The schools’ summer holidays in the Philippines start in April and end in May. Some schools’ summer holidays start a little earlier or later but if it’s April, everyone is already into vacation mode. Therefore, for this month, I will feature small tourist spots that can be easily reached from Cebu. These are Bohol and Lubi Resort in Santader (next section).

        A one-day trip to Bohol is possible because it’s not that far from Cebu. But since I will be bringing my kids, I want to enjoy the trip slowly. For this reason, we decided to spend overnight in Bohol. This is a trip where our family did not have any preparation or research about the place that we just went there.

        We just bought our tickets at the port that morning. Actually, there were schedules wherein all seats are already fully booked and occupied. I realized then that it’s better to buy the tickets before going to the port. But the truth is, before we went there, I discovered that the cheapest tickets are being sold only at the port. That is why we decided to just buy the tickets at the port. But you can also buy the tickets at SM and Ayala. Only, they have additional fee of about P20-P30 for the service charge. Anyway, we went to Bohol via Ocean Jet. (Roundtrip fare is P520. It’s the same for children.) The air-conditioner inside the jet produces very cold air so jackets are really necessary.

        You can arrange your schedules with a guide at the Cebu port for the whole day of sightseeing in Bohol. Then everything you want for your trip is decided there.
         (IMO RENT A CAR：9058408022)

        "Blood compact monument – Baclayon church – Brocade snake
        Tarsiers – Loboc river cruise – Chocolate hills – Hanging bridge”
        See and experience all these, let them send and pick you up at the hotel, and everything is just P2500. (Excluding lunch)

Brocade snake: Is this a new tourist attraction? They keep a very huge and very long shocking brocade snake that is already turning 11 years old. Beside the brocade snake named Prony, there was a gay staff singing and dancing. But why is a gay doing a show beside the huge brocade snake? (He cannot touch a common snake.)

Tarsiers: When we talk about Bohol, what we would usually want to see there are the tarsiers. Tarsiers are nocturnal animals. They also relax during daytime but they look like flashing lights, yet not making your life stressful. To protect the tarsiers, touching them is forbidden most of the time. (Fifth photo from the top: Touching the tarsier was specially permitted for report coverage.)

Loboc river cruise: If you are a tourist in Bohol, the standard lunch venue is the Loboc river cruise. If lunch is not included in your package tour, there are severalstores lining up in pavilion offering lunch to the people. So choose your favorite store among the many stores inside. When we went there, we chose buffet style for our lunch. We paid P280 for each person.

Chocolate hills: About 2 million years ago, due to the movement of magma, the seabed slowly upheaved and 1776 small cone-shaped hills (height ranges from 30m – 40m) were created. Since most of the hills were made in coral reefs (namely, limestone), the trees don’t grow on them. The hills are just covered with grasses. During dry season, the whole surface of the hills becomes brown, the reason why they are called chocolate hills. When we went there, they were “powdered green tea chocolate”.

Hanging bridge: Before, it was like a bridge that is going to break any moment now. But the hanging bridge now was reinforced that you would no longer feel thrilling fear when you cross it. By the way, there is a souvenir shop at the end of the bridge.

Expenses until this activity
Ocean Jet: P520 x 4 persons
One whole day of sightseeing: P2500 (All activities except lunch)
Lunch: P280 x 3 adults
Hotel: The Bohol Beach Club travel agency made reservations for us. 52 dollars (excluding meals)
These are the rates last March 8, 2008. Also, the prices vary depending on the trader so please bear in mind that these are just tentative figures.

        We went diving on the following day. I was impressed with the many corals and different kinds of fish. We had limited time that we had only dived around Panglao Island. Anyway, I will be reporting to you about our diving in Parigasak (to be scheduled) in the article “Bohol report, second part” (to be scheduled within the year)!! The sea around Panglao Island is very beautiful, much more the Parigasak.

        One whole day is enough to enjoy seeing the main tourist spots in Bohol. However, if you plan to bring your children, go diving around the island, and playing around on the beach, I still recommend you to stay overnight on the island. You can still go around Bohol and enjoy the place without joining any package tour. But if you will consider the limited time that you have just to be able to see the whole place, I strongly encourage you to join a package tour. I recommend it most especially to the tourists from Japan. You don’t know the market prices of the goods and services, you don’t know the way to the different tourist spots, and you don’t know what kind of troubles you will get yourself into. So have no worries by asking the help of the travel agency and leave everything up to them to have a perfect Bohol travel.

Ships traveling to Bohol (Tagbilaran)

SuperCat (Cebu port area: PIER 4)		OCEAN JET (Cebu port are: PIER 1)
Cebu to Tagbilaran		Cebu to Tagbilaran
8：00　12：00　16：00		6：00　9：30　14：00　18：20
Tagbilaran to Cebu		Tagbilaran to Cebu
10：00　14：00　18：00		7：15　11：50　16：20　17：30

*These are the schedules of the ships last March 8, 2008.

We are thankful for the following diving shop:
GOOD Dive Shop (Person in charge: Mr. Shinko Kanda) TEL (038)-501-8988

        I would also like to thank Miss Kazuko of Best Travel for helping us out in gathering information about our Bohol travel.

From April 2008 issue