Panglao, Bohol…that was the destination of our sembreak getaway this year. We booked our flights early for this trip. It was just June but we already bought tickets for our October-November out-of-town vacation. We booked online and got tickets from Manila to Tagbilaran via Cebu Pacific and then Cebu to Manila return trip via Philippine Airlines. We payed 2,443 PhP/pax for our Cebu Pacific flight and 2,315/pax PhP for the Philippine Airlines ticket. We got a return trip ticket from Cebu since we planned to do a side trip to Cebu from Bohol on our third day. Well, we got a very early flight going to Tagbilaran so that we can proceed to having the countryside tour that day and thus maximize our time there in Bohol. Our flight is at 8:00 AM and we are supposed to land in Tagbilaran at approximately 9:15 AM. But boy! We were not even close to that time when we finally set foot on Bohol. Why? Ask the f+@#$* service of Cebu Pacific. They stink! By the way, f+@#$* is freaking. I don’t say bad words. 
Anyway, going back to that dreadful day that Cebu pacific wasted, it was raining and they said that bad weather caused us to land ‘temporarily’ in Cebu. We were thinking, what the….! Tagbilaran is so near already. But okay, better be safe. Then the announcement came. We will not be boarding our plane again but is going to be transferred to a ferry going to Cebu since they found problems in the plane when they checked it. BOOO! The thing is, the ferry transfer is set at 1:45 PM! In short, we arrived in Tagbilaran at 3:30 PM already. I really wanted to curse Cebu Pacific. We spent the whole day riding different transportations (plane, van, ferry) and waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiting. Huh! Plus, our tour driver was already waiting at the Tagbilaran airport early in the morning. Good thing Mr. Rod, the tour services owner, was my textmate throughout this ordeal. Moral of the story is I will think twice and a couple more times before booking a Cebu Pacific flight again. Because aside from the delay, the Cebu Pacific people did not handle the situation well. Their announcement was unclear. They did not even explain the situation well to the passengers. They weren’t even apologetic. I mean, had they assisted us well and said ’sorry’ for the inconvenience, I wouldn’t be ranting about it so much. They have very poor service. That’s all I can say.
clockwise from left: plane ride to tagbilaran, stop at mactan airport due to bad weather, weesam express ferry that transfered us from cebu to bohol, long line at weesam terminal to get ferry tickets
Enough of the Cebu Pacific-caused delay. So there, we were advised by our tour coordinator that it is better for us to have the countryside tour the next day and just relax at the resort for the rest of the afternoon. So that is what we did. We got a van at the ferry station going to Dumaluan Resort and paid the nice driver 500 pesos. But before heading for the resort, we bought ferry tickets going to Cebu on Nov. 1 at 4:45 PM via Super Cat for 400 pesos/head. We had reservations at Dumaluan, which I booked online. No reservation fee. They just gave me a confirmation number. The resort is just beside Bohol Beach Club, which is one of the high-end resorts in Panglao, so we are sharing the same beach line. For that, it’s a good deal. The standard room rate is 1,300 pesos plus 250 pesos for each extra person. We paid 3,100 for our two nights stay (there are 3 of us). They put an extra mattress in our room and changed the beddings and towels. Pretty good service so I can say that we got our money’s worth for the accomodation. The food is another story though.
After putting our things in our room, we walked by the beach and checked-out the nearby resorts. We already noticed that the water is very shallow and even if you’ve already walked far into the water, the water is still just knee deep. It’s like a giant wading pool. How can you swim in a knee deep water? Anyway, the resorts after Dumaluan are posh. I don’t know the names of the resorts though…I only know Bohol Beach Club.
Food in Panglao is not cheap. The coffee in Dumaluan is 35 pesos and it is not brewed coffee. They will give you a cup of hot water, a sachet of Nescafe, creamer and sugar. We had our dinner there since we did not see any other restaurants when we walked along the beach. There is a buffet dinner at Bohol Beach Club for 600 pesos but we do not know if it’s open to non-guests. Besides, it’s quite expensive even if it’s buffet…and I don’t eat a lot (atleast in one sitting…hehe!). We had sinigang na hipon, grilled pusit and grilled pork meat. Then the boys had a follow-up order of chicken with spicy sauce… I don’t remember the name of the dish. The sinigang na hipon is good. I liked it and it tastes a lot like my mom’s sinigang. The grilled squid and pork meat is quite tough though. Maybe it was overcooked. The spicy chicken is a little weird for me. It is little pieces of breaded chicken meat in a sauce. By the way, Dumaluan has singers singing for their guests at the restaurant at night. They are pretty good. The first night, they were singing bosanova songs. After dinner, we chilled by the beach for a while. Then we freshened-up and called it a night.
On our second day, we woke-up not that early. We ate breakfast around 7 AM at the resort restaurant where they serve continental and filipino breakfast for 170 pesos.
While waiting for the food to be served, I walked at the beach and clear sea water. There I found very suspicious looking piles of sand. It’s like a twirling poop. hehe! The water, by the way, is soooo far and very shallow especially early in the morning at this time of the year.
My curiosity made me dig a couple of those sand piles. Here’s what I saw inside one of them. Kinda looks like a very thin worm. I told my friends of my discovery and we dug up a few again and was able to find the same worm-like thing in one of the sand piles.
There’s a lot of these in Panglao especially in front of our resort. As in super dami! We don’t even know that we are stepping on them because they look like sand.
I have this fascination with the very tiny crabs that usually crawl in beaches and with hermit crabs. I’m pleading guilty to having tortured some because of my fascination. I have attempted many times to smuggle them back to Manila and put them in an aquarium as pets. But sadly, none survives. The one I’m holding is the biggest hermit crab that I’ve seen and held in my hands so far. It’s camera shy that’s why it’s hiding. haha! Just look at the claws.
Andy’s eyes were so sharp. Aside from spotting the big hermit crab, he also saw a small octopus! I bullied him to getting it and putting it in the water near the shore. I wanted to put it in a cup but too bad, we were not able to find any.
We were picked-up by our tour driver/guide at the resort at 10 AM. Our first stop was the blood compact monument. It is just at the side of the street. I highly doubt that this is the original site. I will do some research about this.
Next stop was the Baclayon Church. I have seen a lot of churches already (especially in Ilocos) so Baclayon is really nothing new to me. Well, it’s really not new because it’s the oldest church there. haha! Well, not that old really because the original church is not the one that we see now, as in the case of many churches, since it has gone a couple of reconstruction already.
The main altar and the pulpit.
Shot from the parking lot.
We went inside the museum in Baclayon church but no pictures were taken. It’s not allowed! I wonder why. Nothing there but old things like candelabras, bells, typewriters, priests clothes, etc.
Next stop is the Loboc river. There were three choices of floating restaurants/boats to ride when we went there. We chose the one that has a lot of people lining-up thinking that it must be the best since it is the ‘choice’ of the other tourists…plus, we don’t have to wait long since it’s almost full. Well, the food is just okay. Did not eat much really. I did not like the drinks though… we were served a bottle of 8 oz. soda. A fresh buko juice would have been nice or any fruit juice. I noticed that the other boats served buko though. Anyway, we paid 300 per head for the river cruise lunch. The boat stopped on one side of the river for some entertainment by locals. They sang and danced. Would have liked to hear the young Loboc singers but I guess they are not there or they perform somewhere else.
This bridge amazed me more than the river. Nothing extraordinary about the bridge. It is just that it is directly going to hit the church if the construction had been pushed through. Yes, the bridge is not being used since construction was stopped and it is unfinished. But why was it allowed to be built in the first place? The church has been standing there for many years. Do they intentionally want to destroy the church for the sake of this bridge? They could have moved it a little for it not to directly hit the church. Could an atheist be behind this? Hmmm….
After lunch, we went to visit a family member. Haha! We stopped by at the side of the road where tarsiers can be photographed (without flash). The caretaker was very nice and even told us that we can have a picture taken holding a young tarsier. Adult tarsiers are more active hence more dangerous to handle. There is a box for donations.
The drive going to Chocolate Hills is like a mini zigzag road. I was fascinated with the town and barangay names such as Barangay Buenoz Aires.
They have a very clean and nice comfort room in Chocolate Hills.
We stopped by at the side of the road in the man-made forest and had some picture taken.
This is the hanging bridge. Nothing special. Made of bamboo.
After the hanging bridge, we went to visit the big python. It was sleeping though. Would have been exciting to see it moving or even maybe being fed. Saw pictures of it swallowing a whole pig.
We went pasalubong shopping and then bought dinner at Joe’s Inato. Also bought bread and coke at a bakery for breakfast. It’s much cheaper than the food at the resort.
After eating dinner at the terrace of our room, we went to the restaurant and had coffee. My two companions ate pansit bihon also while getting busy with their laptops. They took advantage of the free wi-fi at the resort. After that, it’s goodnight sleep time for us. Had to wake-up early the next day for the sea tour.
We met the boatman at 5:30 am and boarded the boat. This was arranged also by Mr. Rod and we paid only 1, 500 for the tour. Our contact was Joseph (boat owner) but his nephew was the one who fetched us. The first part of the tour was dolphin spotting. It was not easy. The boat goes to and fro an area with other boats, also looking for dolphins.
The sunrise
Kulang sa tulog na bagong gising
There were a lot of moments to take each other’s picture since searching for dolphins takes time….a lot of time.
We did see dolphins jumping out of the water. Too bad they were too fast that everytime we see them, we couldn’t catch up with them. Plus, there are the other boats chasing after them also. Saw them from a distance only. Sad. Wanted to see them up-close.
Next in the itinerary is snorkeling at Balicasag Island. There is a marine sanctuary there. LOTS OF FISHES! Though you have to pay 150 pesos per head. You see, the thing here is that you have to get a smaller boat to go to the sanctuary area since the big boats are not allowed to go there. The water is also very shallow up until the drop-off, where the fishes are, so you are forced to get a boat to go there. The corals are sharp and can cut your skin, which is what happened to my friend…who refused to pay 150 for the boat and swam his way to the fishes. hehe!
boat to boat transfer
Blue starfish galore here
Before snorkeling
Balicasag Island Dive Resort
After snorkeling, we went to Virgin Island. This is a place for photo ops. The island is a huge sand bar.
This is the result of a timed shot while the camera was in the sand. Hard to look at the LCD because of the high sun. Almost noon here.
sand as tripod
The boat ride to the resort was long. Well, the hours spent for dolphin spotting was longer.
My last picture in the water of Panglao.
We took a quick bath then waited for the van that will fetch us from the resort. Mr. Rod is still the one that arranged this for us. A van from the hotel costs 800 while we only paid 400 for our van transfer going to the ferry station. Took a couple of pictures while waiting for the van.
Since we did not eat lunch yet at the resort before leaving, we asked the driver to just drop us at a nearby restaurant from the ferry station. We ate at Chicken Ati-atihan which is just a walk away from the Ferry station.
That’s the end of my Bohol post. We actually went to Cebu and boarded the Super Cat at 4:45 pm. The Cebu side-trip will be posted in another blog entry.
Here’s a run down of the expenses we had for this trip (3 pax):
van transfer from ferry station to resort- 500
accomodation for 3 days and 2 nights- 3,100
dinner at the resort- 1,100
breakfast at the resort- 510
loboc lunch- 1, 200 (including the driver)
drinks and snacks during countryside tour- 250
dinner (bought outside the resort)- 320
bread and drinks (bought at a bakery for breakfast)- 110
countryside tour- 1,800 + 200 (tip for the driver)
sea tour- 1, 500
van transfer to ferry station from resort- 400
lunch before boarding ferry- 480
entrance fees: 15 (snake), 75 (choc hills), 75 (baclayon museum)
Below are extra expenses (individual):
ferry from bohol to cebu – 400
small boat rental for snorkeling- 150
wet shoes rental for snorkeling- 150
pasalubong- 400
For those interested in going to Bohol, here’s Mr. Rod’s number -09185914969. He has many vans and cars for tours. The driver assigned to us is very nice. My other friends who got his services for their tours in Bohol also had nice drivers. I highly recommend him especially because it’s cheaper than the other tour services offered there. Plus, I personally met him before we left Bohol and he seems really nice.
