We bought our ticket for 100 pesos to Tubigon from Cebu City. So far, so easy and a tiny bit slow. We slept all the way over and on the far side managed to grab a bus to Tagbilaran for 50 pesos. There we jumped straight onto another jeepney for 25 pesos each to Alona Beach. So much for private transport. Door to door, Cebu to Alona, we paid just 175 pesos each. We went looking for a cheap hotel and most were full. We eventually got a place in Casanova Gardens for 700 pesos, but it had wi-fi and a swimming pool. We found a cheap local dive centre for 1100 a dive to go to Balicasag. Sadly they had dived one of the two best dive sites at Balicasag the day before in Black Forest. Still they were cheap and we liked them. Good first impressions. They have some kick arse local barbecue places in Alona Beach and we opted for that for dinner.
The next day we did two dives at Balicasag Island. I can only say that a dive master is almost unnecessary here. So many fish. Just wow. Like an aquarium. The most fish I have ever seen on a dive site and Cannelle thinks it is the most beautiful coral she has ever seen. I'm not such a coral lover, but I'd take her word on it. I can understand why some people preferred it to Sipadan. Especially if you can't go deep at Sipadan. They are different and I would still put Barracuda Point, our first dive at Dauin and the Mandarin Fish sunset dive in Malapascua as my favourites so far, but it all depends what you like. I saw a stunning green nudibranch, tuna, a school of jack, a school of angelfish (so many schools of fish I had only ever seen in small numbers before) and so many small reef fish. Its not a big fish site, but if you like the small stuff you'll love it. There was a Dutch instructor with us and he told us that the PADI courses were mostly a waste of time and money. He said get your advanced as quick as possible and then its only worth doing rescue, deep and wreck (ice and cave if you have the interest as well). Those seem the best to me. He said that Bali and Gili were great places to dive and the Americans in Malapascua had told us that Komodo was the best they had ever dived. We shall hopefully see on the remainder of this trip. We had an American dive with us on the second dive and he kept annoying the fish and at one point he was even carrying a bit of the reef with him. Random and stupid. We had been warned about the titan triggerfish. Its very aggressive and territorial. At one point he was swimming along and I saw a fish swim behind him. I thought it must be this fish as it went above him and bit him in the head. I was laughing so hard I must have used a lot of oxygen. Too funny. Revenge of the fish. It then came for us as well but we used our fins to fend it off. Interesting fish. I loved these dive sites though. Would have dived again, but Cannelle was having ear problems so we figured we would take some time off diving until Pulau Weh. Spurs drew 2-2 that night and we lost on penalties to Basel. Shit. Only consolation was it meant no more really late nights watching the European football. We spent the afternoon hanging out in the swimming pool with a Dutch/English couple who also told us we would make shit tons of money in Australia and that a target of 24,000 Aussie dollars in a year was more than doable.
In the morning we had some laughs with a moto driver who was surprised we didn't want to rent a motorbike. We told him about the police problems and then another moto driver wanted to take us to Tagbilaran. We said we were taking the jeepney but he told us there wasn't one. The other guy told him not to lie and look like an idiot as we clearly weren't stupid tourists and we all had a laugh at him together. We got into Tagbilaran and found a really nice hotel. We decided to stay there and use it as a base to visit the centre of Bohol. It was even cheap for laundry. We took a jeepney to the tarsier sanctuary and got into a debate with some local women about which cuddly animal was the cutest. We both thought the rabbit. The second woman was not so sure so we told her to ask the kids in the jeepney. They all picked the rabbit. Unanimous lol. The first woman invited us to her hometown village after the tarsier sanctuary. She said just ask for her name and we'd find her. I fucking love the Philippines for the people. Best place. The tarsiers are impossibly cute and small. Was a really nice centre to visit. Then we took a jeepney to this tiny village and went door to door asking for her. Eventually her niece pointed us the right way and a local kid took us. Meanwhile someone had texted her to say some foreigners were looking for her lol. We were invited into someone's house for a wake and they made us eat loads. Such nice people. Then she got some people to get some coconuts for us. We had had fresh buko with the school teachers in Malapascua, but we had some again here. We stayed for a bit and then had to get the last bus back. She said next time we had to come and stay with her. We met quite a few travellers who never seemed to meet locals. I think you have to try hard not to in the Philippines. We watched Oblivion at the cinema which is not bad, but nothing special. Seems to be my summary of most films we watched here.
The next day we took the bus to Carmen to see the famous chocolate hills. The ride is pleasant and the hills are nice. We should have taken a motorbike to fully appreciate the scenery. Lots of people were taking stupid photos there. They are sort of like their photos. Its a weird one. They are very pretty, but at the same time underwhelming. Worth the trip though. On the way back we stopped off at Loboc. It is very tacky, but it is very pretty. Another hard one to judge. We opted against the overpriced river cruise and just enjoyed the very picturesque town on the river. You definitely have to visit, but I am not sure you need to stay there. We took a jeepney back to town and Cannelle chatted with her sister and father. Tagbilaran will probably go down as our second favourite Filipino city.
We realised that we could get across to Leyte from near Anda as we had suddenly decided not to go to Camiguin. Our planning and route was really a mess in the Philippines, but it can be such an infuriating country to travel around. Wonderful, but a pain in the arse. Everyone says Sumatra is difficult but its a picnic compared to the Philippines. They were trying to get us to take a van to Anda for a lot of money, but we eventually found a direct Ceres bus for 100 pesos and found a room in Anda for 500. Its a really beautiful beach area and so chilled. So much better than Alona Beach, though Alona Beach has a lot more life. While looking for a cave pool, we found a picture perfect, stunning beach with noone else there. That is the Philippines. Everywhere there are stunning beaches. The 1500th best beach here would be most countries number 1. Why anyone goes to Thailand for beaches and not here is beyond me. I hate beaches and this place is stunning. Even I am happy to spend time on them. We met some drunk local guys and then just bummed around on the beach all day. It seemed like the thing to do lol. Wish we had had more time here but we were starting to run out of time to make Clark Airport by land. You wouldn't think it though by how much time we would waste in the next two weeks.
This time wasting began the next day. We grabbed the local bus to the main road with the hotel owner, who was going to the dentist for his son. He told us how he had had people stay with him who got dengue on Palawan and others who had lost their passports. He always helped them out and seems like a really nice guy. In Anda they want tourists to go there, but they don't need our help to sell it. Just google image it and go. We got a local van to Ubay (again they thought we wanted a private charter. I must make a note to look more hobo like) and then the super, super, super slow boat to Bato on Leyte. Let the bum numbing journey begin.
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