27th March 2016: Bohol - Ocean Adventure Tour

Yet another early morning, but this time, we were filled with great excitement and anticipation for the adventures upcoming.

Sunrise was at 530am, and we witnessed a really spectacular sunrise just like yesterday.

 

We met the boat guide for our Ocean Adventure, that Mr Boyet had arranged for us. And off we went, on board an exclusive boat just for the 4 of us!

Our 1st event was to spot the dolphins. We were crossing fingers hoping to see them and yes! we were not disappointed! In fact, there were near to 20 dolphins swimming around us. All of us were too happy at this sight! Never did we see dolphins at such close distance as compared to aquarium haha

After saying Hello to the dolphins, we made our way to Balicasag Island for fish sanctuary. We did not decide what to do. We saw we could feed the fish with bread and probably spot sea turtles. The guide said all these could be done without going into the water. But, when we reached the fish sanctuary, the water was so clean and shallow that it would be really wasted if we did not go in to do some snorkelling!

And so we did! It was the first time for two of us..and the experience was really good. I failed my swimming classes so this was something I have never imagined I would do :) Looking at the underwater world, the experience was totally awesome!

The colorful fish came by to eat the bread that we offered. The guide was also very good to bring us to the deeper ocean to see bigger fish and more of the corals! Luckily, all of us came back safely to the boat haha. we totally enjoyed this adventure. We also spotted sea turtles swimming past us, one of them was even curious to pop its head out of water to say Hi to us :)

Pretty Blue Starfish

The water at Balicasag Island

After a fruitful time at Balicasag Island, we made our way to the white sand bar at Virgin Island. Well, I'm not sure if you can call this island. It is really too small! Just a small strip of white sand. But, the water there is really clear and pretty. Look at the pictures!

Sea oh-so-clear!

Photo-taking at Virgin Island.

Boy, we were extremely hungry after this stop and we made our way back to Alona Beach. All of us were famished after a good bath at the hotel and we had lunch at the same restaurant we had for our 1st meal. It was a satisfying one and we were tired after waking up at 4am that day haha..

By the time we reached Cebu, it was already 8pm. I was glad transport pickup was smooth as arranged by Mr Boyet and we reached Cebu Quest Hotel safely.

After check-in, we proceeded to the nearby Ayala Mall to get some dinner! It was a really big mall but it was a pity as we did not have enough time to go shopping. The mall closes at 9pm and we only reach there at 815pm. Our dinner was spent as Cafe Laguna which offered very nice Philippines cuisine! Very happy meal indeed.

Wonderful Surprise for Angela!

In our opinions, this hotel offered very good standard rooms. And also, this night was special as I approached the hotel staff to help arrange a surprise for my friend who is getting married very soon! Cebu Quest Hotel kindly offered us a red wine, cheese cake, and chocolates which was really nice! 

A perfect end for our Bohol Vacation!
Till then, we may venture to explore other beautiful islands in Philippines in the near future!

26th March 2016: Bohol - Countryside Tour

Waking up early is a norm usually during travels for me. As we stayed near Alona Beach, I wanted to see sunrise and woke up at 530am that day. There within few minutes of wait, the sun rose and it was mesmerizing with the clear emerald-blue sea!

We had our breakfast at Sea Breeze Cafe before meeting Mr Boyet for our countryside tour. Our first stop was to visit Chocolate Hills. Mr Boyet suggested us to do the ATV ride to explore Chocolate Hills in addition to the view from a topdeck. Indeed, there was an excellent suggestion!

Upon reaching the Graham ATV rental shop, we selected our route, made payment and off we went! Mr Boyet was also very kind to help us request good working ATVs and he tried them out first before we did so :) After some briefing, off we went for our ATV adventure!

Vroom... We saw the Three Sisters Hill, Eight Hills in a Row, and a very nice terraced rice field! We were very excited and there was a guide who brought us along. He also took very nice pictures for us with interesting poses. This created much beautiful memories for all of us despite the dust and heat!

After our ATV ride, we made our way to the viewing platform. It was filled with people. But the view was still very good. We were glad to have done the ATV ride as we saw a different angle of the Chocolate Hills.

Then, Mr Boyet brought us to the Loboc River Cruise. It was a 1h cruise through the famous Loboc river accompanied with buffet lunch. The food was reasonable and the scenery was beautiful. You could see the meandering river through the forest and some houses where excited kids came out to say Hello.

Our last stop for the day was at Tarsier Sanctuary at Corella. As we only reach there at 4pm, we were the last to visit. It was our first encounter with this smallest primate. What was told to us was you need to be very quiet when viewing the tarsiers. They are easily frightened and may commit suicide due to trauma or stress. When we saw them, most of them were shy and hided behind the branches. We did see one of them looking at us curiously. Despite a short encounter, it was nice to visit this attraction in Bohol. 

Now you see me...

Now you don't...

Finally, Boyet sent us back to Henann Resort after this trip. We went to check out sunset and explored Alona Beach. 





The sunset was spectacular and Alona Beach has many Bbq food to offer with real gigantic prawns and seafood. We had our dinner at one restaurant before heading back to hotel for our much needed rest. Ocean Adventure starts early the following day!


We like to thank Mr Boyet Bensi for helping us so much for this trip planning.
If not for him, I think we will not enjoy very much as he took care for the transport arrangement, ATV suggestion and also his safe and meticulous care during our vacation.

Below are his contact details if anyone is looking to plan a Bohol trip:
Email: boyetbensi@yahoo.com

25th March 2016 - Cebu/Bohol

We met early at 6am all ready for our Cebu/Bohol Escapade!

Our not-so-sleepy faces after all!

 Our Tiger Airways flight took about 3.5h from Singapore to reach Cebu Mactan Airport.

Before this trip, I have contacted Mr Boyet Bensi to engage his help in transport around Cebu and Bohol, and also tours in Bohol where he is based at. He has been extremely helpful and accomodating to my requests and I really gotta thank him for this!

So through Mr Boyet, our driver picked us from airport to have lunch at their famous Jollibee. Since that day was a Good Friday, many shops were closed since Filippinos are mainly Catholics. We also had a try at Bo's Coffee to get our caffeine fix before going to Cebu Pier 1.

It was a pretty long wait as our Oceanjet ferry was scheduled to depart at late evening. Since it was Good Friday, ferry timings were minimal and in fact there was only one ferry leaving from Cebu to Tagbilaran. So I was very grateful to Mr Boyet for helping us book the tickets in advance!

The ferry ride was near 2h and it was pretty chaotic after disembarking as we collected our luggage. And finally, we met Mr Boyet! He picked us up and sent us to Henann Resort Bohol. We were excited about our adventure for the next two days despite the near 12h journey from Singapore to Bohol :)

After checkin, we had a very sumptious dinner at the hotel's restaurant and they offered really nice food. We went checkout the pools and haD a toast at the end of the day to celebrate!