From Cebu, through Bantayan, to Bohol

Our first taste of the Philippines (from Manila) left us in great spirits and eager to discover more of this amazing country, so off we went on our way and starting with for a short stop over in Cebu city.

Our stop only gave us just a small taste of the city. During the day we visited the Carbon Market which is a huge, mainly fresh produce market i.e. quite nice to see but nothing of interest to buy. Walked through the city to the famous Cross of Magellan which is one of the city's top attractions but is literally a one minute stop off, and popped into yet another Filipino Shopping centre. After Manila, Cebu city seemed a little less exciting but was charming nonetheless and the Filipinos were as welcoming, kind and cheerful as always.
In the evening we went to a huge BBQ market. Basically it's about 50 market stands with raw meat, chicken, fish and seafood that they BBQ up right there and serve it with delicious rice. It
gave us a nice authentic Filipino experience as we were the only tourists there and the food was simply delicious, a really cool night that left us with a fond feeling of Cebu city.


And then we left for Bantayan

From Cebu we took a short 1.5hr boat ride and then caught a motor tricycle to our resort. The way things work in Bantayan is very different to other beach destinations. The island is really small and the main resorts/hotels separate the beach into different sections. For example, we heard that Kota beach was one of the nicest but to 'stay' on Kota beach meant to stay at the Kota beach resort - which was not what we had in mind, room-wise. So we ended up staying at a lovely place called Merlin's beach resort. The resort was very pleasant, it's on the beach and in quick walking distance to the local eateries in the town (all of about three-four of them that is). The town itself is a quaint little place with little to no tourists around whist we were there. We simply fell in love with it!
Whilst the sand is not the smoothest ever seen, the sea is the perfect temperature and at high tide comes up top of the beach like a swimming pool. It's also totally wave-less and is so clear that you can see even tiny details on the many sea stars that lay at the floor of the sea. What made it even more magical however were the numerous stunning sea shells that decorated the shores. We actually spent almost an hour just walking along collecting handfuls of these beautiful gifts from the ocean - amazing.
It is fair to say that our days revolved around relaxing on the gorgeous beach, swimming in the perfect water and the occasional movie here or there - a very hard life I know but hey this is supposed to be the monsoon season, who knows when the weather will change :-)

Our strenuous last few days made us decide to head to Bohol where we could (again) relax, (again) swim, but also dive (sport activities!), and travel (forgot about that one lately).

A Poem by a fellow traveler: Bohol vs. the rest of the Philippines
If the Philippines are beautiful, than Bohol is BEAUTIFUL
If the Filipinos are such-nice-people, than the Boholians are SUCH-NICE-PEOPLE
You have to go to the Philippines, but YOU HAVE TO GO TO Bohol

Analysis of this profound, beautifully-written, gramatically-challenging poem
Bohol is just a great place. Great people, great food, and the diving is the best diving we've ever had. Better than Belize, Bay Islands, Costa Rica, Panama, even than Eilat/Red Sea and definitely better than what Thailand had to offer us.
We stayed in another nice resort and went diving in Balicasag island, in the famous Black Forest and Diver's Heaven divespots. These places well deserve their 5* dive rating. It's like diving in an aquarium full of tropical fish, just stunning. We left with one of the local dive places, only PHP900 ($19) per dive/pp, much less than what the foreigner-run places charge. So our main advice is GO LOCAL. There's no reason paying double for a German/Swiss/English/Whatever run place. They don't necessarily know better, they're not necessarily more experienced, and you're not growing the country's GDP by paying them. So go local. (The primary reason of course we took them is because it's cheaper, but it doesn't hurt to have some principles, too.)

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to CHOCOLATE HILLS
After our dive in the first day, we rented a motorbike ($5 per day) and headed off for a 200km journey on an 110cc bike with a 4L tank. If you multiply these numbers you'd get $5x200x110x4 you'd get $440,000 which is how much we were willing to pay for a massage when we were back in town. But it was sure worth it.
One of the main attractions of Bohol is Chocolate Hills, some 1,200 (we didn't count) 30m high (we didn't measure) hills in brown/green colors (depending on season). The view is stunning, like everything else on this beautiful island, and we enjoyed being outdoors again (rather than just on a beach), hiking a bit and taking lots of pics, as you can see.
On the way back, we stopped in the Tarsier reserve, where you could meet face-to-tiny-face, this small primate which was probably the basis for the popular Gremlins movie. The Tarsier is a primate, much earlier in the evolutionary process (that is, G-d created it on Wed. 1:15pm whilst the first Gorilla was born around 5:25pm that day). We arrived at exactly 4.15 when the reserve was suppose to close at 4p.m. but after some eye battering and pleading about the 4 hours we'd ridden to get there we got out own private viewing of these sweet little monkey-like gremlins. Amazing!

In Sum: These travels have been some of our best (which is saying something) and we simply are in love with the Philippines. Tomorrow we head off for more diving in Moalboal. Yay for us!

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