Hi from Romblon, Romblon, Romblon!

Yes, Romblon is the name of the city, island, and province. We came over by ferry this morning with the express purpose of visiting the island's most valuable resource: it's ATM. Tablas doesn't have one at all, and I forgot to take out enough money in Manila. The ferry took just over an hour. However, once we got here and found the ATM, we were greeted with the bad news that for the time being, no international cards can be used in the machine. Damn! We (Carolyn, Melissa, and I) are staying the night here in Romblon, a nice break away from Tablas. It's funny how quickly you get used to life on Tablas. There is so much traffic here in Romblon, and real cars! There is even a restaurant that serves something other than Filipino food, and an internet cafe!
We spent the afternoon at Tianban beach, which was just amazing. Fine white sand, palm trees, clear cool water. I took a tonne of pics, but I've tried and failed to upload them.
Next weekend I am going to Boracay to get a new visa. "but Ingrid", I hear you say, "didn't you get a visa just before you left NZ?!" Why yes, I did, but the airport official didn't even look at it or ask for it, and just stamped me for 21 days, and I wasn't paying attention and only realised a few days ago. So that 59 day visa that I went through such stress to get is effectively useless.
Boracay is going to be an even bigger shock to the system: tourists everywhere and inflated prices. On the plus side, it will also have highspeed internet and more ATMs.
Yasmin: you'll be proud of me, I rode on the back of a motorbike a few days ago! I was really scared, but I survived.
Hugs to you all!

Edit: apparently, the computer has decided that I now CAN upload pictures, so while they're not with the relevant post about my homestay house, they're better than nothing at all!

This first picture is me sleeping on the ferry. Just in case you are worried, my legs have not ballooned in size, I'm wearing my comfy fisherman pants.

This is my homestay house. In this picture the balcony is uncharacteristically quiet. If you look closely, you can see incontinent grandma with her pee bucket.

This is the view from the porch.
This is the walk home from the office.
This is my room. RIGHT OUTSIDE THAT WINDOW is my arch enemy, the loudest rooster in the world.
The bathroom. There is no shower head, you spoon water over yourself from that red bucket. Showering at nighttime is scary because I often get dive-bombed by huge cockroaches.
I will try to upload more pics to my Flickr account, the link is somewhere on the right.