interesting sights

i've been to a couple of beaches. a few in batangas, cebu, la union, cavite and of course, my fave, boracay. but i must say the beach in bohol is by far the most interesting. interesting in terms of what you can actually see on the shore.



the sand...i've seen gray sand, brown sand and of course, powder-like white sand (boracay, where else?) but bohol has what i've heard rose and joy say, "cream sand". it's also fine, white in some spots and grayish in other parts and it was a bit slippery. slippery enough to entice some of the kids to bring out flat wooden sleds and glide on the shoreline. they were what i called "sandboarding" :))








(l-r: look at the creamy sand!, a starfish in the grass, that's my foot; i'm behind enemy lines!!!)

aside from the sand and probably the fact that it was low tide, we came across so many starfish, a couple of sea urchins, "mini-islands" that become visible during low tide and a lot of my enemies, squid! everytime joy stumbled upon a "stranded" starfish, she'd throw it back into the water. we walked for several meters, maybe half a kilometer down the beach just taking pictures of the beach, of whatever life-form we saw and of each other. we also got the chance to use rose's tripod so that we'd have pictures of the three of us. now, we didn't know that there were some kids following us probably intrigued by the contraption that we lugged around the beach. (it was also hilarious how we'd try to take a picture of us three: two would pose in the frame and the third person would have to hit the self-timer then run back to the spot HAHAHAHAHA) at one point, i guess they couldn't satisfy their curiousity so they really came in for a closer look .... that's when we decided to have our picture taken with them....

(l-r: joy with the kids, me and joy with them, the young 'uns and the young once...)

afterwards, we went back to the resort for dinner and several rounds of photos. rose still hadn't seen what her camera could really do so joy and i were "models" for her that night. she'd go through all the modes then she'd say, "oh, pose na kayo bilis..." then, we also tried several rounds of the modes with the tripod...sabi siguro ng ibang taga-dun, "parang mga sira-ulo itong mga ito....magpopose tapos tatakbo at titingin sa camera..." HAHAHAHAHAHA

(l-r: pang-friendster?; 1-2-3, pose!; one of our last shots for that night and one of the best if i may say so...)

god's little paradise

that's what's on bohol's website and it IS a paradise. as i mentioned earlier, my father is from bohol, antequera to be exact (dad, i hope i'm right :)) and it's such a shame that the family hasn't been there yet. i can only imagine how fun it would be if we were all there.

so, after an early buffet breakfast at the regency, we packed our bags and went to pier 4 for the super ferry ride to tagbilaran. we were supposed to catch the 9 a.m. (or was it 9:20?) trip alas, we didn't make it. so, it was the 12:30 trip. i must tell you that all pictures from when we left cebu to our arrival in tagbilaran were taken by rose or joy. you know how much i dread travelling by water :(( so during the 2-hour wait until boarding the ferry, i had to calm down and psych myself that everything's going to be alright. joy and rose were with me so, i could relax. i also told them that no matter what, i stay in the middle!

the ferry was okay, it's a super cat so, it's really okay. we wanted seats with legroom so we sat on the first row in the back section. while i was so nervous, joy and rose wanted to go around the boat and even wanted to go up on the top deck (which they did of course...). so when they left me (waaahhhh!!!) i just concentrated on the movie (in pursuit of happyness) AND i borrowed rose's iPod...



(pictures of joy and rose on the top deck...)



(l-r: me sandwiched by rose and joy, another pic while i was eating chippy, finally..."land ho!")

after the grueling two-hour ride, my feet were safely on the ground, the next thing we had to do was find a resort. we went to bohol without any reservations and luckily, the resorts weren't full. (talk about going with the flow! :) ) rose's sister, recommended the dumaluan beach resort so we met our bohol guide, manong rudy and off we went to dumaluan!

it was approximately 30 minutes (or was it longer? i couldn't tell because i was so engrossed with seeing bohol for the very first time...) until we got to dumaluan. lucky for us, there was a "cottage" available. so we checked-in, then, made arrangements with manong rudy for tomorrow's city tour. after that, it was time to go to the beach!

goin' around town

both rose and i have been to cebu before. we've both seen the must-sees such as tops, the taoist temple, magellan's cross, fort san pedro and even ate at the sutukil place. when joy finally arrived after lunch telling us that at 3 p.m., we had a tour of cebu, i was surprised. i thought that joy had been around the place.

so when we got into the car that we rented for the city tour, we immediately asked the tour guide where he'd take us. we scratched off a lot of places in the itinerary, places we've been to. although we were left with only a handful of places to go, i was still excited!

first stop: get a memory card. this was for rose's brand new toy, the sony DSC-H5. the first mall we went to didn't have any cards so we proceeded to sm cebu. after buying the card, we were brought to fort san pedro. unfortunately, there was a reception scheduled so we really didn't get to go in and around. we did get to browse at the various "posters" on the wall explaining what the fort's history was and so on and so forth.


after the fort, we went to magellan's cross and the sto. nino church. the cross provided rose another great photo op. of course, when it's rose who's taking the pics, me and joy were lucky to even be in the frame. it's the view/subject that's of utmost importance. (not that we mind, her shots were excellent!) then, we said our prayers in the cathedral and lighted some candles.





(l-r: "kasama ba kami sa picture?" me and joy @ magellan's cross, joy outside the basilica and beautiful "wall sculptures")

from the basilica, we headed for casa gorordo. unfortunately, i didn't get to see this museum in my previous cebu trip. casa gorordo is an old house, old as in 19th-century old. it was the home of the first Filipino Bishop of Cebu and is now a museum. the house is charming and now that it is under the care of the aboitiz foundation, they've painstakingly restored the house, some furniture and fixtures and chandeliers even bedpans...





from the museum, we only had two more stops before we called it a day. second to the last was the lapu-lapu shrine. it was getting dark so we hurriedly took some pics before it got too dark. besides, our last stop was the alegre guitar shop because joy wanted to buy a guitar for her nephew.




it was a tiring but fun day for the three of us. after buying a guitar, we headed to regency. we just bought mangoes and food to eat in the hotel room; the sooner we rested the better :))





next: 2nd day: Bohol...

magnificent cebu

after that heart-stopping, adrenalin-pumping run from the lounge to the airplane, rose and i settled in for a 60-minute flight to cebu. now i've been to cebu before and initially, we were supposed to head straight to the pier for the ferry trip to bohol.. unfortunately, with the fiasco involving joy, we ended up arriving in cebu almost 6 hours before she did. calculating the travel time to bohol and assuming that we arrive late in the afternoon, we decided to set up camp in cebu for the first day. next question, where do we stay?

after browsing thru the various hotel leaflets/fliers at the tourism desk, we spoke to daniel, the airport rep for the crown regency chain of hotels in cebu. daniel was very accommodating and kind. it also helped that rose stayed in a crown regency hotel when she was in cebu before although she couldn't really remember which one. after a few calls, we waited for the hotel van and off we were to crown regency.

we checked-in then went back down for the next important matter for the day: breakfast. so we headed on down to the cafe and ordered a la carte: danggit breakfast for me and the tapa breakfast for rose. both delicious if i may say so! then, we went to the convenience store to buy some "nourishment" until joy got there.

(l-r: my danggit meal, rose's tapa meal and "nourishment" pb chips ahoy, cherry and caffeine-free coke)

and now we got to the exciting part, well for me that is...sleep... hehehehe we wouldn't be exoecting joy for five more hours so, we rested. but rose had something that kept her awake, a new toy! she charged the batteries, tinkered with it a bit then gave in to sleep :))

next: re-visiting cebu

bohol here we come!

i've never been to bohol. it's such a shame because my dad is from antequera, bohol. we (our family) should've been to bohol sooner so we could've enjoyed the sights and everything that it has to offer.

anyway, my travel partner rose and friend joy planned about going to bohol months back. i wasn't really planning on going but when i accompanied rose to the cebu pacific ticketing office to change something in their reservations, rose asked me to keep the three tickets. three? yup three because rose took the liberty of getting me a ticket as well. :)) talk about being shanghaied! :)

after getting over the pleasant surprise, we all made plans for the trip. travel light, travel light (something which i'm still working at)...as usual, with early trips, i sleep over at rose's and we go to the bus station or airport together which prevents one of us not waking up on time. for this trip, we'd meet joy at the domestic airport. our flight was at 5:00 a.m. and we were at the airport at around 4 a.m. we checked-in our bags, got our boarding passes and waited and waited and waited for joy who came at around 4:30 a.m. we were wondering why it was taking her so long to get her boarding pass and it turns out that she didn't realize that the 1 quart rule about liquid/gel in handcarry baggage doesn't apply here in the philippines. here, it's zero tolerance for liquid/gel in your handcarry.

we didn't know that was keeping her from checking-in. from where rose and i were waiting, all we knew was the cebu pacific ground stewardess was making the last call for passengers bound for cebu (we took the cebu flight then ferry to bohol); it was our flight! it turns out that the counter personnel wouldn't allow joy to board the plane anymore (she just made arrangements to take a pal flight to cebu). so after telling us about the situation and deciding to take another flight, we agreed to just meet in cebu, of course.

so, rose and i had to rush through the terminal fee booth and last inspection area (where you take off your shoes, belt and stuff) then we had to run, and i mean run across the waiting lounge to the gate to the plane! although we weren't really the last passengers to board, you could feel everyone's eyes on you thinking, "the flight is delayed because of you!" oh well...

we settled in our seats for the hour-long ride...

"ninang...."

it doesn't get sweeter than this....