Bohol #1: Doljo Beach, Panglao Island

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What a mission it was to get here! Straight from work, on to the bus and then two subways to reach the airport. From Incheon a turbulent four hour and twenty minute flight to Cebu Mactan Airport, a taxi ride from the airport to the port, from the island of Mactan to the island of Cebu. We were there in time to watch the sunrise, we didn't have the greatest view but the sky was a beautiful shade of pink. We bought our ferry tickets 800 pesos for a return journey and went to bunk down in the ferry terminal for a bit. When the cafe opened, we headed up there to get some breakfast. Yummy, yummy, rice, fried eggs and chorizo. It was delicious, proper sausage, none of that hot dog crap! After feeling like we had been in the ferry port forever, it was time to board the ship. We left at 8:45 and the journey took about two hours, I was spark out for most. I love ferries, they are the only mode of transport, I can get a good sleep on. The journey took about two hours and we were deposited on Bohol. We got a motorised tricycle and it took us to our accommodation, on Panglao island, which is connected to Bohol by a bridge. The journey took a lot longer than I expected, everything looks a lot closer on the map.

We settled into our room. The place we were staying at was really small, there are only two rooms. It was like having our own little villa, and it was tucked away behind a restaurant on the main street. Having a shower was a glorious experience, I felt so grotty after being up all day and night, and having almost zero sleep. We went to chat to the women, who run the place and have a drink with them. There were so welcoming and friendly, I have to say that it is true about Filipinos being friendly, throughout our stay everyone was just so lovely. We got our island tour sorted for the next day and inquired into doing a boat tour too. They also told us the way to the beach. We were staying near Doljo beach, which is a quiet compared to the more built up Alona Beach on Panglao Island.

The walk to the beach took about five minutes and we walked passed loads of locals, who all said hello or wished us a good afternoon. When we got to the beach there was not a soul in sight. The beach was pretty, lovely sand, beautiful blue water, and lot of palm trees. The only sad thing was that there was quite a bit of rubbish in the grass lining the beach. We spent a while walking along the beach taking in the view, the water was dotted wit boats of different sizes, most of them were fishing boats. We passed a couple of swanky resorts, one was quite small and looked nice, and the other was huge, with loads if facilities, oh to be rich! The tide was a little way out, and the water didn't look very deep, but we didn't go in for a dip.

We were starving by this point, so when we came across a smaller resort and restaurant Muro Ami, we headed in there. We ordered Adobo chicken, garlic shrimps, and pineapple rice. The food took a while to arrive, I don't know if it was as long as I thought or my hunger was making it feel like it was forever. The food was really nice, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The shrimps were huge and the garlicky sauce they were in was divine! The Adobo chicken, which is a traditional Filipino dish, was delicious, too. I knew that I would be googling the recipe for that at a later date. I had asked for an iced coffee, but I was given a cup of hot water, and two, not one but two, sachets of coffee powder. So, instead I had two hot strong coffees. The perfect end to a great meal.

Feeling nicely full, we headed wandered along the beach, we headed back in the direction we had come and then we turned around, as we wanted to walk to the end of the beach. At the end of the beach the sand disappears, and if you climb some rocks, there is a bit of headland, we followed it around the coast and came to a path. We walked along the path and came to a tiny little beach. It was like having our own private beach. The sun was starting to set a little in the sky, and the views were absolutely gorgeous. After enjoying this little slice of paradise for a while we continued on the path. There was a point where you could watch the sun set.There were few people there with their cameras, we were all snapping the sun as it disappeared and the sky changed colour.

Since we didn't fancy getting stranded there in the dark, we headed back to the beach. One slight problem, the tide had come in. There was a local laughing at us, as we tried to get back to the beach. He watched us to make sure that we were okay, bless him! Luckily the water was shallow. Since the tide was in pretty far, we couldn't walk along the way along the beach to get back to our guesthouse, so we cut up by the restaurant where we had eaten lunch earlier. We walked through the town for a little bit. It is pretty quiet and sleepy, it has one main road, that is under a lot of construction. When it is finished, it'll make getting about a lot quicker and easier, no more potholes. We chilled back at the guesthouse for a while. Our long night of travel had taken it out of us.

At around 7:30, we headed out for some dinner. We wandered down the main street and came across Jam Restaurant, a place we had seen earlier. They had several different menu, depending on the time of day, and one menu that seemed to run all the time. We chose from that menu, as it had loads of traditional Filipino dishes (well we think they were as we hadn't heard of any of them before). One of the things we ordered they were out of, so we ended up with Humba, Menudo (I think), rice and of course beer. We had San Miguel lite, it was canny nice. The Menudo was a kind of curry, but not spicy, more like a mix of veg and meat in a thick gravy. It was canny. However the Humba stole the show, it was so good, we had to order seconds of it. Humba is belly pork cooked in a delicious sauce, the sauce was so good, if you could bottle it and drink it, I think we would. After our successful dinner, we stopped in at one of the little stores to buy a load of snacks for tomorrow, and some chocolate for dessert.

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