I was getting more and more anxious as my beau’s birthday was fast approaching. I’m so not good with surprises (just had to share whatever good news I encounter ASAP!) so I made a decision to just book a trip somewhere we’ve never been to, thinking that if I can’t keep my mouth shut then at least there would still be the element of surprise as to what activities we’re gonna be indulging in. It was already a week before his bday, not to mention peak season (December) and as expected, airfares were already zooming towards the sky. Good thing, I found cheap prices from Cebu Pacific. Destination: Cebu. 3D2N was what I had in mind but I had this internal debate whether to just stay in Bantayan Island or to cross to Bohol.
Finally, it was the night before our trip and I surprisingly kept mum for a couple days. My guy was overjoyed telling me that he truly needed a vacation. I kinda killed the moment when I blurted out that he had to bring money. “Duh, I’m not paying for everything!” were the exact words that came out. I made all the planning so he should do all the paying. Haha. Well, I didn’t really have any final plans made that time since I’m a very spontaneous being and he knew that so I gave him the task to choose between Bantayan Island and Bohol. He chose the latter.
Off to the airport the next day. Everything went smoothly on our departure. No delays, no crazy smoke coming out of the plane. An hour later, we arrived at our destination. Our first stop was at the famous Magellan’s Cross. Okay, I apologize to all the people who love that place, but I was really disappointed. It’s one the Philippines’ most popular historical landmarks and what it looked to me was a small chapel in the midst of a marketplace. There were street children chasing the tourists everywhere, begging for alms. There were old ladies offering colorful candles for 50 pesos a set (I think there were 5/set) telling people that they’d pray for I dunno what. It was just crazy in there. I was expecting a more solemn place where one could really contemplate on the beginnings of Catholicism in this country but I don’t know, maybe it’s just because it was a Sunday and there was an ongoing mass during that time.
After our pictorial there, we immediately set off to look for a place to stay since I didn’t book anything other than our flight tickets. There was this mini hotel across named Sampaguita Hotel. Apparently, they wouldn’t accept walk-in clients despite them having vacant rooms. What kind of hotel was that? No walk-ins allowed?! Crazy! Without a choice, we walked and walked and walked looking for a hotel. This was around 6 PM and we were starving but we had to find a place where we could leave our big bags before we have our scrumptious birthday dinner. Finally, we found a place to stay. It was a nice little hotel downtown. I forgot the name though. Since we agreed beforehand, to go to Bohol the next day at 5AM, we thought it was best to stay in this hotel since it was near the pier and we just paid 1,000 with free breakfast for two. I’m not sure though if this was a good deal but our legs and tummies were already killing us.
We took a cab going to Crown Regency and funny thing is, I noticed that even though you speak to the cab drivers in Tagalog, most of them would respond back in Bisaya or in a Cebuano language which, neither my boyfie and I understood. Anyway, all you really have to say is your destination and you can just disregard the small talks if you can’t get what they’re saying despite the number of times you politely asked them to speak in Tagalog. Well, I think they’d prefer using English as a medium of communication than Tagalog and that would be a good thing if you’re a foreigner but we’re not. And so, we rode the edge coaster which was cool. I didn’t think it was for everybody though. My mom would not agree on riding that thing probably even if I bribe her with money. Haha. Well, basically the coaster tilts to a certain degree and you can choose to untilt it but it still gives you the if-my-seatbelt-snaps-i’m-totally-doomed feeling and it’s great! Makes you appreciate life more. We also tried the skywalk which was boring to be honest. It was just made for pictorials. We availed their package for the edge coaster and the skywalk which included snacks, certificates and shirts. It was a pretty good deal. Oh, almost forgot, you’d have to watch out for the pricy pictures though. You’re not allowed to take pictures so you’d have to leave it to their “professional photographers”. We couldn’t leave without any pics (who would?) so we had no choice but to avail the expensive ones. Good strategy, I must say.
After our sky extreme experience, we went to the Ayala mall to buy a couple stuff and to have our dinner there. I was shocked to see such a nice, clean and huge mall. The outside was just like Greenbelt’s but bigger. Anyway, we decided to eat at this ribs place recommended by my beau’s sister but they ran out of baby back ribs so we found this other ribs place (Bigby's) which was cool too. We had a delicious meal and the staff even sang a birthday song for my boyfriend and gave him a slice of cake with a candle to blow. It was sweet of ‘em to do that.
2nd day came and we woke up just before 5. We had our breakfast which was blah and rushed to the port where a ferry would take us to Bohol. We were planning to go to Danao first so we chose the ferry going to Tubigon Port instead of the ever famous Tagbilaran port because Tubigon is closer to where we’re going. It was approximately an hour and a half calm sea trip to Tubigon where you’d instantly feel like a celebrity as soon as you set foot on land. People bombard you with questions as to where you’re headed or what activities you’re planning to do so that you can ride their vehicle whether it’s a bus, a van, a tricycle or a motorcycle. Well, we chose the bus going to this town where we’d hop on another ride to reach our destination. Despite the fact that you’re already seated in the bus, barkers would still ask your whereabouts like paparazzi and convince you that they’d just drive you there conveniently which was just too much for me to handle so we ignored them and gladly, the bus departed.
Along the way, I felt nauseous and my tummy was aching as I was about to have my period so we hopped out of the bus at the next town. I found a clean public restroom where I did my thing, thank God. My guy also found a drug store where he bought me pain meds.
As we were walking towards the main road, there was this guy asking us if we would like to take the habal-habal (motorcycle) going to Danao. Thinking that it would probably be best to do that considering my condition, we agreed. Next thing we knew, we were speeding towards Danao riding Kuya Lando’s habal-habal. His motorcycle was small but we managed to fit in with our big bags. After an hour, we reached E.A.T. Danao.
We decided to try what they call the Plunge (free fall, sort of like bungee jumping). My courageous boyfriend volunteered to go first with his feet hanging up. My knees were beginning to tremble just seeing how high the fall was going to be despite my being adventurous and my ready-to-do-whatever persona. And so, his plunge was over in seconds. It seemed to me as if he enjoyed a lot but still, I thought I was backing out the last second but I did not. As I was hanging in there, waiting for the cue, I was contemplating - backtracking my life just in case something snaps. Then I heard the man say “bombs away”. I wasn’t able to scream at first. It was as if I was a grain of rice falling off the table. I was caught off guard. Good thing after maybe 2 seconds, I let it all out. It was a surreal experience. One I think I would never try again. Hahaha. We did the Suislide (zip line) too from cliff A to cliff B and then back. It was so much fun seeing your graveyard-to-be if something goes wrong.
After Danao, Kuya Lando offered to take us to our whole trip instead and with a short negotiation, we went off. By the way, he’s a funny guy. He loved to joke around and he was such a great help. He carried our bags and took our pictures in addition to being our driver and tour guide.
We went to chocolate hills, climbed the steps there, visited the humongous snake which was very obedient to its master, played with the cute tarsiers, took pictures of the Baclayon Church and man-made forest and checked out the Loboc river cruise. Unfortunately, the last balsa just left when we got there. Finally, our driver drove us to Alona beach which was our final destination for that day and we all shared a pizza before he left. Kuya Lando admitted that it was his first time taking that very long route and he was overly exhausted. We were with him for a total of 8 hours and we probably were on his motorcycle 3/5 of that time. That trip was both awesome (since we’re not used to riding motorcycles in Manila) and painful (our backs, thighs, and butts ached so badly!).
We found a good place to stay in at Alona beach. The name was Lost Horizon and we paid 1,500 for our overnight stay. The place was not at all fancy or what but it’s situated right at the beachfront and that's what I always consider first. It had 2 single beds, aircon, tv and a clean bathroom.
We were supposed to go on a dolphin watching tour the next day but I guess we were just so tired we weren’t able to hear our alarms or maybe one of us must have turned them off unconsciously. We ended up rushing to Tagbilaran port where we were supposed to take a ferry back to Cebu to catch our flight but guess what? We missed it. Our last hope was to go back to Tubigon port and so we did- the habal-habal style. We hired another habal-habal driver to bring us there quick and it was indeed a fast and an almost deadly ride but I must admit I had a blast. Normally, if you’d ride a bus from Tagbilaran to Tubigon, the trip would take two hours but our trusty driver got us there in just an hour. Unbelievable. Thanks to him we were able to catch a ferry. We still had time to try out the delicious Lechon Cebu for lunch before we departed. And yeah, because of the yummy Lechon, we had to beg the staff of Cebu Pacific to open their counter for us because we arrived late at the airport. ;)
Here's a bit of our expenses:
*Cebu
Hotel 1000
Edge Coaster and Skywalk 750 each
Edge Coaster pictures 230
CD pictures for Skywalk 550
*Bohol
Fast craft (Cebu-Tubigon) 200 each
Terminal fee to Bohol 10 each
Plunge 700 each
Suislide 350 each
Suislide picture 100
Entrance fee at Chocolate Hills 5o each
Habal-habal (Danao-Carmen-Baclayon-Panglao) 2000
Lost Horizon Resort at Panglao 1500
Habal-habal (Alona-Tagbilaran) 150
Habal-habal (Tagbilaran-Tubigon) 550
Fast craft (Tubigon-Cebu) 280 each
Terminal fee 10 each
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