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Philippines, Travelinds

Tawala Beach

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19 January 2014

Tawala beach is one of the quieter beaches on Panglao Island, Bohol.  It is right next to the main beach, Alona, which is where the majority of tourists gather to enjoy the long white beach, restaurants, tour departure points and a large variety of accommodation. We chose to stay at a quieter location for our first week in Bohol, as we prefer peace and quiet to the buzz of the central tourist spots.

Tawala BeachThe lodge we booked was called Nova Beach Resort (Nova Beach Club) and it is situated on Tawala beach.  As H was sick with flu for a few days, it was the perfect place to relax, swim, read and sleep. There are hammocks overlooking the ocean, a deserted sandy beach, plenty of comfortable couch space with a view and air-conditioned rooms for muggy nights.  We slept, ate and relaxed here (and recovered from flu) and by the end of the week were feeling more than ready to take on our forthcoming five week travelling vacation.

We stayed in the basic rooms at the back of the lodge (small room, two single beds, simple furnishing, en-suite bathroom, air-conditioning) and were very comfortable.  There are also deluxe rooms and villas available.  It would be a great place for honeymooners to enjoy some time to themselves.

There are dive tours available (just ask at the front desk) and we read reviews that when there are large groups of divers or Japanese tourists (the owner is Japanese), it can sometimes get a bit rowdy at the resort.  Our own experience, however, was of a tranquil atmosphere and we had plenty of time and space to ourselves for the week.

tumblr_inline_n4l3skCJBa1rg4d7lIf you want a night out or a change of scenery, you can get to Alona beach by tuk-tuk, motorbike, the shuttle van or even walking (if you’re fit and don’t mind sweating A LOT). These charged anywhere between 40 pesos and 300 pesos depending on your bargaining skills. When we changed hotels at the end of the week, we took our bags (we usually only travel with hand luggage) and each hopped on to the back of a motorbike – it was cheaper, and faster than taking the trike.

There is no entertainment on this stretch of beach so don’t expect any restaurants, tours or boats.  The advantage is that it is also free of tourists, pesky tour agents, vendors and noisy speedboats.  It is a beautiful big bay where you can swim and snorkel, before retreating into the shade of one of the low hanging trees on the beach.  Then take an afternoon nap on one of the hammocks or couches with a view before tucking in to a scrumptious dinner in the airy dining room.  The swimming pool area also has a few sun-loungers and private massage booths too.

We hope to return to Nova Beach Resort some day soon! It felt like our own stretch of private beach on a paradise island.

Check out reviews on TripAdvisor and make a booking on Agoda.com

 

Philippines, Travelinds

Alona Beach

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18 January 2014

Alona Beach is a lively stretch of white sand located on Panglao Island, Bohol. There are a large variety of hotels, lodges and dive centres, restaurants, tours and vendors available in this area.  It is a central tourist point for Bohol visitors and as such, there are a great number of tour agents looking for give you the deal of a lifetime.

Roberto's Resort
Roberto’s Resort

We spent one week here (after first exploring a quieter beach, Tawala) and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  The busy beach lane matched the boat traffic in the bay, but there was always a decent spot to sunbathe and to swim. There are quite a few nice restaurants too, which meant that we could enjoy a bit of variety in our chosen meals.

Not having booked any hotels, we went to search for somewhere for one night before deciding on a place for the rest of the week.  We booked into a very cute little roadside lodge called Roberto’s Resort (a good kilometer’s walk from the beach), and the next day then moved into Playa Blanca (Birdwatcher’s) Hotel, which was right on the beach.

Roberto’s was a great find with charming staff and large clean rooms, although it was a little too far from the beach for us with R having a bad ankle.

Alona Beach Sunrise
Sunrise, right outside our room at Playa Blanca Birdwatcher’s Hotel

Had we been in perfect health, we may have stayed at Roberto’s for the whole week and enjoyed a walk down to the beach everyday.

 

Playa Blanca (Birdwatcher’s Hotel) gave us a good rate for five nights and it was right on the beach.  It is just a couple of rooms and villas located a few metres off the White Beach and owned by the same Australians that run the pub-restaurant next door to the lodge.  We took the room in the building right behind the bar (Room 2?) and were a little concerned that it might be too noisy at night.  We found, however, that the loud music from the bar carries out to sea rather than finding its way to the back of the bar and so the building insulates the sounds rather well.

Our recommended restaurants for the week were: Aquatica, Trudi’s and Alona Pizza/Burger.  Trudi’s breakfasts were especially delicious.  There are so many other restaurants too that we didn’t have time to try (especially the seafood speciality ones).

Getting here: 

  • After travelling from Cebu to Bohol, take a taxi or trike from the Tagbiliran Harbour.
  • Our trike ride from the Tagbiliran Harbour cost 300 pesos and took approximately 45 minutes to Alona, over an hour to Nova Beach Club.
  • To and from Tawala Beach (where Nova Beach Club is located), a motorbike costs about 50 pesos (1 passenger)

Read more about Snorkel Tour, Country Tour, Tarsiers and Tawala Beach.

Breakfast
Our daily breakfasts at Trudi’s were a definite highlight at Alona beach.

 

Philippines, Travelinds

Turtle Sunset

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New Year’s Eve 

Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines

A week in Moalboal was the perfect end to an exciting year of new experiences.  The Czech In resto provided a scrumptious sunset dinner of fresh seared Red Snapper and Tuna fillets – with a spectacular view of Panagsama Bay.

As the sun sank below the horizon, we watched the exquisite colours dancing across the sky.  Turtles popped their heads above the glassy water of the bay to take a breath and the swallows gathered to flit in great numbers from one side to other, as is their customary behavior around this time of the day.

Another daily scene was the groups of local children who swam and played together in the ocean, jumping off boats, paddling around the bay and having a whale of a time; while also entertaining the tourists looking on from the restaurant decks that jut out over the water.

As the sunset faded and night fell on 2013, a white yacht sailed into the bay and anchored for the night.  This was one of the most beautiful New Year’s Eve experiences I’ve had in a long time. What a perfect ending to a happy year!

Philippines, Travelinds

Panagsama to Kasai

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27 December 2013

Feeling adventurous, we took a walk one afternoon from Panagsama towards the Kasai Resort pier. We wanted to explore the coastline and possibly get to White Beach (although, we were totally oblivious to how far along the coastline White Beach actually is and the fact that it is not accessible except by the inland road).

We set off along the rugged coastline climbing over quite a few ‘private’ walls and jetties which separate each property from the next. The rocks were jagged and slippery and the rising tide was steadily making our chosen path impossible.  We pushed ahead, over coconut dumps, a sewerage river, sharp rocks, half-built walls, private property and scratchy plants and finally, as we reached the Kasai resort pier, were unable to go any further. This was after climbing up and down rock faces and sliding on our bottoms in certain places.

Along the way we’d seen half-broken bamboo huts, a couple of goats, some naked children cliff jumping into the ocean, a kingfisher and a lot of crabs and cowrie shells!

Disappointed that we were still nowhere near White Beach and unable to go back the way we came due to the tide (and lack of motivation to repeat the rigmorol in the ensuing rain) we headed back to Panagsama on the inland road from the resort. It must have been at least a two kilometre walk back to Panagsama (in the lightish rain), which took us through lazy villages and groups of local children playing in the streets.  The rain was a welcome change in temperature and it was great to get a taste of local life for an afternoon.

We never did walk to White Beach. Moalboal 1, Travelinds 0.

Funny moment:

A couple of children followed us for a while down the road asking us all the questions in their limited English vocabulary. Questions like “What’s your name?”, “Where are you from?”, “What’s your bride’s name?” etc

We’d noticed that this friendliness is present in all Filipinos we pass on the roads, but especially the toddlers who wave energetically and call out greetings as tourists pass by. We were busy discussing whether this is ‘just being friendly’ or if they ‘wanted something’ in return when one tiny mite piped up behind us, “Ok, give me money,please” at which all the others took up the mantra in turn to bring their point home.

(Unfortunately for them though, we don’t carry much money with us if we can possibly help it – safety first!)

Moalboal 0. Travelinds 1.
Philippines, Travelinds

Chilling in Panagsama, Moalboal

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26 December 2013

There was a welcome break for one week over New Year’s, so we jetted off to Cebu for the week on a $200 return flight (Air Asia X) direct from Incheon International Airport to Mactan International Airport.

A three hour air-conditioned taxi ride later (at 2000 pesos, shared between four tourists we managed to round up) we arrived at Panagsama, Moalboal.  On the way back we took the local bus back to the Cebu City South Bus Terminal (open windows, less than 200 pesos, 4 hours) and enjoyed it much more than the crazy taxi driving. And then took a taxi from the bus terminal to the airport (220 pesos).

Sumisid lodge was everything we had hoped for and was well worth the trip.  With clean rooms and cosy facilities, it is a lovely little place with its own strip of beach sand and snorkelling spots right off the shore.  There are tables, chairs, sofas and beach loungers available and the adjacent dive center offers alternative activites, as well as motorbike hire options.  The breakfast options at Sumisid Lodge were great and the american breakfast (with REAL, crispy bacon) was our main preference for the week.

As this was a week between the end of semester and English Winter Camps, we literally did nothing for the entire six days. Two novels, a nice tan, plenty of delicious food and a lot of sleep left us feeling completely refreshed and ready to head back to work the next week.

We did take a walk along the coastline from Panagsama towards White Beach, but could only get as far as the Kasai Resort (read more here).  We didn’t do the trip to the nearby waterfall, or snorkel, or do any other ‘day trips’ that can be done to other parts of Cebu. We did take a short motorbike trip one morning to see White Beach, but after seeing our accomodation options (New Year’s week is quite full so not much was available), we quickly retreated back to Panagsama to lounge around at Sumisid lodge. Next time!

Panagsama strip is a great place for restaurant choice too and top three were:

1. Czech In (European cooking, fine-dining, high price) – try “fish of the day” and the tuna steak. The desserts were really delicious too!

2. The Pleasure Principle Resto (Mixed cuisine, reasonably priced) – great for lunches and excellent mango shakes!

3. Chilli Bar (Mixed cuisine, reasonably priced) – don’t miss out on sunset drinks and dinner to look over the bay at the turtles popping up all around.

Panagsama really impressed us with its chilled out vibe, friendly locals,reasonably priced restaurants and lodges and the many options to either relax or do a range of different activities.  We definitely hope to be back there soon!

Philippines, Travelinds

Turtle Point and Virgin Island

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22 January 2014

Balicasag Island

Part of our snorkel tour included a couple of hours at Balicasag Island (off the coast of Bohol).  We started out with snorkelling and then headed on to the deserted stretch of beach in front of the island lodge to wile away a few hours of sunshine.

Balicasag Island has a tiny local population most of whom thrive off the tourism to the island by selling trinkets and running the small local food stalls where tourists can grab a bite to eat.  There is also a lodge on the island which looked quite peaceful. It is a very small island and you could walk around it in under an hour. There are shallow reefs right off the beach which means you have to take a boat out to the drop-off to be able to snorkel.

This is, of course, another money grabbing scheme (not only to ‘protect the reefs’) because you need to pay a local boy to take you out to the spot on his tiny boat.  He supervises you and then returns you to the shore where you can go back to your original speedboat.  We had to pay the boatman to take us out to turtle point (he rows) in this TINY two man boat (three of us) against a very strong current. Interesting, and fun.  And we were happy to be supporting his monumental efforts at transporting at least 160kgs of us to the Turtle Point.  It didn’t look that far, but it took a long time to row out there.

The snorkelling choices here were one of three places (we could do more than one if we paid an additional fee per snorkel spot). We chose to go to “Turtle Point” as it seemed the least likely spot to be filled with boatloads of tourists. As we had hoped, we were the only ones snorkelling there, probably due to the very strong currents that abound off that particular point.  H held on to the boat for a while to try and stay in one place longer to admire the underwater beauty and R managed to read the currents a little better.

The main thing is that we actually swam with turtles, H for the first time, and we saw at least 15 turtles altogether.  It was super exciting! Turtles are really the most graceful creatures and despite looking like slow-pokes, it was impossible to keep up with them. It was an amazing experience!

Virgin Island

Virgin Island

The next stop on the island hopping tour was Virgin Island (it’s nickname only) and this was truly one of the most beautiful islands I have ever seen.  White sand and the bluest water colour of any bay I’ve seen around the world – it is so difficult to describe that clear-sparkling-blue-cobalt-turquoise-perfection!

The island has no shade whatsoever, so take suncream, hats and sarongs to cover yourself.  You can walk across a shallow sandbank to a mini island with a few mangrove trees.  Be careful, the sun is hot and the walk is way longer than it looks! Dodge the sea urchins and marvel at the beautiful pansy shells and starfish that lie strewn across this stretch of sand.

It was the perfect place to end the day with an afternoon snack of bananas and bread rolls our well-deserved reward for reaching the other side of the sandbank. Stunning!

Philippines, Travelinds

6 Days in the North of Cebu

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29 July 2013

Snorkeling, sunrise over Malapascua, mangrove paddling, massages, some boys climbing a tall palm tree to steal baby birds from the nest, great food, flying fish, pool bar and bussing through Cebu — wow!

Did Travelinds love Cebu in the central Philippines? We absolutely did. Here’s why our six days on this island was one of our best trips yet.

Day 1

After overnight flights through Manila, Travelinds flew into Mactan airport on Cebu island at sunrise. Tentatively, we made our way to the north bus terminal in Cebu City, based on some sketchy directions.

After a few minutes of checking things out at this busy location, we found ourselves taking part in pass-the-tourist games with competing bus companies. Eventually, we settled on an air-conditioned bus to Daanbantanyan toward the north of the island.

A four-hour bus ride in 35 degrees Celsius and with 90% humidity outside was a breeze. It turned out to be much more comfortable in an air-conditioned bus. Fortunately, the fare was only about 20 pesos more than the regular bus (only ZAR4 more!). So, we arrived at Virgin Beach Resort cool, calm and collected.

Day 2

We chilled, swam and then went on an hour-long kayak paddle by the resort. The flat, blue ocean was incredible.  We were actually searching for snorkeling spots along the coast but only managed to find some pretty scenery and a few mangrove swamps.

After lunch, we found a comfortable hammock and socialised with two American tourists. We also played battleships as we watched the afternoon thunderstorms pass by.

Day 3

We decided to travel up to Malapascua Island, which is off the  very northern tip of Cebu. The locals advise taking the calm ferry from Maya port that was only 30 minutes from our accommodation.

After some negotiations with local boat captains, who were trying to get as much as they could out of the small group of tourists wanting to hop over the bay, we made our way to the small island. The ferry ride included seeing these amazing flying fish all along the way —bonus!

Once we reached Malapascua, we met a charming local hotel manager who promptly convinced us to check out his place. We hadn’t pre-booked anything, as usual. His kind manner and persistence paid off, and we booked into Malapascua Legend, his beautiful resort with a rather magnificent swimming pool.

That first day on the island, we enjoyed a one-hour full body massage in our airconditioned room for only 600 pesos. We also had ‘Fish Tropicana’ at La Vida restaurant nearby, a dish of fish fillet cooked in coconut milk with lemon grass and topped with fresh pineapple pieces. So delicious!

That particular restaurant had beanbags and love nests right on the beach by candle light every night. It also has an upstairs balcony for those rainy evenings. The restaurant manager, a friendly gentlemen from Denmark, was so efficient and professional that it was hard not to notice. That’s not something we’d come across yet anywhere on Cebu.

Day 4

Mostly, we spent the day lounging around the poolside while looking at the bay a few metres beyond. We enjoyed the morning rain while we had our American-style breakfast. How long it’s been since we’ve had REAL bacon!

We also found a lovely lunch restaurant with all meals at only 95 pesos. This time, we enjoyed mango banana pancakes, thick mango shakes and yummy fresh veg and pork in coconut milk.

That evening, we headed out to find Happy Hour cocktails and dinner, so a very relaxed island day in all.

Day 5

At about 7am, after taking some lovely sunrise pictures, R inadvertently stepped on a log sticking up and was injured. It was bleeding quite a bit. He needed a trip to the island doctor — luckily there was one — to clean the wound properly and bandage up his foot.

Other than that, we spent the day relaxing at the beach and the pool. We needed to start researching accommodation for our last night in Cebu.  That way, we’d have a place booked when we reached Cebu City. The 30-minute ferry ride from Malapascua  followed by a five-hour bus ride down to the airport felt like a big ask after such a relaxing few days in the sunshine.

The Last Day in Cebu (Until Next Time)

After a very long day of travelling back down from the very north of Cebu, we reached Cebu city. We had decided to stay at Pacific Cebu resort on Mactan Island in Lapu-Lapu. Then, after a restful night, we flew back home to carry on working a little — before another vacation.

Malapascua