Day 85 - Written by Aus aboard a flight to Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines, on December 9th, 2010 and finished in Anda, Bohol, Philippines Dec. 10th, 2010
Well this is a rather big update, lots of ground to cover both geographically and in events transpired. From the title, you may have guessed that there is a bit of bad news to report, and sadly, that is the case. However, we are both currently comfortable, safe, and on our way back to good health – so need for concern.
I will begin by recounting our quick stay in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur is very big city, seemingly sprawled out for countless kilometres. It is also the hub of South East Asia’ biggest discount airline, Air Asia. We flew from Bali Denpasar to Kuala Lumpur via Air Asia, arriving late evening. It was a long 1 hour plus taxi ride from the special low cost carrier terminal to the city’s downtown where we were staying. Our accommodations in KL were very comfortable, we were at the Prince residence serviced apartments, right in a decent area of the city called Bukit Bintang . It was a good jumping off point to explore the city. As the title already informed you, we did have a little bit of a problem with upset stomachs while in Malaysia, and we believe that was a result of “Bali belly’ catching up with us. We had to be mindful of where the nearest toilet was, but we were still able to go out and explore the city. We had a whole medicine chest full of antibiotics and a full compliment of pills to take care of any digestive issues, so no big deal really in the end.
KL city is pretty big, and very multicultural. We found that English was spoken in most places, and it almost seemed a first language in many establishments. That is actually something we have found interesting about our travels in South East Asia thus far, is that a lot of the signage and a lot of things in general are in English. English seems to be the common second language among a multitude of other regional languages and dialects. We found it very strange that two Asian people even from the same country may find it easier to communicate with each other in English, as opposed to a common Asian language. In Any case, we are happy for this fact, as it makes travel much easier for us. KL city of course was no exception to this, and I think it is even more English than most due to the high number of expats living there. It seemed KL was full of immigrants, and Malaysian people were almost a minority. We visited a few of the different popular areas of the city, Chinatown, Central Market, Bukit Bintang, the Pavillion Mall, and we saw the Petronas Towers. We did intend to see the Batu Caves as well, but two days is not a long time to fully explore a city, so we did our best with the time we had. Notable experiences we had during our two days were the torrential rains that would start every day just as we left our room, a frustrating experience with a no-show monorail, my being able to happily spend 5+ hours in a mall, and taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells of the Chinatown market. As usual, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will let some pictures do the talking.
Kim enjoying the rain on the streets of KL City….
Chinatown…..
Night scenes of Bukit Bintang and the Petronas Towers…
Now at the Pavilion mall, which like the Mall of Asia in Manila Philippines, was full of all the big worldwide brands, including some Canadian brands. It seemed to be a showcase for global brands, and really drove home the fact that consumerism is the same across the globe. A mall is a mall is a mall is a mall. It did have some things that I found interesting through…
The DC Comics Super Heroes store. As an old fan of comic books and a student of global markets, I thought it was cool to see a store devoted to selling apparel of the DC Superheroes, which like athletes and rock stars are a brand in themselves.
Another interesting thing was that since we were in a part of the world where I thought Christianity was a small minority, I thought we would not see much signs of Christmas, but that was totally wrong. A mall is a mall is a mall is a mall, and that includes Christmas! This mall had a huge Christmas display….
We also had some surprises with regards to food tastes. We thought we were in for nothing but noodles in this part of the world – not true. At the mall we found a fast food place devoted entirely to corn…which we thought was cute… so we had to try it out… mmm, corn!
And of course on the other side of the globe we also have to mention toilets, which really range in comfort, familiarity, and cleanliness. KL had a bit a bit of everything. Since it was so multicultural I think, they had toilets catering to all expectations. Here are a few that were new to us….
The squatter…(notice the shower hose for clean up)
The bowl and bucket…. just the basics, when running water is hard to come by….
After our nice quick visit in KL city, and trying to get a taste of Malaysia, and now feeling 100 % better after our tummy troubles, we were set to head off to the Philippines. This flight was a late night flight, again involving KL’s low cost carrier terminal, and another new airline for us, Cebu Pacific, the largest discount carrier of the Philippines. After a long day exploring the city and feeling all of the dirt and grime and splashes of dirty street puddles, we decided to take a quick shower by using the hotel’s pool change rooms quickly before departing for the airport. That luxury however meant that we were cutting it close for timing on the check-in of our flight. After a quick shower and frantically packing our bags in the lobby of the hotel (and unfortunately finally saying goodbye to our little Panasonic camera that we had submerged in the Gilis), we headed off to the airport in a budget taxi and were extremely impressed with our driver’s understanding of our need for speed. Including a stop for gas, our driver managed to get us out to the airport in almost half the time that it took us to go in the other direction. We got to the check-in counter with plenty of time to spare, and were all set to fly to the Philippines.
Our first destination in the Philippines was the island of Palawan, a previously little-explored island that is currently coming into vogue and that I expect will see some fairly rapid growth in tourism over the next few years. We started there with a flight to Puerto Princesa via Manila. As we were flying at night, we tried to get as much sleep as we could, with me actually doing better than Kim for once. We left about 1:30 AM, and arrived in Manila bout 5:30 AM. We had a short layover at the Manila airport transferring terminals before boarding our Cebu Pacific flight to Puerto Princesa, the biggest city on Palawan. We arrived in Puerto Princesa at about 9:00 AM, and were then escorted to our accommodation at Niko’s Cabanas. Niko’s worked out great. You never know what you're going to get when you find these little places on the internet, and we have had some hits and some misses. This one we could call a hit. We had booked a package that included some tours, one of the city, and one to either the UNESCO World Heritage site the Underground River or picturesque Honda Bay. We chose the Underground River and were happy with the choice. On our first day, the day we arrived, we were exhausted from travel when we arrived at Niko’s, so we opted for a short nap before lunch and the city tour that afternoon. As luck would have it, it was raining again when we did our tour. We are really starting to feel like we have some bad luck with weather. Not a complaint though, still happy to be on our adventure, even if we get more than our fair share of bad weather.
So, the tours – as I mentioned, first day was the city tour. It was a bit strange and not what we expected, but interesting nonetheless. We visited a crocodile farm, a ranch, Baker’s Hill – which was a big Disney/roadhouse themed village of restaurants and bakeries and shops etc. – it seemed out of place, and finally, we visited a new age prison where the inmates can roam pretty much free and are encouraged to work and the whole prison is a tourist site showcasing the modern approach to prisoner reform. It was an interesting tour and we were glad to see some of the city, even if not the parts we expected. The second day was the Underground River tour, which is supposedly world famous, despite the fact we had not heard of it before we planned our trip to the Philippines. Anyhow, it was a cool trip, and as it’s name suggests, it is an underground river, which is quite unique. Essentially it is a cave that is accessible from a little bay and a river winds through it. So we got to see all of the catholic themed calcium formations such as the virgin Mary, the classic nativity scene, and more, all divinely displayed in the rocks! I will have to let the pictures do the talking again, as I have done enough of that, and there’s going to be more, so on to what you really want---Photos!
An early morning rainbow seen at Manila airport en route to Puerto (albeit not a double rainbow, but it does go all the way across the sky!)..
Once in Puerto, we were impressed with local transport, the tricycle……which is a motorbike with a frame including an extra wheel built around it. They were making the most of this ride….
Roads are still paved by hand in Palawan, where there is paving at all…..
Now at the Crocodile farm, we took the opportunity to monkey around a bit…
One of the highlights of the visit to the croc farm was that we got to watch the feeding. There were lots of hungry crocs and it was pretty neat, but video is needed to truly illustrate….
We even got to touch some of the smaller gentler crocs….
Now at the Underground River….
Here you can see the entrance and the small guide boats that navigate the underground river….
With safety in mind and the bottom of the boat full of about an inch of water, we eagerly jumped to the front of the boat where it was our job to operate the battery and light
Lots of things were pointed out to us by our very colorful guide. It was a fun trip and we got to see more of the cave formations…
Once finished the boat tour, the sun had come out and that meant so had the monkeys….
Our guide for the ground transport portion of our trip, Eden, as we head back to Sabang and our unimpressive lunch….
Food was bad, but setting was beautiful….
After Puerto Princesa, our next destination is the now memorable El Nido. El Nido is a small remote town on the northwest coast of Palawan, and due to its remote location, it sees few tourists and is quite difficult to get to. It involves either a half day van or bus ride from Puerto Princesa, a half day boat ride from various locations, or a flight on a small plane with a charter company out of Manila. We chose the van ride to get in and the flight to get out. On the day we went to El Nido, it was an early morning, with the van leaving Puerto (as it is affectionately known) at 7AM. We had booked our tickets ahead of time and got dropped off at the terminal. (A little sidenote for practical purposes if anyone reading is considering a trip here: Philippines is generally backwards when it comes to modern payment methods. If you want to book in advance expect to pay in full in advance by bank wire transfer. If a place will take your credit card expect a 5-10% surcharge. Second, if you want to get in and out of El Nido and want the assurances of advance bookings—there is currently only one way, and that is by using the services of the El Nido Boutique and Art Cafe, who can arrange vans and flights. The companies themselves do not deal directly with tourists.) When we showed up we were greeted by someone who checked our ticket and instructed us to take a seat and wait. Well we did that, and as we waited we watched vans being loaded and several people boarding vans. We awaited instructions but began to grow anxious as we saw all the nearby vans filling up. After enough loading into the vans I sought out someone from the van company and asked about our seats. Well sure enough we were set to be in one of the now almost full vans. So we assured our bags made it on to the top of the van with the rest of the luggage and then we took our seats in the van, not together of course. No problem though, we got on and so did our luggage-and we both found interesting people to chat to. The journey was….different…I suppose is the best word I can use. It was a super speed nail-biting race to our destination, with one bathroom break halfway through, at the 3-hour mark. Obviously the driver did this journey more than us, and we had to have faith in his abilities, but WOW did it seem dangerous. The driver managed to kill one dog and nearly miss 3 others, along with a narrow miss of a mother and two young children. Road rules are just different in this part of the world. Size matters, and when someone is honking their horn at you to give way, you better listen, because otherwise you are likely to become a pancake. Pedestrians, motorbikes, and smaller cars are fully expected to get out of the way when an aggressive driver approaches from behind. Otherwise they face the very real possibility of being involuntarily displaced. Anyhow, we did survive the journey through hand-paved and non-paved roads and were in El Nido by mid-day. We were lucky and got dropped right at the doorstep of our accommodations at the Viewdeck Cottages.
Ah, the Viewdeck Cottages – well what can I say? This place, along with El Nido as a whole, will certainly be memorable for us, even though not for the same reason as most other tourists I think. As our title has already informed you, our time in El Nido involved some needles, and we’re not talking about sewing crafts. Unfortunately Kim fell victim to an amoebic parasite and had to be given an IV to treat her symptoms. Well as you may imagine, finding a suitable medical facility to deal with and administer such treatment in a remote place like El Nido is next to impossible, and our situation was no exception. That said, Kim did get very appropriate treatment and very good care from those who helped us out, but it took some scaling down of our expectations in order to happily accept treatment. I will follow my chronological format for the purposes of consistency, so I will have to revisit the IV after telling about our pre-IV conventional tourist visit to El Nido and its beautiful islands. So, we arrived at the Viewdeck Cottages, which are set back from the city and the waterfront, and as the name suggests, are situated high up on somewhat of a viewdeck – providing a good vantage point looking out over El Nido town and the islands further out in the water. The view was nice, but you had to earn it with a long climb up about 150 metres worth of stairs. Luckily our host and the owner of the property, Rudy, along with his family, were very eager to please and helped us out with our large backpacks (sidenote: Filipinos and most travellers here pack very light! The airlines we flew had luggage limits including carry-on of only 15 kilos, and only 10 on the smaller plane, so our luggage seemed comically large at a full 20 kilos-which by Canadian standards is well within normal range, and teeny tiny by our ‘Northern’ standards). We got checked in and had the day to explore the city. We walked towards the waterfront and took in some of the sights and sounds and culture of the place. We passed a cockfight about to start, but were turned off from going to watch due to some unwelcoming stares. We were curious but were apprehensive of entering a hostile environment, so we passed by. We also observed a few crossdressers, which seem to be quite common here in Philippines. Apparently attitudes towards homosexuality are much more relaxed, and men dressed as ladies is generally accepted seemingly without judgement. Of course we also checked out the beach and we stopped to have a bite to eat at one of the waterfront cafes. as a matter of fact, we were served by a man dressed as a lady who was very chatty and lived up to all stereotypes you may have for men dressed as ladies. We thought it was cute when we ordered a pizza and they brought it along with apologies for not having the proper cheese due to it not being available in town until later that evening. It reminded us of our shopping experiences up in Pangnirtung! So we ate our brie cheese pizza (not very good for the record), and headed back to the Viewdeck.
The next day we woke to a nice breakfast served on our patio overlooking beautiful El Nido. After breakfast we were off for the first of three scheduled daily island hopping tours we booked as part of our package at the Viewdeck. El Nido is famous for its surrounding islands, each with its own unique features, including caves, private beaches, secret lagoons, beautiful sandbars, and more. On our first day tour we got to see 5 different islands, and many of the features I mentioned. In keeping with my theme of descriptive brevity and photographic abundance, I will let you see for yourself….
The waiting at the Puerto van terminal of Fortwally shuttle services….
The even more economic option available to us was a series of public buses involving numerous transfers. This is one such bus (notice the cramping inside and on top, now that is making the most of resources)..
Now in El Nido, climbing the many stairs to get to our room…..
Once at the top, you had earned this view…..
The beachfront at El Nido town….
We found a very uninviting store in El Nido town……
Now setting off on our island hopping excursion, this is our captain Jason pushing us out the shallows of the harbour…
Once at sea, we were treated to numerous small private beaches and other interesting spots….
Some photos by our captain Jason, who knew how to take an interesting photograph, even if not conventional….
And a normal one for good measure…..
Now on Snake Island where we stopped for lunch, a view of the many beautiful islands in the area.
The sandbar at Snake Island…..
Kim being a proud Canadian inside one of the hidden caves we visited….
El Nido island hopping……..beautful….
That night when we arrived back at the Viewdeck we were treated to a famous Filipino dish, called Chicken Adobo-which was really good. Rudy cooks all his own food and is generally always available to meet any needs you should have during your stay. He was cute, and very eager to please. He was really the best feature of the cottages, as like most places in El Nido, the accommodations were very basic. I also have to say that the food in the Philippines is not that impressive. Generally bland and not that interesting. After dinner is where our story about El Nido starts to get a little more interesting. I did not realize it, because she was reluctant to tell me (I think she was feeling that I may think she was defective due to her many recent health issues---rest assured, I don't!), but Kim was beginning to feel quite ill during the night, and by the morning she could not hide her discomfort. So instead of our scheduled patio breakfast and day of island hopping again, we informed Rudy of our need for medical attention and sought out his best available recommended option – a private doctor named Dr. Reyes.
So after reviewing the options, which were few, we set out for the residence of Dr. Reyes. Rudy arranged a tricycle for us, which is the conventional mode of hired transport in most of the Philippines. We had about a 5 minute ride to get to Dr. Reyes’ place, which cost us only 20 pesos, or about 50 Canadian cents. Good deal. Anyway, as you can see, we have already deviated from standard practice in Canadian medicine, with most doctors opting to keep patients as far as possible from their places of residence. We pulled in to the driveway and saw a nice waterfront property, by Filipino standards. Like most places, it included several dogs running around, seemingly random children and and adults scattered about the property in various states of activity, some washing clothes, some preparing food, and some just watching as another western tourist comes to visit the good doctor. As we arrived, we saw a patient leaving who had obviously just been treated with stitches to his face, so I was encouraged that the facilities could handle basic medical procedures. However, upon entering, I was reset to a state of concern for the sterility and general standard of the place. We entered to see a makeshift waiting room and patient bed, which was not changed upon our entry, and in the office of the doctor himself were other visual cues that lead me to concern, such as the dated and weathered credentials peeling off the wall. Kim was quickly seen by the doctor, who was very nice, and seemed quite knowledgeable, and not exactly thorough in his questioning and diagnosis, but reassuring nonetheless in his assessment of her condition, which he identified as an amoebic parasite. After diagnosis, the Doctor was keen to get Kim on an IV and pump her full of all sorts of things to bring her back to health. However, I was not so keen, mostly out of concern for the sterility of any needles going in to her. But I knew that Kim did seem to need help, and were quite far from any other decent option, so I set out to assure myself that the treatment she received was safe and appropriate. I was able to look around the place and see that at least they were using new needles and were following more or less good practices with regards to needle safety (that is, they were not reusing them). That was a biggie. Second, I called our emergency medical assistance number that was included as part of our travel medical insurance, and was able to speak with a nurse in Canada who confirmed that the treatments Dr. Reyes was advocating were appropriate given the diagnosis, and that the diagnosis was appropriate given the symptoms. So, after those reassurances and a quick confirmation of expected costs, I gave the go ahead for the ‘medical team’ (which was the doctor’s family including wife and young children), to go ahead with Dr. Reyes’ prescribed treatment.
Minutes later Kim was surrounded by a frenzy of activity, the wife doing the IV, the daughter bringing medicines, the son setting up comforts such as a fan (albeit old, broken, and dusty – further complicated by a lack of municipal power, which only runs 12 hours a day from 2PM to 2AM…so to keep the fan going involved negotiating a maze of wires and plugs, each hooked to separate batteries and generators). And in the midst of all this chaos Kim was completely not herself, she did just not have her mental wits about her. She was a zombie, she just wanted to be better, and was craving like a junkie the treatment that Dr. Reyes was offering. After the frenzy things settled down, and Kim waited out the first bottle of meds and hydration from the IV. During this time there were some elements adding to the general strange ambiance of this medical experience – there were birds and chickens roaming around outside the screen windows, a giant dog wandering in and out of the room as he pleased, the family enjoying their breakfast together, numerous cigarettes being smoked around us, the wife getting all dolled up for a day out, and various onlookers observing the scene from outside – it was all very surreal, and the novelty of the situation is probably not done justice by words. Unfortunately though I did not have nor did it seem appropriate to be taking pictures with my camera, so my words will have to suffice for the ‘doctors office’ part of the story. Through all of this, our host Rudy was there to make sure we were getting the best treatment we could, so good on him and his Viewdeck Cottages business for that.
After the first bombardment of IVs was administered, Kim was given a plethora of pills to take with her, and was escorted by an apparent registered nurse back to our room at the Viewdeck. Once there, we made some minor modifications to the layout of the room to accommodate an IV and devise a system where Kim could rest and be as comfortable as possible given the circumstances. The nurse helped us get set up and make sure that Kim’s IV was all regulated etc., and she left us to our own devices. Well poor Kim, the medicine did not agree with her system and she was pretty uncomfortable for the next 48 hours. She also had the glamorous distinction of having to be assisted in going to the bathroom, so I commend her for being able to swallow her pride and accept help, and also for allowing me to document this whole experience (which did not need to be done publicly but please understand that this blog also serves as our personal journal, and we assume that our readers are primarily friends and family. So please respect her privacy and her dignity by not using any of this information in anything but a sympathetic and well-wishing way). Those 48 hours were again surreal, as we were looking out over this beautiful place that we had worked so hard to get to, and we were trapped in this room and Kim was so uncomfortable that she was pretty much wishing herself dead. I did my best to take care of her, but it was really a matter of waiting things out. The second day she was still not feeling well and when the doctor visited (who I must say very kindly made the climb up without complaining or demanding extra compensation) he ordered some tests at the nearby government lab. Several hours later we got the results and Kim was given yet another collection of medicines to better treat the conditions indicated by the tests. The doctor told us Kim would likely be well enough to fly to Manila we had scheduled, but would need to seek out a proper lab while there, to assure his diagnosis was correct and that there were no additional problems. So it was another waiting game in the room as we kept hoping Kim would soon be feeling better. That time we spent in the room we were both in a weird state. the whole situation was so surreal, and of course we were put off by eating or drinking since it was something we ingested that caused the problem in the first place. So we politely tried to refuse Rudy’s meals and fed ourselves mostly store bough packaged snacks. Even though I was not sick, in my mind everything was tainted, so I did not enjoy any of the food I had in El Nido after Kim fell ill. To exacerbate the problem of cabin fever and waiting out an uncomfortable situation was the fact that we discovered rats in our cottage, not actually seen in the room, but we saw the wholes and we heard them several times, including times when we were awoken by their clawing and scratching in the walls and cupboards. To be fair, this is a supposed fact of life in El Nido, which is pretty much a beach in a jungle in the middle of nowhere, so we cant fault Rudy or the place in isolation, but we were still put off by the whole scene. El Nido was weird in that sense, there seemed to be no middle ground in terms of accommodations, you were either in a rat hole which was affordable but not cheap, or you were in a super-luxe 5-star resort at outrageous prices. We thought we had found a middle ground with Viewdeck due to the fact that we were paying a middle range price, but apart from the great service from Rudy and his family, the place was pretty basic. Anyhow, we both made it through those strange two days, and we made it for our flights to Manila. I must mention that despite the fact that the conditions were below what we were accustomed to, the people all were extremely friendly, and greatly surpassed the usually grisly and impersonal treatment that awaits most Canadians when they have to make use of the public health system. For austerity purposes, here’s a couple pictures of the medical experience at the Viewdeck.
The nurse getting Kim all set up with the IV at our room at the Viewdeck…
The very kind and helpful Dr. Reyes and his constant bombardment of medicines, on one of his visits to our room…
And checking out now, saying goodbye to our concerned host, Rudy…..
Our flight to Manila was aboard a smaller plane, about 16 seats. The company, Island Transvoyager Inc (ITI) operates a charter service for the super luxe resorts of El Nido, and gives whatever seats that are left to the Art Cafe to sell off. It was the first time I could remember that I had been to an airport with a thatched roof. But it was not the smallest airport or plane I have been in, as the north has been great for providing those opportunities. The flight was a bit late and due to a low ceiling I was worried that the plane may not be able to land. But they did land, and we were off without much delay. The flight was about an hour and half and was fairly comfortable. We arrived in Manila safely and grabbed a taxi to take us to our hotel. Manila taxi drivers are famous for being dishonest and cheats with foreign tourists. We asked in the terminal the appropriate fare to our hotel and were quoted 200 pesos. Well when we go tin the cab he showed us a rate card that was asking for 480. I argued for a while and we eventually agreed on 350. Luckily after some talking and informing him of our desire to get to a hospital, the driver realized that perhaps he should not milk this cash cow dry and he offered up his services for the night for whatever we considered fair. We negotiated a price that left both sides of the transaction satisfied. We had him for the night for about 1000 pesos, about 25 Canadian dollars, which was a bargain in our eyes and a fortune in his. So we stopped at our hotel, the Nichols Airport Inn (would recommend – it’s cheap and clean, and very close to the airport), to drop our bags, and then proceeded to the nearest hospital to find a lab. We luckily found a decent hospital fairly close to our hotel, and we prepared ourselves for the long wait in an emergency room that we expected based on our experiences in Canada. However, here in the Philippines, in a user-pay system, we found that we did not have to hit an ER, but instead went to a 24 hour lab where we did not have to wait to be acknowledged or served, and Kim’s tests were taken within 10 minutes of arrival. Even better, for a very small fee, results would be ready in 90 minutes instead of a week. To risk controversy, I must say that I see the merits in a private system and appreciated the option of a rush service, due to the fact that we were scheduled to fly out to another Philippine island the next morning. Since we had a driver, we opted not to stay at the hospital, and instead went to what is supposedly the biggest mall in Asia, appropriately called the Mall of Asia. I especially was delighted to see some western comforts after 2 days of fearing food, and I opted for pizza slices and dairy queen for my dinner. We also got a few other necessary items like camera batteries and hand sanitizer and then met our driver to take us back to pick up our results before heading back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel about 10:30 PM and settled in for a quick rest before another early morning flight. To put your mind at ease before continuing with detailing our adventures, I will break from the chrono-order and let you know that we eventually learned through phone calls with Dr. Reyes that Kim’s test results revealed that his diagnosis was correct, and Kim was already on her way to recovery. Before I move on from Manila, I must note our observations of the city as whole, which were that is was generally seedy and full of strip joints and prostitutes, and the taxis drive around with locked doors to prevent any incidents with aggression from outside the vehicle.
So, our early morning flight – this time we were bound for the island of Bohol, home of the biological anomaly the Tarsier, and the geographic oddity the Chocolate hills. We were set to do a quick day trip to see these two attractions before heading off to the island of Siquijor by fast ferry, however, due to Kim’s condition we were reluctant to get on another nausea-inducing ferry. So we sacrificed our visit to the spooky voodoo/black magic capital of the Philippines, which I was very curious about, and decided to stay on the island of Bohol. We notified our driver of our change of plans and we hit an internet cafe to make alternative arrangements to stay on Bohol instead of Siquijor. Despite missing out on Siquijor, we have enjoyed the extra time on Bohol. We chose to stay at a place called Anda White Beach Resort in the village of Anda. It is extremely quiet here and for much of our stay we have felt like the only guests. I would highly recommend this place to anyone considering a trip to Bohol. The staff are marvellous and we know them by name after two days, and the food is the best we’ve had in the Philippines, the pool is gorgeous, and we have the beach entirely to ourselves. Best of all, we paid less for this place than we did for the Viewdeck in El Nido. But I am sort of breaking from my chronological commitment—so back to that.
When we arrived in Bohol, at the airport of Tagbilaran, we were greeted by a driver I had arranged ahead of time through e-mails. I found him through another person’s travel blog, so in the interests of paying it forward and doing a service to anyone who may be reading this with plans to visit Bohol, I can unconditionally recommend the services of my friend Jezreel Bensi. He goes by the name of Boyet, and he speaks very good English. He was very charming, and very professional. He kindly accommodated our last minute change of plans, even at the risk of angering his boss who owns the car he drove (He has since changed companies and is now hopefully not subject to fear of his boss). Anyhow, if you are coming to Bohol and want to see the tourist sites, you should hire this guy. He was very knowledgeable and wanted to go the extra mile for our satisfaction. He even informed us of his former career as a massage therapist/reflexologist and offered to try to help Kim with her nausea. You can contact him Boyet directly: mobile #0916-518-7810, email jezreelbensi@yahoo.com.
Our tour of the island was a bit of a whirlwind, as due to the change in plans it had to be accelerated so that our driver could get back to Tagbilaran in the scheduled time after dropping us on the other side of the island. However, we were still able to get to both the places we wanted—which were a visit to see the Tarsiers, and the viewing deck for the Chocolate Hills. We started with the Tarsiers. The Tarsier only lives on the island of Bohol, and has some interesting characteristics. The Tarsier is a primate, but is tiny in size and unlike any other primate I can think of. They are naturally nocturnal, but have unfortunately been reduced to a bit of a tourist sideshow, and for the benefit of the tourist, have had their schedules forcibly adjusted, at least those in captivity. I’m a bit ashamed to admit, that in the interests of time and convenience, we like most tourists opted to see them in captivity instead of trekking through the jungle in the Tarsier Sanctuary in the middle of the night to try and find them in their natural environment. They are extremely cute, and very interesting. They jumped around the trees during our visit, and Kim said they must have been the inspiration for the movie Gremlins. One thing that is both sad and interesting is that Tarsiers have been known to be suicidal, especially when stressed, and especially those not treated right in captivity. They will do things like smash their heads against their cages, or hang themselves. It’s pretty sad, and it made us fell really guilty about seeing them in captivity. They are apparently growing in numbers out in the jungles of Bohol, but I’d have to say that things don’t look good for the long term survival of the species. Too bad, because they are so darned cute. We got some great photos, despite not being able to use flash due to potential stress, and we were also encouraged to be silent. Here are some photos of the Tarsier, which we hope will be around for a long time.
Before I show you the Tarsier, you have to appreciate genius of the luggage wheelchair that we improvised for Kim while checking in for our flight to Tagbilaran.
Now you can see the Tarsier, a cute and curious little creature……
The next attraction was the Chocolate Hills, which are a geographic anomaly made from tectonic shifting on non-active volcanoes. They are essentially a collection about 50 to 100 metre high hills that are scattered about the landscape in the centre of the island of Bohol. They are called the Chocolate Hills because in 1945 after gaining independence from America, two journalists named them the chocolate hills after seeing them turn brown as the green grass on the tops of the hills burned from the heat of the sun at the start of the summer season. Whatever they are called, they are unique. Not necessarily strikingly beautiful like some natural wonders, but still geographically interesting and worth the visit. Here are some photos to illustrate…
At the end of our day tour we were dropped at the Anda White Beach Resort, which is a very quiet and secluded little place on a very unexplored part of Bohol. There are a few small places offering diving and accommodations here, but for the most part this is virgin territory for tourists. It is fantastic. Never seen anything like it where we have such luxury and serenity in the same place. I again recommend this place to anyone coming to Bohol. Only weird thing about the place is that as soon as the sun goes down, an armed guard roams the property with a machine gun. So its a bit of a shock and does take away for the serene atmosphere, but you get used to it I suppose. We have enjoyed our time here and made the most of the down day by the beach, getting some visa applications ready, getting some rest for Kim and allowing us to get some laundry done and other maintenance of our life on the road before heading off to Vietnam tomorrow. This blog has been a marathon to write, and I am glad to be signing off, and am excited about our next destination of Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon, in southern Vietnam. We have had a memorable time in the Philippines, and have seen some great sights. Despite some troubles for Kim, I think we would easily come back here to see the many parts we missed and to spend more time in the places we loved.
Our little private Paradise at Anda White Beach….
Kim is unfortunately at time of posting still experiencing some discomfort, but is much better than a few days ago. She is getting better, but slower than we hoped. I am trying to take good care of her, but unfortunately there's not much that can be done apart from waiting for all the antibiotics to work their magic. So please don't worry – she will be OK, but do send good vibes and best wishes for her quick return to her normal fun-loving self. It’s bedtime now and we must get some rest for our big travel day tomorrow. Lots of love to friends and family. Hope the Christmas season is kind to you all and you are all surviving the cold.
Cheers,
The Knotty Travellers
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