Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Philippines Day 77 (April 17)
Philippine Map – We are in Alona Beach, BoholToday 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
LOCAL COLOR 