CEBU and BOHOL - Tarsiers, Chocolate Hills and more :)

Over the Chinese New Year weekend we decided to visit the Philippines after almost a decade, this time flying into Cebu. I had heard a lot about Mactan island and the resorts there so thought that it would be good to enjoy some beach time…

However, unfortunately, being able to enjoy beach time meant staying at one of the large resorts with a private beach front, which our Airbnb apartment did not have. So we did spend on a day package at the Movenpick Hotel to chillax on the beach, though it was nothing to shout about, having been to lovely beaches in Thailand and even Boracay, in the Philippines, previously. 

In fact, I would advise those looking for a Philippine beach holiday to avoid the grossly over-priced resorts in Mactan and look for other options. Instead, if visiting Cebu, choose to spend a couple of nights in a nice hotel in the city so as to be able to enjoy the sight-seeing and nightlife on offer. The traffic between the two is simply unbearable given that they have just two bridges servicing it, so not worth a daily commute back and forth.

With regards to Cebu city, the highlight for me was the view of the city from the Tops Lookout followed by a quick bite at the Lantaw hilltop restaurant nearby, just in time to experience the lights in the city being turned on. Quite a beautiful sight! The visit to Tops itself was made interesting by this guy and his drone which had everyone pretty mesmerized as he manoeuvred it over the valley. The Basilica del Santo Nino and the ancestral Yap-San Diego house were very interesting and worth a visit when in the city. I would recommend lunch at Café Laguna in the Ayala mall in the city. They serve authentic, local fare and the popularity of the restaurant can be seen from the queues at lunch time. 

The highlight of the entire trip however, was the last day that we spent in Bohol which had us wishing that we had spent more time there. Bohol is a two-hour ferry ride from Cebu and the Ocean Jet ferry was very comfortable and stable. We had a car to pick us up at the ferry terminal and immediately embarked on our sight-seeing. 

First stop was the Tarsier Conservation Area in Loboc. I was in for a shock, as in the pictures, they make the tarsiers look so BIG! In reality they are smaller than your palm!! Too cute for words and we were thrilled to be able to view 4-5 creatures comfortably nestling in the trees. Being nocturnal creatures, they are very sluggish and mostly asleep during the day, but we were fortunate to get some great pictures of one that was awake. I absolutely fell in love with these creatures whose adult weight is a mere 150 gms!!

From there it was on to the Loboc River Cruise which included lunch. While not great food, given how much we had to cover in a day, it made sense to eat on board. In any case, the stunning views of the river made up for it. Lovely also to see poor kids play with gay abandon on handmade swings over the water which they used as a launching point for a plunge into the river.

Of course, no trip to Bohol is complete without a trip to Bohol’s most famous attraction, the Chocolate hills. The Chocolate Hills are a geological formation with over 1200 hills spread over an area of more than 50 sq. km. They are very uniform in shape and mostly between 30 and 50 meters high. They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, making them look like endless rows of chocolate kisses, hence the name. The 214 step climb to the top was well worth the effort for the views that greeted us at the top. Beautiful! Even the drive to the Chocolate Hills through the man-made mahogany forest was stunning.

A trip to the Hanging Bamboo Bridge, Blood Compact Shrine and the Baclayon church rounded off our sight-seeing. 

Then after a rest at the hotel, we were lucky to indulge in our best meal of the trip at Persona Mesa. The fabulous wine accompaniment to the meal rendered hubby a happy camper and he was all smiles thereafter. A perfect ending to the trip :)


February 2016 - Cebu, Bohol (Philippines)