Our check out time at Astoria was at noon, but we were still allowed to stay there and use their facilities until we took off to the airport. So after breakfast we all went for a swim in the pool. Marko and the kids stayed there longer, but Jaana left earlier for a visit to the local high school. Teacher is a teacher even on a holiday.
The visit ended up being 1,5h long, because the local head of the district and his secretary wanted to discuss very thoroughly about the similarities and differences between the Finnish and Philippine’s school system.
It was surprising to see that our systems are basically the same. In the Philippines the classes are bigger (35 pupils or more), there’s no free (or any kind of) school lunch, and the school starts at least at this school already at seven am. They also study mainly in English starting from the 4th grade. That’s why many local kids are very keen to talk to the tourists in English too.
In the Philippines the biggest challenges are the lack of resources (not always enough money to provide the books for all of the children) and the poverty. Many poor families won’t send their children to school even though going to school is compulsory. They need the kids to go begging or selling all sorts of knick knacks to put food on the table. Also many indigenous people in the rural areas live so far from the schools that they won’t send their kids to the school. Schools are being built in the villages in the mountains and forests to reach out to these families too.
When it was time to go to the airport, our transport took off right on time. That’s because we had booked the van from the resort to take us there. Also the flight was on time and arrived to Cebu 20 minutes before scheduled time. We even got a taxi right away, so we all were in bed by midnight. Great success!
In Cebu City we didn’t do much for two reasons: 1) There’s nothing to do in Cebu City itself 2) We all got some sort of a tummy bug. Thank goodness we had two hotel rooms, so we had two toilets too!
In spite of the heat, during the first day in Cebu Marko downloaded Google offline maps and went for a walk in the city. Even though he walked for over two hours, he didn’t see much apart from a couple of big shopping malls. Meanwhile Jaana and the kids dipped into the pool at the rooftop.
The next day we took our laundry to the local laundromat next door. It cost only 200php (3€) for three kilos. Not a bad deal at all! After that we had our lunch at the local fast food restaurant, Jollybee. The food was good and extremely cheap. It cost only 10€ for the meals for all four of us. After lunch we took a taxi to go to the pier to book ferry tickets back to Manila. The ride was also very cheap, only 120php (2€). With that amount the taxi drivers in Finland won’t move a muscle.
At the 2go ticket office we found out that we had to pay the tickets in cash. Fortunately we had all our remaining cash with us, so we managed to pay the tickets, 9600php (about 150€). This overnight boat should be relatively big with a capacity of 800 passengers, but still there were only a few cabin options left. Maybe we should have booked the tickets earlier. We had to book one cabin for two people and two single cabins. The main thing was that we got the tickets, because we didn’t want to fly back to Manila, even though it would have probably been cheaper to do so. (One way flight on AirAsia costs 15€/person.)
Since we were at the docks anyway, we decided to go and buy the ferry tickets to go to Bohol the next day. But that was a cash only type of a place too. Not a big surprise! Almost everything here is paid in cash. Since we had used almost all our cash to buy the previous tickets, we tried to get cash from three different ATMs, but none of them worked with a foreign bank card. Since we didn’t want to wonder around searching an ATM that would accept a foreign card too, we just took a taxi back to the hotel and booked the tickets online.
The ferry ride to Bohol took only two hours. The ferry took off only 30min late and the ride was very smooth. We had to check in the two biggest backpacks, but the rest we could take with us to our seats. It would have been better though if we had checked in the kids’ backpacks also, because the seats were somewhat cramped.
From the Tagbilaran ferry terminal we took a minivan to our hotel, Villa Formosa. The area where the hotel was located was relatively poor, but the place itself was very cosy. The only downside was the music and bad singing we could hear from some restaurant bit further away. Marko went to check the source of the noise later in the evening, and found some locals partying on a small sports field.
We decided to have our dinner here at the hotel. The Italian food they were serving was delicious. Also the fruit selection we had as a dessert was really tasty. The reason for the Italian menu was the Italian owner who runs this place with his Taiwanese wife. They seem to be a very nice couple.
The next morning we were taken on a tour around the island of Bohol. The first stop was a very outdated church, so we decided not to go in. The next stop was with the pythons. When we got in we were greeted by several very active snakes. The biggest of them, Romeo, eats four whole chickens in a month. We got a proof of that, when this fellow decided to take a massive dump in the middle of the floor. This python apparently had never heard that pooing is not a spectator sport. (Thank goodness he didn’t do his business on Risto though, he would have been devastated. He still hasn’t forgiven that monkey at Batu Caves, who pooed on him.)
In addition to snakes, there was also a butterfly park where we got up and close with local butterflies.
After the snakes we went for a lunch cruise on the Loboc river. We were sailing on the river for an hour enjoying a buffet lunch while some local musicians were entertaining us. At the turning point we stopped to see some folk dancing and songs. At the end of the performance they gave the audience a chance to participate too. We got to try the local “stick dance”, tinikling. For some reason the tempo for our dance was somewhat slower than the one the local dancers were doing. Maybe it saved us from going to the hospital afterwards…
Unfortunately, these dance videos are of very poor resolution, as we had problems transfering larger files. We apologize for this, but we hope that the general idea will still be clear.
Next it was time to meet the tarsiers. Since they’re mainly nocturnal animals we only spotted a couple of them awake. The rest were sleeping holding tight to the branches of the trees. These primates are really tiny. The biggest of them weigh only 150g.
The last stop was at the Chocolate Hills. These strange hills have formed ages ago by the uplift of coral deposits and the action of rainwater and erosion. There are 1268 of these hills all together and they get their name from their brown colour. Now, since it was the rainy season, the hills were green, though.
The next morning we had to wake up very early, since we were going to go on another boat trip to the islands. This time we wanted to spot dolphins, sea turtles and loads of colourful fish. We managed to see them all, great success! We were wondering how the flock of dolphins wanted to even swim next to our boat, because the noise from the engine was horrible! We were told that we’ll be on a bigger boat which is not so loud, but apparently we ended up on a smaller boat anyway. If not, then the small boat must be really small and the noise of the engine infernal!
Fortunately spotting the turtles and fish was a bit quieter thing to do. We were taken to the reef on a paddling boat and our snorkelling guide spotted the turtles right away, so we were the only ones snorkelling with them for a good while. When the rest of the tourists arrived there with their guides, we went to spot the fish. Unfortunately not all the tourists had gone to see the turtles, so the reef was a bit crowded. We managed to see big schools of colourful fish, though, without getting kicked to your head by another snorkeler.
The last day here Marko spent on a diving trip with Alona Divers. They did two dives in front of Balicasang island. On the first dive Marko noticed that in water he can see much better, because he could see the numbers on the tiny GoPro screen without problems. Very positive was also the fact that he didn’t have to guess how much oxygen he had left, because he could read his pressure gauge too.
Both dives were relatively long, 45-50min. All the divers seemed to be very experienced, which also had an impact on the fact that they could stay under water for such a long time.
While Marko was diving in the sea with his dive master, the kids were diving in the pool under Jaana’s supervision. In the evening we all met at the Dumaluan beach for dinner. Tomorrow it’s time to continue our trip first back to Cebu and then to Manila. Let’s see what Manila has to offer us this time. Hopefully the experience is better, since we’re staying there longer than the first time.
