Yum, creamy vegetable soup with pasta!
Pancakes dusted with icing sugar, chopped peanuts and a glob of ice-cream
Enjoying our splendid breakfast
We proceeded to the lobby after that and were picked up by the driver we hired yesterday. He was Gil, a dark middle-aged Filipino man with a big belly, who spoke and smiled very little and sometimes uninhibitedly adjusted his crotch in front of us. We were brought to our first destination - Bohol Bee Farm, a quiet apiary which also does some organic farming and whipping up of interesting bites.
On Gil's car
We roamed around the compound and especially the gift shop (cutely named the Buzz Shop) while Gil waited for us. It was an eye-opener browsing through the handmade souvenirs like bags, honey soap and photo frames, and natural confectioneries sold at the gift shop - corn coffee, ube (yam) jam, cassava chips, peanut egg-drops, homemade fruit marmalade and vegetable spreads, teas of assorted flavours like avocado and lemongrass etc. Almost everything there is handmade, even the labels and tags on the shelves are hand-woven.
The Buzz Shop
Shelves and boxes of goodies
Slug sampling the smorgasbord of snacks
Bottles of honey
A bee can only produce 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime?
Could not resist taking a picture with the small cute kitty
The tour to where they kept the bees was conducted at specific timings but we decided not to wait for the next timing which was another 30 minutes away. After snagging some of those goodies, we got on Gil's car and headed to Loboc River on the Bohol mainland for lunch on one of its floating restaurants. You will not believe the so-called causeway linking Panglao Island and the Bohol mainland is just a dangerously narrow two-lane rock embankment - with NO railings.
It was a total of 900 pesos for us three, and we got on one of the floating restaurants. It was nothing more than a large sheltered wooden raft driven by a motor boat at the back. It was a Filipino buffet lunch and I must admit I still could not get used to their cuisine. The fish was grilled au naturel again. I duped Slug into eating some questionable-looking jade green thorny seaweed by bluffing that it is some uniquely-shaped konnyaku jelly. He spat it all out in disgust. I did not blame him because seriously, it tasted VERY salty and weird.
Floating restaurant at the pick-up pier
On the floating restaurant
Helping themselves to the buffet
Our lunch
While having our lunch, the floating restaurant cruised along the scenic Loboc River flanked by tall trees on both sides with occasional kampung houses. The two-man band strumming a guitar and belting out classic tunes lightened up the atmosphere. Along the river we saw the locals dozing in the shade and the youths splashing around by the river bank. A very nice way to spend the afternoon.
Loboc River
Houses and boats by the river
Another floating restaurant
Stopped halfway so that the passengers could watch a folk dance by the locals
Some Chocolate Hills in the background
The mini waterfalls marked the end of that stretch of the river and the floating restaurant took us back to the pick-up point. Still dreamy from that relaxing river cruise, we were hurried by Gil to our next destination - the Chocolate Hills.
The Chocolate Hills is a famed wonder - 1,268 perfectly dome-shaped hills of uniform height, and so-named because during the dry season, the grasses turn brown and these hills appear to look like chocolates. So far, the geological formations of this landform has remained much of a mystery, and today, I had come to see this wonder for myself.
Passing by many flooded rice fields along the way
We climbed up a steep flight of stairs to the observation deck, which is actually on top of one of the hills, and beheld the expansive hill scenery. I expected the Chocolate Hills to be a large compound with all the 1,268 hills crammed in it, but I was wrong. It turned out that these hills were scattered all over the Bohol mainland - some solitary, some in a cluster. The place where we were at, we could see one of the largest clusters of the hills.
Signboard explaining the hypothesized formation of Chocolate Hills
Us on the observation deck
The Chocolate Hills
Us with the Chocolate Hills
More hills ... ...
... ... And more rice plains
Mother Mary's shrine nearby
Pretty tri-coloured flowers!
Slug at a cave-like pavillion
Humans always have to spoil natural beauty
After that, Gil brought us to visit another so-called ‘attraction’, which was nothing more than just a short hanging bridge. I did not really see anything special about it, and yet we had to pay a small admission fee to walk on it. The bridge was made up of flattened halves of bamboo sticks woven together, but the smooth bamboo skin was quite slippery for my slippers and my ankle nearly got stuck in the gaps at times. At the end of the bridge, we came across this small community selling local snacks and refreshments. We bought a large bag of Peanut Kisses, this peanut and egg white candy shaped by the Hershey’s Kisses chocolates (hence its namesake, most likely). We also had some fresh coconut juice, and one of the men, self-acclaimed Buko (coconut) King, wanted to show us how he could bite the husks of a coconut using his bare teeth, for a small fee, but we were not interested to watch.
Back on the road
Booth collecting admission fee
Someone selling roasted bananas, YUCKS
On the overhanging bridge
Man selling fresh coconut juice
Roaming hens were a common sight
Slippery bridge
Makeshift stall selling what else but bananas
We walked back on the bobbing bridge again, and Gil brought us to see the tarsier next, at Loboc, one of the two only tarsier sanctuaries in Bohol. The tarsier is considered the world's smallest primate, but scientifically, it is not exactly a primate. What is amazing is that its head can turn 180 degrees, to compensate for its protruding eyes that cannot turn in their sockets. Here in the Philippines, the tarsier is native only to the southeastern part of the archipelago. Conservation efforts are underway to prevent these creatures from going extinct, and two sanctuaries are set up to showcase these tarsiers to the public and yet still ensure they are still close to the wild. However, methinks captivity still brings misery to animals that should really just be left alone.
The sanctuary in Loboc is like a small-scale zoo with many trees, and we had fun going around trying to spot these small creatures in the bushes, which are no bigger than the size of our fists. They would just cling onto the thin branches of the shorter trees, and stare around quietly with their bulging eyes.
The tarsier
Two monkey residents
Mother and baby flying lemurs
One of the sanctuary attendants gave us two skewered crickets to feed the tarsiers. You should see how wide they opened their already-huge eyes and that sudden agile surge to grab that insect. We were amused by the looks of the two tarsiers in the first clip when they were turning around to grab the crickets.
Enjoying their cricket snacks
Finger lickin' good
Gil then took us to see the largest python in Bohol which interested Slug. Of course, a small token fee was charged, for us and for Gil's car! What the hell. We arrived just in time to watch the last twenty seconds of a drag queen's dance to Lady Gaga's Poker Face. That was definitely more exciting than the seemingly-lifeless python curled up at a corner of its cage.
A very manly drag queen and his girly pink feather boa
Snakeskin lingerie ... ... YUCKS!
What have they been feeding it? ANS: little live piglets
Looks like a thick rubber band
Black hen
Robust rooster
A hen and its brood of chicks following it
There was not anything much, so we got out of that place after 10 minutes. We were taken back to Panglao Island for our last destination - Hinagdanan Cave, a small underground cavern with a deep lagoon and stalactites and stalagmites.
On the dangerous causeway back to Panglao Island
Could not even get to this point without paying for admission as well as ... ... the parking of the car
Entering the cave
The guide led us through the dark damp passage and showed us the cave formations, cave paintings and the insidiously quiet lagoon. Swallows (we expected bats) were flying around, making screeching noises.
In the cave
Stalactites
Creepy cave paintings
By the lagoon
The lagoon water was surprisingly cold, and according to the guide, he occasionally takes a dip with his friends in the clear and cooling waters. Seriously, who would be in the right mind to swim in that abysmal depths?
Pockmarked cave ceiling
Swallows and their nests in these pockmarks
Time to return to the resort. It was only 4pm but yet it looked like 6pm in the evening (by Singapore's standards). We washed up, watched reruns of Wipeout on AXN for a while and then headed out to Alona Beach for dinner.
We had some western food at a hotel restaurant (we did not have many choices, really), which was expensive and substandard. It was not a satisfying meal, but it was compensated by the soothing atmosphere of dining by the beach and enjoying the romantic moonrise.
Awaiting the arrival of our food at the restaurant
I thoroughly enjoyed this calamari
Dory fish fillet in cream sauce with pasta
Butter rice with a quirky chicken cutlet filled with ham and cheese
Enjoying the night breeze by the sea
Beautiful full moon shining on the obsidian sea
Ended the dinner with a romantic stroll along the dark beach. The only problem was that the sand was too soft - it gave way under our feet with every step and it was tiring to pull out one foot from the sand only to find the other foot sinking into the sand. The stench of the seaweed wafting through the air was certainly uncalled for.
Back the resort, we played some games - Scrabble and table football, before retiring early for the night.
By the resort pool
Playing Scrabble at the resort lounge
Got to wake up at 5.30am the next day, because we were going to watch dolphins and they only come out to feed in the early morning when the sun is not hot.
