For the longest time, I felt like a part of me had been missing. Whenever I come home to my hometown, I’m appalled by how much the place has changed. Even our house is completely unrecognizable. The trees that I grew up climbing, the grass covering our backyard, they are gone. Long gone. What’s there now are pavements. Concrete floors [...]
When the Poor Traveler was just a young boy, he heard from a magazine show on TV of a child being attacked and then devoured by a huge crocodile in the province. Since then, I had feared crocodiles. I didn’t like seeing them even on TV. Whenever National Geographic Channel would feature them, I’d switch channels. They had been giving [...]
Our flight back to Manila was scheduled at 2pm so we still had the entire morning to explore Puerto Princesa City. Again, our original plan was to take the City Tour by Casa Linda, which cost P600 per person. That would allow us to explore the city on an air-conditioned van. But if there’s one thing we learned by then, [...]
After the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park experience, we headed back to Sabang Beach for lunch. We were so tired and hungry so when our buffet lunch was ready, we were more than ready to dig in. Unlimited Filipino food at Sabang’s gorgeous beach — oh life, I love you. We failed to take photos of our lunch because [...]
Our original plan was to take Casa Linda’s Puerto Princesa Subterranean River Tour with buffer lunch at P1600 per person. However, the tricycle driver we met (Kuya Ding, 09186620495) referred to us a travel agency that offered the same tour with buffet lunch at a lower price — P1300/pax. We grabbed it. Kuya Ding gave us the number and we [...]
After checking in Casa Linda, the first item on our itinerary was Honda Bay. We initially wanted to avail of Casa Linda’s tour at P1,100 per person. Since we were a group of 4, that would be P4,400 for all of us. But we had a better option. Rewind to an hour earlier, on the way to Casa Linda from [...]
On our third day in Bohol, we decided to just stay at our resort in Panglao Island (Bagobo Beach Resort). Our original plan was to go to Danao Adventure Park, the newest adventure destination in Bohol, for some ziplining, kayaking and trekking. But our first two days in Bohol proved to be extremely exhausting so we decided to just stay [...]
After snorkeling at Balicasag Island, we hopped back onto our boat. We had no idea what to expect. All we knew at the time was we were heading to another island. We traveled for around 20 minutes until our boat slowed down. We noticed the very shallow water. The sea floor covered with sea grass and corals. We still didn’t [...]
Our second day in Bohol didn’t start out as planned. The Countryside Tour the day before was a little too tiring as we dropped by almost every possible tourist spots the province have to offer. Our Day 1 had been packed and we finally reached Bagobo Beach Resort at around 8pm. We were too exhausted and starved that we immediately [...]
We stayed for over an hour at the Chocolate Hills and drank as much buko juice as we could. At this point, the whole countryside tour had gotten tiring as much as it was exciting. Sitting in the van for hours was more exhausting than we expected. Haha. Our next stop was the Simply Butterflies Conservation Center which houses a [...]
A very long time ago when giants ruled the earth, two giants had a great fight that they started hurling rocks and sand at each other violently. After the battle, the two got so exhausted and eventually became friends that they forgot to clean up the mess they made. This was how the Chocolate Hills were formed. According to legend, [...]
Right after our “big gutom” was quenched by our big buffet lunch, we hopped back into our service van. As soon as we were comfortable, our driver announced that we would be heading towards Carmen, Bohol to see the Chocolate Hills, which made everyone cheer up. (Mind you, the buffet lunch was a lot sleep-inducing, there’s a really good chance [...]
After visiting Prony the Python and the cute tarsiers, the Poor Traveler’s group decided that it was time for lunch as we all felt a little hungry already. We waited a good 20 minutes for our turn to ride the raft. But it was alright; it gave enough time for us to shop around. There were several souvenir shops around [...]
From big to small. From reptile to primate. From monstrous to the cutest. Bohol is home to not just the world’s biggest snake in captivity but also the world’s smallest primate — the tarsier! And man are they cute! The province of Bohol is most commonly known for two attractions — the Chocolate Hills and the tarsier. I remember, both [...]
The Poor Traveler is usually scared if reptiles. Very scared of reptiles. Terrified, in fact. I remember our trip to Lucban, Quezon for the Pahiyas Festival, there was a house where a big yellow snake was on display and they encouraged tourists to have a photo-op with the snake on the shoulder. My friends had a very difficult time wasting [...]
