Philippines Day 5: Nalusuan

We all woke up early this morning to get out Island Hopping.

We made arrangements with Shangri-la’s affiliate, Scotty’s Sports Center, since we didn’t like the hidden fees we had experienced with other groups.  It was a bit more expensive, but a lot more professional!

Jared’s hanging out while we prepare to head out to Nalusuan Island.

Here’s our port and Banca boat.

Our guide was especially kind to take some pictures of the whole family.  I love taking pictures, but usually that means somebody’s missing.

Here’s our guide helping Ella.

More pictures.

Ella got excited about the water spraying up, so she moved to the front of the Banca boat to get super-soaked.

This island was interesting to me since the low tide exposed it’s underwater shape.

Here’s our snorkeling spot.  It was quite deep where we got off, but we quickly swam to the other side and found our underwater treasures. 

Jared’s holding up his arm, since it was reacting to something in the water.  We were on our way back to the boat to take care of him when we found this skinny starfish.

A typhoon interrupted our explorations, so we had to re-board, and head back a little earlier than planned.  Ella was scared of the depth, anyway, and honestly, so was I. All those shark movies really shouldn’t bother me, but I was grateful to get out of the water when it started to darken and the waves came rolling around for the typhoon.  I didn’t really want to be in the water with this guy.

One worker was in the water helping us stay in the safer areas.  One time we got too shallow and the kids couldn’t help but break off corals with their flippers, and he helped us get out deeper again.  Then, he helped Jared come towards the boat to treat his arm, but on the way back, the waves were tossing more violently, and the boat had to come to us before the storm hit full-force.  The water isn’t so deep in this picture, as you can see from the turquoise color.

Ella curled up under one of the towels our guide provided, and it got soaked from the rain.  Still, it was warmer under the towels.

When we got back to the Shangri-la in Mactan, Cebu, our kids explored the Resort.  It was so nice that we vowed to stay here if we ever came back to Cebu.

Back in our area of Cebu City (Capitol Site), we went for a late lunch at KFC.  We wanted to try their new Mac & Cheese bites, which were delicious!  Also, the other food there was much more to our liking than what KFC serves in China.  No Fair!

Smoothies were a nice dessert.

Back at the hotel, the kids were happy to find a sewing kit, and they fashioned a button for Jumpy’s overshirt.

When we showered, we were joined by this cute little lizard the kids named Lindot. 

Crazy fact about leaving the Philippines that we didn't know: beginning in August of 2012, you need to pay 750 pesos per person for airport terminal fees. I wish they would include this in the price of the ticket. We were so blessed that even though we didn't have enough in PHP or USD, we could convert our emergency HKD and CNY stashes to make it. Thankfully we made it back through HK and Shenzhen without anymore mishaps!

Philippines Day 4: Ayala Mall

We finally rode on one of those Jeepneys.  That evening, though, I spoke with a frequent visitor, and apparently, these little busses are not very safe, since it’s easy for a person to jump on, demand your money with a knife, and jump off again.

Ironman had to have a Shawarma, so when we saw them here, we had to do it too.  It’s pretty yummy, and if we could just get the recipe for the sauce, I think we might make them for ourselves. Hey! http://shawarmarecipe.com/ might be a useful site.

Ella loved her new raincoat so much, she used it as a cape when I accidentally found it in my purse from our last shopping trip.

We found a playland for the kids to run amok.

We ordered fried pizza!  Having fun waiting.  By the way, fried pizza is really really good!

We bought a souvenir shirt for the frog.  Our stuffed frogs are well-travelled… they deserve it.

Froggy didn’t make it to the mall this time, so we picked up a shirt to bring back to him.  Jumpy’s lookin’ good in his shirt, though!

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.