Women Talks

Hi there again peeps!! Here I am again so excited to share my next trip!!! CEBU and BOHOL!! I thought I will never have the chance to visit those famous cities in the Philippines! Fortunately I have colleagues who are into “lakwatsas’ everywhere!! Hmmmm… where should I start? October 25, 2007 our departure from Cagayan de Oro City to the “Queen City of the South” Cebu!! We had our plane ticket reserved August, excited huh! We had to work 4AM so we can logout earlier so not to miss out flight @ 1:30 PM. Okay, so we’re logged off already. Off to the Airport guys! Attendance!! Emma, Rona, Sheila, Mafe, Ria, C-Tin, K-Tin and JP!! Let’s go. We couldn’t contain our excitement that we were so noisy inside the plane! I thought we annoyed some passengers! LoL! well, sorry we’re just having fun! hehehehe…Oh! not to mention the handsome flight steward that they asked to have a picture with! (thick face!) lol!, what can he do? Pose nalang para madali!… 20 minutes after we’re in Mactan International Airport already. Joseph joined (Sheila’s bf from manila) at the airport which made the headcount 9.

BOHOL Escapade

We went directly to Cebu Pier to catch the fast ferry going to Bohol. It’s our first destination actually. The travel by sea lasted for about 2 hours. Byahelo etoh! Our official tourguide and driver Manong Johny fetched us at the pier. We went straight to Dao Diamonds where we will be staying for the night. Their staff were mostly mute and deaf people. So when you stay there, you are helping their foundation at the same time… isn’t that wonderful? … Well anyway, we changed and went out for dinner….I forgot the place… that was just a quick dinner, short orders.. everyone were so hungry and exhausted.. After our dinner, manong Johny gave us a brief tour around the place….Kinda creepy… At 10 o’clock it’s like a ghost town already… I think they have their curfew… We saw old houses, untouched.. some has occupants but most of them were unoccupied. The houses we’re really old and big… one street where most houses were ancient, the place was Bohol’s first city.. Being in the place was like going centuries back.. during Rizal’s time..Well, we went back to Dao Diamonds to rest.

5 AM our call time, everyone hurried to the van. We had to be early for whale watching. We went to Catiklan where the boat was already waiting for us. We were so excited for the whale watching and for the snorkling afterwards in Balicasag Island just accross Catiklan… We left and just suddenly around 10 minutes, the boat stopped! What happened?! unfortunately something was wrong with the boat’s engine! So we stayed there and waited until it’s fixed! Gosh! it was so wavy that time, that the boat couldn’t be still…we were so amused with the waves coming to our boat at first…. but after like 15 minutes, we were not happy anymore! I felt dizzy already! Mafe and Tin! we couldn’t laugh anymore! we kept asking the boatmen but we were just ignored! I don’t know what’s wrong with them! hehehehe…maybe intimidated? Well anyway, we stayed there for 30 minutes! Thank God it was fixed! So we hurried back to the island and changed boat… again, we sailed… fortunately it went fine… we recovered from the dizziness except mafe who was vomiting along the way! lol! poor mafia! We weren’t fortunate to see whales along the way . It lasted around 45 minutes to 1 hour until we reached Balicasag Island…white island full of coral reefs. The island was wonderful! We went snorkling right away.. One can really tell that the waters was still clean.. you can tell by the corals underneath! Seeing different and colorful fishes, corals and starfishes underneath was so refreshing and so amazing! Ms. Tin and I had to take off our life vest! hehehehe.. annoying! I couldn’t swim deeper because of that! hahayyy! I didn’t want to end the moment! I just loved the underwater world! I enjoyed fish feeding and just looking at the creatures under the waters. We have to get back to Catiklan at 10 since we still have our next tourist destination! We couldn’t leave Balicasag without buying all the “burloloys”… pearl necklaces, bracelets, anklets, earings… name it they have it! souvenirs… it’s much cheaper if you buy them from the island since the ones selling are those who really made `em.

Next stop was the Loboc River Cruise. We had buffet lunch there at 280/pax. Unfortunately we had to wait until it gets back from its cruise… We took the Long River Cruise. It was almost 2 when we got on the boat.. Rona was not talking anymore! heheheheh…she’s like that when she’s extremely hungry… don’t mess with her! Alright so we’re there! we ate, we cruise, we took pictures and well! We befriended this Russian couple or sibling, we don’t really know! hehehe.. we had our pictures taken with them! o divah! mga vaga jud! The “acoustic” singer of the boat entertained the passengers with his oldies songs, but everyone can actually connect! hehehehe.. we sang along with him… there were group of people in their yukelele (im not sure if i spelled it right), we stopped for a while they greeted us with their song and their “itaktak mo” version! Sheila step out of the boat to join and danced with them! hahahaha! Go Sheila! We continued the cruise until we got back.. It was wonderful! finally we experienced the famous loboc river cruise!

Back to the van! We went next to where the tarsiers where! they are prosimian primates of the genus Tarsius, a monotypic genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Tarsiers have enormous eyes and long feet. Their feet have extremely elongated tarsus bones, which is how they got their name. They are primarily insectivorous, and catch insects by jumping at them. They are also known to prey on birds and snakes. As they jump from tree to tree, tarsiers can catch even birds in motion.^{[citation needed]} Gestation takes about six months, and tarsiers give birth to single offspring. There were only 4 tarsiers I sa there… they were very tiny creatures! like stuffed toys in those tiny branch of the tree. Camera flash are not allowed. They just sit still while the tourist are busy posing to take pictures with them! wow! aren’t they famous! heheheheh…

Enough with the tarsiers already! let’s go to our next destination! The Chocolate Hills! It was kinda far from where the tarsiers are! It was worth the travel anywayze….there were a lot of tourist already when we got there. Tourist from different parts of the world and of course fellow Filipinos. We had to climb the stais (100 stairs??!! geezz!) to get to the top where we had a great view of the amazing chocolate hills! Wonderful! God is so great to have created such beautiful scenery! we just took pictures there and enjoyed the moment for a while…we had to hurry because our time is limited! we still had to catch our ferry back to Cebu!

Our next stop was at the old Baclayon Church and Museum. The church was pretty old, Spanish time if I’m not mistaken.. You can see with its ornaments and its architectures. We went to the museum, we had to leave our cameras and camera phones because taking pictures inside the museum is prohibited. Creepy inside, knowing that those things were antiques and were owned by long time gone priests. Unlike other museums, Baclayon museum is like a big wooden house. There were priest things, his wardrobe in giving mass. The huge hymn book which pages are from cow’s skin! yeah! pretty solid! the songs are in spanish.. There were the wood piano. Crowns of different patrons… etc. Fortunately we were able to take picture from the museum’s window… thanks to johnny deep! hehehehehe… So off to our next destination!!

20 minutes left before the departure of our ferry going back to Cebu!! We had to buy “pasalubongs” so we went straight to the pasalubong corner..I’m sorry I forgot the place. They have everything there, from their delicacies, accessories and clothes. T’was just a quick shopping!! alright now, Johnny Deep is calling us! 10 minutes left and we’re still going to Pier! hurry everyone!! hehehehe exciting huh! when we got to the Pier, Christine jumped out right away to get to the ticket station so we’ll catch the ferry! We had our tickets already by the way… Run! run!! 5 minutes and the ferry is leaving!!! we forgot in an instant how heavy our bags were! LoL!! last minute passengers award goes to our group! hahahaha! that was draining, exhausting and funny! geeezz! i never want to experience that again!

CEBU Escapade

So we arrived at Cebu Pier around 7:30 in the evening. Everyone were exhausted, dizzy and hungry… so nuisance?! phulleezze! beware! We took a van going to Ramos st. to check for a place to stay. To everyone’s annoyance, the laborers are asking for a fee for carrying our bags to the car’s backseat! everyone reacted! they were raged! lol! “Kinsa may nagsugo ana sa ilaha!”, “wala man na cla sugua!”, “ah wala! tala na manong!” … well, need I say more? We are exhausted and we are hungry! LoL! … So we decided to stay at Regal Pension haus. Not so nice place but carry ra! Sheila, Josef and Ms. Tin weren’t that lucky with the room given to them! hahahhaahah… gross! I don’t want to go into details! Christine, Ria and JP shared room, while me, Mafe and Rona went ahead to our room…We took our rest for a while and decided to go out for dinner and supposedly night life! That was friday and we were so excited for that! We went to Ayala without Ria and JP (they went ahead, sa USP Lahug daw) and Christine with her cousin. So we had our dinner at Gerry’s Grill in Ayala. Thanks to Vicky (former officemate) and her bf for accompanying us. While we were eating, i was really in daze…. I couldn’t think well! It was like I’m drunk! my head was so light that I was scared to stand up because I might collapse! I decided to go back to the pension house to rest… Rona was disappointed but she understood. Mafe tagged along….1 hour and 30 minutes after we left them at Ayala, Rona came in glaring and well……pissed off. We didn’t ask further, we sensed something went wrong with the night out plan!

It was already 7:30 when everyone settled into the van for our Cebu tour! ehehehheeh.. take note we have until 11:30. First stop, Jollibee! take out lang and eat along the way (breakfast galore!) … So we went to the Sto. Niño Church, Magellan’s Krus. Famous tourist destination. There were group of Koreans as well with their own Korean tour guide. We just took pictures there, prayed. Mafe bought a gift for our friend’s wedding while I bought a pocket prayer book.

Our next quick stop is at the famous Toist temple! I’ve been to that place before…. it’s been ages already but it was like my first time to be there! Again, we had to climb the stairs!! whew! we haven’t recovered from the stairs to the chocolate hills and there we were again! LoL! What else is there to do? picture picture! pose here, pose there, pose everywhere! We were doing a great job posing! heheheheh… Toist temple is the haven of the mga intsik . They have their prayer room and the wishing errr pond? hehehe whatever, just drop your coin wish already! . Time’s up guys! let’s keep moving!

Next stop, back to Ayala Mall. We dropped by Starbucks Cafe where some bought mugs as pasalubong and some just had coffee while waiting for the mall to open. Around 10, we went inside the mall to shop, window shop or whatever. We have an hour to enjoy the mall! geezz! I can’t leave to that! 1 hour?? shopping??!! come on! well, what can we do? we are running out of time! We don’t want to be late for our flight! So we strolled for a while and hurried back to the van to drive back to Mactan International Airport. Hmmmmm… graveh! trip indeed! that was tight! our sched were very hectic but that was a great vacation! Though exhausting, it was worth it all! Thanks to Ms. Tin for gathering us all and letting us bond outside the 4 corners of our office! Well, I hope that’s not gonna be our last travel together people .

Home sweet home! Thank God we arrived safe and still beautiful! heheheheh..Thanks for reading!