Remembering BOHOL...

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My mum just arrived from UK for a vacation here in Philippines. And she decided to explore the known island of Bo-ol (it is Bohol's original name until it was changed to Bohol). I have a work here in Manila so I decided to just follow June 14 in Cebu and meet them. Going to Cebu has two purposes, becaouse I haven't been to Cebu since I graduated college, and also to meet my dad's long lost relatives. I took Cebu Pacific st flight to Cebu on same day, June 14 and arrived at Mactan Int'l airport at around 8am. I was fetched by my dad's niece and her son.

Cebu is more like Manila, it'skinda traffic, and hot. We went directly to Elicon house were we have reserved even before we arrive. At 1st, I find the place just fair enough not until we went home at night. Also, I was waiting for my mum and my sis to arrive from Bacolod and I was expecting them to arrived around 10am. It took us an hour to get into Elicon house and I just check-in and we went to Jollibee just across University of San Carlos for my breakfast.

My mum and my sis arrived, and we decided to spend the rest of the day to the mall. We went to SM, the usual mall people goes, and it is also the nearest decent mall at our hotel, we ate at Max's and do some shopping. After an hour, we went to visit my dad's relatives in labangon and trece martires, and we meet my dad's niece's kids. They were all cute and healthy...some of my dad's relatives doesn't even know us, I'm just lucky we just have to visit them and not stay overnight becoz it's kinda awkward . But one thing, at some point it's just cool to meet relatives i never met since we were kids.
We left after an hour and went back to SM for dinner, we ate at a fancy native restaurant. And it was really weird. it was my 1st time to eat expensive native filipino foods but they dont have a real plate. Our plate is a banana leaf put in a native-made plate. Though food is ok, I'm so amused with the plate. Well, anyways, it's a native restaurant afterall.

We went home around 9pm and to our surprised, the shower is overflowing. I think the drainage has clogged, I was pissed off. So the hotel attendants transfer us into a different floor on the 2nd flr, (since we are on the 4th floor), and they said they upgraded our room with still the old price. We have 6 beds in the new room and its bigger, but I'm not happy at all, all I was thinking is for the next day and be in Bohol, and see the tarsiers. It's weird, but in the middle of the night, I got a nightmare.

We woke up around 6am, June 15, since we have to catch up with our supercat trip at 8am. Another bad experience with the cook at the Elicon House, and she was "suplada" and "masungit", it just ruined my morning whenwe took breakfast in there. But we are in a hurry, so I just let pass of her attitude. We took a taxi ride to the Supercat Terminal and it took us approximately 30 mins to get there. We left at exactly 8am and we arrived at Tagbiliran pier 2 hours after, 10am.
We were fetched by a van hired by the El Portal Inn, were we have our reservation for our stay in Bohol. The driver was friendly, but I forgot his name. It's just 5 mins to get into our hotel, and we just left our things there 1st in their care, since check-in starts at 2pm. We proceeded to our island tour right away as planned.

Boholanos are friendly, because that what we experienced during our stay there from the the time we arrived until we went home. We ate lunch at a seafood restaurant near the pier, it is Jovings, and they have great seafoods @ a very cheap price. We payed less than a thousand for like a food make us more than full enough. We have a fish soup, a steamed crab, a stuffed crab, calamres, a shrimp, a goat meal(pinaitan), a seaweed salad, a "kilawing tanigue", mangoes, and drinks, and not to forget the rice. It was a heart lunch I will never forget esp. the seaweed salad. After lunch, we went to Honey Bee Farm. Honey Bee farm is cool, they have exotic foods like real flowers salad and other stuffs like that. WE just took some pictures and mum just bought some native bags and some honeybee spread and some "tsokolate", which u put in oiling water to make a chocolate drink.

Then we went to a church who they said have magical healing water from a deep well. They said all deep wells in that place has salty water except this deep well water in this church. So, everyone said this is a holy water. It is Dauis church, and it's kind of old already. We just took a picture again, left 20 pesos for the man who opened the well for us to see the water, and we gave 20 for a donation on the donation box. They were cleaning the church when we went there. After a church visit, we went to a public resort, it's just adjacent to bohol beach club but it is almost the same. A public resorrt in Bohol still looks like a 1st class and if you are a practical person, you will think about it. A nice beach for free, it's cool, isn't it? It's like Boracay but this beaches in Bohol is not yet exploited. It has crystal blue-green clear water. Mum and i can't help go for a swim for like an hour.

Then we left and went to Alona Beach Resort. They are kind of expensive resorts but we just ate there, But i guess it's not real beautiful, maybe it is expensive because it is where foreigners go with their filipina girls...But I like it better in the public resort where we formerly went. It's more peaceful and it has a good shoreline for swimming, not unlike in alona... we just ate there, and their food is quite weird, when u said fruit salad, they will really give u fresh fruit mix, and i dont think it is a salad...lol...My mum have a fresh fruit buko, and my sis has a homemade french fries. It is kind of weird food, so we haven't filled up our hungry stomach.

After having a snacks, we went to hinagdangan cave. It is a cave discovered by accident by a farmer who owns a lot. He was digging in his lot when he saw this hole, and he tried to drop a stone inside, he heard a water below it. So they discovered this underground cave, and developed it. It has a swimming pool inside. But it is a natural swimming pool. It's a bit scary coz it's a little dark. We talk some pictures and my mum bought some bags again.

After , We just go home, and went to sleep. We were so tired, we woke up the next day. We have a breakfast @ El portal, and they have good food. We were pleased. And we left 10am and proceeded to our Countryside tour, June 16, and Saturday. We have a new driver different from what we have on our island tour and we just have a car instead of a van.

We went to Blood Compact Site where spanish leader and a chief of boholanos forged a blood compact as a sign of friendly relationship. And after this we went to Bohol's souvenir shop. We pass through Baclayon Church too. It's an old church, and we just took some pictures in the outside since it was raining we didn't stay long.My energy was so low, we decided to take our lunch 1st and we took our lunch at Loboc River and it's kind of different becoz we took it in a floating restaurant. We sailed in the river for like an hour, and took our lunch while being serenade by local singer in the boat. it was a cool experience, it's kind of relaxing, and i remember when we meet other boats crossing the river, the people from other boats wave to us....it's real friendly place. We then went to see the tarsiers, that's the primary reason why i want to go to Bohol, to see this extinct primates only found in Bohol. i just love their big eyes and it's a little fulfillment for me to see one of them. The rain just stop and they were sleeping. I saw three of them clang in a tree, we took some pictures of them and no flash, becoz they don't like flashes. I also took some pictures with a tarsier in my head and in my shoulder, I'm little scared so I didn't move for the entire pictorial..lol...my sis scream when the guy put it in her arm so the tarsier run, they are scared when u scream so if u plan to have a pic with picture, try to be invisible...

We went to Chocolate Hills, and on our way to chocolate Hills, it's kida raining so we thought we will miss seeing the chocolate hills. we were just glad that when we arrived at Chocolate Hills, the rain has stopped and a little sunny. Thank God, we were lucky not to miss it. On our way, we pass through mahogany forest. It's cool...it's like very virgin forest...and the view is really amazing with thiese slim tall trees... when we arrived at Chocolate Hills, we cant help take a lot of pictures until we went into the viewing deck. It was simply amazing. It feels like we are on top of the world...It has a big bell in the viewing deck and as deep well.....u have to throw a coin the wishing well and after u make a wish u have to ring the bell. It's cool, but I weren't able to do it. i hope someday I will do it...😊 We spent like an hour there and we took a snacks in the cafeteria just on the grounds of the viewing deck.

Then we went to see prunee, the python snake which is a 100 lbs. It's 10 yrs old and it's in a big cage. But what had made it more memorable is a the gay who entertains the tourists...Her name was marimar, and she's amusing. she asked where country are we from and I told her were just from manila. She also showed us the baby python they have just captured. And she was funny, she walked like a model with her see through long skirt. The other people were amused too, and she also danced, and she dance like a snake...haha....she was funny, we gave her 50 pesos for being game. We left and we went back to hotel. It was almost 7pm when we arrive so we just bought food at jollibee. My mum walked just streets away from hotel and there's not a lot of decent restaurants in tagbiliran. then we went sleep for what we called a very memorable but exhausting day.

June 17, Sunday, we left @ 12noon. But while we are @ the waiting area of supercat, I have bad experince with Koreans. They're too noisy, they occupied the whole seats, seems like they're in a group tour, but what has pissed me off is when they're too noisy, they keep screaming and shouting. For god's sake, can they just shut up like normal passengers do? Also, we saved a seat for mum, and a korean just sit there even if we told them that the seat is taken. Me and my sister just look at each other, and let it pass but i want to ask the korean old lady if she doesn't understand the english. Then one more thing, when were about to get into the ship they stood, so we just seat on the seat they have left, but they're tired of standing so the old lady told me to stand, what a heck?! I want to question here if she has a name embedded on it, but still I want to make my patience rule, so I just rolled my eyes, stare at her like a tiger, then left, I hope she got the message clear!

We arrived at Elicon House around 2:30pm and we are surprised to see a a lot of dead cockroaches in the toilet.It was so yucky, and we got upset so they transfered us to an executive room with an old price again. But we are not happy, we are so disgusted but decided to just let it pass afterall we won't be staying long there. We went to Mall again and have lunch and met my dad's other niece. We also went to Sto. Nino Church to buy some body accessories, native ones, just near the church. Then I'm running out of time, so we went home. I am going back to Manila at 9pm so I have to be @ Mactan Airport two hours before. I arrived at the airport around 7pm only to find out my flight was cancelled for another two hours. So i asked the girl if I can get a chance passenger since I'm reporting to work the next day. She said they have one seat if I can get earlier flight they'll give me a slot. And so, they did. I'm just thankful....and I left Cebu at 720pm. I arrived Manila before 10pm and I was tired, I get to sleep and thank God I'm safe back at home.

Some tips in going to Bohol:
1) If you drop by in Cebu before going to Bohol, nevr stay in Elicon House if u don't want to have a nice stay in Cebu.
2) Take Supercat and buy the tickets day before u leave, for convenience and for a 50% discount for a two way ticket. (if you're lucky to have trip on their prom days)
3) Stay At El portal Inn if you want to save money but have a hotel like service and hotel like clean room accommodation.
4) Never get near a group of Koreans in a waiting area if you want peace of mind.
5) Package tours @ El portal is cheaper than hire a car and a driver.

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