Day 5. Fly to Bohol, Bohol Country Tour

Fly to Bohol

I had the hotel to arrange airport transfer for me. It was 500 PHP and the hotel returned the rest of my deposit at the check out. Our flight was 8:20am, we needed to check out and leave at 6:20am, too early for the hotel breakfast. The hotel prepared an egg sandwich and a bottle of water for each of us. 

At the airport security, we were told that water cannot go in, so we drank the water there. At the AirSwift check in counter, our luggages weighted 10.4 and 10.6 kg each. I bought the value fare this time and only had free10kg check-in luggage per person, but they did not charge us. There was a card sign showing which flight they were boarding at the gate. We just waited for our flight. The AirSwift flight was delayed by 40 minutes. On this flight, we got water and a bag of chips, better than the AirSwift flight from Manila to El Nido which had water only. 

We arrived Bohol at 10:40 am. I had arranged a private driver, Arniel, for the day in Bohol. At the exit of the Panglao airport, there were many venders selling tours and transfers, so it should be ok without pre-arranging things. Arniel found us and we went in his van. He said that we could just keep our luggage in his car, so we did not need to drop them off at the hotel. 

Arniel asked where we wanted to have lunch. I said we were not picky. He took us Susan's Kilawin for buffet. It was 450 PHP per person. I liked the shrimp and poke fish. Unfortunately the fried noodle was too salty, the fried chicken was not crunchy, so not much for Claire to enjoy.

Manmade Forrest

We stopped by to take photos at the manmade forrest. As Claire mentioned it, this place reminded us of some scenic drives in the Redwood National Park, with tall trees lining up along the road. The trees were planted 50 years ago and now it became a popular photo spot for tourists. Arniel told me to jump, and after several attempts, we got this photo. 

Tarsiers

These insect-eating animals are the smallest primates in the world. Arniel said that there used to be a lot of them living in the wild in Bohol, but now there are not many. The super typhoon two years ago killed many of them. He said that there were several several places to see tarsiers, one place had shortest driving distance, another place you could see the animals close. So I chose the one where we could see the animals close. The place was called Bilar Bohol Enchanted. The entrance tickets had several packages. We only wanted to see the tarsiers and did not care about butterflies or the python, so we bought Package A which was only 140 PHP per person. There were four tarsiers today, each tarsier has a person next to them who would stand on a chair to help us to take photos and guide us to the next tarsier. 

There was a restaurant here, and we bought a coconut for 60PHP.


Chocolate Hills ATV

Our next stop was Chocolate Hills. There were 1,776 round hills in this area. There were several reasons to visit this place: these hills were a unique geological feature, the location was shot for some scenes in a Harry Potter movie, and the entrance fee was only 100 PHP per person. However, I was just not impressed by it. The only reason I visited was because of the ATV. We did the one-hour ATV with a guide. It was 1000PHP (~ $20) per person. The minimum age was 9, so Claire was totally driving her own ATV. They mentioned that the rain was coming so we also bought two rain ponchos for 100PHP total. 

Our tour guide was amazing, very patient, took cool videos and photos of us. He first taught us how to drive. We then drove to a view point, stopping at different places for photos. At the view point, we walked up some steps to reach a platform at the top of a hill. There we had a great view and took more photos. I also bought water from a guy there. As we walked down from the platform, it started raining. There was a covered rest area, and we stayed there to wait out the rain. While waiting, I bought a coconut. It's interesting how there were people selling drinks everywhere. After five minutes, the rain stopped and we drove back. Overall, a fantastic experience.



Fireflies

We arrived at the Loay firefly place at 5:00pm. This place offers a floating restaurant during the day (buffet on a boat) and firefly tour at night. The firefly tour started at 6:30pm, so we just played with our phones to kill some time. We did a group tour for 450PHP per person. There were like 10 people on the boat. 

The boat was a round platform and we drove close to several trees where the fireflies were. The guide said that they were called living Christmas trees, a very good capture of what they look like. The fireflies pulse in a synchronized way. The lights got stronger when it was later of the night, and when we clap. Our guide took photos for everyone using her phone flashlight to shed some light on us. My phone could capture less than 1% of how amazing the fireflies actually looked.  

Wrap up

It was 8:30pm when we reached our hotel, Alona Austria Resort. After checking in, we decided to skip dinner and just went to sleep.

The hotel was super quiet, the staff were super friendly. Loved this place.

It was great to have arranged a private driver for the day (3500PHP). We skipped several places that we were not interested, e.g. a butterfly place, some churches/missions. In hind sight, the itinerary could be improved to have lunch at the Bohol Bee Farm, and to have dinner at a restaurant near the Loay firefly place.  

The locals in Bohol were so good at taking photos for tourists that even I got quite a few influencer-style photos by just doing whatever they told me to. My phone was totally happier in their hands than mine.


 


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