When in Bohol, you have to go to the Chocolate Hills. It’s named Chocolate Hills because it turns brown during the dry season. I think they actually look a bit like Hershey Kisses too… There’s about 1700 of them, spread over 50 square kilometres. It’s a natural geological formation and each one, shaped just so. Really amazing, when you think about it. It’s what Bohol is most famous for – what the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House is to Sydney.
The Philippine Tarsier is an endangered species and is one of the world’s smallest primates.
The ones we saw had the height that spans an adult hand, with eyes that look like it was occupying half of its head. It had a really long tail, bony hands and feet. It looked less like a monkey and more like a cross between E.T, a marsupial and a rat (because of the tail, though Kangaroos have long tails too). We tried to be really quiet and to walk around as softly as possible as we were told that they are incredibly shy and solitary creatures.
We took a Super Cat Ferry to Bohol from Cebu and stayed in a small resort in the Baclayon hills called Sunrise Sunset. It was out of the way from most things and a good place to rest & recuperate in. We were introduced to the owner, a Filipina artist-writer who lives in France, by my Uncle Claudio.
When we got picked up by the resort service at night I asked if we could go to a Seven Eleven and driver kind of laughed, “Ma’am there’s no Seven Eleven in Bohol”.
Bohol is quite a popular tourist place, but definitely still a lot smaller than Cebu.
The daily fare was traditional Filipino – fried Bangus (Milk Fish) w/ Garlic Rice, which we got a bit addicted to. Bihon Soup (thin rice noodle in broth) and Achara (Shredded Green Papaya Salad in Vinaigrette) were on the house.
There was a small infinity pool as well which was open all day & night. A good place to just relax, be lazy and do nothing. We actually tried to catch the sunrise and sunset most days, just because…. 🙂
So we are flying to the Philippines in several hours and staying for 3 weeks! A cousin of our Creative Director is getting married and we thought we’d throw some island hopping in, while we were at it 🙂 The Philippines is an amazing holiday destination, what with over 7000 beautiful islands to explore and go to. Some of the places we are thinking of, aside from Manila and Cebu (where the wedding will be) are Bohol and Palawan.
Palawan is getting cult status these days for being one of the most beautiful islands in the world (Conde Nast, Huffington Post etc) so we are quite excited. Packing luggage on the other hand, is another thing all together…
Hopefully it’s a good flight. See you in the Philippines! Woof! x Suki
*For reviews of Palawan go to: Conde Nast Travellers Readers Choice Award 2014 & this Write-up by Huffington Post