Downing Drinks: Cool Spot Bar, Siargao

"Had a couple too many beers last night at this bar across 101 run by a Korean castaway. Pretty cool warm place with this bar counter decked in strip lights, a ref covered in skulls, and Bon Jovi playing in the background."

- Journal entry, November 11, 2014

Cool Spot Bar, Cloud 9 Siargao - Pale Pilsen beer with free Popcorn! 

There was this bar I always passed by when going through the roadside gate of Ocean 101, and it piqued my interest because it was always aglow with warm yellow lights and electric hues emanating from a huge iMac sitting on the counter. It was also always empty, and I made a mental note to try hanging out there at least once.

The night I had a couple too many beers happened after hanging out at dusk on the Cloud 9 platform, and I decided to walk back to Ocean 101 via the road instead of the shoreline pathway. It rained softly but steadily the whole way back, which I didn't mind until it suddenly started to pummel down hard. My brisk walk turned into a sprint, and as I passed by its gate the warm and dry bar called out to me and I couldn't resist. I barged in the bar (which was really the decked out garage of the house), running as if some crazy dog was chasing me. There was one Spaniard on a rattan hammock watching TV, and no other customers. I sat by the bar, ordered a beer and the bartender served it with a bowl of popcorn - complimentary munchies for every order. I tried to conceal a smile. Perfect.

Cool Spot Bar, Cloud 9 Siargao - surf board rental, pool table, dining area, movie screenings at night

Thus started our daily pre-dinner and post-dinner drinks at the bar across the road, away from the busy and overly-friendly atmosphere of Ocean 101's dining area. We met Skol, the Korean castaway who runs the place, he opened it just a few months back after moving to Siargao from Boracay, where he was a tour guide for over 10 years. The music was always good, Anna was surprised when they played an obscure Australian band that she's seen perform in a friend's bar in Sydney. The food, while limited to barchow, was just right - I loved the Sashimi, they served it together with a unusual side dish - I forget what it was but I remember how surprised I was that it went so well together and that it wasn't a more popular pairing. I think it was a pickled vegetable or a fruit or some sauce. Hmmmm. What I also admired was that dinner time Skol would always stop working to eat dinner with his entire staff together in one table - they'd have rice, share the same ulam, and they'd just talk and share stories over dinner.

Cool Spot Bar, Cloud 9 Siargao - funky car decked out in lights

Cool Spot Bar, Cloud 9 Siargao - the bar where cocktails are served double shot all the time haha

Detail of the ref design / sticker - SKULLS

There would only be a few other guests, which gave us a chance to chat properly without having to raise our voices, and we would engage Skol is some random banter occasionally. My last night in Siargao a couple of guys came in while we were having our pre-dinner beers, and when we got back after dinner they were stinking drunk after downing half a lapad of Tanduay. They were so drunk they kept falling all over the place, one would help the other and they both crash and the chairs end up in disarray. When the bartenders finally manage to help them up, they prep to depart, but not before facing each other and doing a pep talk in a foreign language I couldn't identify. I imagined that they were telling each other in their madly inebriated state that "we can do this, we can walk back home together. focus." The next morning as we walked to Cloud 9 to catch the sunrise, we found the 2 boys shattered limp lying on the beach. They never got to their rooms, they succumbed to the power of Tanduay and expired on the beach. But hey, I wouldn't mind waking up with the perfect sunrise greeting me.

Oh and when I got home, I asked Anna who stayed behind to inquire if the bar had a name - yes, it was called Cool Spot.

The drunk boys we found on the beach the next morning