Publisher's Note

Publisher’s Note
by CK May is the month of flowers not just in the Philippines but also here in Calgary. A lot of my neighbors have done their spring cleaning and unfortunately I cannot cope up with them. I remember that during this time of the year my husband, Hank gets busier day by day. He takes care [...]
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BOHOL – A RICH CULTURAL HERITAGE

Travel Review by C.K.

Everytime I take my holidays in Manila, I would always plan ahead to see some of the popular and wonderful sights of our country, the Philippines. True enough, I was born and raised in the Philippines, but after living there for 36 years, I really did not see all the beautiful places that our country has to offer not just to the tourists but to the locals as well.

After staying for a week in Manila, I decided to head out-of-town to Panglao Island in Bohol. Set along the longest stretch of white sandy beach in Panglao Island, Bohol Province, I booked to stay at Amarela Resort that offers a spectacular view of the Bohol Sea and neighboring islands. To get here, I took a direct flight from Manila to Tagbilaran, Bohol’s capital city, which takes about an hour and 30 minutes. You can also reach Tagbilaran via a two-hour ferry ride from Cebu. From the capital, a shuttle from the Amarela Resort was there to pick me up and took me to the resort which is a mere 20-minute drive.

What made me interested to go to Bohol? It is not just the white sandy beach, because it is teeming with old churches and diverse natural attractions, and very rich in cultural heritage. Amongst the tours that I took while I was there of course the famous Chocolate Hills, a visit to the Baclayon church and Loboc river cruise. We also stopped at the Tarsier santuary, where I saw the smallest monkey in the world. We managed to make a stop also at a Butterfly garden and then our last stop was the site of the blood compact.
The Chocolate Hills is a rolling terrain of haycock hills – mounds of general shape which are conical and almost symmetrical. Bohol’s “main attraction”, these unique mound-shaped hills are scattered by the hundreds on the island’s central plain, concentrated near the town of Carmen. During the dry season, the precipitation is inadequate such that the grass-covered hills dry up and turn chocolate brown. This transforms the area into seemingly endless rows of “chocolate kisses”. The branded confection is the inspiration behind the name, Chocolate Hills. (source: Wikipedia)

Our next stop was the Baclayon Church and Museum- this is one of the oldest churces in the province. The Philippines is well known for it`s Christianity and majority of the Filipinos are Roman Catholics. It is considered one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. Next to the church is the old convent, which also houses a small museum with centuries-old religious relics, artifacts and other antiquities.

Then we headed to the Loboc river cruise. A cruise along the river starts either from the Loay Bridge (in Loay) or at the Poblacion of Loboc. With the tourism fever, the floating restaurants were envisioned providing tourists with a first class dining experience on board floating restaurants. The floating vessels are made up of a covered platform on top of two large outrigger boats which are joined together. The boats can accommodate up to 50 people. Most of the floating restaurants treat their guests with Boholano songs played by in-boat bands during the cruise. The trip winds up the river and ends at the Busay Falls which is only one and a half meter at most. Here, the guests are treated to rondalla music by a local rondalla group housed under a floating cottage.

It was really a full day to see all the different tourists destinations in Bohol. There`s more to see and do if you stay for more than just 3 days or so. I am definitely looking forward to my next visit in Bohol. My trip ended up at a souveneir shop where I got some collectibles and souveneir items for my family back in Calgary.

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BOHOL – A RICH CULTURAL HERITAGE

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