Philippines - Alona Beach 2 (Chocolate Hill)

Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Philippines Day 77 (April 17)

Philippine Map - We are in Alona Beach, Bohol

Today we take hire a car for the tourist day trip in Bohol; see the Chocolate Hills, take the lunch riverboat cruise, and see the tarsier - the smallest monkey in the world. (a kind of cute and creepy cross between a gremlin and ET).

man-made rosewood forest

Chocolate Hills - It is composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills of about the same size, spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi). They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name.

Bamboo bridge

Tarsier

The smallest monkey on the planet - about your palm size

Fruit bats

lunch boat

Happy time entertainment - Filipino dance, but very Spanish

Church

Sculpture in the Church front

Historical sculpture from when Philippines still Spanish colony

CLICK HERE to see more picture from this trip.


Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Philippines Day 78 (April 18)

Today, we take the day off, relax, wait for our laundry, and plan travel to our next destination.

Sleeping sounds good

Travel to Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte, Philippines Day 79 (April 19)

We travel from Alone Beach to South of Leyte island. It's a long day!

Today we take a bit of a travel adventure; from Alona Beach to Padre Burgos on Leyte. We start at 7AM in the morning, and arrive 9 hours later at 4PM. We travel by private car, air con van, tricycle, Bangka boat, tricycle, public bus, and jeepnie. The travel is chaotic, but it works. Only the boat really has a set schedule, and everything else leaves around the hour, or when they are full; which doesn’t take long.

The air con van is packed; with 19 people stuffed into a 15 passenger mini-van, including bags, mail, and a live chicken. Our baggage occupied one of the “seats”, and we had to pay for an extra person. Special thanks to the tricycle fellows, who were really helpful transferring us between the boat dock and bus terminals.

The public busses and jeepnies are pretty cool. They pickup anywhere along the road, and you tap on the roof or whistle when you want to get off. In one of the bus terminals, we are disappointed that we actually have to wait, but before long, a jeepnie drives by with a sign of our destination. We think it’s odd that the jeepnie is empty, but one loop around town solves that problem.

We finally get to see the real Philippines, which feels to us like an Asian tropical Mexico; perhaps from the historical Spanish influence. The roads travel along scenic coast, and the villages are attractive and have a proud look. We didn’t have any negative experiences like Manila or Cebu. For some reason traveling here made me think of the story in the gospel when they pass around the bread, break in half each time; but there’s enough to feed everyone. Likewise, when the jeepnie looks full, people keep piling in, everyone moves a little bit, and there’s always room.

Private car

Air con Van

tricycle

Bangka boat

tricycle again

public bus in bus terminals

jeepnie (are we there yet?!)

It's a ferocious speed demon

Kid playing in the empty Jeepnie

We arrive and stay at Sogod Bay Scuba Resort, recommended by some a German couple we met in Alona Beach. It’s a small quiet place, on a pebble beach consisting of dead coral, with a beautiful view of Sogod Bay.

Sogod Bay Scuba Resort (it's a cute guest house own by a English retiree and an Australian guy)

I'll show you your room sir

Short beds good for smelly feet

Beach in front of our hotel

dead coral beach. so pretty! It makes a crispy sound when you walk on it

Sogod Bay View

Sogod Bay View

Local kids playing on the rock

with 7,107 islands, surprisingly, only few Filipino know how to swim

Bus station - pretty chill