Lakwatsa and Food Friday: Busog in Bohol

Just remembered I made a travel diary on the restos we ate at in Bohol. Spending just a few days doesn't really give enough time to sample a lot of restaurants, but some have become our favorites. During our past 2 trips though, we limited our time outside of the resort. Hiring a car for the day costs a lot and we still avoid crowded places. 

Instead of describing the gastronomic delights we had in Bohol, I thought it would be better to show it visually. Here's a travel diary of how our tummies became happy in Bohol -

Busoooog! 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Lakwatsa Fridays: Bohol, Why We Keep Coming Back

Bohol has become our go-to family vacation place. It is less crowded and easy to reach since the resorts are usually just 15 minutes away from the airport. We also found a place where it is convenient to go to restos and buy water. 

We recently went to Bohol again to celebrate the family birthdays. I have lost count on how many times we've visited. The past two times we focused on just relaxing and skipped the usual tourist spots. Also, I don't think I'll be able to go up the stairs to see the Chocolate Hills anymore. 

We spent most of our time in the resort. Our first full day was spent... sleeping! We needed a good rest and that's what we did. I figured out during our last visit that 3 nights and 4 days wasn't enough. We ended up extending another day. So this time I booked for 4 nights and 5 days. It was perfect because we were able to relax, eat good food and swim. 

Here's a short compilation on why we keep coming back to Bohol -

This time around we only we out once. We really wanted to eat at AA BBQ, a favorite from Cebu. After that we went to Our Lady of Assumption church to pray and give thanks. Dropped by South Farm to buy some baskets and then had some merienda at South Palms Resort. After half a day out we just spent the rest of our time in the resort. We love the beachfront of Modala Beach Resort. There's always a lot of space to enjoy the beach and the water is always clean. 

The struggle to take decent family photos in the water is real! 

Grateful that we were able to celebrate family birthdays in Bohol. We'll probably stay put for my birthday and do something different.  Visit Bohol soon! 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Lakwatsera Fridays: South Farm in Panglao

We stayed in Panglao when we went to Bohol. We veered away from the usual tourist spots and thought it would be nice to visit a farm. I wanted to buy some seeds and experience being in a farm. After our short trip to Tagbilaran we headed to South Farm. 

First thing we did when we went to the farm is eat late lunch at Uma. They had a nice variety of food. Sweetie had this gorgeous piece of fish. I ordered spaghetti since it looked delicious from the photos. I included our Uma experience in this vlog (at 5:00). We had a nice time eating and chatting with our tour driver. I realized then that it's been awhile since I met a new person and listened to their life story.

We burned all the calories we ate after and walked around the farm. I excitedly went first to where the rabbits and guinea pigs were. I always wanted to have a pet rabbit. After seeing how much they eat I realized it's going to be hard since they eat a lot (also my doctor has prohibited me from having pets). I enjoyed the short time I spent with the rabbits and I got to hold one! 

Unique looking guinea pig.

After playing with the bunnies we went through the farm. It was inspiring to see very healthy plants and that spurred me to be more active in gardening. What I enjoyed was seeing many different farm animals. The goats even broke out of their pen! They immediately started eating a bush, haha. I didn't get scared because I felt they were just hungry and wanted to reach the plants outside. 

We soon reached the "lake" area where you can go fishing if you want. Around the lake were different kinds of birds. It was interesting to see them co-exist since they're usually separated in zoos/bird parks. The temp had cooled down by the time we reached the lake. I realized it would be nice to live in a farm. We originally looked at living outside of Metro Manila, but shelved it since we need to be in close proximity of our parents. 

South Farm was the only "touristy" thing we did in Bohol. It was fun and a different from what we usually do. I wasn't able to buy seeds since they didn't have any, but I'd be happy to come back and explore the farm more when we get to visit again. 

#BeKind #StaySafe 

Lakwatera Fridays: Dalareich Chocolate House in Bohol

We made it a point to set a day to visit Dalareich Chocolate House during our vacation in Bohol. Sweetie and I met her at work, but never got to meet her in person. So even though we've both resigned from our jobs we thought it would be good to meet her in person and finally visit her chocolate house. 

Dalareich warned that the chocolate house was a bit hard to find. It was an adventure to find a hidden gem. Luckily there were signages so we didn't have a hard time finding the house. We were greeted by Dalareich when we arrived. We're grateful she accommodated us even though we arrived during their lunch break (sorry!). Anyway, she was a gracious host and surprised us with a sampler of their chocolates. 

We had a great time chatting about chocolate and tech. Dalareich said it was great to bounce off ideas about tech (she's an engineer after all). On our end we enjoyed learning more about chocolate and it's history in Bohol. And here's a short video of our visit. It includes some valuable advise from Dalareich about chocolate for the elderly!

One takeaway I have is for me to learn to love dark chocolate. I still have the palate of a child apparently (haha) since I still prefer milk chocolate. Well, if it's as good as what we sampled at the chocolate house, then maybe I'll learn to love it. Just remembered we got some tableya. Hope Dalareich offers her classes again so I can learn how to properly prepare sikwate and I want to learn to bake with chocolate soon. 

If you want to visit Dalareich Chocolate House, you may contact them through their FB page. :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Lakwatsera Fridays: Our Happy Family Vacation in Bohol

When Sweetie said he had some travel fund expiring we tossed around ideas on where to go. We decided to go to Bohol since that was the last place we visited in 2019. It felt bitin so we thought we needed to give it closure. We defined our trip goals since we had to work around my medical condition. You really need to plan properly when traveling with someone who has health issues. 

We originally planned to go in June to celebrate their birthdays, but they both had the flu. We re-booked it a few weeks later to avoid the rainy season. Well, it was a blessing in disguise because a waterspout appeared during the week we were supposed to be there and it was a wet week. The weather was perfect the week we were there. 

Friends have been asking where we stayed and what did we do. Finally finished our travel diary vlog, so here it is --

After a lot of deliberation we decided to stay at Modala Beach Resort. It had a mall adjacent to it which saved us the trouble of taking a tricycle to the town to eat. We were so happy that one of a favorite restos, Mooon, had a branch at the strip. We also finally got to try eating at the Bohol Bee Farm restaurant. That also meant we had ice cream everyday we were there. Well, you can also check out our "Happy Tummies in Bohol" vlog here -

It was a really great family vacation for us. We were able to rest and relax and staying under the sun effectively reset my sleep pattern! My body is finally back in Asian timezone haha. We were also able to pamper our bodies with a massage and foot scrub. It was overall a chill and happy vacation and we'll probably come back soon!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Lakwatsera Fridays: Happy Tummies in Bohol!

After almost three years, we finally had a proper family vacation! Our last vacay was in December 2019. We went to Bohol to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We felt bitin though and wanted to visit again. Sweetie had a travel fund that was about to expire so we decided to go back to Bohol. 

We picked up where we left off and chose a resort based on our trip goal. We just wanted to chill and relax. We didn't sign up for any of the local tours since we've done that in previous trips. We just wanted to breathe in fresh air and eat good food. 

I think we chose well since the resort has a strip of food places just beside it. The strip included our fam fave, Mooon Cafe, and we didn't need to go far to finally dine at Bohol Bee Farm. We were able to eat by the beach at Rojo Grill and Bar Restaurant and ate at the very instagrammable La Vara which was just across the resort. We only had room service once because we were so tired from swimming, haha. 

I have compiled the mouth watering meals we had in a vlog. We ate mostly in restos we could reach by foot. Only went out once to visit and dine at South Farm. Here's our happy tummy video. It shows how we gained 3-5 pounds each from our vacation. 

We were so happy how things were going, but felt bitin again. When the hotel said that our room was still available if we extended we took the plunge and extended one more night. That allowed us to swim to our hearts content. Will share about the place we stayed at next week! 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Vacay Soon?

Sweetie has some travel fund that he has to use already because it's expiring. It's from refunded bookings from 2020. It's easy to book, but our main concern is safety. We then checked the DOH COVID-19 tracker to check the number of cases by province. You can now look at data by province and by city. They have also included occupancy rates of hospitals. 

Of course, you can never predict what happens in the future. Things can change so fast with the virus still out there and with strange variants cropping up, the best recourse is to do your vaccinations. Aside from the DOH data, we've been watching vlogs and asking friends also about their recent travels. 

Bohol, 2019.

Sweetie tentatively booked some dates. He said he can re-book it anyway if the situation is not viable. We're looking at visiting Bohol again since we felt our 2019 vacay was bitin. Maybe Coron? Or El Nido? Or Dumaguete or Bacolod since we have friends there. We wanted to visit Cebu and Davao, but we felt maybe it's too early to visit more populated places. There are other places we want to visit, but want to go first to what's familiar.

I can't wait to feel sand again on my feet and be refreshed by sea water. And drink fresh mango shake and eat yummy seafood by the seashore. Oh boy, now I want to go out of town this very minute! Haha. Still a lot of adulting stuff to do for now, so will have to wait. The heat will also just force me to stay inside, it'll be best to delay for now. 

Have you guys gone on vacation? 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Travel Diary: Bohol Bee Farm

After Christmas we headed to Bohol to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. One of the places we missed visiting the last time we were in Bohol in 2010 was the Bohol Bee Farm. We were always curious about it and set it as a must visit place.

We headed to the Chocolate Hills first in the morning and had a hefty lunch at Too Nice to Slice in Tagbilaran. We were still so full when we got to the Bohol Bee Farm, but we arrived too late for the last tour so we just walked around.

We discovered that you can do so many things at the Bohol Bee Farm. You can stay there since they have rooms for rent, eat at the cafe, buy goodies at the store, have a massage at the spa and so many other things. Check out the video above for our most memorable experience :)

The Philippine Tarsier

Tarsiers are quite adorable creatures. I made the photo (above) my wallpaper and showed it off to my colleagues and they wondered what it was. Tarsiers are primates (not monkeys) and they have really huge eyes (as big as their brain) and their tail is longer than their body. According to our tour guide Dolly, tarsiers are nocturnal animals, territorial and are very sensitive. When tend to kill themselves when they get too stressed out (so turn off your cam's flash when taking their photo).

During our trip to Bohol last May I was overjoyed to see healthier tarsiers. The last time I went to Bohol the tarsiers I saw at the Loboc river cruise boarding area didn't look all that happy, probably because they were in a cramped place and there were just too many people poking at them. It was a different experience for me during my last visit to Bohol. The tarsiers I saw were plump, happy and I even managed to feed one! Woohoo!

Here's a couple of really cute photos I took during my trip to Bohol:

You may want to read more about my trip to Bohol:
The Bohol Ati Tribe
Tubigon
I Heart Panglao

Travel: Bohol and Cebu

I think I'm still too tulala to blog about my vacation. It was actually my first time to travel to the Visayas region on a vacation. I've been to Cebu at least ten times already, but I've never seen any of the historical sites and Bohol was just a far-fetched idea I've been toying around with my high school friends.

Ever the organizer, Marc rounded up the Band of Bloggers for this Bohol-Cebu trip. I was quite hesitant at first because of work. I dread coming back to pages and pages worth of email and missed deadlines (OC ito!). Anyway, I don't regret tagging along.

I don't want to mince any words, so I'm just going to share my experience through photos. You can also see the photos I took in my Picasa web album. And don't forget to listen to the BOBCast Episode 7.

Day 1:

Abe booked us for the last flight to Cebu. I was quite surprised that the Cebu Pacific flight was delayed! I remember that their claim to fame is on-time flights. Wonder what happened.

Rico, Sasha, Chris, me and Gail. Photo taken by Abe Olandres.

Travel tips for the day:
1. Always, and I mean ALWAYS come at least an hour and a half before your flight. Listen to the BOBCast to find out why.
2. If you're booking online, make sure you print-out your ticket and that you use your real name (no nicknames!) and bring government-recognized IDs such as your license, passport or company ID.
3. Pack all your toiletries in your check-in baggage. That way you don't have to stuff everything in at the airport.
4. Better wear slippers/sandals when travelling. Your shoes and slippers go through the inspection machine as well. (Ugh! And to think you can't put alcohol in your bag! Sniff sniff).
5. Pack lightly. (I should do this!).

And, of course, doing an all-nighter is really next to impossible. We had to find a place to sleep at around 3 a.m., either that or wait it out at the Supercat terminal. Special thanks to my college friend, Max, for accommodating our stuff in his pad.

Day 2

Spent the morning at the Supercat terminal (or should I say seaport?) and ferrying to Tagbilaran. Finished our malling and had lunch at a quaint little place called Payag Restaurant. It's grilled, grilled, grilled food anywhere you go in the Visayas or Mindanao region! After lunch we waited for Marc and Sharm to arrive and then we hopped on to the following:

Hinagdanan Caves

Shell Museum

Dinner at Payag Restaurant

Travel Tips for the Day:
1. Know where you want to go even though you have a tour guide/driver who'll be showing you around. Make sure you ask him questions. It's not common knowledge that one of the past Philippine presidents graduated from Bohol University.
2. When you want to buy a shirt, buy it! The branch of Island Souvenirs in Bohol is the best I've seen in the different branches I've been to nationwide.
3. Bring a small bag where you can stuff important basic things such as your wallet, mobile phone, shades, camera and tissue (and an Ipod Nano if you have one).
4. If you want to blog about the food you eat, make sure you take a photo of the serving before you eat it. (Notice, I don't have photos of the food! I forgot! Waaahhh!).
5. Walkie talkies are really helpful when you're in a huge group. That way you can easily order your food when your companions are at Chowking and you're still shopping. Make sure though that you guys know who will do the ordering.

Oh, and make sure you're still pretty when the wake-up call comes. You have to expect that someone would either take your photo or video while you're sleeping or being nudged awake (I'll get you for that Marc!!!).

Day 3

Much more exciting day since we had a good night's sleep. We went to the following:

Blood Compact

Baclayon Church

Python

Tarsiers Sanctuary

Floating River Restaurant

Man-Made Forest

Chocolate Hills

Dumaluan Beach, Teaching Chris Sandberg how to eat balot.

We had dinner at one of the beach resorts. I couldn't understand why in all the restaurants we ate in the service was slow.

Travel Tips for the Day
1. Don't sleep when everybody's awake. Check out the photo of the most documented snore. If you really have to, do a starfish and hide under the covers or pillows.
2. Make sure you bring a hat, sunblock, bottled water and a fan to protect you from the harmful rays of the sun. It could get quite hot.
3. Make sure your camera's batteries are fully charged! Mine died on me at the Chocolate Hills. Good thing I managed to take some photos.

Day 4

Woke up at 4:20 a.m. to prepare for the whale/dolphin watching expedition.

Huwhaaaat?!? No dolphins? No whale? All I saw was a snout!

So we just spent the day at the beach and then slept early (it's a vacation silly!).


Travel Tips of the Day
1. Know when to quit. We woke up really early to see dolphins and a whale. I just saw a snout. We got hungry and just went back to the resort to eat.
2. Don't be too scared of what you step on in the beach. Stepping on starfish was quite frightful, but at least I didn't step on any sea urchins!
3. When staying at the beach, don't forget your water and shades and sunblock!

Day 5

Woke up early again to have breakfast (service still sloooooow) at the Dumaluan Beach Resort restaurant and then took the Supercat back to Cebu.

At Cebu we had lunch at Sunburst (the equivalent of Max's Fried Chicken in Cebu) and then bought guitars (prices ranged from Php1,500 to PhP5,000).

Top: Fort San Pedro. Bottom: Magellan's Cross and Basilica de Sto. Nino, Cebu.

Travel Tips for the Day
1. Know what the region offers especially when it comes to food, local delicacies and products their famous for. Since Miguel wanted a new guitar, I made sure I got one for him in Cebu.
2. Don't be complacent about traffic. Waiting it out at the airport is not so bad.
3. Limit your things to just 3 bags and make sure you have space in your bag for pasalubong.

How much did the vacation cost each of us?

Tour (inclusive of 3-day overnight accommodation, breakfast and transfers) - PhP5,500
Plane fare - PhP4,300 + PhP400 terminal fee (Manila and Cebu)
Food (lunch and dinner) - approx. PhP500/day
Pasalubong - PhP700+ (got shirts at Island Souvenirs for PhP280 each and local delicacies
Total Spending: approximately PhP12,500

Translations
tulala - dazed
OC ito! - I am obsessive-compulsive.
pasalubong - take home goodies for your family and friends