Bohol: Land of Tarsiers and Fireflies

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The Philippines is a land of islands, 7107 of them to be exact! After spending a month on just one of the bigger ones, Palawan, it was time to spread our wings and explore some new islands. Two short flights later we were arriving on Bohol for what I consider The Philippines Part II.



We left the tiny Tagbilaran airport and found a tricycle, Kyla and Jake watching with interest as the driver tied on our luggage. By this point in the trip I'd been determined to ditch one piece of luggage, but it wasn't happening. In the past we've always traveled with just a big backpack on our backs and a small one on our fronts. This trip we've been using the exact same backpacks but we have also added a huge wheelie suitcase into the mix. Even admitting this makes me cringe! The idea was that it was full of jeans and sweaters that we needed for Africa, and we'd ditch the suitcase and give away all of the clothes once we left Africa for SE Asia. Well, when it was time to leave South Africa, we did indeed give away most of our warm clothes, at least three big grocery bags full between us. However, we couldn't ditch the suitcase as planned as our efforts to potty train Jake had failed. We'd need the extra room for toting diapers when we were heading to smaller towns where we couldn't be sure we'd be able to buy them.



In El Nido, Jake basically potty trained himself with the encouragement of M&Ms. He also stopped napping. Now that we only needed one diaper a day at bedtime, surely we could finally ditch the suitcase? We did a trial pack in El Nido and everything fit into the backpacks. The only caveat was that we needed to pull out an extra beach bag to carry the kids' bulky life jackets. Admittedly, our bags were packed to the hilt, but it did all fit in!



We traveled down to the Astoria hotel in Palawan with two cram-packed backpacks and a completely empty suitcase, much to the bewilderment of our mini van driver. We'd realized that when we booked our flights with Air Asia, we'd booked three 20kg bags, a total of 60kg. We were not sure whether they'd instead allow just two bags weighing a little more than 20kg each. The plan was to try it on our next flight, and if they allowed it, ditch the suitcase at the airport. If not, we could redistribute stuff from the backpacks into the suitcase and resign ourselves to keeping it.



Our flight out of Palawan was early so we had to set an alarm for what seemed like the middle of the night. With two tired kids, we quickly and easily threw all of the last minute packing into the suitcase, rather than spending forever neatly packing it into our backpacks as planned. It was at this point that it dawned on me that we needed the extra space for times like this when time was short, or for when you needed to transport ten packets of dried mangoes as snacks for a stay on a remote island, or honestly just to pack the life jackets so that we didn't need to keep track of more than one hand luggage each. After all my desires to ditch the case, I was finally at peace with it. In the past we'd always giggled at tourists awkwardly dragging their suitcases down the sandy beach. Now we were that person! But the kids are our excuse!



So, back to the original story... we watched as our tricycle driver strapped on the luggage - Scott's backpack weighing 14kg, mine weighing 13kg, and the suitcase (slight cringe!) weighing 14kg. Forty-one kilograms in total. Not too bad I suppose!



Our tricycle took us over the bridge to Panglao island and down to Alona beach. We'd pre-booked a hotel with a pool online, which the kids were excited about. While checking us in, the lady helping us looked at us very seriously and said, "I have bad news for you..." at which point Scott and I exchanged glances, fulling expecting the reservation not to exist and imaging us trekking from place to place looking for a room, wheelie suitcase in tow! She continued, "The pool is under renovation and is closed." Ugh! We seem to be having bad luck with pools!



We were taken to our room and I instantly noticed that two whole sides were pretty much windows, and the curtains were paper thin. I guess any hopes of a lie-in went out of the window (pun intended!) and not even my handy bulldog clips would be able to remedy this one! We dragged our suitcase in and I realized that it was now better than when we'd set off six months prior. At the beginning of the trip, the rubber on the wheels was perished and left black scuff marks and a trail of black dust everywhere we went. At this stage, all the rubber has gone so it leaves no nasty black trail. Maybe it's fate and we were destined to have it the whole trip!



We settled into our room and then went out for an early dinner. Scott and I had been to Alona about ten years prior and it had been quite nice back then. Now, ten years further on, there'd been a Korean invasion and high end hotels, huge concrete monstrosities, had popped up everywhere, some encroaching on the once wide beach by twenty or more feet! Sad.



The next day we decided to forego the beach and instead did an island tour. These are advertised in travel agencies all over the place but we were not interested in most things on the tours as a) we'd done the main things last time we were here, and b) the kids couldn't care less about the statues and churches and other "fillers" they take you to. The two things we wanted to do were see the tarsiers (cute little monkey-type critters) and do another firefly trip.



We hired a car and driver for the afternoon and set off. We arrived at the tarsier sanctuary much sooner than expected as our travel agent's estimates were way off. No wonder the driver had been driving so slowly, trying to waste time! Unfortunately, Jake had been taking a nap as he was still tired from our long travel day the day before, but woke up when the car stopped. Most of you may not know this, but if Jake is ever woken up before he's ready, he is likely to turn into a devil-child. We used to have a saying, "Whoever wakes him, takes him!" but the driver was having none of it! Kyla was excited to get out and see the tarsiers and we made the mistake of rushing into the activity too fast. We got our tickets and a guide started walking us along a trail, pointing out the six tarsiers they'd located that day. Jake actually held it together until the last tarsier, at which point he lost it and started screaming to go back into the car. As tarsiers are very sensitive to loud noises, we decided we'd better make a quick exit before the poor thing freaked out! I stayed just long enough to snap the classical tarsier picture (the others hadn't been in the right position for the quintessential photo!)



It was now about 2:30pm and the firefly tours didn't start until at least 6:30pm. That was a lot of time to kill. Our driver suggested we go to the reptile park. Not knowing what else to do, we went along with it. As we could have guessed, it was quite a sad place with animals enclosed in cages too small for them. Even Kyla noted, unprompted, that it looked as if the monkey was trying to escape. We walked around, killing time, and Jake and Kyla played on some small grassy hills that we presumed to be mini replicas of the Chocolate Hills (Bohol's #1 attraction) with the owner's daughter. Suddenly, as she walked away, her leg disappeared into a hole where the metal grating had failed. She was fine, but she was very lucky that she didn't get her leg cut wide open!



At that point we told our driver we'd like to head to dinner in Tagbilaran city, close to the fireflies. We picked a restaurant from our guide book. It was cowboy themed and unique in that it employed mostly deaf waiters. You order through a telephone on your table and the deaf waitstaff bring out your order. We dragged it out by getting ice cream for dessert, and then went to find our driver. It was firefly time!



Although we'd had a good tour in Palawan, the night had been slightly breezy and the fireflies had stayed in the trees rather than coming down. We decided to give it another go. This time, instead of a paddle boat for two, we had a twenty-person boat all to ourselves! It was motorized, so not as peaceful as the prior tour, but they'd turn off the engines at each tree. We saw about eight or so trees with fireflies. One was hanging low over the river and our guide was able to catch one. Kyla wanted to hold it but was too scared in the end. The finale was a tree that was literally covered with a million twinkling fireflies. The photo just doesn't do it justice!



The next morning we were all up early with the sun and spent the day at Alona beach. A big section of it was covered in sun beds and backed by a huge fancy hotel, marring the tropical beauty I'd remembered. Another beach ruined by mass tourism!



It's always interesting, if not a little melancholy, to go back to places you've been before. This time around, three nights was enough for Alona. It was time to head out to Cabilao island for some scuba diving!



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