A traveler's haven
 
August 13-14, 2010

Last week was our trip to Siargao, We left Cagayan de Oro for Surigao at around 6:00 am we supposed to depart around 4:00am so that we can arrived Surigao Port earlier for the seacraft schedules. C.D.O to Surigao is 6-7hrs travel by land.. So, we targeted to arrived Surigao by 12:00 noon, but unfortunately we weren't able to arrived as expected. There are no more banca or barge going to Siargao by Pass 12:00noon. We spent a night in Surigao, good thing was we found a cheap place to stay in, it cost 500php/room with aircon and T&B, since there is only 1 twin bed in that room, we pay 50php for each extra bed. If you are thinking if it's a Hotel or a lodge or an Inn, It wasn't, hehehe...It isn't that really nice, there's no dim lights, no lampshade, it has T.V but no cable connection, No Telephone, and No receptionist. It's just like a boarding house but it was already good to stay in for a night. Just cutting out the costs, LoL! We had "Sinugbang Isda" (grilled Fish) for dinner, Super Fresh seafoods are sold in minimal costs. You can buy fish in the martket and have it grilled, it cost 20php/kilo. Grilled services are located in front the public market.
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We woke up early the following morning, we need to be at the Port at around 4:30am because if not the boat will be fully booked before the scheduled time of departure. Three (3) fastcrafts are scheduled 6:00am daily from Surigao to Dapa, Siargao, there's no more 2nd trip. It takes 2hrs - 2.5hrs travel from Surigao to Dapa by fastcraft.  But you can also try a RoRo, (Montenegro SHipping) 10am daily but it takes 4hrs long to arrive in Dapa and Vice Versa. when sailed going to Siargao, you can see weird waves, because they bumped into each other, because its a wave from one island to the other, scary but it was nice to see like those..especially when you pass along the "whirlpool" sites, you can see small and medium sizes of whirlpools. Sometimes you'll feel scared, but sometimes you can feel excitement too. LoL, and of course nervous. hehehe! don't feel so scared when you reach the open sea, coz you might experience "Sea Torbulences" (my brother call it that way. hehehe), it is just normal to experience that, but don't worry, life vest is provided. hahahaha!.

We arrived Dapa, Siargao at 8:45am , Jade Star Lodge (the place we stayed) provided us a van for our land transportation, you can arrange it to include in your tour package, same also with the food. Ate Nita (owner of JadeStar) prepared our breakfast, so yummy the tinola! =) really love eating seafoods there. At 10am started our island Hopping. Jade Star Lodge offers Island Hopping Package, They can provide you everything that you wanted while you are on your stay in Siargao, even the Surfer's bread with coffee early in the morning. =)


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1st Stop - Guyam Island, it took 15mins from our resort, oh! so nice island! no residents, all you have there is a place to shed, coconut tress - lotsa lots , white beach. Our Fist Swimming Experience in Siargao. Clear blue waters and fine sands.. We just stayed there for 30minutes, I guess. Tagjo brought along our tripod but it was destroyed, too bad :'( that's why jane has  less photos during this trip. hehehe..


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2nd Stop - Isla Daku, ("Daku" locally means Big/Large) so it is called isla Daku because it is more bigger than the other 2 islets that is facing Gen.Luna. You can asked locals who lived there to get you a fresh buko, they sell it for 20php each. There are 80 families who lived in this island, they have their Brgy. Captain, too. Going to Isla Daku from Guyam Island took 15minutes pump boat ride,  while approaching the island you'll see an aquamarine sea waters, Superb! , We stayed 2hrs in Isla Daku. We had our lunch there, Food was included in the island hopping package just tell them what food you want. We enjoyed our swimming moments here .MY brother-in-law, Willy enjoyed his snorkling moments hehehehe, because its only him has goggles.

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3rd Stop - Naked Island, It's called naked island not because people who visits here need to be naked hehehehe, well, you can if you just want to.. LoL!. It's called Naked Island because it is purely White Island only, No trees, No cottages, No People, just Visitors. I guess this is were we got our sun burns. there's nowhere to hide. urggghhhhhhh! so hot! We just stayed here for 10mins and then we went back to our resort to have our land transfer for Cloud Nine, the Surfing Site in Siargao. We can't used a pump boat on going there because of the waves.                                 (View of Isla Daku at the back of us)

Cloud Nine is the Surfing Site in Siargao, it takes 20minutes ride from the place we stayed. There are lots of Foreigner surfers, Locals are very hospitable to them, when you saw them it seems like they've known each other for years already, foreigners keep coming back to Siargao because of the all year round surfing season that this place can offer. Different raises - Chinese, Koreans, Americans, European, Filipinos- making friends with each other and share the same passion. It's the Sea and Surfing. I also saw children, maybe around 11years old and above they only got one hobby. It's Surfing!. Unbelievable these kids are. Maybe one day, when they grow up they will join an international surfing competition, No bias! but I know they'll win!
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We never had the chance to try surfing because we arrived in cloud nine late in the afternoon, how we wish we had enough time to try that thing, too bad, visiting Siargao isn't complete without surfing, but had the chance to take a pic with a surfing board. LoL! ...But if you want to try it, There are some shop at the site that offers Surfing tutorials that costs 300php per hour, You can also just rent a surfing board that cost 200php per hour. Best time to surf on big waves is during summer time.

We've got a whole tiring day in Siargao. We need to do it all in just a day because we are scheduled to be in C.D.O by the day after for Papa's Bday celebration. One day in Siargao is worth to have in a lifetime...

See you in next adventure!

Hopefully in Coron, Busuanga
!


 
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August 14, 2009

   Celebrating Dad's birthday at Hundred Island is indeed a great experienced for the whole family. My first visit there was 2000 and it was just  one day trip spending with the sun and the sand not even done island hopping. This current visit gave us the chance to stay at the PBB house for a night it is located at the Governor's Island, it's a nice place with a nice view of sunrise in the morning, It has 2 bedrooms; 1 room can accomodate 6 persons and the other room can accomodate 4 persons, both room have aircon that runs by a generator from 6pm to 6am so lights at night is definitely not a problem. It's like renting the house and the island.LoL. We travel all the way from La Trinidad, Benguet to Alaminos, Pangasinan but despite of the long hours of land trip (it takes more or less 6hrs) tired is nothing when you see the spectacular scenery that the Philippines has.It's naturally a God given gift. Upon reaching Lucap Wharf we approached their national park center and asked for assistance for our island adventure. You can find boats bound for the islands docked near the wharf. There are (3) three major develop islands; Children's, Quezon and Governor's Island that can be reached after 25-45 minute boat ride. We bring things we need upon staying the island - Food to cook because utensils are provided when staying at the PBB house overnight, of course we need water, and some uling for inihaw. Our boatmen leave us all alone in the island and they will fetch us the day after. We had a full dinner with cake and wine (chhharrr!, Lol), then got the chance to star gazed because it's all dark outside and it just the moon and the stars that gives light =), There is no T.V so we slept early to recharge our energy for tomorrow's activity.
   So here comes the next day,, we are suprise by the great sunrise. We cooked our breakfast with a cup of coffee (ahem!!), then go swimming.. snorkling snorkling, too bad its too rocky, hindi pwedeng hindi magsuot ng slippers or aqua shoes. Life vests are provided by the boat you rented but not snorkels, so better bring your own snorkels for you to enjoy the entire adventure. We really enjoy our snorkling moments lalo na yung nakakita kami ng mga giant clamps and took  lot of shoots of it (thanks JoJet for the underwater camera).. If you want to capture the Postcard panoramic view of the hundred island, climb over the governor's hill, it's worth all the pawis and hingal when you get on top. There's nothing else you can do there but swim, swim and swim, You can do other itinerary such as diving (but still its swimming, dba? lol). After a tiring encounter with the sea and the sun, we need to leave the Island because it's the end of our accommodation or else we will pay again for next whole night, which is we avoided because it's a lil too costly.LOL! It's time to say bye-bye to "Our Island" and move on to island hopping; Children's and Quezon's Island. Nothing more activity but swim again. hahahahaha..Now, after that tiring and super exposed of the sun, we return to Lucap Wharf and took a shower on their Public bathroom. Buy, buy, buy souvenirs for proof.LoL!

To top it all? Super super Fun.

How to get there
       - From Manila, take a bus. Victory Liner has a trip straight to Alaminos City. From the terminal, either by private vehicle or tricycle, the Lucap Wharf is only a 10 to 15-minute ride away.
 
Where to Stay
        - for overnight; stay at Governor's Island. It can accommodate large group.

Things to Bring 

         - Snorkel Set, Sunblock, Camera (of course!), Slippers/ Aqua Shoes. For overnight stay at the Island, bring; Flashlights, mosquito repellant.

Must Do
        - Snorkeling, Island Hopping, Kayaking

 
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July 03, 2009

 
The long wait was over, we already had our ticket for cebu since April for Lola’s 1st death anniversary and from then on I was really excited because we are planning to have a side trip in Bohol. Bohol was included in my 5places you want to go list, uhhmmmm, that was 6years ago, and yes! it’s coming true =), so the night before i already packed my things up coz we need to be at the pier2 Cebu city for 2hours oceanjet ride to Bohol. Jane already contacted a friend who is from Bohol to arrange a hired Van that will tour us for a day (thanks instik for the arrangement, nice van too =) very comfy) so we took the first trip to Bohol around 6am, When on board i noticed everyone was asleep, hehehee, maybe because all of us need to be at the port 30minutes before departure and some of them aren’t came from the city, so they have their boat ride sleep hehehe, while on journey we suddenly noticed from the sky 3 small twisters, they are just forming they didn’t touch the sea, Thank God and they didn’t make that big. (i guess Jessa had a pic on it and i,myself had a video)

so we arrived at 8am, our driver manong Jun took us at STK (SuTuKil) fastfood, SuTuKil stands for 3 favorite fish dishes of visayas and mindanao Su - SUGBA (Grill) Tu - TULA (commonly known as Tinola) KiL - Kilaw/kinilaw (Kilawin) our breakfast was great, after breakfast we are headed to chocolate hills yeheyyy! they are so beautiful,ang pagod ay di mo na alam when you are at the top for the panoramic view, bad thing was it rained when we are on our way to the top huhuhuu, but its so nice when you get there, they are a thousand of small hills according to manong Jun who made brief explaination about it, the hills are made of limestones and corals, so tress are not suitable for the soil only grasses can sustain. so from chocolate hills we go to the tarsiers, the smallest monkey in the world, they are like a palm size creature, there are no flash and no touch sign boards, they are not allowed to touch anymore unlike before =( too bad. so from the smallest monkey our next stop was the Bohol’s biggest and longest phyton in captivity named Prony as of 2005 it measures 23ft 30inches and 200 kilos and experst says it grows abnormal according to his age. then we had our lunch at Loboc River cruise, the food was great, seafoods oh yeah! the goso (seaweed Kappaphycus) is so yummy, and we are entertain with a man on his guitar, singing some songs while on cruise, and we are entertain with some residents beside the river who dance and sings on a balsa (bamboo boat), i like the songs they sang because they are original compositions from bohol. after lunch we dropped by at Loboc church, to visit Fr. Alvin who is a friend way back in college, but then he was not there becoz he was reassigned in Cogon Shrine, Tagbilaran. Then we go directly to the one of the oldest church in the philippines, The church of the immaculate conception or better known as the Baclayon Church. It is one of the best presevered Jesuit build churches in the region. Our last stop was in Blood Compact site, blood compact, performed in the island of Bohol in the Philippines, between the Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi, and Datu Sikatuna the chieftain of Bohol on March 16, 1565, to seal their friendship as part of the tribal tradition. That is why there is a sandugo festival in Bohol every year. This festival commemorates the treaty of friendship between the two leaders. The festival takes place in march, and the official tribal dance competitions begins in July to coincide with the “Tigum Bol-anon Tibuok Kalibutan” (The People of Bohol , all over the world) festival. It involves an re-anactment of the blood compact, a religious mass and parade on the streets, and the search for the Miss Bohol beauty pageant.

So after the whole tiring but satisfying day tour in Bohol, Manong Jun drove us to Bohol Beach Club where we have our reservations. BBC is a nice place to be in while in Bohol, they have a wide space for everyone. We are enjoying our strolling on the white beach sand, superb! nice beach talaga. The Price is right i should say… but here’s my tip: if you want to lower down your costs, you can have your meal in a resort beside BBC where you can have affordable meals yet satisfying. BBC food are too expensive, but if you bring with you your whole bank accounts then BBC resto are just good for you =)

My stay in Bohol is one of a kind experience..

I dreamed of it then…, Now I have it.

next stop….

according to:

Tagjo and Jet - Siargao,

Tagjane - Siquijor.

which one comes first? we will see.. hehehehe.. im excited to the next adventure.



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