Bohol Tour 2013 (June 17 - 20, 2013)

Bohol is one of my dream destinations.  It has always my dream to see the famous chocolate hills and to look at the Philippine Tarsier, one of the world’s smallest primates up close.  I have tried looking for promo flights to Tagbilaran City (Bohol’s capital) several times but promo fares run out quickly. 

After almost four years, I’ll be taking Zest Air once again.  My last Zest Air flight was in October of 2009.  For this flight, we checked-in at NAIA Terminal 4 or the old domestic terminal.  Renovations were done and soon it will handle International flights due to the presence of immigration and customs counter.  We checked-in early and waited for two hours inside the pre-departure area.  Our flight left on time and we reached our destination on time as well.

Tagbilaran Airport Terminal

The Welcome arch outside the airport

Upon arriving at Tagbilaran Airport, we immediately went outside upon getting our luggage.  To our surprise, our arranged airport pick-up was not around.  I called the resort and it seems like they do not know my reservation even if I confirmed my arrival by calling them 3 days in advance and by texting them before departure.  Luckily, one of their service vehicles was still around the city.  They called the driver to return to the airport and pick us up. Finally, the shuttle service came after almost 10 minutes.  Our driver, Jojo, gave us some facts about the province.  We enjoyed hearing stories about the place so I decided not to complain anymore upon arriving at the resort.  We stayed at Dumaluan Beach Resort located in Panglao Island.  The resort itself is good and our room was located right in front of their swimming pool.  The room we got was clean and adequate, there’s a cable TV but it has no mini ref.  There’s a free set of soap, shampoo, and toothbrush, however, there is no complimentary bottled water.  Since we needed water, I asked the front desk where we can get complimentary water.  She said that we can get water from the restaurant.  She also said if we have empty bottle, we can refill it there.  But when we went to the restaurant, they refuse to give us water, they said they can only give water at the restaurant and we must drink it only there.  Then you can hear the front desk personnel and the restaurant staff arguing in their native dialect.  So instead of insisting, we walked-out and bought bottled water at the souvenir store.  The amount was way too expensive for a brand that is obviously cheap elsewhere.  The resort is well maintained, they have a good number of employees but they need serious training.  I won’t elaborate every bad experience with their staff as it will ruin my story!

Superior room at Dumaluan Beach Resort

We walked along the beach for a while and discovered that the sand is comparable to that of Boracay.  For dinner, we ate at their beach front restaurant.  You can order in advance and reserve the seat you want, just tell them what time you want the food to be served.  The food tastes just right, but a bit expensive for its class.  You can either pay at the restaurant or charge it to your room bill, but I suggest paying in every transaction in order for you to control your budget. 

A walk along the beach

Dinner Time!

On our next day, we woke up early for our buffet breakfast.  The selections are simple but tastes fine.  Our tour is scheduled at 8 am so we were already prepared before taking our breakfast.  For our tour, we had a different driver, Manuel.  Unlike other tours, their driver also acts as tour guides.  They give some information and gladly answers any question. 

My first Breakfast Buffet

Our first stop was the chocolate hills.  It is located in Carmen, Bohol, almost 2 hours drive from the resort.   We can already see come hills along the road leading to the viewing site.  There are actually a total of 1,776 hills in the area.  It was named chocolate hills because during summer it is brownish in color.  To get the best view, you have to climb more than 100 steps toward the top of a hill.  The view from above was spectacular, we can’t stop taking pictures around.  We spent more than 30 minutes before we finally went down.

The Famous Chocolate Hills of Bohol

(To be continued…..)