and to the island of Carnassa for an incredibly low price. When we swam back to shore and sat down for a drink at a nearby restaurant, my friend told us about the offer and we all agreed to venture out the next day. The man who approached my friend lingered at the bar and waited while we made our decision. We told him we were very interested and asked if it was possible to schedule the trip the next day. He agreed and even walked us halfway back to our resort so we wouldn’t get lost again.

Back at our resort, over a sumptuous dinner of blue crabs in coconut milk, we told the owner about our plans to go island hopping the next day and she agreed to coordinate with the man we spoke to (the small community on the island assures that everyone knows each other) and prepare a picnic lunch that we could take with us while we were out. What I found strange, however, was the way she reacted when we asked her if we could pay her after each of our meals in order to monitor our expenses wisely. She simply brushed aside our request and asked if she could do it another time. It was getting pretty late, so we told her it wasn’t a problem and went to bed, anxious for our boat trip the next day.

We slept so well that we woke up later than we had intended and our boatmen had been waiting for quite some time (they were outside our cottages) when we finally gathered our things after breakfast and prepared to leave. In our excitement to leave and explore Malapascua and Carnassa, no one noticed that the man with whom we made the arrangements to go island hopping did not get on the boat with us.

Instead of heading out immediately to Carnassa, we decided to stock up on drinks and ice and asked the boatmen if we could make a stop to buy some. Once we filled up our cooler with enough beer, water and soda to last the day, the boatmen surprisingly took another detour and told us they had been charged to deliver some supplies to another resort. We agreed but were alarmed afterwards when they informed us we had to make yet another detour to Logon because they needed to buy fuel for the boat. If they knew they were scheduled to take a group of people to another island the day before, why didn’t they make sure they had a full tank of gas? Nevertheless, we viewed it as only a minor setback and agreed to pay for the gas so long as the amount would be subtracted from the total cost of our day trip. The boatmen agreed and soon enough we were back to our original itinerary.

After a morning of jumping on and off our boat to explore several popular snorkeling spots around the islands, my group stopped to have lunch at Carnassa Island. We asked the boatmen if it was possible to buy cigarettes and they gladly offered to get some for us. I noticed that one of my friend’s expressions changed after sifting through her wallet for change but simply assumed she was tired. Before we got back on the boat, she told us to mind our belongings but I didn’t think anything of it because she is the most responsible one in our group and in my haste to leave that morning, forgot that I locked my wallet away in my luggage.

We arrived back at our resort in the afternoon to have coffee and chat with the resort owner again. Once again, we inquired if she could give us an estimate of what we currently owed her so we could plan activities over the next few days that would work within our budget. Once again, she asked if we could give her till the next day to calculate our current bill. Reluctantly, we agreed and went back to our beach cottages to shower and rest before dinner.

Over dinner, we discussed our plans to go scuba diving the next day with the resort owner and she informed us that she could make the necessary arrangements and gave us an idea of the cost. She also promised to have our current bill and a breakdown of our expenses ready by the next morning. Feeling reassured, my friends and I decided to buy beer and soda from the bar so we could drink at our beach cottages and relax for the rest of the evening.

Upon returning to our room, my best friend’s boyfriend decided to count his cash so he could set some aside for scuba diving the next day. When he reached into his backpack for the brown envelope in which he’d placed all the cash he’d brought along for our trip — and certainly no amount to sneeze at — he was horrified to realize it was missing. My best friend and I immediately helped him turn our beach cottage inside out, searching through our belongings and every inch of the room with almost surgical precision. The rest of our valuables were right where we had left them; only my friend’s envelope of cash was missing. “There was no way anyone could have taken the cash,” we told him. “We had made sure to lock the door to our cottage each time we left.” How could we have been robbed? He then walked into our bathroom and pulled back the curtain to find that the window right above our sink was wide open. None of us had touched that window since we checked into the resort.

My friend ran over to report the incident to the owner of the resort while my best friend and I kept searching the room for his envelope of cash,
refusing to accept that someone would just sneak into our cottage and steal from us. Up until that point, everyone on the island had been so nice to us. Now that I look back, perhaps they had been too nice to us. When we told the two of our other friends what had happened, one of them said that earlier, she had told us to mind our things on the boat because she found some cash missing from her wallet when she gave the boatmen money to buy cigarettes. She didn’t tell us about it because she had been hoping it was a miscalculation on her part and that she had simply brought less money that day than she thought. Once she went over to check on her cash, however, her suspicions were confirmed, and so were ours. My friends had been robbed.

The resort owner didn’t do too much to help us; neither did the authorities she contacted. She called the barangay captain to report the incident only to find that he was drunk and too incoherent to be of any assistance at all. We inspected the perimeter of our cottage and found several footprints outside our bathroom window. We realized then that there was no use in pursuing the matter any further. The money was gone, and it was highly unlikely that such a tight-knit island community would rat out one of their own for a group of tourists. With neither cash nor a sense of security left, my friends and I decided that the most logical thing to do would be to leave Malapascua as soon as possible. All five of us slept in the same cottage that night while violent rains washed away the footprints we found outside our bathroom window.

Over breakfast the next morning, the resort owner did little to console us. She rambled on about her own feelings and how nothing like that had ever happened in her resort, but our attention waned when we realized how futile it was to listen. I would imagine that if I were her, I would do everything in my power to right the situation instead of offering a soliloquy punctuated with a hefty bill. She did little to compensate my friend for his loss and I can only imagine how much the situation would worsen if our other friends hadn’t brought extra cash to spot my friend for his expenses. It breaks my heart because we were having such a nice time up until my friends were robbed. I’m also extremely disappointed to learn that a community so dependent on tourism would do so little to help those who serve as the very source of their income. It saddens my friends and I that our impressions of Malapascua are severely tarnished now that we feel the island’s beauty only serves as a distraction from the exact same social realities we sought to escape by leaving the city. At least in Manila, you expect people to try and rob you blind without the smoke and mirrors. Needless to say, the next time my friends and I decide to take a vacation together, I’m recommending a visit to my family in Davao.

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Wisdom and wisecracks are always welcome at whippersnappergirl@hotmail.com.