Kamusta, once again, dearest readers!
If you’re reading this blog you’re
probably wondering how our night out in Boracay ended. Well, I wasn’t hungover
this time (yay for me!) but Audrey on the other hand had a few drinks she
probably shouldn’t have had. (the poor thing had to sit through a few boat
rides, which wasn’t that fortunate for her, but oooh so funny for us)
But, well, our trip has no mercy for
hangovers, so we went on and visited some more places in the centre and south
of the country, before we headed back to Las Piñas and later on Manilla to get
our flight to Papua New Guinea.
First of all, we went to Bohol, an
island province in the Central Visayas region. Since it’s surrounded by water,
it can only be reached by boat (which we decided to do) or airplane.
Immediately we could see that tourism was the most important part of their
economy. They have beautiful beaches (but then again, you can find those
throughout the whole island group) and some churches and ruins from Spanish
colonial times. Also, they have the coolest tourist attraction ever! The
Chocolate hills.(no, I kid you not) They’re a geological formation of little
hills on top of a plateau.
Because of the dullness of the
historical origin of the hills, I would rather tell you about the legend that
forms a more interesting (and romantic) base concerning the origin of the
hills. There once was a giant named Arogo, who had a lot of power. He fell in
love with Aloya, a simple and mortal girl. When Aloya died, the pain of losing
the one he loved so intensely dreadfully cut up Arogo. In fact, he could not
stop crying over his love. When his tears dried, they formed the Chocolate
Hills. Romantic, right?
Afterwards we took a ferryboat that
sailed slowly through the cane of the island and showed us the Pintadas, or the
‘original’ residents of the island. We could see it was nothing more than a
cultural attraction for tourists, but still it gave a warm feeling, sailing
through the peace and quiet of Bohol.
We met another group of young travelers
who took us to a little island near Bohol, of which we had never heard before:
Balicasag. It felt like paradise on earth with the amazing view, and exquisite
diving and snorkeling facilities. We had a quick dinner at the island and then
decided to leave our fellow travellers to go back to our hotel for a good night
sleep.
Our last day in the Philippines we have
spent shopping (what else ;-). We visited Las Piñas and its amazing malls! The
most fascinating one was the SM Mall of Asia, the largest mall of Asia!
Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long because we wanted to some of the more local
markets as well. One of the locals took us to a smaller mall where you could
find local products, souvenirs and, well, a lot of counterfeit goods. We had
just about enough time to find all of our souvenirs, when we found out it was
time to go back to Manilla and catch our flight.
So here I am, at the airport, writing
this blog and hoping that Papua New Guinea is an equally beautiful country. And
secretely I’m hoping for another Bayani ;-)
Lots of peace, love and souvenirs!
Manderley
Sources:
Heleen Callens, a friend who visited the Philippines
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