April 7th 2015 Cebu City- Waiting for my flight back to Vancouver Canada.

This was my route through the Philippines for the past 9 weeks.

Although I originally planned to stay in the Philippines from February 1st to April 28th which was largely due to lack of work in the oilfields back home and the drop in the oil prices but now there are a lot of jobs back as the warmer months approach so that was the main reason I have decided to cut this trip 3 weeks shorter than planned. Also my original plan on this trip was to stay in Cebu the whole time hence the "mycebuphilippines" website address but after a few days I just felt I had to get out of the city and each city felt like that.

I definitely preferred the provincial side of the Philippines compared to their cities. I never quite felt relaxed or comfortable up until I stayed on Bohol and loved driving around the whole island on a scooter and seeing all the green plants and trees not to mention nice beaches. I have been in Cebu city for only a few hours now and I am already missing Bohol. 

April 6th 2015 Bohol Island Day 5- Chilling out in Tagbilaran

You know how much I like my Buko shakes! They put in lots of ice, syrup, coconut and a sweetened can milk and blend it.

Many escalator rides to the top of this mall.

Bureau of Immigration office located on the 2nd floor at Carlos Garcia avenue & Del Pilar street across from the Caltex gas station.

This morning I decided not to rent the scooter for another day as my face was slightly burned from riding around all day yesterday so decided to spend the day in Tagbilaran just looking around as it is my last day here and I will be getting the 6:30am ferry back to Cebu City tomorrow morning. 

Chocolate Hills video

A video of Chocolate hills.

April 5th 2015 Anda Beach video

Anda beach on the south east side of Bohol Island.

April 5th 2015 Bohol Island Day 4- Continuing around the island of Bohol

Where I drove on Bohol today. Headed to the east side of the Island to Anda and then continued north and around the island.

Trees growing out of the ocean.

 

I was lost at this point. I took a dirt road and then a trail and then came to this small cement bridge with huts on the other side.

 

Back on the main road heading to the town of Ubay.

This is buffalo's milk that was delicious that I had in Ubay. It was nice and cold.

This building was in the town of Talibon.

Another rice field. They are everywhere on the island of Bohol.

After Anda Beach I continued heading around the island heading east and the road turned into a dirt road and then into a trail and then into a rocky and rough terrain that was not meant for a scooter but more for a dirt bike and I saw no vehicles on the road and no people and no buildings so thought it might not take me around the island and was worried about running out of gas in the middle of nowhere as the scooter only holds 2 liters of gas so I turned around and headed back to Anda and then to Guindulman and from there continued to head north (See map). It is funny but this map here shows the road ending in Anda and my LP map showed the road continuing around the coastline and hooking up with the other main road to take me to Ubay. The paved road ended in Anda.

Once I got to Ubay I was low on gas again and needed to find a gas station. The town was small and it seemed I was leaving the town and still no sight of a gas station so I pulled into a place to ask where a gas station was when I see this German guy walking out of the store and I ask him where I can find a gas station and he tells me and sees me walking into the little store and asks if I have time to sit down and have a little talk and I said sure that my butt is killing me from sitting on that scooter for 4 hours and I want a drink. He tells me this place serves the best milk as it is buffalos milk so I buy a regular buffalo milk and a chocolate buffalo milk for 80 pesos each in one liter bottles (see photo). He said that the owners have a farm just down the road. It was awesome and the best milk I have had since I have been in the Philippines. 

He told me he is 50 years old and has been living in the Philippines for 6 years off and on due to work in Germany as a ship builder and spends the winters in the Philippines. Says he has been on Bohol for over a year and had a filipina girlfriend for a few years but said he had enough of her as they always fought and she was asking for money for her family too much. He also said "Never again!". I don't think he meets many expats here as he didn't even know what an expat (ex-patriot) is. So I told him and said it is easy to hook up with expats anywhere in the world as they usually set up online. I could tell by the way he asked me if we could have a short talk that he was in need of conversing with another westerner who thought like him as oppose to filipinos. 

After I finished my milks we said good bye and I headed on my way. He thought it would take me all day to get back to Tagbilaran but it only took me 3 hours from Ubay but then again I drive fast usually passing buses and other vehicles on the road. 80km/h all the way! I now drive like a filipino passing cars going around corners into oncoming traffic and I just honk my scooter horn signalling oncoming buses and other big vehicles to pull to the side of the road to let me pass. HAHA just kidding! 

I didn't spend a lot of time in the towns I passed through driving along the coast of Bohol. I got to another town called Inabanga and they had another CHECK POINT set up but it wasn't police but the military. The guy pointed at me to pull over which I did. He asked for my drivers licence so I give him my Canadian drivers licence and he looks at it and asks me "Is this an international drivers licence?" and I lied and say "Yes it is!". 

Well he looks at my Canadian drivers licence more carefully examing it for a few minutes reading everything and I thought he was going to catch me and say "This is NOT an international drivers licence and you are driving illegally here" but he didn't and he read BRITISH COLUMBIA (my province) on my Canadian drivers licence and said "So.. you are British" and I didn't say anything because I didn't want him examining the drivers licence anymore than he was. He asked for my registration and I couldn't find it and I told him it was a rental from the hotel and he said that is ok and let me go. There were about 7 military guys dressed in military camouflage fatigues and one guy was taking pictures of me while the other guy read my drivers licence and they all had machine guns strapped to them. It seemed like martial law or something so I said "So why are there so many check points on Bohol. I haven't seen any in the Philippines until I got to Bohol" and another guy said "It is because it is Holy Week where we bump up security for the holidays". 

I was in a rush to get home so I continued doing 80km/h which was maximum on this scooter or I would be going faster. I was going so fast that I went through another CHECK POINT but so did the car in front of me and the police there didn't seem to care or shout at me. They were probably thinking "Fucken tourists!!". 

I got back to the hotel at around 4:30pm.

April 5th 2015 Bohol Island Day 4- Anda Beach

Definitely the Boracay of Bohol.

You could rent this too for 1500 pesos. I think the load capacity is actually more like 3 people.

White powdery sand.

They even have showers here on the beach.

This is what I saw when I first got here. A WW2 GI soldier but it didn't have anything saying why it was there. I assumed maybe American GI stormed this beach against the Japanese during WW2?

I wasn't sure what to expect with Anda as I have been told to go to many beachs that turn out to not be so nice. When I arrived in the town of Anda and then proceeded to the beach I was amazed at what a nice beach it was with sandy white powder sand that was just like Boracay beaches and there was only one other white person I saw there and the rest were filipinos. Most of the white tourists stayed at Alona beach which isn't even close to as good as this one but this one is on the other side of the island. I thought this beach was better than Boracays White Beach as it didn't have the green algae and not the over priced restaurants and shops. 

The first thing I saw when I got to the beach was a statue of what I can only assume was an American GI storming the beach during WW2 but there was no writing about why it was there. They had music playing at both ends of the beach and had a beach bar where you could order drinks. There were even 7-8 showers on the beach that people could shower off after their swim in the ocean. 

Anda beach is 10 times better than Alona beach where most of the tourists are but I am sure they are mostly there to do with diving and the resorts but Anda is spectacular for a white sand beach but 2 hours away from Tagbilaran.

April 5th 2015 Bohol Island Day 4- Driving to Anda beach

Seeing this sign didn't give me a lot of confidence about their bridges but I was on a light scooter so proceeded with caution.

 

All around Bohol are rice harvesters where they pick the rice and then put them on tarps on the side of the road to let them drive and move the rice around with a rake. Definitely a tough way to make a living.

In the morning I head out to the town of Anda where the woman at the front desk told me had a great beach. It took me a couple hours on the scooter to get there as I drove through many towns along the coast. 

I am really enjoying Bohol and I guess I have mostly been in Philippine cities on this trip and most of them are pretty much the same to me as I never feel relaxed in any of them and usually uncomfortable which keeps me moving on. I just love cruising on the bike through the countryside and surrounded in nature especially when I head inland.

April 4th 2015 Bohol Island Day 3- Panglao Island

This photo was taken last night crossing one of the bridges/causeways that connect Bohol to Panglao.

As I drove to the end of Panglao Island I couldn't go any further as people with candles walked the streets celebrating Good Friday. I am sure this was all over the Philippines.

As I drove back to the other side of Panglao Island to cross the bridge to Tagbilaran there was a long traffic jam as we waited for the people to pass. Having a scooter I was able to get ahead of most of the vehicles.

The blue line is where I drove last night. Basically to the end of the road and turned around as there were hoards of people walking with candles for Good Friday and many roads were blocked. The red line is where I drove this afternoon. Alona beach is located in the south west corner of Panglao island. 
OK I just noticed CHICKEN CITY on this map so I will be checking out Chicken City next time I am on Panglao and also Hinag-Danan cave. 

I didn't know if this was a big house or condos.

Alona Beach. Please pay no attention to the dog on the left taking a huge shit on the beach.

Alona Beach

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Alona Beach

I headed out this afternoon at around 3pm to Panglao island to explore it a bit more. I drove down the middle street of the island last night and today I drove around the island but the beaches are not in view and are a km or two away from the outside road. I didn't have a good map with me so just drove and I wound up at the beach above. I had no idea what beach this was but after checking the resorts I saw online later I found out it was the main beach on Panglao island called Alona Beach. I probably should have guessed this was Alona as I saw half the beach was full of white folks. 

I think tomorrow I am going to drive to the eastern side of Bohol and basically drive around the whole island and then on Monday will spend more time on Panglao island and spent some R&R time on the beaches there before my flight home.

April 4th 2015 Bohol Island Day 3- Mag Aso Falls

A nice house I saw that had a beautiful view of the valley below as I was on my way to Antequera to see Mag-Aso Falls.

Had to pay 10 pesos to get my scooter in and then drove for a kilometer or so and got to the entrance and had to pay 20 pesos to go see the falls.

The descent down.

Leaving Mag Aso Falls I saw this rice field.

As I drove from the Tarsiers Sanctuary I headed to Antequera which didn't have any signs posted so I drove in the direction it looked like it was in based on my LP map. I get to a town and not sure if it is Antequera or not so pull into a gas station and ask the gas attendant and another guy on a bike who face was completely covered and had sunglasses on heard me and told me to follow him so he went down a small 2 meter wide road that was right across from the gas station and I followed him for a couple kms until he stopped and I saw a sign saying Mag-Aso Falls so continued on my way. 

I get to a gate with a guy in a both who asks for 10 pesos which I assumed was the entrance fee and pay it and get a ticket and he lifts the gate and I continue on for a kilometer or so and then have to pay 20 pesos at another place and she tells me the 10 pesos was only for allowing my scooter in. 

I head down the stairs and come to the falls. I thought the pictures I saw last night on the internet were much better as it looked turquoise blue. I thought I would have this place all to myself as it was far out of the way and I did see a jeepney parked at the entrance way and saw 30 filipinos having a picnic down there. 

I took some pictures and then headed out back to Tagbilaran.