On to Bohol!

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This morning at 7 am we left our big backpacks at the hostel and checked out. We ended up having to pay double what we thought we would because it turns out they charge per 12 hours, not per night. So we left, slightly enraged, to find a bus/jeepney to the pier. We first took one to Colon and then had to switch and pay again to get to the pier. 7 the first time, 7.50 the second...boo.

When we walked to the pier we noticed another company, Wessam, and they had cheaper prices. Boo again. It would have been cheaper to come down to the dock to research. Walking into the pier you have to put your bags through an x-ray machine, then you go through and get a pat-down, then a dog sniffs your bags, and then finally you can show your tickets to a man at a desk who takes your picture. The whole process is reminiscent of immigrating to a new country, but whatever. Maybe they've had problems in the past. After we passed this section we were told to go upstairs to check in. Wait, hadn't we just checked in? No, that was only security. There was another desk we went to and this time they gave us tickets with seat numbers. Check-in closes 45 minutes before the boat leaves, so we still had time. We sat and waited and when we started boarding we noticed that there were two sections -- one inside with AC, and another upstairs and outside. We weren't told this when buying our tickets, so we'd bought the more expensive ones for seats inside.

The journey was a smooth two hours with the only hiccup being the first movie they tried to play -- The Reader. Within 10 minutes there was a naughty sex scene and the movie was removed from the screen, probably due to complaints by horrified parents. They switched the movie to Jumper and we just watched other shows on Ronald's notebook. When we deboarded we got a map from the information girl and started walking towards downtown Tagbilaran. There were tons of offers for tricycles for 10 pesos, but we had time to walk and it was a nice day and it ended up only taking about 10 or 15 minutes.

There weren't many cheap places and after walking around we settled for the Traveller's Inn for 500, shared bathroom, free breakfast, no wifi, no hot water, and a fan. Pretty bad for the price, but there was nothing else available.

After securing a place to stay we went off in search of diving. Turns out we needed to go to Panglao, the island just southwest of Bohol. By trike it cost 150 total and took about 35 minutes going to Alona beach. That beach is full of resorts and we walked around for diving centers and settled on Oasis. So tomorrow I plan to do three dives around Balicasag Island. Equipment rental is separate. Boo. 300 pesos per dive. Double boo. Anyways, the boat leaves tomorrow at 8:30. Yay!

We headed back to Tagbilaran so Ronald could work and sat in the MetroCentre hotel/convention center. They just gave us the wifi password without even questioning whether or not we were staying there. The connection wasn't so great, but it was nice to find a place with wifi other than the mall that closes at like 9 pm.

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