The Traveling Lone Ranger/Not this time

Well I have had a nice long break from writing a blog entry but thought I give a short update just in case anyone was checking my blog. I am going to post date this just to confuse you.

I made it to the airport in Hawaii and took the long flight to get Denver changing planes in Houston. It may be that I have waited so long to write about it but the flight did not really seem that bad.

I was happy to see my parents again and just be really lazy for a few days. After about a week at my parents we flew to Austin to visit my sister and brother in-law. It was really nice of my sister Donna and her husband Eric to put up with me for about a week. I think it was my parents that they wanted to see and just couldn’t get rid of me when I showed up with them. I also have to thank my niece Sam for allowing me to sleep in her room while she is working in New Jersey and New York.

One day while staying at my sister’s house we decide to visit the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco. It was an interesting museum that had a large number of exhibits on the history of the Texas Rangers and also information on the Rangers current roll in Texas law enforcement. Here is a picture of some of the good-looking people in my family for some reason I did not inherit any of the good looks.



After a good lunch we decided to visit the Dr. Pepper Museum. I found the museum interesting but would not recommend anyone visit this place. I was very disappointed that the Museum did not have any free samples. I have been to a few breweries and even a couple of distilleries and have gotten to do taste testing at all of them but not at Dr. Pepper. I have not had a Dr. Pepper since gong to the Museum. I hope this not giving free samples does not catch on but at least I had a few free beers and some Irish whiskey in the past. If I am going to get something for free I prefer beer and whiskey over Dr Pepper any day.

One of the things we wanted to do while in Texas was to make it up to Dallas to see a lot more of my family. It was really great to see everyone and get to catch up a little bit. It is hard to catch up in one day but at least I got to see most of them. It was a shame I did not get to see my cousin John but it was very nice of him and Cindy to allow us to use their house even if he could not get out of working. Here is a picture of my Uncle Calvin, Mother, Aunt Betty and sleeping Uncle Joe (One of my exciting travel stories strikes again).

Hawaii

I flew from Manila to Guam and then changed planes to get to Honolulu. When I was boarding the plane in both Manila and Guam I was really excited to be going to the US. The strange thing is I was looking forward to getting to Denver and was looking at Hawaii as just a stop on the way and was not really looking forward to my time in Hawaii. I have to be one of the only people in the world that looks at the paradise of Hawaii as just a pit stop.

I think I cleared immigration in Guam but never got a stamp in my passport so was not sure. I did not go through immigration on arrival in Honolulu but had to clear customs. Since I had been to so many countries they seemed interested in going through my bags but only looked in my carry on. The customs officer had me power up my laptop and looked at some of my pictures. Little did he know what he was setting himself up for, I could have spent hours showing him all my pictures. Most of my friends and family are bored after a couple of minutes of me talking and showing pictures of my travels let alone a complete stranger. I guess scaring the customs officer with a boring travel story is a new way of clearing customs quickly.

I am usually not so quick to start up a conversation but since I have been so long in places where I figured most people would not understand me I was ready to talk to everyone. I did not seem to have conversation but rather just seemed to talk at people and everyone that came in contact with me seemed to suffer from this. The poor guy that picked me up at the airport, the guy at the check in desk, the people on the elevator, anyone was fair game. It took me a couple of days in Hawaii to return to my normal reserved self.

After a day of just walking around Waikiki beach and being stunned by the prices of food I took a public bus to the Arizonan Memorial at Pearl Harbor the following day.

I think I enjoyed the film prior to going to the memorial more than the memorial itself. I must of heard all of the details of Japan attacking Pearl Harbor when I was in school but have seem to forgotten so found the short film really interesting.

Returning from Pearl Harbor on the bus passed by the statue of King Kamehamema. I remember this from the old Hawaii 5 O TV show and was happy I was able to see it even though I did not get out of the bus.

I spent most of one day walking from my hotel to top of Diamondhead and then back again. I walked all the way around Diamondhead. I walked along the northeast side of Diamondhead to get to the entrance to the crater and returned via the southwest side of the old volcano. I found the views from the top of Diamondhead well worth the 25-minute walk/climb to get there. This picture of Waikiki is from the viewing point on Diamondhead.

The day that I went to Diamondhead was the first really pretty day that I had while in Hawaii and I really enjoyed the return walk along the ocean. I stopped and sat at different places and beaches along the way. I found the guys standing with paddles on the really long surfboards interesting since this is the first place I have ever seen this sport.

I think that Waikiki beach is as pretty as any of the beaches I have seen on this trip but would be wonderful without the crowds. My plane out of Honolulu was in the evening so I hit the beach in the morning one last time prior to checkout time in the hotel. I spent the rest of my time prior to heading to the airport just people watching on the beach.

Cebu City

I caught a ferry from the island of Bohol to Cebu City on the island of Cebu. On the other ferries that I had taken in the Philippines the seas were rough or it had been raining but this time the sea was really smooth. I enjoyed sitting outside on this ferry ride and watching the islands go by. Here is a picture from the ferry of Bohol.

On the first full day in Cebu I decide to visit the Basilica Minore Del Santo Nino. There was a huge line at the entrance of the church so I got in line. After about a half hour I was in the church but the line just kept going. After about an hour I came around a coner in the church and saw the line went all the way around a court yard in the church. At this point I decided to just walk around the church and pass on seeing the image of child Jesus called Sto Nino Cebu which I assumed is what the line was for. I figured I have seen enough religious icons and nothing could be worth the wait of another hour and a half, which is what I guessed it would take to make it through the rest of the line. Here is a picture of the church from the outside.

I saw most of the tourist sites that where listed in my guidebook while I was in Cebu but spent most of my time just walking the streets of the city. I enjoyed the interaction with some children while visiting Fort San Pedro. They seemed really interested in me but I could not understand anything they said and of course they did not understand me. I took one picture of them and showed them and this started them posing for a number of pictures. Here is just one of them.

For the amount of time I was in Cebu I did not do a lot but was just sort of lazy and waited until the day that I had booked a flight out.

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.