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Published: June 26th 2009
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Travelling Bohol by Motorbikes
Today we mustered up some courage and rented motorcycles. We ended up bartering down to 400 pesos for 8 hours of use. Our plan was to get a map and drive to the Chocolate Hills. They Hills were about 70km's away from where we were staying in Alona Beach and we figured renting the motorcycles would be the quickest and cheapest, albeir more dangerous way to see them. The other option was to take a tour from a guided group (approx. 2500 - 3000 pesos) or to hire a tricycle for around 1200pesos.
The day before we took the bikes out for an hour to see how they would handle and what we thought. After about 45 minutes we felt pretty comfortable so this was a huge deciding factor. We woke at 8:30, got our map, had a quick bite and got our bikes. The drive at first was very slow since it is hard to reach quick speeds driving the roads in the Philippines and it took us nearly an hour to get to our first checkpoint. At that time, we needed to gas up which we did and cost us about $2.50Cdn
to fill the tanks for the day. We continued until we reached the small village of Loboc. In Loboc, there is a river boat trip that you can take for 300 pesos but we opted out since their lunch menu looked terrible. We decided to grab a quick bite since we had been a few hours from breakfast. We found this random food stand that was obviously supporting a family. There was no menu, but an array of pots and pans. After seeing about six different kinds of hideous fish, we decided to get vegetable spring rolls, sausage bits and some rice. Let's not leave out the litre of Sprite for the beverage. The meal was served almost instantly, which sometimes can be a little nerve-racking, and we dug in while the seven family members watched us in awe. The food was horrendous. This was perhaps the worst meal I had ever eaten, and I would have happily have traded it for three or four fried snakes from a night vendor in China. We picked away at the meal, only to be polite, drank all of the Sprite, then told our hosts that we were full, paid, then left.
On the way to the Hills
This is the road that took us to the Hills. We spoke with a gentleman who was working security that the tarsier monkey's were very close to where we were if we wanted to see them. Simply look for the cars that are parked on the side of the street and that they were only 3km. We took his adviec and found the tarsier monkeys in no time at all. Just like he said, there weere cars just randomly parked along the road, and then you had to walk down a little embarkment. When we got down there, there was a huge cage (roughly the size of a garage) and then we saw it! The 'monkey' was sitting on a branch with its beady eyes doing 360's to keep up with all the gawking tourists. We found it hilarious that this is actually called a 'monkey' since it much more resembled a rodent. It was the size of a rat, and had a long rat-like tail and it's eyes must have accounted for about 20 percent of its overall body. Entrance was free so that was additional bonus and we were able to see some 'flying lemurs' that they had there as well. After about 20 minutes of being there,
Chocolate Hills
The Hills in Bohol, Philippines we left a donation, jumped back on our bikes, and continued to the hills.
We made great tie, and cruised alongat a comfortable speed. We reached a point in our journey where it because like we had entered a different world. All of a sudden, trees took over. These trees were massive and completely covered the road in a nice cool shade. The only light that came through was the occasional beam of light, and made it seem like something you would only be able to see on TV. Biking made this experience possible, and we were definitely pleased we made that choice. Not only was it great the way the trees sheltered us from the blistering sun, but the road felt never-ending as it twisted and turned all the way up the mountain.
We finally made it to the hills and after about four hours of driving and stopping. We paid the 50 pesos entrance to get in to the peak/look-out point and then had to drive up that as well. When we finally reached the top, the landscape and scenery was amazing. The pictures I took do a pretty good job explaining what we had seen. They were similar to the view from the great wall, in the sense that they seemed to run off far into the horizon. There are said to be more than 1200 of these hills here in Bohol, and there is still no certain reason how they have come to be. The old folklore tells of a giant named Arogo who was extremely powerful and youthful. Arogo fell in love with Aloya who was a simple mortal. Aloya's death caused Arogo much pain and misery, and in his sorrow he could not stop crying. When his tears dried the Chocolate Hills were formed.
We took a few pictures, took in the sights for a little longer, then decided to make our way back before it became too dark. We navigated our way back without a problem, only getting lost once for a few minutes. When we first landed in the Philippines, in Cebu City, we took notice of a large portion of bikers that all used bandana's to cover their face and head, along with a sweater to cover their arms. We thought this a little strange, but decided it must be because they thought the wind was too cold on their bare skin. We soon found out the real reason. We we finally arrived back at the Guesthouse, we found out that every piece of exposed skin on our body had turned a filthy black, and it looked like we had been experienced coal miners after a long day's work. Since we were wearing shortsleeves, and shorts and only a baseball cap and sunglasses, so our legs arms and face were all just covered. Apparently the Philippines do not have the same emissions standards as we do, because nearly every vehicle on the road just spews black fumes. After washing and taking all the the black off of our skin, we found a nice bright red that lay underneath. We were cooked like lobsters and I received the worst sunburn I have probably ever had. Not to worry though, I still had a few days before it would start to peel and make me look like I had scabies, or scoliosis, or something hideous like that.,.,.,which is exactly what did happen to my face, arms, and legs.
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