Siargao - a mini, quieter Bali
After discovering Bali, I've went through an extensive research to figure out how to stay in Bali longer.
Philippine nationals can stay up to 30 days visa-free, and extendable for another 30 days with a fee of 800k IDR (PHP 2,900) at Bali Visa.
I love Bali and as of that time, felt that even though the Philippines have better beaches, the development of the areas and consciousness is still very far.
Until I went to Siargao.
The thing with Bali is everything is far away, so I constantly needed a car to get to places, and majority of the roads would fit only 1 car.
Motorbikes weren't an option as I don't want to get myself into an accident. The fact that I've witness an accident during my brief stay there..
The livable area in Siargao is just a very small area. Cloud 9 is where people surf, and General Luna is where you live ~ eat, work, and workout.
Lots of foreigners = higher consciousness
Just like in the movie, Siargao, first thing I noticed is that there are much more foreigners here than in any other locations, even more than Boracay. The foreigner to local ratio in the main areas could even be 70-30. 70% foreigners yes.
Right now as I sit in this coffee shop, writing this post, in the 10 clients that are here, I am the only local here (so that would be a 90% foreigner-local ratio).
Lots of the local businesses here were established by foreigners too.
There are a lot of quality food options - international quality level without the commercial royalties, that means, food is most probably locally made and price is affordable. There are:
- yogurt ice cream places
- coconut ice cream places
- vegan food options
- coffees have coconut milk, soya milk, oat milk, almond milk options
- authentic matchas
- home-made pastas
- home-made gelatos
- fruit bowls (like the famous Dragon Fruit bowl of bali)
- even my Bali favorite acai berry bowl is here!
- protein shakes are also constantly present in the menus (seems everyone works out here)
Drinks usually use steel and metal straws. Some establishments like Mama Coco you need to bring your own cup. Wooden utensils for take out
Quality is not just evident with the food, it's also in the activities that are being offered - crossfit, lots of yoga, retreats, fishing, surfing, skateboarding.. I've written about the things to do in Siargao for non-surfers.
Is it good for remote work?
One thing I didn't like about the remote provinces is that stable internet is scarce. It felt like, to be able to live a healthy life within nature, you needed to give up the stable internet in the cities.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Starlink and fiber internet is available in General Luna, the main city. And my Gomo sim has a good signal so I can work anywhere.
There are lot of digital nomads here lounging around in the coffee shops with their laptops. The 3 things I needed - plugs, internet and toilets - are abundant. Some even have airconditioning, which is really handy 12nn onwards.
And as a bonus, service water is almost always available too. Just what I need to flush out the caffeine.
And if working in coffee shops isn't your thing, there are also co-working spaces available with vibrant communities. Finding 1 co-working space is already something very advanced, but finding 2 in a small island ~ wow!
- Alter Space - in the Cloud 9 area, 5 minutes walking distance from the surfing area
- Coco Space - somewhere in Santa Fe, 20 minutes away from General Luna by car
I even got invited into Coco Space's family dinner to meet new people, and it happens every Wednesday!
Are there high-quality and affordable lodgings?
This is probably where the gap is. My criteria for finding a good lodging is simple:
- Within walking distance from quality restaurants and coffee shops
- Area for working (either a lounge and/or a working table)
- Modern, not disgusting, well-lit private toilet
- Very clean and somewhat newly built
- Thick, white bed sheet covers
- At least 16sqm
Since the area we want to stay in is General Luna, we are already instantly limited. Most also have very thin bed sheet covers.
So with these criteria and within this vicinity:
Lodgings that have a good build costs about 10k and up.
Boutique hotels that have a few units (the one we stayed in only has 8 units) ranges from P3.5k and up.
Even at 3.5k a night, it's going to hit 100k a month, which is already a lot for Siargao or for any province.
Asking around, the monthly rate for apartments should only be 20k for a decent one, and 40k if it's really good. I have yet to find this.
Going around Siargao
From the Airport
The most cost efficient way is to ride a shared van for P300 / pax going to General Luna. We had 1 luggage per pax.
I initially checked Klook for options, but it was much more expensive, it's cheaper to arrange the shared van with your hotel or to go with the kuyas from the airport.
Within the city
There are tuktuks everywhere in the General Luna, but going from General Luna to the Secret Beach which was just 15mins away costed P100 / pax. So for 2 pax round trip would already be P400.
For best experience, and to explore the island, it's better to have your own transportation.
The most common transport is to rent the motorbike, which you can rent for:
- Scooter without board rack - 350/day
- Scooter with board rack - 400/day
But if you're risk-averse like me, renting tuktuks and cars are also available.
- Car - Php 2,500 per 24 hours
- Tuktuk with driver - Php 2,000 for 8 hours
- Self-drive tuktuk - Php 1,200 for 24 hours, Php 1,000 / day for 4 days or more
Shout out to Binggo Rentals for my Tuktuk ride and free tutorial! Kuya said they used to have 17 tuktuks, and they were the first to offer this. But after the pandemic, a lot were unused so only a few tuktuks are left. A lot of other companies are also offering tuktuks so competition has gone up.
Word of warning - Tuktuks only come with a manual clutch. I think it's easier to ride an e-scooter but I feel like Tuktuks are safer.
It was a challenge at first, but Kuya from Binggo was really patient with me. So I was able to finally get a hang of it after driving around the island for 2 days.
Here's a write up of my notes on how to drive a manual tuktuk.
My routine if I were to live here
Crossfit Siargao is one of my favorite places. People there are very fit and I feel like I'm one of the weakest when I'm there (lots of room for improvement!).
- 6am - work in the lounge
- 830am - Crossfit class
- 10am - continue working at the hotel
- 12pm - eat lunch
- 1pm - work in a coffee shop
- 4:30pm - afternoon swim
- 6pm - dinner
- 8pm - sleep early, the provincial life! Some people would go out to socialize, not for me!
With surfing, as an alternative (although as a newbie, lessons are expensive if you were to do them daily @ 1200 for 2 hours).
- 6am - work in the lounge
- 7am - surf
- 10am - continue working at the hotel or Crossfit
- 12pm - eat lunch
- 1pm - work in a coffee shop
- 5:30pm - Crossfit option
- 6pm - dinner
- 8pm - sleep early
Overall I believe Siargao is one of the few livable provinces in the Philippines with a tight-knit community. Highly recommended if you want to try to live the island life.