Bohol

Due to the holiday in Cebu I decided to check out the island of Bohol. It is a big tourist destination but I had originally decided to give it a pass but changed my mind due to the holiday in Cebu. I caught a boat to Tagbilaran, which is the main city on the island of Bohol. On arriving in Tagbilaran I walked past all the taxis and walked to the center of town and stayed in a cheap hostel for the night. It was not a really nice place but the cost was right and I was just going to sleep there anyway. I did find the church in the center sort of pretty lit up at night.

The following morning I caught a tricycle to take me to Alona beach on the small island of Panglao. I walked around a lot looking for a room that I did not think was that expensive but found something that I was happy with after a little while. I spent a couple of days on the beach just being lazy and people watching. I enjoyed watching some boys doing flips off a boat into the water.

I caught a motorcycle taxi from Alona beach back to Tagbilaran and checked back into the cheap hostel to use as a base for seeing some of the other tourist sites on Bohol. On the way to Tagbilaran the motorcycle driver offer to take me around the following day to the sites and gave me his phone number and a price. After doing a little bit of checking around I decide the motorcycle from the beach was about the best price that I was going to get so called him and set up a time to take the tour the following day.

We stop at a number of site during the day including the an old stone church, the world's largest python, a river lunch cruise, some sort of monument, a stop to see a Tarsier and a viewing point for the chocolate hills. I think I liked seeing the Tarsier the most of all the things we did. A Tarsier is the world’s smallest primate.

Here is a picture of a small and a big monkey.

I had read that the chocolate hills where not that impressive so was not expecting a lot. The guidebook says that they are compared to Holang Bay in Vietnam at least by the Philippines tourist board but there I agreed with the guidebook that there is not comparison. It was good to not be expecting much for the chocolate hills or I would have been really disappointed. It is just a bunch of green hills. I guess at some times o the year the hills turn brown and that is where the chocolate name comes from.

Other than being on the back of a motorbike with it pouring down rain it was a really enjoyable day. Even though I had not planned on coming to Bohol I seem to enjoy it.