Blogs from Bohol, Philippines, Asia

The shanties of Cebu City are nothing more than crates stacked on top of each other, waiting for the next typhoon to sweep them away. There are no sidewalks. Exhaust-blackened storefronts offer junk for sale. Tattered laundry flaps from second-floor windows. Stray dogs lie in the middle of the road. Children play among piles of unused construction material—broken cinder blocks, rusted pipes, fragments of corrugated sheets-- covered in weeds. Dark narrow alleys reach back into the slum as far as I can see; as far as I dare to see. We are in an air-conditioned van, stuck in rush-hour traffic, inching our way to Shangri La, a generic resort surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. I wondered about the wisdom of bringing my granddaughters—Vivienne (12) and Bella (5)-- to the Philippines for their first big ... read more

For every traveler that wants to visit the Central Visayas region of the Philippines should at least visit Bohol if they are in the mission to look for adventure and fun experience. Bohol would be a perfect candidate for those who seeks for adventure, fun experience, historical and cultural lessons and relaxation. Bohol is located in Central Visayas and it is the neighboring island of the 2nd largest plane hub in Philippines which is Cebu City. The Bohol island has 4,820 square kilometers of land area and it has a lot of tourist attractions ranging from beaches, islands, mountains, hills, historical sites, ruins and many more that made Bohol remains an option to visit. You should at least spend a day in Bohol if you want to experience it for yourself the beauty and the wonders ... read more

The dog sleeping on the runway didn’t seem to mind our jet landing, and the pilot and the airport didn’t mind either. We’d read Bohol airport was moving but in a couple of months to Panglao Island from Tagbilaran City so were surprised to find we landed in Panglao. The terminal isn’t quite finished, but apparently they switched last month. This was a bugger for us as it was farther away from where we were heading so meant a more expensive fare. Taxi touts wanted 800 pesos. We always play it cool and act with no urgency, as the more passengers come through and they haven’t got a fare the price usually goes down sharply. We’d got one down to 400 pesos and were about to accept when a tuk-tuk arrived to drop someone off and ... read more

Alles Einfache ist uninteressant. Daher beschloss ich nach dem Miniboot mit dem Jeepney Richtung Fähre weiterzufahren. Es gab ehrlich gesagt auch keine andere Möglichkeit. Zusammengequetscht saß ich mit einigen anderen Tauchern und Einheimischen auf den kleinen Bänken des präparierten Jeeps. Direkt vor mir saß eine alte Dame auf einem Hocker. Gemütlich war das nicht, aber abenteuerlich. Ich wollte zur Fähre, doch der Jeepneyfahrer konnte kaum Englisch, nickte aber immer freundlich. Natürlich bin ich viel zu weit gefahren, doch das verriet mir erst mein GPS. Aber alles halb so wild, denn der nächste Tricylefahrer witterte schon sein Geschäft. Die Fähre brachte mich von Dumaguette nach Bohol. Dort angekommen regnete es in Strömen. Mein Rucksack hatte das Fahrpersonal halb aufweichen lassen und so quetschte ich mich auf den Sitz hinter den Tricyclefahrer. Ich wollte nach Panglao Island. Zu ... read more

Cabalao island is somewhere we'd read about the last time we were in The Philippines but had never been to. The only places to stay are dive resorts, which tend to be quite pricey, and as there are only a few options, you need to book ahead, never our forte in the past. This time we are spending much more on accommodation as we are getting air conditioning, and we are pre-booking a lot more. Hence, it made sense to try Cabilao this time around. Primarily a dive island, Cabilao is not known for its beaches so we definitely wanted to book a place with a pool. As we got off the boat and walked onto Polaris Dive Resort, I anxiously looked around for their pool. Given our recent luck with pools, I was half expecting ... read more