Hacker Beach Episode 7
Hacker Beach #7, in January 2019, brings us to the Philippines for the first time. It will the the third Hacker Beach in South-East Asia.
Location
What to expect
https://kosmos.social/@hackerbeach/101187541935745175:
- Hacking, not cracking
- FOSS creation and contribution galore (non-programmers welcome)
- Also get your day job done if you want/must
- Fantastic weather
- Outdoor activity options like e.g. hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, scuba-diving, mountain-biking. (Lots of us learned diving during past editions.)
- Explore the wider region, esp. before/after your time at the official location
- Whatever you want to make it. Hacker Beach is just people.
Getting in
Flights
Fly in to Manila (MNL) or Cebu (CEB). From there you can catch a short, cheap flight to Coron’s airport (USU). Check the airport Wikipedia entries for all available local airlines (most local tickets probably not available on normal flight search/booking websites).
Ferry
There are some overnight ferry options from Manila. There are various cabin options available. Seems to be about 100 bucks cheaper than flying on Cebu Pacific.
See https://12go.asia/en/travel/manila/coron?direction=forward for some options. Also, this blog post has some useful information concerning choice of ferry company.
From Coron Airport
When exiting the Coron airport, you'll walk through a row of people offering tourist coupons (I didn't take any, so idk if they're valuable). There is a shuttle service that runs between the airport and various nearby locations, with one stop directly in front of the Zuric Pension. There will be a person outside the airport exit who will direct you to the right shuttle, if you tell them where you're going. The shuttle costs "a few bucks" (plz update with actual price) upon arrival, so make sure you have small bills.
Mobile Internet
There are 2 cell providers in the Philippines and both provide LTE. Smart is the market leader and operates on channels 1, 3, 5, and 28. Globe operates on channels 3, 7, 28, and 40. Check your phone’s compatibility. Packages are available with the largest reported being 4.5GB for $15 on Smart and 8GB for $19. More data is available here. Globe reportedly “manages” their traffic in ways that some might find intrusive.
Complete list of Smart data plans and how to order them
Power sockets
According to this overview of the power socket situation on the Phillippines, you may find all of type A, B and C (read: standard American and European) sockets. The standard voltage is 220 V and the standard frequency is 60 Hz. Thus, travel adapter will most likely come in handy for everyone.
Update: most sockets in Coron are combo sockets for both Euro and US plugs. If they're not, they'll usually be the US type.
Accommodation
See our invite-only map for prospective and confirmed accommodations. Ask someone in chat room for link.
New Year's Eve
At few of us are gathering in Manila the days before Jan 1, and will be celebrating NYE there together.
Sessions
There's a wiki page for request & offers now. Confirmed sessions can be added to the hackerbeach.org website, where we have an iCal feed for scheduled events as well.
Photos
Head to the Ep.7 photos page to browse and/or upload photos.
Questions?
As always, ask on IRC or XMPP.
Invite-only XMPP chat for participants
We have a more private communications channel for people who are definitely coming to Hacker Beach. It's an XMPP group chat at hackerbeach@chat.kosmos.org. Please ask someone to invite you, in case you don't have access yet.
As a mobile client, we can highly recommend Conversations for Android for example.
Around the Web
- A personal update on Hacker Beach #7 by raucao
- ...