Hectic in Manila? Overcrowded in Sinulog? Tranquil Bohol provides the ultimate balm-a relax environment combined with great dives, white sand, tarsiers and Chocolate hills.
BOHOL IS A PLACE caught in the web of the time-part modern, the relaxed country side lifestyle pervades.
“Time has been very kind to the people of Bohol, They have assimilated what the urbanites are enjoying, without destroying or disregard the old”.
Indeed. This is evident in the religious and public structures that date as far back as the pre-Spanish era. Bohol’s cultural heritage never fails to impress culture planners. The Boholanos take care of their 16th century, coral stone churches located in the towns of Buenos Aires, Carmen, Baclayon. The Dauis Church, which is located in the town of Dauis, three kilometers from Tagbilaran, is one of the Philippines’ most beautiful churches. The interior has life-like murals painted on the ceiling. Legend has it that when the town was invaded by pirates, the town folks locked themselves inside the church, where a well miraculously appeared at the foot of the altar and sustained them for weeks. The well can still be seen in the church, and is the main source of water for the people living in the church vicinity.
But the province’s real magic is its natural attractions. For two consecutive years, Bohol was named Local Destination of the Year. First-rate dive spots such as Panglao, Balicasag, Cabilao, Jao, Mahinay and Lapinin are favorites amongst local and foreign tourists. Whale and dolphin sightings in Pamilacan Island are boosting tourist arrivals year-round, while Cabilao is renowned for the hammerhead sharks that shoal around the clear waters. Balicasag, described as the best dive spot in the country, is popularly known for the colorful coral formation called “The Wall”.
Bohol is also renowned for its beaches. All around the province are good beaches, but do not miss the chance to go to Alona Beach and Doljo Beach, in Panglao; Balbalan Beach and its crystal-clear waters; picturesque Bikini Beach in Pangangan Island, Calape; Sta. Fe Beach, in Alburquerue, is a favorite for picnics; and Mantatao Island, in Calape, is one of the cleanest beaches around, and an ideal jump off point for the island hopping.
And for those who simply want to relax while communing with nature, then the Loboc River Cruise is a must. What makes the trip enjoyable, memorable and refreshing is its unhurried pace as it goes through the sea-side towns of Loboc, Loay and Bila. And on Board, a hearty lunch of seafood is served, and you’ll be serenaded with a traditional kundiman (love song).
As you pass by Bila, remember that this place is a popular haven for tarsiers. The size of a fist, the tarsier is the smallest mammal in the world, and is to have been the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s E.T. Tarsiers could also be found on the hills of Corella, 10 kms. away from Tagbilaran.
The Chocolate Hills, in Carmen, remain’s Bohol’s main attraction. These 1,268 mounds have become famous since they look like a giant Chocolate Kisses during the summer.
And of course, the stomach should not be forgotten. Try the Bohol Bee Farm in Barangay Dao, Sitio Dauis, famous for its mouth- watering carrot and squash muffins. A bohol food adventure should eventually lead you to Sampaguita’s in Baclayon. Stronglyrecommended are their pasalubongs (take home sweets) like Broas, pastillas, polvoron, and the popular Peanut Kisses.
Philippine airlines flies directly to Tagbilaran City. Ferries from Cebu to Tagbilaran operate daily with a one hour travel time.
Perched atop a hill, this luxurious destination has a panoramic view of the sea, welcoming you to experience the charming Filipino hospitality along with superior services and facilities at this hotel. A 10-hectare retreat set in the style of Old-World Europe allows you to enjoy the finest dining, wine cellars, music and dance clubs, and cigar lounge. Room starts at $157, breakfast included. Rate includes 22% discount! Book Now!
This international class resort, situated in Bohol, is located on top a beach side cliff. The resort offers pristine shores, coral reefs, and tropical jungles, in addition to private villas with gardens and personal plunge pools. Guests will have easy access to a myriad of interesting cultural, historic, and tourist attractions. Room starts at $144, breakfast included. Rate includes 32% discount! Book Now!
Guests will find this service-oriented hotel with superb facilities and amenities provides excellent value. All rooms have air conditioning, hair dryer, television LCD/plasma screen, shower as well as other amenities. This excellent hotel in Bohol also has smoking room, family room, tours. Room starts at $110, breakfast included. Book Now!
There are just 12 rooms available in this exclusive four-star resort, located on Alona Beach, Panglao Island. The on-site restaurant offers a range of local delicacies and international fare. The resort boasts a number of activities that can be arranged, including table tennis, miniature golf, kayaking, mountain biking and snorkeling. There is also a large swimming pool and massage facilities. Villa rate starts at $173, breakfast included. Rate includes 26% discount! Book Now!
Time has stood still in Palawan. Dubbed as the country’s “Last Frontier”, true enough, Palawan has managed to preserve its fascinatingly natural habitat over the years. Palawan is the country’s most largest province, the significant portion of its almost 1,489.655 hectare land area are virgin territories of undefined jungle and rainforest, primeval black limestone and marble cliffs, unexplored caves and coves, and pristine white beaches. Its 1,768 island and islets are surrounded by waters of incredible kilometers southwest of Manila. It is bounded by South China Sea on the west, Sulu Sea on the east, Mindoro straight on the north, Balabac straight on the south (separating the island from Borneo).
More than a thousand islands and islets compose Palawan’s territory making the province an ideal breeding ground for tropical flora and fauna. It is in Palawan where the endemic Philippines animals like the Mousedeer, Beercat and, Palawan Peacock pheasants co-exist with some of Africa’s wildlife species such as Zebras, Gazelles, Elands and Giraffes. Many visitors have come to love this hauntingly beautiful province where the dramatic landscape is also amazingly diverse from coral reefs to mountain ranges, stark cliffs of sheer limestone, rainforests abundant with rare wildlife, and unmatched underwater views which are found only in the Philippines. Dive spots, like Tubattaha Reef, one of the best dive spots in the area, are plentiful, which each site offering a unique array of marine life. No wonder Palawan continuos to gain reputation as among the best destination in the World.
How to get there:
The best and most practical way to get to Palawan is via direct flight daily from Manila to Puerto Princesa.
Puerto Princesa International Airport(IATA: PPS) is the main gateway to Palawan, major airlines serve international and domestic flights; Philippine Airlines, Air Philippines, Cebu Pacific and Zest Airways have flights to and from Manila and Cebu, PAL Express (Air Philippines) have flights to and from Busuanga, while SEAIR connects the whole of Palawan internationally with Kota Kinabalu.
El Nido Airport(IATA: ENI), charter flights are provided Island Transvoyager Inc. (ITI) while Seasonal flights are offered by SEAIR.
SEAIR is renowned for its unreliable service, often cancelling flights with less than two days notice via email only. Many travellers have reported being told that they would receive a refund “within 30 working days” but their money has never been returned. While ITI is a smaller airline, services are more reliable.
A new airport is near completion in San Vicente.
Get around
Cheapest option while getting around is the local jeepney, tricycles are also available. Getting from one island to another is possible; daily boat trips are available. Car and van rentals are also available.
Exploring Palawan
HONDA BAY
Located in Sta. Lourdes Tagbanua. Honda Bay is dotted with many small islands with shallow reefs and fine-white sand beaches. Most of the smaller islets disappear during high tide, while the bigger ones would have accommodation for overnight stay. The waters around this islands have become popular spots diving, snorkeling, and swimming.
From the city proper, visitors have option to go on a day trip to one or more of the following in Honda Bay:
The Canon Island, and the Pandan Island (between these two island lies an almost intact coral reefs)
Lu-li Island (so called because it ios submerged during hight tide and afloat during low tide)
Starfish Island (known for its fine-clear water that seems like starfish)
Snake Island (so called because of its long stretch of fine white sand beach seemed shaped like a snake
Senoáąťita Island (the breeding site of Lapu-lapu fish)
Bat Island (inhabited by thousand of bats)
How to get there:
Sta. Lourdes Wharf, pump boats could be hired to take the tourist to the island of their choice. It is located about 12 kilometers east of Puerto Princesa. 30 minutes away by hired tricycle or jeepney. The boat ride, takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour depending how far the island is.
ST. PAUL SUBTERRANEAN RIVER NATIONAL PARK
Located at the foot of Mt. Paul in the western coast of Palawan, the 3901 hectare terrestrial reserve composed of a lush tropical forest, caves, white sand beaches and limestone cliffs. Whithin the park is an old growth forest consisting of at least 280 species of trees. it is habitat for many wildlife species particularly monkeys, snakes, and birds including the Tabon Bird, Philippine cockatoo, white-bellied sea eagle.
The park was created to conserbe the enigmatic St. Paul Cave, the cave formed beneath rugged limestone and marble cliffs, carved and made hallow by an underground river. This river is popularly known as Underground River. It is acclaimed to be the longest subterranean river in the world.
The entrance to the river-cave is a picturesque lagoon where paddle boats equipped with strong-handled search lights are stationed. There boats which takes the visitors through the exploration of the caves are provided by the park authority and are navigated by well-trained guides who give information about the various sections of the cave. Hanging from the ceiling and walls of the caves are countless bats together with snakes, blindfish and other water creatures. Visitors are taken on a ride of a life-time through corridors of colossal stalactite and stalagmite pillars, rock formation and doomed ampitheaters.
How to get there:
Visitors have two options. One is to travel by land to Barangay Bahiles wharf from there hire a pump boat directly to the mouth of the cave. A Second option is to travel by land to Barangay Cabayugan and then Sabang; where there are three options, one os to take a pump boat, two to take a Monkey Trail; three to hike along the Jungle Trail.
CROCODILE FARMING INSTITUTE
Located along the National road in Barangay Irawan, south Puerto Princesa. Here hundreds of crocodiles can be viewed from the steel bridges. Some large crocodiles are kept single or in pairs inside concrete cages.
At the entrance lobby hangs the skin of huge crocodile (17.5 feet long) while the entire skeleton displayed inside a glass casing.
How to get there:
From the city proper, is a 30 minutes travel by a tricycle or jeepney ride.
PALAWAN NATIONAL MUSEUM
Located at the Old City Hall on Valencia street. On exhibit are archaeological, geological, ethnological collections of jars, porcelains, trapping tools used by ancestral people, musical instruments and brass wares. The museum showcases the music, culture, history, crafts and arts of Palawan.
How to get there:
From the city proper, 10 minutes by tricycle ride.
BUTTERFLY GARDEN
The Butterfly Garden is home to a large number of species of butterflies, plants and flowers, most of which are endemic in Palawan. Visitors will find the experience otherworldly, as they are led to a small meshed garden where hundreds of butterflies flutter everywhere. Take a picture from leaves or caterpillar crawling on a stem of plants. But the best of all, feel the wings of the young butterflies that has just emerged from their cocoon.
How to get there:
Slightly off the National Road, the garden is a 20-minute tricycle ride from city’s commercial district.
Located in the heart of Puerto Princesa City, this property is only nine kilometers from the airport and the seaport. Boasting well-appointed guestrooms that are tastefully decorated, each room were equipped with standard amenities to make guests’ stay comfort. Room starts from $76- Breakfast Included. Book Now!
The hotel is ideally located in Puerto Princesa. Wildlife lovers can make a visit to the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center. Mendoza Park is located within 2 kilometers from the hotel. Guests can also dine at the onsite restaurant that serves delicious cuisines. Room rates starts from $79 with breakfast included. Book now – rate includes 38% discount!
Located in Palawan, the hotel is situated on the Abueg Road and only 3 minutes away from the airport. Boasting 18 well-appointed guestrooms and suites, all were tastefully furnished. Room starts from $39. Book Now!
Located in a small peninsula along the Puerto Princesa Bay overlooking the city, this resort is set in a lush coconut grove facing the sea and the hills. Surrounded by natural mangroves and landscape gardens, all villas are uniquely designed and decorated in local style, with veranda or balcony facing the great view of the bay. Room starts from $45. Book Now!
Philippine fisherman Abner Abrigo used to enjoy feasting on dolphins and turtles until he realised they were more valuable as tourist attractions.
The wiry 28-year-old said eating dolphin “adobo” style had been his top choice – a reference to the Spanish-inspired cooking of meat in a thick broth of soya sauce, vinegar and garlic that is popular among all Filipinos.
Now, Abrigo and others from a small fishing community on the dazzling western Philippine island of Palawan help to take visitors dolphin watching.
“The extra money from the dolphin watching makes a big difference to our livelihoods,” Abrigo told AFP from a dock in Palawan’s capital, Puerto Princesa.
Across Asia, similar types of micro-businesses are offering local communities financial incentives to protect their environments as they take advantage of the region’s small but growing “ecotourism” industry.
Members of the ethnic Qiang minority in mountainous southwest China are selling meals made from organic produce to visitors, while in Indonesia locals are taking tourists from rainforest eco-lodges to meet endangered orangutans.
The travel industry and governments are also responding to the rising demand for “green” travel, with Cambodia recently becoming the first Southeast Asian nation to commit to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s principles.
On the Internet, travellers have a myriad of choices from tour operators promoting “sustainable” holidays, including offers to buy carbon credits to offset air travel and to stay at high-end resorts that embrace green practices.
“Ecotourism is a still a niche market but interest is rising,” John Koldowski, deputy chief executive officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, told AFP.
“This is driven by an awareness generally in the environment and being green and sustainable, but also in something that’s becoming in short supply in the world – peace, quiet and solitude.”
Government leaders, local communities and non-government organisations on Palawan, one of the Philippines’ most beautiful and biologically diverse islands, have been among the most enthusiastic adopters of eco-tourism in Asia.
Abrigo’s fishing community – as part of an ecotourism programme called Bayanijuan run by the Puerto Princesa government and Philippine media company ABS-CBN – has run dolphin and whale watching tours for about two years.
Abrigo and some of his neighbours act as spotters for the tourist vessel while out fishing themselves in their small outrigger boats.
If they are the spotter that finds the dolphins or whales for the tourist boat, they get paid 25 pesos (about 60 cents) for each passenger on the boat.
“Sometimes there are more than 20 people on the boat… jackpot,” Abrigo said with a smile.
While Abrigo still needs to fish to guarantee enough money to survive, other former fishermen elsewhere on Palawan have given up their old jobs altogether to cater for the growing number of tourists.
Edwin Bermejo, 43, confessed to having performed trawl net fishing in Puerto Princesa’s stunning Honda Bay for many years.
Trawl net and other destructive methods of fishing, such as using dynamite and cyanide, have ruined many of Palawan’s precious coral reefs over the past few decades.
“We didn’t understand the results of what we were doing,” he said.
But as fish catches started to dry up and tourists began to arrive in the 1990s, Bermejo said he and other fishermen around Honda Bay realised they needed to change their way of living if they were to survive.
With the help of local non-government organisations and more recently the Bayanijuan programme, they turned their fishing vessels into island hopping boats.
They also worked with the Puerto Princesa government to enforce a ban on destructive fishing practices, doing volunteer patrols and reporting any offences to authorities.
“Our fish stocks have slowly recovered,” Bermejo told AFP from aboard a boat in Honda Bay that takes tourists to the beaches of some of the area’s tiny islands, as well as snorkelling and diving in the remaining coral reefs.
His community association is now intending to take out a loan to nearly double its current fleet of 66 boats in an effort to meet a recent boom in tourist numbers.
“This would never have happened if we kept on fishing the way we did,” Bermejo said.
The mayor of Puerto Princesa, Edward Hagedorn, is one of the driving forces behind the ecotourism effort, according to many environment activists on Palawan who regard him as an ally in their campaign to protect its ecosystems.
Hagedorn said that after first becoming mayor in 1992 he banned mining, logging and factories, confident that in the long-run more jobs would be created by preserving the area’s natural wonders and attracting tourists.
Tourist numbers to Puerto Princesa jumped from 12,000 in 1992 to 425,000 in 2010, and many more are expected as the area gains global fame – National Geographic named Palawan as one of its top-20 destinations this year.
“Now with the number of visitors rising, it’s giving more and more income to the people. But if we allowed mining and logging… those jobs would have been just temporary,” he said.
For Anthony Cuvinar, 27, the tourism boom has turned him from a struggling handicraft maker into a boatman and tour guide for a fireflies tour who can now earn up to 20,000 pesos (470 dollars) a month – a good wage in local terms.
But when asked while paddling his kayak along the Iwahig River at dusk what he liked most about his job, Cuvinar did not mention the money.
“When I got into this I learnt to love nature and I enjoy helping other people to understand the importance of nature,” he said, as nine egrets flew past in V formation.
PHILIPPINES – At least 1,000 foreign and local rowers are expected to participate in the annual American Tourister Boracay International Dragon Boat Festival, which starts on April 28.
The tournament, to be officiated by the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation, will be held at the beach front of the Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Convention Center.
The races, which will showcase the paddlers’ teamwork, camaraderie, strength and power, will have two main divisions — the 500- and 300-meter races.
These divisions will be split to several subcategories: Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Open.
The tournament, touted as the biggest annual international water-sports event in the Philippines, will be presented by the Department of Tourism (DOT). It is organized by the Boracay Island Paddlers Association (BIPA) in cooperation with the Municipality of Malay.
The event will be covered by major news dailies and TV news programs like Sports Unlimited, Hard Ball, Mornings@ANC. Tournament organizers will also hold night parties unique to dragon boat racing.
It kicks off with the parade of teams and the opening ceremony with the traditional dotting of the eye of the dragon by the title sponsor and guests of honor, introduction of participating teams followed by cocktails and music.
It will culminate with the awarding of trophies and medals to all champions and a farewell dinner for all participants, sponsors and guests.
The event runs from April 28 to April 30.
Dragon boat racing started in China some 2500 years ago and is considered one of the most popular sports in the world.
