FASTCAT FERRY FROM MATNOG TO ALLEN, SAMAR ISLAND

After purchasing our ferry tickets at the booking office at the port it was just a short walking distance to the ship, with other ferry activities to watch as cargo and passengers were shifted around. The crossing across the San Bernardino Strait was smooth and very pleasant. In WWII Japanese and US naval forces considered this strait to be strategic and both forces tried hard to control the strait. The whole day went extremely smoothly, from purchasing the bus tickets, then carrying on the last distance in a tricycle to the Matnog port. After arriving in Allen on Samar Island there was just a short wait before we took a van to a place of stay suggested by the driver, Marju Krisel Resort, located just a few km outside of Calbayog. The resort turned out to be one of our more pleasant stays during our month long adventure taking local transport around the various islands of the Philippines. So in one day we managed to take a long bus ride, a long tricycle ride, a good ferry ride and a van to our destination. The view from the van along the western shore of Samar Island was wonderful but these vans travel too fast for any decent footage. This was the case for all the vans we took across Samar and Leyte and even Bohol, even though we managed to get the front seats every time.