Philippines Day 3: Bohol

Room Service breakfast! We originally planned to play at the beach today.  We called to make arrangements at the White Sands Beach Resort Hotel, but when we arrived, it was a very muddy, small, pitiful little beach. Thankfully, the desk immediately refunded our day payment, and we called our friend, Alan Augusto, from our first boat-trip, who promised a trip to Bohol for 3000 PHP. The desk managers were so kind to help us make the phone calls (we had to pay for the calls but it was still nice that they were not too upset about our requested refund to help us). Alan was a bit wary of the time, since it was after 7am, but then he said he could come get us anyway.  We felt so blessed that he came right away, and off we went to the port.  He explained that since it was already so late in the day, we wouldn't have enough time to take a slower private boat, so we took the ferry across. That seemed more economical, and if it can get us across quickly enough to still enjoy our day, I'm all for saving him money and still giving him his fee for all the help.
A breadsticks/lightsaber duel to pass the time.

The ferry took almost 1.5 hours.  When we got off, Alan hired us a cab driver, we picked out our favorite spots on the island to visit, and we drove, and drove, and drove.  On the way, Ella wanted to take lots of pictures of the sky.

This is the Tarsier Sanctuary: a small dome “monkey” habitat.  Really small, but fun to have a not-monkey on our arm.  The guy placed him on us, snapped pictures, and the monkey jumped off.  That was that, but hey, here are the cute pictures!

Jared was stoked he was going to get to hold his “second favorite kind of animal, almost.”

The Chocolate Hills were just like yummy dollops of chocolate ice cream, and the experience reminded me of the Candy-Land game. Fun!

There was a ledge for taking pictures.  Most of the posted pics showed people jumping, so it looked like they were flying over the Chocolate Hills.  Ella and Jared attempted to do the same.

We didn’t.

It was a tiny, but fun hike.  The kids enjoyed their freedom to run ahead a little.

I made our driver stop to take this gorgeous pic.  I think it was an animal habitat visitor center.

Panglao Beach

We love our tent for consolidation of stuff.  We weren’t there long enough to rest much inside, but it was nice to see everything safely behind a few zippers while we played in the water….

… with a LONGBOARD (and inner tube)!!   

Breaking camp.

Apparently we played hard!



------------ Read ahead for boring details perhaps helpful if you intend to book something similar--------- We were apparently very misinformed about the price.  Instead of only being 3000 PHP, Alan said that was the price of the boat, only.  I asked him on the phone, earlier, about other fees, and he reassured me that he would cover the fees for us, so we were very uncomfortable with this new price tag (12,000 PHP).  We broke it down, and it started to make sense: He hired a driver for 5000 PHP for the day.  The driver should have cost closer to 2500, not 5000, according to this website: http://www.boholtraveltours.com/boholcountrysidetour_a.php Our ferry tickets were 200 per person per way, so 200 x 5 people x 2 ways= 2000 for the day
Daytime access to the beach was 10 per person = 10*6 people (we now had a driver)=60
Showers ~ 100
Monkeys ~ 150
Chocolate Hills = 50 adult, 10 child = 50 x 4 adults + 10 x 2 children =220
Tube rental Alan paid for = 75 If they didn’t take any payment for the day, it would come to:
2000+60+100+150+220+75=2605 If our half-day driver got 5000 (generous=$120), that's 2605+5000= 7605
That left our tour-guide (services for 10 hours) with 12000-7605=4395 ($105)
We’ve got some great memories, and we’ve learned a bit from our experience.

Philippines Day 2: Cebu City

Today we decided to explore the city.  Here’s the view outside our hotel room:

Karl led us around and showed us how the locals here lived so similarly to those on his mission in El Salvador. 

This rooftop is something that was particularly familiar to him.

Local Stores

The Philippine houses were usually more tightly packed together than this, but these shots reflected those housing situations that were more like the mission.
After getting out of the small neighborhood, we entered the shopping center via the overhead walkway.  Amongst the beggars was an especially sad sight.  Somebody had their very young children sitting at the top of these steps, and the little boy (only 1 year old I’d guess) was naked and crying.  The mother was nowhere to be seen, but I’m sure someone was nearby to keep me from picking up the child to bring him home with me and take proper care of him.  I gave out breadsticks and meat sticks.

Here is where we ate our lunch.  It was Chinese food.  Maybe we’ll be more adventurous tomorrow.

My glorified ramen.

Egg rolls, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, and something like a pot-pie.



Jared’s toting a bag from the Robinson’s department store where we picked up that pink rain jacket Ella’s wearing, and some other items.  After eating, we checked out the local grocery store, picking up some essentials for our trips.
After the walk home, we watched some of our favorite shows, ordered room-service dinner, and plan to get to sleep early for a full day of Mactan’s White Sands Beach Resort tomorrow!

Philippines Day 1: Talima

We have a week off for the National Holiday, and so in honor of China, we left the country.  We’re in the Philippines now, and for our first day, we’ve already learned so much.

Since the dollar is about equal to 41 Philippine Pesos, you can try to figure out the following.
Our ‘shuttle’ from the airport to the Cebu R Hotel was actually a taxi, and we were charged 600 Pesos (PHP) for a 30 minute ride.  That’s quite a bit more than the 60 RMB 50-minute ride we usually take to church in Shenzhen (60 RMB=400 PHP), so that was confusing.  I was under the impression that it would be cheaper around here.

A vehicle that would’ve been cheaper

That night, I checked out the bathtub, which looks nice, but it’s a bit small.  The back is sloped, though, so still comfortable.  It was a trick getting the water to not drip from the shower while filling the tub, but it works.

We decided to check out the Shangri-la Resort Hotel in Lapu-Lapu, since it was on the list of things to see.  Our hailed cab told us it would cost 700 Pesos (ouch!) and when we got there, the concierge said they were too full to let us pay to use the facilities for the day.  We asked where else we might go, and they helped us get another taxi, and mentioned that the drivers should turn on their meter.  I’m so glad they use meters!  It only should have been about 400 Pesos for the trip.
Our new driver from the Hotel was very helpful, and explained that the other place we were headed was a swimming pool, with no beach access.  That’s not what we wanted, so he turned around and drove us to the Island Hopping tour guides.  He said he knew some people that could help us go out for only 5000 Pesos, which sounded similar to what we had read about on the internet earlier that day.  Some of the cheapo ones with no frills were advertised at 295 Pesos per person, but the price went up with all the extras, and we’re not familiar enough with anything to bargain, yet.  We agreed, hesitantly, and headed out.  When we got on the boat, the driver arranged the price of 3500 Pesos, and I was so grateful.  I wish I had said a little prayer, though, because half-way through the trip, he said we had already arranged for 5000, so we would pay that.  He tried to explain that the 3500 was going to be per person, so we were actually getting a deal.

We really had a great time, though.  We took their little boat to an area called Talima on Olango Island, and then a restaurant on stilts in Cao-uy.

One of the places had so many beautiful tiger-striped fish that we fed with bread. 

We got in the water with them, too, and snorkeled around for quite a while.

Sometimes we came up to dump out our mask-water.

Ella found a good resting spot.

Then we all joined.

After that we went to Cao-uy for lunch on the water, and I said I needed to know the price before we stopped there, but they kept saying they would tell me when I stopped, and then they would tell me when I chose the fish, and then when they told me, it was over 3000!  That just wasn’t possible, and they helped us arrange a deal for 1000, which was still insane , but I guess it’s on the water, and some conveniences are really appreciated.

Choosing pretty seashells for a shell-fish lunch

A couple of sweet girls swam over and wanted to sell some necklaces to our children.

We bought two for 50 each, and the kids all played in the water and talked with each other.  I asked the girls if they were hungry, and did they want to join us for our lunch?  They were so polite and explained that they were hungry, but shy, so we said we’d bring down our leftovers.  They were happy about that, but asked us to just give it to them, and nobody else.  I was a little confused, but later, a group of kids gathered by probably looking for handouts or selling similar bobbles.  Our new young friends must’ve shooed them away, though, because they didn’t stick around for the rest of our meal.  When we were done, I was a bit surprised that the girls did indeed eat what was left (I brought it down to them in the water).
After the girls finished eating, they brought me a live starfish they had found, and we held it for a while and studied a bit with our kids about the little feelers, and the mouth, and such. 

A live starfish!

We all got in the water to swim around; it was shallow enough that Jared and I didn’t feel like wearing our life-jackets.
At first it looked like the area was just yucky seaweed, but after donning the face mask and snorkel, I was surprised by all the coral and beautiful rocks nearby the little beach restaurant. 

Karl found some fish.

On the way back to Lapu-Lapu, one of the boat riders said he could help us have a trip around Bohol for only 3000, so maybe we’ll have some fun with that later.

"Cello's aren't real, Mom!"

Karl was playing "The Cello's Song," today.

I said it sounded like swimming.  Then I said maybe the cello's were swimming.

Ella said "Cello's aren't real, Mom!"

...

After realizing that they were, she talked about them not being able to swim, but maybe a person could swim and hold them in the water with them.  What a fun little conversation!