Globetrotting Adventures: The Philippines: Cebu and Bohol Island

Cebu 25/06-27/06

We had a pretty terrible overnight flight from Bangkok to Cebu with a very rushed stopover in Manila on the way. Our first flight from Bangkok to Manila was delayed by about an hour and a half meaning we would most likely miss our onward connection to Cebu. We arrived in Manila at about 6 15am and our flight to Cebu was boarding at 6 25! We had to go through immigration, get our bags, go back through check in and security and then find the gate. Luckily the staff were really helpful and gave us special treatment, walking us straight through the airport to our gate. We ended up boarding the flight with 1 minute to spare and our names were being called out on the speaker system as we were boarding the shuttle bus. We finally made it to Cebu exhausted and slept the majority of the day. In the evening we went back to the airport to pick up Hannah, Nina’s sister, who was going to be travelling with us for the next 6 weeks throughout the Philippines and Indonesia. After 3 flights and over 16 hours in the air, she was really tired too and we all slumped into bed.

We only had a day in Cebu so we set out to explore as much as we could. It was the first place in the Philippines that the Spanish explorer Magellan landed at and established Spanish colonial rule and all the changes that went with that such as the introduction of Catholicism. We walked around the San Pedro fort which dates back to the colonial era, saw the original cross that Magellan had placed in Central Cebu when he arrived and also visited the oldest church in the Philippines. Our guidebook also suggested going to a bustling market near the riverfront but when we got there, all we found were dodgy men and A LOT of mangoes for sale. We quickly turned around and sought out a ‘Jollibee’ to get an ice cream at. Jollibee is the Filipino version of McDonalds with its mascot being a huge jolly bee! Although the chicken on sale hardly looked appetizing, Hannah indulged in a 10 Peso ice creams which equates to about 12p! From then on, when working out whether something was too expensive or not, we worked out how many Jollibee ice creams could be bought for the same price as the product.

That night we went out for dinner to a famous seafood restaurant near our hotel called ‘STK Ta Bay!’ It turned out to be one of the best meals we’ve had the entire trip. We ate hot and spicy calamari, baked scallops in butter and tiger prawns grilled in garlic. The restaurant used to be an old house and the tables were all in what would have been the old living room. The room was decorated with loads of antiques including original magazines and artefacts left over by American soldiers during the Second World War. It was also completely full of Filipinos, which is always a good sign!

San Pedro Fort

Ed's new best friend Jollibee

Ed and Han

Baked Scallops!

Bohol Island: Nuts Huts, Loboc Eco Park, Chocolate Hills & Tarsier Sanctuary 27/06-02/07

The next day we got the Supercat fast hovercraft from Cebu to the Island of Bohol. It took about 2 hours and cost around 500 Pesos, or the equivalent of 50 Jollibee ice creams. On the ferry we got to watch the film ‘Baby’s day out’, which we think had been solely chosen as it lasted the exact amount of time the ferry took to make the trip. We had read that there was a really cool place to stay called ‘Nuts Huts’ right in the heart of the jungle on the banks of the Loboc river. In order to get there from the port in the city of Tagbilaran, we had to really travel like a Filipino local. We caught a tricycle, basically a motorbike with a modified sidecar, to the makeshift ‘bus’ terminal just north of the city. We then needed to find a Jeepney that was going towards a city called Carmen and tell the driver to drop us off next to the Nuts Huts sign on the side of the road near the town of Loboc.

Jeepneys seem to only exist in the Philippines and are basically large converted trucks which are painted all sorts of funky colours and act as a bus system throughout the country. Apparently most of them were Army trucks left over from World War II which have been adapted to carry passengers. It seems that anyone can buy a Jeepney, paint it and write the route on the side, and then start their own private Bus service. We found a Jeepney that would drop us off at Nuts Huts and got on. We had expected that it would only leave when full but what we didn’t realise was that our understanding of ‘full’ is very different to that in the Philippines! By the time we left and had picked up a few more passengers on the way out of the city we counted 31 people on our Jeepney which must have been about 2 by 5 metres! We eventually reached the Nuts Huts sign, grabbed our bags off the roof and started the 15 minute walk down a windy lane past thick jungle and a water buffalo to reach the front desk. This also included a 250 step staircase! By the time we got there we were so sweaty and tired but were rewarded by the incredible location.

Nuts Huts has a bunch of basic huts right on the tropical Loboc river with an amazing restaurant area that is a bit higher up and looks over the entire gorge. We had decided to spend 5 nights there and try to see and enjoy everything that the area had to offer. The first day we had a big breakfast then rented some kayaks so we could get out on the river. Pretty much as soon as we pushed off from the shore, it began to TORENTIALLY rain. We were all absolutely soaked within seconds. However, the rain made the whole experience amazing and the river looked so beautiful with the eerie mist clouds hovering over the palm trees on the surrounding mountains. There were a few boats tours that passed us while we were kayaking and we got encouraging shouts of support to keep going. I saw a child in a little paddle boat shielding themselves from the rain with huge lily pad so I decided to get one from the side to keep the water out of my eyes. I thought it looked really good although I was assured by Neen and Han that it definitely didn’t. We spent the rest of the day chilling out in the restaurant bar area with some beers and cocktails, reading and playing some cards. We also spent time watching the goats which lived at Nuts Huts, and Hannah and Nina decided to name them all (There were about 10!).

One of the goats in front of our hut

Ed and Han in the Nuts Huts restaurant

The view from the restaurant

The dreaded steps

Nina kayaking in the rain

Loboc river

Happy Han post-rain

Innovative new hat design

One of the major attractions of Bohol are the Chocolate Hills which are a collection of mound shaped hills that, in autumn when the vegetation dies, resemble the colour of chocolate. To get there we once again took a ridiculously busy bus which we just hailed down on the side of the road. It was already full when we got on, but we were assured that more people could fit. I ended up standing next to the open door with Han a step above me and Nina a step above her! You had to grab on for dear life as with every twist and turn everyone was flung around. There must have been about 90 people inside the bus with an additional 10 sitting on the roof. The ticket conductor had to fight his way repeatedly from back to front to roof in order to collect all the money. When we got to the bus stop we had to get on the back of a motorcycle taxi to take us to the viewpoint. This brought our transport count in the Philippines to 7, as we had been on an airplane, taxi, ferry, tricycle, jeepney, bus and now motorcycle all within the first week!

The Chocolate Hills were really interesting to see as they had supposedly been big lumps of coral when Bohol Island was originally underwater millions of years ago. The only downside was that it was quite touristy and we were behind the ‘Bohol DJ Team’, a group of 20 all wearing matching t-shirts and taking endless pose photos. There were also people who were renting broomsticks and offering to take your photo as if you were flying like a witch! When we got back to Nuts Huts, we enjoyed some delicious Filipino food and played Guess Who, but invented new rules where you were not allowed to ask any direct questions about appearance. Instead, you had to ask questions like ‘Do you think they would watch X Factor?’ or ‘Do they think that they would own a leather jacket?’ and make your judgement that way. It was pretty funny that most of the time we would narrow it down and get it right.

The busy ticket conductor

Nina and Han on the bus

At the Chocolate Hills

The Chocolate Hills

Nina and I

A new-age game of Guess Who

Nuts Huts also offered a guided cave trek with a local guide which we decided to do on the Sunday morning. He was called Pedro and had lived in the area across the river from Nuts Huts his whole life. We left at 8 30 to avoid the heat and climbed up the mountain facing our hut before making our way inside two caves. The only light inside the caves was provided by Pedro’s phone and our torch, so it was really dark. He pointed out loads of stalactites and animals including cave cockroaches and bats. It turned out that Neen and Han discovered that they really hate bats! The climax of the tour was seeing all the bats flying around right at the back of the cave. Pedro kept making noises so hundreds of bats would fly around while Nina and Hannah got progressively closer to each other and started holding hands! Pedro also told us that the caves had been used for shelter by members of the Japanese army during the Second World War and people from the local village throughout a huge typhoon in the 90s.

On the way back to Nuts Huts, he took us via the Loboc Eco Park so we could do the 500 metre zip-line over the river. Despite cowering in the cave, Nina and Han seemed fearless to go on a 300ft high head first zip line over a gorge while I was quite apprehensive! Having told the people we wanted to do it however, there was no going back. Once you were on it, all fear you had seemed to vanish and we were all able to enjoy the amazing views and the thrill of flying like superman. In order to complete our adventure-filled day, we rented kayaks again after lunch so we could enjoy the river in the sun.

Our paddle boat across the river

The track leading up the mountain

The view of Loboc river and Nuts Huts from the opposite mountain

The entrance to the cave

A cave spider!

The zip line

Ed on the zip line

Waterfalls on Loboc river

Nina and I on the riverside track

On our last full day in Bohol, we decided to walk to the local town of Loboc and then visit the Tarsier Sanctuary. We got one of the guys at the hotel to paddle us across the river and then walked along it and through paddy fields and local villages for about 3 km to Loboc. About 10 minutes into the walk, disaster struck as Hannah slipped and fell over in a big puddle of mud! Luckily there was a fresh water stream close by where we had seen people washing clothes, so headed back there so she could wash it all off. After this minor setback, the rest of the walk was beautiful. On the paddy fields we saw farmers using water buffalo to plough the fields and we got lost quite a few times before locals pointed us in the right direction. When we reached the outskirts of town, a huge group of young schoolchildren came running up to us to say hello. I gave one of them a high five and as a result another kid who was about 200 metres further down the road ran as fast as he could holding his hand out so he could get one too. It wasn’t just the children who were friendly, it seemed to be absolutely everybody just wanted to say hi and ask where we were from and where we were going. We have found the Filipino people some of the friendliest we’ve come across. In Loboc we had a quick look at the church (the second oldest in the Philippines after the one in Cebu) and then tried to find a bus to the Tarsier sanctuary. A guy came over to help us and said they went once an hour, although he then advised us not to get on the bus which came at 12 00 which looked exactly like the one we wanted. We took his advice and then found out 10 minutes later that we had indeed just missed the bus! Luckily a tricycle turned up and we negotiated to hire him for the round trip.

The Tarsier Sanctuary is dedicated to protecting and supporting the Tarsier, which is the world’s smallest primate. A friendly woman took us around the area open to the public and we had to search to find the Tarsiers in the trees. As they are nocturnal animals we had to be really quiet as not to wake them up that much. We eventually found one snoozing on a branch and it was so small, about the size of a fist. It’s eyes were disproportionately big and every time anyone made a tiny noise it would slowly open them to see what was going on before going back to sleep. After finding out some Tarsier facts (they can jump up to 5 metres high!), we got back in the tricycle and headed back to Nuts Huts. On the way back our driver decided to pump out some tunes, although these were dominated by Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars which we found funny as he was in his 40s with a lot of tattoos!

Boat-Jeepney-Tricycle-Ferry-Taxi! That was how we got back to Cebu and after a good few hours we finally arrived at our hotel for the night, quite happy to be sleeping in a proper bed without worrying about cockroaches and huge bugs. On the ferry, ‘Baby’s day out’ was playing again but this time all the Filipinos around us were getting really into it and laughing incredibly loudly at the terrible slapstick jokes, so much so the woman in front almost had a coughing fit. It was quite bizarre. We went back to have dinner at STK ta Bay! as we loved it so much the week before. This time we got a ‘Tuna Panga’, basically a piece of Tuna the size of a plate! The next day we made our way to the airport to catch our flight to Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan.