Saturday, March 17, 2012

Siargao Nightlife @ Tattoo Jungle


When I went to Siargao last year, the only nightlife I experienced was the videoke along the Boulevard at General Luna. Little did I know that there are disco places here where locals and tourists alike go to for some awesome night of drinking and dancing. On my first night alone, I was asked by some of the locals to go party with them. But since I wasn't really in the mood and I was so sleepy then (since I just came from Cebu and haven't had much sleep at all), I declined. They kept encouraging me anyway. 

 

On my 3rd night (the same day when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake had struck Dinagat in Surigao del Sur, which we all felt here in Siargao), the internet at Ocean 101 was pretty crappy (usually it's fast). I figured, it may have something to do with the recent earthquake (I also couldn't contact my cousin who lives in Surigao del Norte). So after an early evening of chatting with a new friend (Arren, an American), and a late evening of chatting with one of the staff at Ocean 101 (Noynoy), I went back to my room to rest. But I was tossing and turning. I couldn't sleep. The thought of partying kept entering my mind so I got up, got dressed, went out to find Noynoy and off we went looking for a habal-habal (motorcycle) we can rent. 

 Tattoo Jungle, Gene. Luna night spot


We were waiting for quite a while. It was dark out and the only light around was the one coming from Ocean 101 and a nearby resort. So we stayed there under the starry sky. Then two other locals passed by (both working for Ocean 101 Bar, Ana Rose and Alvin).The girl suggested that if I have load on my fone, I can call one of his friends who is a habal-habal driver so we can rent a ride (cost me Php300 since the driver had to pick us up, wait for us, and bring us back to the resort. Normally, a habal-habal ride would only cost Php20-50). That's what I did. And after almost an hour of waiting, the ride finally arrived and off we went to the popular night spot in General Luna (located at the opposite direction of the Boulevard) called TATTOO JUNGLE. All four of us squeezed in tight and rode the habal-habal (3 at the back of the driver and 1 in front). We passed by rough roads and narrow pathways in the middle of a real jungle. Finally, after maybe 20 minutes, we reached Tattoo Jungle. It was teeming with locals and tourists (some from Ocean 101 too). 

We all immediately got to dancing. I ordered three pitchers of their local concoction (with coke, Tanduay rum and lime) and pretty soon, we were all drunk. It was already 1 am by then so we had to catch up with everybody else. Hahaha! It was fun! The DJ was playing all kinds of danceable music including reggae (which made me miss Dino and the rest of Brownman Revival by the way). Everybody was very friendly to me to the point of being flirty. One foreigner asked if he can take our pictures; another foreigner posed with me for a picture; and one local guy kept telling me he likes the way I dance. I also heard him ask one of my companions if I was single. Yep, I can understand Surigaonon dialect since my mom grew up in Surigao Hahaha. I liked it! I didn't mind the attention as long as it's all clean fun. 

 

Towards the latter part of the evening (actually, it was already around 4am), we all started getting ready to head back to the resort. We dropped off Ana Rose first. Alvin is her brother but he didn't want to sleep at home. He wanted to be near me. Hahaha. So it was me, the driver, Noynoy and Alvin. Alvin kept pinching my cheek the rest of the way back and kept teasing me that I'm drunk. He kept insisting that I wake up early in the morning so we can surf together. He said he'll teach me in exchange for the free drinks I bought him. Of course even then I just chalked it all up to our drunken stupor. I kept saying yes just so he'd shut up and stop pinching my cheek. Noynoy on the other hand,  one of the staff from Ocean 101, was just silent the whole ride. He was the guy who all of a sudden befriended me one late evening while I was hanging out all alone in the restaurant where I was tinkering with my laptop. He's the same guy who kept saying all evening that as long as I'm with him, he's okay ("Basta sama kita, ok lang ako."). I think it was sweet of him. Again, I didn't mind the attention. He looks harmless anyway. They all do. When we finally reached the resort, Alvin headed to the bar where he said he'll sleep so he can be near me and he can wake me up in the morning. Haha, yeah right. I haven't seen him since.

Noynoy, who was also quite tipsy by then, asked if he could sleep in my room. Hahahaha! Even in my drunken state, I politely said no. He kept insisting and I kept giving him friendly excuses. Hahaha. He kept insisting anyway. I just brought him near his quarters so he'd shut up and we could part ways in peace. I didn't want to be disrespectful since I still have 10 days of stay here and I'd like to keep the shallow friendship. It's all just probably the effect of the alcohol anyway. People here can really get friendly and when they party, they party really hard!

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