FINAL FILIPINO THOUGHTS - Bohol, Visayas, The Philippines

 .....previously, our time on the gorgeous beaches of Anda, south-east Bohol, The Philippines......

Kids having fun at sunset, Panglao beach, Bohol, The Philippines

As it's been such a long time since we visited The Philippines (more than 20 years!), we wanted to add an addendum post about costs, and general experiences with practical matters such as where to stay, how to get around etc. 

Our accommodation on Bohol was varied. Hosts were invariably charming, the settings quaint and clean, and value for money was excellent. We found most of our rooms to be quite small. The Filipino way seems to be to spend most time outside and just have a bed for sleeping. Downsides to accommodation were low water pressure, bad drainage, small beds and non existent WIFI. We also had some experience of the power outages we'd heard so much about. It was a comparably low standard contrasted to accommodation in other South East Asian countries. But somehow it didn't matter too much on this trip, for a shortish stay we could put up with the imperfections. We can imagine it might be a different matter if one wanted to live/work in the country. Our room prices hovered around 1000 peso/£12.50 on average. There were much cheaper rooms available if one was OK with a shared bathroom, and a basic, small room. In general, we prefer not booking a room, and realized in The Philippines one can simply turn up in a place and usually easily find a room. Many are not promoted online. 

Swanky room in Danao, Panglao, Bohol

Our accommodation grounds, Batuan, Bohol Chocolate Hills

Filipino food has a horrendous reputation amongst travelers, and we remember from our first trip years ago how we struggled to find appealing food. 

Let's start with the positive. Fresh markets in The Philippines are simple and local with seasonal fruit and a small selection of vegies. Bigger towns had more selection. Otherwise things were basic, but generally we had enough choice to keep us going. Mangoes were in season and absolutely everywhere for ridiculously low prices (ironic for Sal- she is allergic!), as were bananas and melon. If we were lucky there were pineapples, guava or soursop. 

Fast food joints, featuring burgers, pizza and fried chicken were ubiquitous in The Philippines. For the most part we steered clear, the processed foods not being to our taste. We discovered little stalls with pots out the front, which provided rice with a simple choice of meat and vegie dishes. These places varied in quality and flavor. Most of the dishes were meat and the accompanying rice quite gluggy. A few vegetable dishes were usually on offer, but we certainly missed fresh produce. 

Another savior for us were the stalls selling lechon manok, spit roasted whole chickens, usually marinated and quite tasty. The magnificent liempo, delicious crispy pork belly cooked for a long time over coals, was sold at the same stalls. These were our go tos when we couldn't find a tempting restaurant. 

Juicy liempo pork cooking over coals

Obviously, in bigger places and touristy towns, the choices were better, and cuisines such as Thai, Korean and Western were on offer. We indulged whist staying around Panglao, as food was aimed at tourists, and restaurants often run by ex-pats. We found some fantastic places which ran more to our tastes. 

From our experience, Filipinos are not big vegetable or salad lovers, and like their food on the bland side. Perhaps if we had had the opportunity to eat home cooked food in a family environment, the taste of the cuisine may have been more tempting.

Throw back- Rich enjoying Filipino dessert halo halo in 2005!!!

Adorable little cake called sombrero

National dish of The Philippines, pork adobo

But for us, mostly the food varied from not terribly inspiring to pretty awful. Someone we met put it well - Filipinos just don't have a strong food culture. For us, we struggled a bit with the lack of dairy products, fresh bread and non-processed foods in their lifestyle. We find it difficult to be critical of anything in the Filipino culture, as the place is so wonderful, but we can only base our opinions honestly on what we experienced. 

As mentioned in the initial blog post, alcohol is very cheap in The Philippines, but the quality varied, often not that great. After some dodgy trials, we eventually found our liking for San Miguel lemon beer for Rich, and Tanduay rum with ice for Sal as favorites. They were both available almost everywhere, and cost 80 peso/£1.00 and 30 peso/£0.40 respectively. Branded soft drinks were always more expensive than alcoholic drinks. Home made concoctions such as kalamansi juice (similar to, but better than lime) were freshly made and much more appealing.

SO many local alcoholic options in the supermarkets, The Philippines

Our Philippines favourites

Random weird Pina Colada flavoured beer

Most local shops were of the tiny sari sari (variety) sort. Many had grills over the front, with only a miniature hole for passing money through. This made it difficult to see what was for sale! We couldn't really figure out the reason for this seemingly over the top security measure. Personally, we always felt completely safe everywhere we went. Perhaps they were privy to something we didn't know. Big places had many malls, usually with adjoining supermarkets. We usually love looking around supermarkets in new destinations, and discovering unique food items to the place. But there wasn't a lot of excitement for us in the Filipino shops (apart from the huge variety of alcohol), most goods being over produced fake foods and weirdly sold in mass piles of tiny plastic packets. 

Cute sari sari shop, Bohol

Rustic little sari sari store in Bohol

Transport in the parts of The Philippines we visited was so varied and inventive, it was incredible. So many forms of rickshaw existed, and different areas had contrasting modes. As mentioned throughout the blog, the motorized tricycle was the most prevalent, we also saw peddle versions, and other kinds of three wheelers, including, to our surprise, the Indian style Bajaj motor rickshaw. Most tricycles had Bible quotes on them, the family names or proudly advertised the town they worked in. Public transport was terrific, cheap as anything, frequent and covered everywhere in Bohol we wanted to go. Bus varieties spanned from colorful jeepneys big and small (the equivalent of a Thai songthaew), big old banger buses with no windows, and smarter AC minivans.

An average bus on Bohol, The Philippines

The classic jeepney- we didn't see so many on this trip to Bohol

Sevilla tricycle and it's owner!

A selection of motorized tricycles

Still a fair few old style pedal pushers

We opted for a hire motorbike in most towns we stayed in. It was, for the most part, quite chilled on the roads, and the bike was fantastic for covering sightseeing trips in the heat. We were happy with our routine of walking for shorter distances, motorbike for medium and bus for long distances. We noticed that very few travelers were using buses to get around Bohol as we were. All the people we met had a motorbike and were travelling the island exclusively in this way. This surprised us, but we also understood. The cheap price and freedom a bike offered was tempting. We were also constantly shocked at how laissez faire locals were renting out their motorbikes. No-one asked for passports or ID, sometimes we would sign a form then off we'd go. Payment was on departure of accommodation. We paid between 350-400 peso/£4.00-5.00 per day. Petrol was around 94-95 peso /£1.16-1.18 per liter. The price didn't vary much during our trip, but locals assured us it had gone up a lot in recent times.

Filipinos LOVE music. There is never time in a day when music of some kind cannot be heard. Religious songs, or local pop numbers can always be heard drifting from homes, businesses and tricycles at all times of the day and night, often quite loudly. But most likely a classic power ballad is the song of choice. Give them a love song by Whitney or Mariah and they are in heaven. Any outdoor get together will have karaoke, even a family picnic on the beach, and generally, Filipinos have a reputation of being excellent singers. 

The best part of travelling in The Philippines by far, was the people. For us, being able to communicate perfectly with most locals we met was so amazing and beneficial. Not only were we able to easily find out answers to practical questions like when does the bus go, and how much is the room, but we could have proper conversations beyond basic pigeon English and sign language. We've only had this a handful of times on our travels, most notably in Iran, and the difference it made to our travel experiences cannot be highlighted enough. Not only easy to communicate with, the Filipino people are invariably cheerful and smiling, it really is astounding. Apart from the most touristy places (Panglao), locals always greeted us on the street, usually a perky Hello/Good morning, sometimes a shy grin, or a classic Filipino chin acknowledgement. (Filipinos love using their chin to express things- we particularly love the directional nod using the chin, very effective).

Extremely friendly family at the beach in Panglao, Bohol

Lovely signs everywhere congratulating local graduates

Overall, we felt like Bohol was a special discovery for us, and something of a tropical paradise. We couldn't think why we had left it so long to return to The Philippines! The country overall is such a great destination for us. It's easy to get to, no visa required, outstanding natural scenery, wonderful welcoming people, and decidedly affordable. Let's just not talk about the food........

Panglao beach sunset, Bohol

Little shop, Bohol

Green hills, interior Bohol

A tropical paradise- Bohol, The Philippines

So, as the world descends into chaos, let's see what our next move is. We decided in the last year, that we would never again plan too far ahead- it's just too unpredictable in today's global climate. This philosophy may do us well leading into this new era of coming restrictions. Regardless of what is thrown at us, we will try to continue to travel to countries we find fascinating, and hopefully discover more wonderful destinations and have many more exciting adventures. We will do what we can, when we can and simply hope for the best! Cheers to everyone out there who has been supportive of us. We so love receiving comments from people who have gotten something positive from our blogs. We enjoy writing them, taking the photos and putting them together. Cheerio for now!

THE BLUE WATERS OF BOHOL - Anda, Bohol, The Philippines

.....we were previously in the slightly hectic Panglao area of Bohol, The Philippines......

Stunning beach at Anda, Bohol

Continuing our Bohol adventure, we took our first jeepney of the trip back to the organized Tagbilaran bus terminal, where we easily found the big bus departing for Anda. This journey was super sweaty and squishy, thanks to the packed bus and the amount of passengers, but mostly because the miniscule seat size. Thankfully, as we ventured further along the coast, people got off and we could spread out more. The bus whizzed past seaside towns with names such as Albuquerque and Garcia Hernandez, and we can say we have officially now been to Trinidad! Finally, as the roads and villages became smaller, and the jungle met the beach, we arrived in tiny Anda. In order to have the bus stop in The Philippines, one has to shout at the top of one's voice "STOP"! This took some getting used to!

Jeepney from Panglao to Tagbilaran, Bohol

Trinidad village hall!!

We found Anda to be a wonderfully sleepy beach town, pretty much just one main drag leading to a market, and dirt tracks leading off to the beach. It had a feeling of the end of the line, tucked away in the far southeast bulb of Bohol. Anda's residents had a laid back air about them, even the dogs were super chill. We enjoyed the constant friendly greetings everywhere that we had experienced in the interior of Bohol. When we ventured further than the central part of Anda, there were stares and giggles at the very sight of us. Homes in peaceful lanes were noticeably neat and there seemed to be an amount of civic pride. Cute little gardens, tidy lawns and limited rubbish about gave the village a well kept air. The quiet central market had a few stalls selling limited fruit and vegies, stall holders languishing in the heat of the day. Things livened up at around 4.30pm, when the village came alive. People bustled around the streets, chatting outside sari sari (variety) shops, traffic increased at the market and locals wandered down to the sea to cool off. 

Downtown Anda, Bohol

Resting in the heat, Anda main street, Bohol

Sleepy Anda during the day, Bohol

Stall at Anda market, Bohol

We felt slightly better off for food, ironically, considering the size of the place. A fantastic supermarket with more variety than we had seen before supplied our breakfast needs, and a few simple shacks offered palatable food for later in the day. The excellent accommodation we had found by a fluke had a well equipped outdoor, shared kitchen, so we were able to cook our oats for breakfast and make snacks. It also boasted a clean, cool and spacious room, and a swimming pool, which was amazing in the afternoons after a day out in the extreme heat. 

Cute little restaurant in Anda, Bohol

Had to try the yummy local prawns, Anda beach

Not sure what that was all about......

And then there were the beaches. People rave about certain beaches in South East Asia. It's probably very annoying for readers, but I'm afraid it has to be said. We have seen so many beautiful tropical beaches, we do have high standards and become somewhat blasé. But Anda's famous beaches certainly held their own in the comparison of other tropical paradises in the region. A mixture of small bays and longer stretches, Anda had a long coastline with classic white powdery sand and clear water- certainly the best we have seen on this trip. The fact that development along the coast was limited, with mainly smaller, low key resorts kept a rustic feeling. We were happy to see mostly Filipinos enjoying the seaside, not just foreign tourists- this isn't normal in most other South East Asian countries.

Bangka boat on Anda beach, Bohol

Lonely coconut, Anda beach, Bohol

Processing sea urchins on the beach, Anda, Bohol

A day trip to explore further afield showed us a stunning region with many varying vistas- each more spectacular than the first. Driving along the coast, mangrove villages with little shacks built down onto the water, small lagoons and fish farms had us enchanted. Modest village shacks with roosters in the yard, neat flower and spring onion boxes in the gardens, and small chapels and community halls lined the road. When we rode the motorbike up high above the sea, we discovered round, green, rolling hills spreading out into the distance inland. The scenery felt completely different, almost European, complete with cows. We pondered, that in another country, we would love to hike in these hills (too bloody humid here!). 

Small boats in a mangrove area, around Anda, Bohol

Mirror image, around Anda, Bohol

Bike across a causeway, around Anda, Bohol

The "tracks" we were following through the countryside, around Anda, Bohol

Excited at the viewpoint, around Anda, Bohol

Green rolling hills, around Anda, Bohol

Cows on the hills, around Anda, Bohol

The humidity at this time of year in the coastal parts of Bohol was insane, and we struggled walking anywhere too far. Our rooms all came with AC which we gladly turned on in the heat of the day. But we were happy that there was usually an additional fan, which we often preferred to use at night. Getting to the further away beaches and hinterland had to be done in a tricycle or hiring a motorbike.

Overall, Anda was a restoring place, and we really loved it. It would a place we could return to and stay longer, if we needed to. Many accommodation options, decent food, friendly locals, gorgeous beaches and a relaxed, village feel- what's not to like? It was a perfect final week to (nearly) bring to a close our month's stay in Bohol.

The end of the day, Anda beach, Bohol

Local girl, Anda, Bohol

Our final few days in The Philippines were spent slowly working our way back to Cebu for our flight. Amid a supposed State of Emergency due to a fuel shortage, and rumors of cancellations of transport, we did not want to become caught on Bohol. We needn't have worried- buses and ferries appeared to all be working on time. The port of Ubay was a refreshingly untouristy and bustling little town, and the fantastic local market with freshly caught seafood and the biggest range of produce we had yet to see kept us busy. We even had the best meal of Filipino food in our entire stay at a very modest street stall. A lovely woman with a few pots cooked by her aunt explained what everything was. We chose a selection of dishes, going back for seconds, it was so good.

Tricycle to Ubay port, Bohol, The Philippines

Choko to Aussies, sayote to Filipinos, very popular vegetable here

Smelly market goods, Ubay, Bohol

Delish eggplant dish, Ubay, Bohol

Ferry taking us from Ubay in northern Bohol, back to Cebu city

A night in Cebu city, with all day spent at the nearby mega mall shopping for all our last minute needs filled the final day, and suddenly it was all over. We both agreed we had loved this trip so much, and are already looking at places to visit in the country next time. 

Our slow movements around Cebu and Bohol during our month's stay

Tiny Cebu and Bohol within the entire Philippines archipelago

..........next, we summarize some practical parts of our travels in Bohol........