Philippines!

First off, so sorry for this overdue blog post. Our spontaneous trip to the Philippines was about 3 weeks ago, and I have yet to update my blog. During this time, we've also visited Phuket & Koh Phi Phi. Tomorrow, we're heading to Bali!

Anyways, I promise I'll be better at blogging after this next trip.

Last minute decision to go to the Philippines was an amazing one!!! I had no idea what Cebu was until I saw the deal for it on flocations.com. Juliana and I were casually not paying attention during out 3-hour History of Singapore class, and we noticed that flights this weekend were only around $200 SGD round trip. Julianna, Alex, and I took a risk and booked it that night. The next day, we managed to convince our friend from Denmark, Alexander, to accompany us/be our body guard. He was a little nervous about traveling with us three girls, but we promised we wouldn't spend too much time shopping.

I also ran into a friend from Calgary, Niall, and managed to convince him to join us as well. He brought along 4 other friends, so we had a pretty big group going. Hostels are a little harder to find in Panglao Island though, so they ended up not staying in the same place. When you have no method of communication, it becomes hard to plan each day. Therefore, I spent most of the time with Alexander, Alex, and Juliana.

The trip started off a little rough, because none of us realized how long it takes to get to Alona Beach. Additionally, the two Alexs and I did not sleep at all the night before, because we had a night out at St. James Powerstation. After packing everything, and heading out by 6am, we arrived to the airport by cab. After a 4-hour flight,  1-hour ferry, and a 2-hour cab, we finally arrived at Citadel Alona--a very cute and affordable hotel only 7 mins away from the beach.

Fish/Skewers grilled fresh for us!

The first night, we walked to the beach and sat at the first cute beach-side restaurant that we could find. Eating delicious skewers and sipping on some dirt cheap mango daiquiris, we explored the area and appreciated the warm white sand. We met up with Niall and the crew and got super cheap massages on the beach. On our way to head back home, we ran into one of the several tour salesman. After bargaining the price down, we managed to book a full day excursion (starting at 7am) to see all of the Bohol sites including an extra waterfall. We went straight to bed, so that we could be refreshed for our morning trip.

Waking up early is always hard for me, but-thanks to Juliana-I have yet to miss a tour. Dennis, our friendly chauffeur for the day, picked us up right on time. The first stop was the amazing/famous Chocolate Hills. They were a delicious sight to see! :) We had to walk up quite a few steps to soak in the amazing view, but it was well worth it. The whole time, we were hoping to learn more about how they formed; however, there wasn't a lot of information. Still, it was incredibly beautiful!!

Next on the full day tour, we went to the Tarsier park place. Tarsiers are the world's smallest primate, and extremely hard to find. Our tour guides through the small park would point out the tiny, sleeping monkeys, because there is no way that we could ever find them ourselves. A few other creatures, such as huge spiders, also creeped around the area. It was a pretty small park, but it only cost a few pesos. Also, every monkey was sleeping, since they are nocturnal. We finished this stop pretty quickly, and went back to hang out with Dennis.

The hanging suspension bridge was another quick stop. After nearly falling out of it and taking a few pictures of Alexander's rockstar pose, we went back into the car to get to lunch. On the way out of the bridge, Alex bought some "chocolate." Taking a big bite of it, she realized it was actually a big block of concentrated cocoa, meant to make hot chocolate with on the stove. That was not exactly the best snack, but we learned something!

The next stop was one of my favorites: the Loboc River cruise. When we got there, we convinced Dennis (after a lot of pressure) to join us for the river cruise lunch, because he normally doesn't get the chance to go. For being such a great driver, we treated him lunch. This cruise was beautiful!! It's just a nice wooden boat with a buffet that takes you down the bright green Loboc River. On the way, we saw some small waterfalls, and they even have a Filipino dance show. The boat stops in the water, and there's a dock with several locals singing and dancing. In one dance, they lift two big wooden pools, and the women are dancing/jumping around them. It's like a more complicated jump rope. After some time, our boat played some live tunes from back in the day, and Juliana and I provided entertainment for the boat with our old-school dance moves. Everyone wanted to take pictures with Alex, Alexander, and Juliana, because they were white and blonde. I didn't really get much attention--everyone thought I was Filipino.

Our new best friend, Dennis!

Dennis suggested we add another stop on our trip--ziplining! We agreed, of course. This was a different type of ziplining, that you fly like superman head-first. After waiting for a few mins, we took our turns racing over the Loboc river from the top of a mountain. The ride wasn't scary; but, stopping was! Flying down at high speeds, there's only a small metal weight stopping your zipline, and a man with his arms out to catch you. We did it twice, and my attempts to record it on my camera failed unfortunately.

View of the Loboc River from Ziplining.

Next up was the highlight our trip: the waterfall!! We paid a little extra for this excursion, but I'm incredibly glad that we did! We get to this waterfall, after climbing down at least 5 floors of steps, that is nearly empty and incredibly beautiful. Since it was not touristy, we had the waterfall basically to ourselves. Jumping into the refreshing water, we swam as close as possible to the descending water. The rocks on the side were not as slippery, so we climbed up the side and stood near the edge. We had to be extremely careful, because the water pressure could take us down if we came too close. We were standing on the edge, and Dennis was taking pictures from the deck lookout point. One of the locals pointed at us, and signalled for us to jump. I felt like my dreams were coming true! All I wanted to do was jump off this waterfall as soon as possible, before I got nervous. Alexander went first without even thinking. Alex was hesitating, so I ran right in front of her and jumped. Terrified and exhilarated, I think this was one of the best moments of being abroad so far. We played in the water, explored the caves behind the waterfall, and fell a few times on hard, slippery rocks before heading back home.

That night, we got dinner on the beach. We asked for a table near the water, and they gave us a table in the water. We didn't mind, until Alex fell out of her chair! A few fire show kids came over to show us their moves, and one of them (an 8-year-old) spun fire over my head. On our way out, we booked yet another tour for the next day, except this was dolphin-watching and island hopping.

We had to wake up at 6am to see the morning dolphins, but that was (as always) well worth it! We ended up getting a discount, because they guy who sold us our tour double-booked our boat. An American man named Joe and his Filipino wife joined us for the day. Since it's supposed to be a private tour, our guy said that we could decide what time we leave each island. However, since we were swimming, we were not always in a rush. Joe was pretty nice, a little different, but still nice. His wife did not seem to be the biggest fan of us, because we stretched our day excursion pretty long, and she couldn't swim due to her hair treatment.

The boat ride to find dolphins was a little long, but when we saw them we jumped for joy! Or at least I did. We also went snorkeling on a tiny island (without any real bathrooms) for a few hours. We grabbed a few snacks, because the next island did not have any food. By 9am, we were at our second one, the Virgin Island. There is no development, because it's so small and beautiful. The only commerce on the island was several men begging tourists to buy pearls again and again and again. Although this was annoying, the island still felt natural and untouched. Since it wasn't crowded either, we felt pretty special. We could walk around the island in about 5 minutes, because it was so tiny! The water was crystal clear as well, which is always a plus.

Albert & friends teaching us the island ways.

 Alex and I tried to be adventurous by exploring the drop-off, but a nice man from Bohol warned us of the sea urchins. Since he saved our lives, we hung out with him and his work buddies for a while. We found out that they live on Panglao island, and come here every Sunday for a break from working. I can't remember where they worked now, but they all were incredibly friendly (especially to Alexander). Albert taught us how to eat sea urchin. He dove into the water, brought one up, and then he cracked it open. After cleaning out the guts, we ate the orange and yellow sea urchin. Each one had a different taste, but they all were slightly salty. Albert invited us to hang out with him that night, but we didn't make any promises. He was awesome though!

Getting back to the island, Alex and I went exploring to find a hotel to stay in for that night. Our hotel had told us that they were all booked for that night. However, after visiting them again, we realized it was a simple miscommunication error. The Citadel was ours for another night! As it was our last, we went for another beach dinner. Luckily we ran into Niall and the crew again. We also made friends with a college student from McGill who was visiting his family in the Philippines. We all hung out for a while, enjoying our last few hours! We ate plenty of pancakes and drank a good amount of mango shakes, before calling it a night.

The next morning, Dennis gave us a bit of a scare, because he was pretty late. All of us were cranky and tired, and Alexander was not happy that we almost forgot his baby (his camera). The trip back was pretty tiring, but we cheered up after some buns at the ferry dock. I slept during every cab ride, ferry trip, plane ride, MRT, and bus during the way home. Overall, this place surpassed my expectations! So far, it's holding strong as my favorite! :)