Bohol Day Tour

After spending 4 nights on the beach of Boracay, we made our way to Bohol Island. Bohol has some beautiful beaches as well, but we limited our stay to two nights, meaning only one day to explore what the island has to offer. So no Bohol beach for us but it was still pretty great.

So our trip to Bohol included a 7 AM pick up service, 5 minute ride to the ferry, 20 min ferry ride, 2 hour bus ride to the airport, 2 hour wait at the airport, 35 minute flight, 15 min taxi to Cebu port, 2 hr ferry ride to Bohol, and a 5 minute trike ride to our hotel. Whew! Long day, huh? The crazy part was that our 35 minute flight departed 33 minutes ahead of schedule. So we ended up landing 2 minutes after our initially scheduled arrival time.

Chocolate Hills

Our full day in Bohol was spent on a private tour seeing some great sites. Starting off are the Chocolate Hills, which Bohol is very well known for. They're named as such because during drier months, the grass dries and turns brown making the hills look like they are made of chocolate. Unfortunately for us, the grass was not completely dried out and the hills were covered in a layer of greenish brownish grass. Fortunately for us, it was still pretty cool.

Facing the sun, Darin had to cover his eyes

Mahogany Forest

After the Chocolate Hills, we drove to a tiny forest where some students planted mahogany trees back in 1958. I don't think the trees are full grown, but as you can see from the pictures, there still quite large. So with just a little over 50 years, you can have yoruself a nice little forest.

Tarsier Monkeys

The other thing that Bohol is known for: Tarsier monkeys. These monkeys are the smallest primates in the world being only thumb size when born and growing to a whopping 6 inches in length as an adult. They are nocturnal animals, so they have rather large eyes. And like an owl, their eye sockets are fixed, so they turn their heads 90 degrees each way to look around. Above all, they're pretty damn cute.

Nocturnal animals, Tarsiers look like they sleep under leaves to hide from rain & sun

Anthony as a Tarsier

Check out that tail; longer than his body

Ziplining & River Cruise

As an option to our day tour, we were able to add ziplining to our itinerary for 350 pesos per person (~8 USD). We opted for the combo, where we zipline in one direction then take a cable car back.

Later on, we went on a little river cruise where we got to eat a cruise down a river. The cool thing was that the end of the cruise was the same spot we ziplined over.

Strapped up and raring to go

View from our zipline adventure

On a cable car over the river

Our river cruise boat

Little rapids at the end of our cruise; notice the similarities from the view from our zipline

Some village folks performing during our cruise

Hanging Bridge & Butterfly Garden

We got to do a couple of other little things during our day trip including walking across a bamboo bridge and visiting a little butterfly garden.

Darin coming and Anthony going on the hanging bridge

Boracay

Boracay is a resort island in the Philippines known for its white sandy beaches. From Manila we hopped on a plane, bus, boat and jeepney to reach our hotel, Dave’s Straw Hat Inn, where the staff offered us an ice tea on our arrival and have all been polite. Our first full day started out with some heavy rain, though by around noon, the sun was shining, so we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach walking and laying around. We explored the local town, ate some pastries, and cleared our minds of any concerns. This has been the first real relaxing kick-your-heals-up time we have had.

Darin relaxing and kicking his heels up

Darin and I hanging out in this little island about 10m from the coast

Sailing away

The second day was more of the same but prepared with a homemade pineapple mango rum drink in hand. We also tried to use the pool of a neighboring hotel and were immediately told that the pool is for guest use only when asking for a towel. We’ll remember not to even ask for a towel next time. And after two hours on a beach lounge on the beach, we were again asked to leave in the most polite way possible.

We then just continue on and we stroll along the beach.

“Jet-ski sir? Parasailing sir? Snorkel sir? Sail boat sir?” the vendors ask as we walk along the beach.

“Sail boat, how much?”

“900, sir.” We keep walking. “OK, how much sir? 800 for you.”

“What boat is yours?” He points, we start to walk.

“700 sir.” We look at one another and decide to go sailing.

For 700 pesos (16USD) we were taken out for an hour on a sail boat by two guys operating the rigging. The filtered sun was perfect with the light breeze as we laid out on the boat with just the sound of the slapping water. What a great way to spend an afternoon.

Not our boat, but similar

View of White Beach from our boat

Ariel’s Point

On our last day in Boracay, we took a boat to Ariel’s Point. This is a little area where we can lounge around, jump off cliffs, kayak, snorkel, swim, and eat/drink all you can. The price was 1400 pesos per person (33USD). Though relatively expensive from everything else, we decided to splurge a little since it seemed highly recommended on tripadvisor and it sounded like a lot of fun. Plus, we got to meet some other travelers from Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the US.

Boat to Ariel's Point

Ariel's Point

Anthony jumping off the 8m board and Darin jumping off the 15m board

After spending 4 nights in Boracay, I can see why every Filipino I've met seems to rave about this place. With the beautiful beach and numerous activities, there really is something for everyone.

Goat, Caribou, & Duck

Much of this adventure is focused on experiencing and learning about Asian cultures. We are surrounded by it every moment of every day in every way. Food is a staple in every culture and provides a unique window into the people who eat it. So being the traveling, aspiring foodies we are, we thought it might be nice to share some food stories with you. So, when Me-Ann (Anthony's cousin) and Rex (Me-Ann’s husband) offered to take us to some local cuisine, we jumped on the chance and tried these three foods in one evening of indulgence. 

Goat 

Sitting in a bahay kubo (grass hut) our hosts ordered four goat dishes. Two were a more stew like dishes cooked with some meat (rib and leg), both were excellent. The third dish, with great flavor but a slightly unusual texture, was a mixture of chopped meat, skin, and intestine. To round the meal off was a plate of intestine, an acquired taste to say the least. This was Darin’s first time eating goat so for those who are in the same boat, it tastes similar to beef but with a softer texture and flavor. We also had two soups: one sinigang, a very common and popular sour soup in the Philippines (Anthony's favorite), and another bitter soup made from fish innards - not our favorite. 

Me-Ann & Rex enjoying their goat meal

Anthony & Darin trying out some goat

Pigar-Pigar

Caribou: you have seen them in movies and documentaries, now see them hanging from a hook and on your plate! On Galvan street -yes as in Anthony Galvan, but we'll save that for a later time- in Dagupan there is a row of outdoor eateries all selling pigar-pigar. Pigar-pigar is thinly sliced small pieces of caribou meat quickly cooked in boiling oil served with some chopped vegetables. Our ordered was a little overcooked and hard but the meat had good flavor and eating out in the street at this little booth was well worth it.

Vendor preparing some pigar pigar

Anthony & Darin w/ their pigar-pigar

Our pigar-pigar plate

Balut

Those with weak stomachs might want to skip this. While eating our pigar-pigar, locals paraded up and down the street selling various foods. Our hosts ordered three balut.  Balut is fertilized duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten warm from the shell with a pinch of salt. It is very popular in the Philippines and served from vendors walking the streets. The idea of eating a baby duck straight from the egg might strike some as odd; but once you get over that it tastes good. You eat the entire embryo and yoke but suggested not the hard white section. As for the taste, it just like a boiled egg if it were not for the bones, feathers, and head.

Balut

Me-Ann demonstrating how to eat balut

Anthony & Darin having a go w/ their balut

Anthony displaying his balut

Hundred Islands

About 2 hours NW from Dagupan, off the coast of the city of Alaminos, are approximately 123 islands. It was a 30 minute boat ride to the start of our tour and it was beautiful sailing going from one island to another.

The view from Governor's Island

In the waters at Governor's Island

Bahay Kubo on the edge of Children's Island

3 meter jump into the water inside a cave with bats

Bat Island to the right

Sagada

Bus to Sagada

From Bagio, where we had spent the previous night in cousin Me-Ann’s vacation home, we ventured to Sagada by way of a 6 hour bus ride(440pesos/10USD). The bus left at 6:30am so we were up early, not a hard thing for Anthony as he has yet to adjust to the time zone and was up at 3:30. Darin on the other hand was only able to roll out of bed with help from Anthony. We stopped by McDonalds for a quick snack. You might imagine that the food would be the same, and for the most part it is with some twists; rice, longanisa, and sugar-laden pineapple juice give it a distinctly Filipino flavor. One egg McMuffin and two hamdesal later we were on the bus.

Six hours seemed like a long time and were a little concerned about how comfortable the ride would be. We sat at the front with our knees touching the windshield and took off. With our seats we could see a clear 180 degree sweep in front of the bus, and it was spectacular. The bus starts off at around 5,000ft climbs to 7,000ft and then drops back down to 4,000ft. The entire ride is on the crest of mountains with views of valleys after valleys. The hillsides are sparkly populated with towns here and there but farms everywhere. Rice is a popular crop this time of year at higher altitude but many other leafy greens are being grown. Farmable land seems to be a commodity and as such where there is flat land there are crops, even if it is at the edge of the road. Overall the ride was a little bumpy and not all of the road is paved but for the most part it was comfortable. The views were incredible and the bus ride itself we see as an attraction.

Sagada caves

Sagada is a small town and considered by locals to be “rustic”. The town has one major street and a church. On the day we arrived we walked around the city we saw more white people than we had seen since the beginning of the trip, it seems this is a popular destination for tourists. We made our way into a tourist adventure store and set up a spelunking trip (800pesos/19USD) for the next morning.

At the mouth of the cave are hanging coffins. The coffins are stacked up or rested high up on a cliff as to avoid rival tribes form desecrating them. The dead are place in the fetal position; they exit the world in the same way that they came in.

Jason was our tour guide, a farmer by weekdays and guide by weekend. He took us through two caves linked together. The first half of the adventure was climbing, crawling, and butt scooting. Some of the passages were only a foot or two wide and we repeatedly needed ropes to climb down. It was awesome! We had a blast scrambling through the cave. The second half of the cave was less difficult to maneuver through but had cool rock formations.

Entering Lumiang Cave w/ coffins

Anthony "rock climbing"

Darin w/ our tour guide, Jason

It's a turtle

A Day at the Spa

Sagada sounds

One might imagine that a rural town would be quiet and peaceful with crickets and the occasional dog. Not the case, at bed time there is a cacophony of dogs barking, kids screaming, saws, hammering, cars, footsteps heard through the thin walls, and yes more dogs barking. The morning is much of the same but with the added roosters who start well before sunup, the traditional cartoon rooster at the first rays of light is a bit exaggerated. But, with all of these sounds we both slept well and had no trouble going to bed. On another note, country music is extremely popular!

Sagada ATM

Forgetting to pull money out when we were in Baguio, we tried to pull money out of the only ATM machine in Sagada. Unfortunately, it was a regional bank and it wouldn't access our US accounts. So we count our money and realize we didn't have enough money to last us our planned 3 nights in Sagada. So we cut our trip a day short and head back to Baguio. But even the two nights we got to spend in Sagada was well worth the 6 hour bus ride.