BOHOL - Aug '08
When we went to Lucban in May with the Marcelos, the subject of Bohol came up. Since they've recently put up a travel agency business, Kairos Travel and Tours, Sherwin said he can arrange for us to go sometime in August when his Mom, Mareng Didi, has some time off from work. As soon as he found some air fares on sale by Cebu Pacific, he went ahead and booked us flights to Bohol's capital, Tagbilaran City from Manila. Accommodations was another story. Since it's still summer most everywhere else, the place was packed with foreign tourists. Sherwin had a heck of a time booking a place for us to stay. He ended up splitting the group: his Mom and Dad and sister stayed at Bohol Beach Club (BBC) and everyone else - that's me, Donna, Sherwin, his girlfriend Pam, Mareng Mergine and her sister Ate Mila, got booked at nearby Alona Kew White Beach (AWB) resort. The person she talked with at Bohol Beach told him they're close enough to walk but it turned out it takes almost 15 minutes to drive from Bohol Beach to Alona Kew!
I have to tell you first about our flight though. We drove the Innova and left it at a parking facility by the airport, Park and Fly, then checked in at the brand new, well, newly opened, rather, NAIA Terminal 3. I guess its construction was embroiled in controversy with rumors of corruption so it didn't get opened until a few weeks ago. It's pretty clean, efficient with modern facilities. We were warned however that; 1. Cebu Pacific bought PAL's throw away planes and 2. It's never a good idea to travel in the Philippines during the rainy season. We boarded a fairly new A320 into an almost cloudless blue sky. Sweet! The flight took a little more than an hour.
Tagbilaran City airport is a typical provincial domestic airport but word is out that due to the onset of great Bohol tourism, a new airport will be constructed at Panglao Island where almost all of Bohol's resorts are located.
We got there around 1 pm, had lunch at a restaurant close to the airport.
Tarsier Tours had a van ready and waiting for us at the airport, all pre-arranged by Sherwin, bless his heart! We had time enough to relax and unwind when we got to our respective hotels at Panglao Island. I took a few pictures of the beach while the rest did some exploring. Surprise, surprise... the sand in Bohol is white! They said the difference is its texture which is much finer in Boracay.
Dinner was not too bad but the service sucked at Trudy's, one of the restaurants by the beach at AWB. I think the waitress found us a bit demanding or perhaps it's that time of the month for her. So we lost our appetite for their dessert, Trudy's delight, by the time dinner was over.
We turned in at around 9ish, after Mareng Didi, her daughter and hubby took off for BBC. The girls commissioned some masseuses for some relaxing massage in their rooms.
One thing Donna and I noticed which was odd, apparently the others noticed too because we talked about it the next morning, the shower water was salty! I guess because of their proximity to the sea, their water supply is contaminated with salt water. We drank bottled water so I assumed their water is not potable.
Breakfast buffet of tapsilog (short for tapa, sinangag and itlog) was part of the deal so we didn't need to look for a restaurant in the morning. After breakfast came Tarsier Tours, with a tour guide this time. First stop, BBC to pick up the rest of the group.
As we drove along, our tourist guide provided us with a detailed history of all of our stops. I've created Wiki links so you'd be informed as well. Just click on the site and it'll direct you to Wikipedia.
We first went to the Blood Compact Shrine where the Spanish befriended the locals in 1565 and sealed the deal by drinking wine mixed with drops of their blood.
Then our tour guide took us to the church of Baclayon considered to be one of the oldest in the Philippines. It also has a museum full of artifacts and antiquities.
Of course, what would be a visit to Bohol without seeing its most famous resident, presenting the Tarsier encounter. This creature is so cute and cuddly everyone wants to take one home for a pet. It's so small, it can fit into a human palm. Thanks to the government for making it illegal to keep Tarsiers for pets. It was found out that they usually die in captivity anyway. The ones we saw were in huge cages but were endorsed by the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) of the Philippines.
We had a lot of fun at The Loboc River tour on a houseboat sitting on a couple of boats being pushed by a small motorized boat. We had buffet lunch - fairly decent food, entertainment and best of all, gorgeous Loboc River sightseeing. One stop featured a bunch of singers and dancers. We also caught site of Busay Falls at the end of the tour.
Next is the Man Made Forest of Bilar on the way to Carmen. Our tour guide informed us mahogany trees were planted there starting in 1958 and have since grown to what they are right now.
And the highlight of our trip, the world famous Chocolate Hills of Carmen, Bohol. I didn't realize they're grass covered limestone hills which dries out in the summer, turns brown, hence the name and that there's at least 1,268 of them. They created a viewing deck on the peak of one of the hills where tourists climb a long flight of stairs to be rewarded with a spectacular view on top.
The last stop on the way back was a huge souvenirs shop called Agroponia (not sure about the spelling) where the girls bought a bunch of delicacies and snacks of all kinds while I busied myself taking pictures of flowers in its gardens.
We got dropped off back at BBC for an enjoyable game of pekwa before dinner while the kids were swimming in the pool. At around 8 or so we started walking towards an outdoor restaurant. On the beach where several groups of Chinese and Korean tourists are eating, dancing and singing Karaoke. Then all of a sudden, surprising us all, rain started pouring in buckets! Everyone made a mad dash to a nearby restaurant. Some guests were giving us dirty looks because we were quicker and grabbed two tables right away! Dinner turned out to be pretty good actually. Not sure what all the waiters did with the food on the beach. We didn't think they had enough time to save it all before it got all 'soupy'! Fortunately, the rain let up after dinner. We walked back down towards their room and continued our pekwa game (which Donna won, by the way) until about 9:30 or so, then we got picked up by the AWB shuttle.
Monday, Tarsier Tours picked us up after breakfast. Mergine and Didi wanted to check out some danguit (some dried fish) so we dropped by the Tagbilaran market. They found them too expensive so we just headed on to the airport, checked in our luggage, went out for lunch. I had time enough to take some pictures of the Tagbilaran City pier while we were waiting for our order. Another thing I noticed are the tricycles here, they have windshields just like cars!
After lunch we finally got dropped off back to the airport for our flight back to Manila which was pretty uneventful.
Once we got our luggage at NAIA3, Sherwin called Park and Fly and they sent their shuttle to pick us up. Mergine and Ate Mila took a cab to Cainta and we headed on out to Valenzuela after dropping Pam off at her house.
Sherwin has been to Boracay and he said it's got nothing compared to Bohol. It's really worth going back, I think.
I took over driving from Valenzuela. Donna and I went to Guagua where they have a little send off for my niece Jennifer and her kids Joshua and Jessica for their trip back to Chicago the next day.
I have to tell you first about our flight though. We drove the Innova and left it at a parking facility by the airport, Park and Fly, then checked in at the brand new, well, newly opened, rather, NAIA Terminal 3. I guess its construction was embroiled in controversy with rumors of corruption so it didn't get opened until a few weeks ago. It's pretty clean, efficient with modern facilities. We were warned however that; 1. Cebu Pacific bought PAL's throw away planes and 2. It's never a good idea to travel in the Philippines during the rainy season. We boarded a fairly new A320 into an almost cloudless blue sky. Sweet! The flight took a little more than an hour.
Tagbilaran City airport is a typical provincial domestic airport but word is out that due to the onset of great Bohol tourism, a new airport will be constructed at Panglao Island where almost all of Bohol's resorts are located.
We got there around 1 pm, had lunch at a restaurant close to the airport.
Tarsier Tours had a van ready and waiting for us at the airport, all pre-arranged by Sherwin, bless his heart! We had time enough to relax and unwind when we got to our respective hotels at Panglao Island. I took a few pictures of the beach while the rest did some exploring. Surprise, surprise... the sand in Bohol is white! They said the difference is its texture which is much finer in Boracay.
Dinner was not too bad but the service sucked at Trudy's, one of the restaurants by the beach at AWB. I think the waitress found us a bit demanding or perhaps it's that time of the month for her. So we lost our appetite for their dessert, Trudy's delight, by the time dinner was over.
We turned in at around 9ish, after Mareng Didi, her daughter and hubby took off for BBC. The girls commissioned some masseuses for some relaxing massage in their rooms.
One thing Donna and I noticed which was odd, apparently the others noticed too because we talked about it the next morning, the shower water was salty! I guess because of their proximity to the sea, their water supply is contaminated with salt water. We drank bottled water so I assumed their water is not potable.
Breakfast buffet of tapsilog (short for tapa, sinangag and itlog) was part of the deal so we didn't need to look for a restaurant in the morning. After breakfast came Tarsier Tours, with a tour guide this time. First stop, BBC to pick up the rest of the group.
As we drove along, our tourist guide provided us with a detailed history of all of our stops. I've created Wiki links so you'd be informed as well. Just click on the site and it'll direct you to Wikipedia.
We first went to the Blood Compact Shrine where the Spanish befriended the locals in 1565 and sealed the deal by drinking wine mixed with drops of their blood.
Then our tour guide took us to the church of Baclayon considered to be one of the oldest in the Philippines. It also has a museum full of artifacts and antiquities.
Of course, what would be a visit to Bohol without seeing its most famous resident, presenting the Tarsier encounter. This creature is so cute and cuddly everyone wants to take one home for a pet. It's so small, it can fit into a human palm. Thanks to the government for making it illegal to keep Tarsiers for pets. It was found out that they usually die in captivity anyway. The ones we saw were in huge cages but were endorsed by the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) of the Philippines.
We had a lot of fun at The Loboc River tour on a houseboat sitting on a couple of boats being pushed by a small motorized boat. We had buffet lunch - fairly decent food, entertainment and best of all, gorgeous Loboc River sightseeing. One stop featured a bunch of singers and dancers. We also caught site of Busay Falls at the end of the tour.
Next is the Man Made Forest of Bilar on the way to Carmen. Our tour guide informed us mahogany trees were planted there starting in 1958 and have since grown to what they are right now.
And the highlight of our trip, the world famous Chocolate Hills of Carmen, Bohol. I didn't realize they're grass covered limestone hills which dries out in the summer, turns brown, hence the name and that there's at least 1,268 of them. They created a viewing deck on the peak of one of the hills where tourists climb a long flight of stairs to be rewarded with a spectacular view on top.
The last stop on the way back was a huge souvenirs shop called Agroponia (not sure about the spelling) where the girls bought a bunch of delicacies and snacks of all kinds while I busied myself taking pictures of flowers in its gardens.
We got dropped off back at BBC for an enjoyable game of pekwa before dinner while the kids were swimming in the pool. At around 8 or so we started walking towards an outdoor restaurant. On the beach where several groups of Chinese and Korean tourists are eating, dancing and singing Karaoke. Then all of a sudden, surprising us all, rain started pouring in buckets! Everyone made a mad dash to a nearby restaurant. Some guests were giving us dirty looks because we were quicker and grabbed two tables right away! Dinner turned out to be pretty good actually. Not sure what all the waiters did with the food on the beach. We didn't think they had enough time to save it all before it got all 'soupy'! Fortunately, the rain let up after dinner. We walked back down towards their room and continued our pekwa game (which Donna won, by the way) until about 9:30 or so, then we got picked up by the AWB shuttle.
Monday, Tarsier Tours picked us up after breakfast. Mergine and Didi wanted to check out some danguit (some dried fish) so we dropped by the Tagbilaran market. They found them too expensive so we just headed on to the airport, checked in our luggage, went out for lunch. I had time enough to take some pictures of the Tagbilaran City pier while we were waiting for our order. Another thing I noticed are the tricycles here, they have windshields just like cars!
After lunch we finally got dropped off back to the airport for our flight back to Manila which was pretty uneventful.
Once we got our luggage at NAIA3, Sherwin called Park and Fly and they sent their shuttle to pick us up. Mergine and Ate Mila took a cab to Cainta and we headed on out to Valenzuela after dropping Pam off at her house.
Sherwin has been to Boracay and he said it's got nothing compared to Bohol. It's really worth going back, I think.
I took over driving from Valenzuela. Donna and I went to Guagua where they have a little send off for my niece Jennifer and her kids Joshua and Jessica for their trip back to Chicago the next day.
posted by reyjay @ 7:21 PM
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