I Just Want to See Some Palm Trees

Alright, I'll just leave the source of my post titles undisclosed from now on. I just made a few changes to neaten things up a bit, hope it helps ^^

Bohol was great. I didn't really expect much I found out about it weeks ago until my mom showed me the website of the resort we were gonna stay in.

So yeah, i'll tell you guys all about my trip so you won't have to go there yourself *evil laff*

Halfway through the journey the flight attendants made us play this "show me" game. The prizes were:

- Inflatable Giraffe
- Model Plane thing
- Waterproof pocket thing for gadgets

I already knew the drill,, but I didn't win any prizes, but my mom bought me one of the waterproof pockets so we could use it later on.

The moment we got out of the airport, we had a van take us to the resort. It was called "Amorita". just outside the gate, was this place called art cafe, which had this thing called "muffin of the day". we wanted to check it out, but we never really did. We got some drinks and cold towels from the people there upon arrival. I got relieved that it wasn't just any other resort; in fact, it was pretty much first-class compared to most of the resorts on the island. We got to our rooms and worshipped the damn place. Turns out we got 2 twin rooms, both of which have these queen-sized beds. I go to stay at the "kiddie room", er.. that's what we called the room where me and my sisters stayed at, while my parents were at the "oldie room" (note: my sisters came up with it, not me).

We got on with the tour after a few minutes, going on the same van we came to the resort in etc etc.

- Blood Compact Site: I think I heard Ms Esmero mention this way back. I never really cared when she really went on with her random discussions, unless it's interesting enough. It's really not that much though, all i saw was some platform with a funny bronze statue on it overlooking the sea. The statue was kinda funny coz if you look at it, it's kinda like Magellan's having a beer with the native people (i'm dead serious). My dad had doubts that was the actual place, but hey, why would I care4 about that anyway?

-Loboc River Cruise: I'm not saying we got on a, extra large cruise ship. Instead, we got on a floating restaurant. The wait for the boat was kinda long, but definitely boring. Other floating restaurant boat combo things kept on passing us by, some with on-board entertainers too. There was this boat that was kinda on a party which had the entertainer playing "la bamba" or something. When we finally got on the boat my parents and sis went on to the buffet, but me and my other sis stayed a while considering there were too many people to squeeze through. We finally got through and ate, then this guy boarded us from the other boat to entertain us. He was pretty good, he gets all the notes and he played us these funny songs too. He played this song about how Magellan got killed. The songs were funny, not just because of the accent. I seriously think he'll make a more interesting social studies teacher than miss esmero XD so yeah, after a series of entertainers + the (not so big) waterfall, we got back to where we started and went to the next destination. We also took note of a few Korean nationals + 2 Brits (not male Brits, Dana) Also, turns out the mayor of the area was there too O.o

-Chocolate hills: The place looks a lot different from the air than in the post card. But when we got there, we made our way over to the top (after a few hundred steps or so) we saw this really v=nice view of the entire place + wishing well at the top. But aside form that, I guess it's just a bigger version of the postcard + 3d + noisy tourists. It was cloudy, so the hills weren't really browned. I had fantasies as a kid about eating a "chocolate hill" but then again, school ruined it by showing the "reality" of things :( I went on with Dana's suggestion and looked for this photo booth place where they'd make really cool pics of you (on a broom, shooting an arrow, flying, etc) with the chocolate hills as the background. We never really got the pics tho, but it's really unforgettable in the end.

-Hanging Bridge: This one's kinda funny. My Sister wanted to be left behind coz she was afraid of heights. I was the first one ti get across. I was amazed by the fact that my mom actually made it. We wanted to take pics on the bridge, but we couldn't make out any straight ones coz the bridge was kinda shaky. on the other side of the bridge was our prize: the souveneir store. I didn't really get much aside from this choker which had this shell that looked like a sharp-tooth on it. it's kinda kick ass, I hope I can wear it to school this coming sem. We also saw the same Koreans from the river cruise too and they greeted us. So yeah, my sis got impatient and texted us to get back, so we did and went on with the tarsier.

-Tarsier "Encounter": they make it sound scary as a title for the site, and they make the tarsiers look freaky on the post cards/books. the real ones, on the other hand, aren't as freaky. They aren't the anorexic ones we see on the post cards, hell, htey look kinda cute, except for their tails which remind me of a rat's. They're eyes aren't like: O.O, but more like o.o, thankfully. They're also fluffy too. We took pics of the things, taking tha we weren't allowed to use flash or even touch the tarsiers. My sis accidentally set of the flash of her cybershot while the tarsier was looking at her really closely. It's really just another thing I'd rub in her face for the rest of her life XD Turns out that tarsiers aren't the only things they keep there, there are also flying lemurs (they look kinda freaky, and no, we didn't see them "fly") and some monkeys. took some more pics and took a U-turn with my dad back the the tarsier place. we saw these tourists taking pics of the tarsier and right in front of me, they were poking the tarsiers with the "NO TOUCHING" sign right in front of them. They were pretty stupid for not following the signs, good thing my dad gave them a talk (I wasn't embarrassed this time, the anger was mutual XD).

-Baclayon Church: I take it you know what a real church looks like and not like the a chapel XD. We went onto the religious museum thing of the place. There were a lot of cool stuff, including (real) crystal balls, baptismal and wedding records (all in ye olde spanish thing), really old statues and more stuff. When we got "timed out" or something, we tried to get to the main hall, but we couldn't considering none of us were in proper church attire except my dad O.o so instead, we went to the souvenier store of the church (laffs). they were selling peanut kisses (laffs even moar) + statues, etc (but it's not like it's simony).

We got to the main souvenier store (of the tour) afterwards. we went to the place where they selled bags, etc. yeah, we didn't really get anything coz we already got some at the hanging bridge. we then went on the part where they sell the "local delicacies". considering that, i saw crinkles, vcut (weird flavors too lol) and a hgell lot of peanut based products. actually, I'm surprised peanut butter was outnumbered by pretty much everything. There were a lot of stuffed tarsiers, looked kinda freaky too. Then I saw "chocolate hills" (hillcolate, actually) and it was my opportunity to fulfill my childhood dream (hell, i'm eating them now). They come in: premium, dark, crispies and truffle fillings. I got 3, they looked low-quality at first, but now, i'm craving for more (kinda like Ferreros, only with more filling).
That made my day XD

Yeah, next day, our quarters were great, the bathroom was great, everything is great about Amorita. It was our day to get on with the snorkeling and whale/dolphin watching. We woke up at around 4 in the morning since we had to be early. We ate bacon and egg sandwiches (F-ing good, I think they did something) on the way to the island(the journey was the watch, the island was where we were gonna go snorkeling. It was low tide, so we had to step on these half foot deep layers of seaweed to get on the boat (it felt freaky). We didn't see any dolphins or whales (they said it was because of a previous storm or something), but the boat trip was still fun since it had big waves (but I've seen and gone to bigger ones in Leyte XD) and we were getting wet. When we arrived on the island the snorkeling guide guy climbed the back of our boat (in a freaky way) and asked us who were gonna do it. me, my older sis (middle) and my mom wanted to. My dad and my eldest sister couldn't since they had contact lenses, so they went to feed the fish with leftover bread. The guy made us put on a life vest and aqua shoes(I want some XD) and, you guessed it, the diving mask and "snorkel" stuff... uhh.. we got onto the boat, it was kickass the moment i got down, the water was so clear. I saw the sheer drop into the deeper ocean. It was cool and kinda scary, considering the deeper ocean was pretty much a huge blue never-ending plane. but the more shallow parts (if you'd call about 20-30 feet below you shallow) was visibly overflowing with life. I saw "Nemos" and "Dories"(as the guide put them) plus sea cucumbers and lots of other stuff. A person seriously needs to do this once in their lifetime; otherwise, they'd be missing out on a lot. It was really beautiful, pictures and nature documentaries don't give it any justice, trust me. I got to live a dream, It was an other world down there. So.. yeah.. we got on the boat (my mom, found it hard tho XD) and went around the island seeing various animals and a government-owned resort where we stopped by and rested. etc etc etc. The rest of the day was spent resting.. and eating back at the resort.

It was Sunday this time and we ate the morning buffet, which had some nice selections + this guy who'll make an omellete for you with a choice of ingredients O.o We went on to the mass, (none of which I understood, except when he spoke english a few times during the homily) I didn't really know what the church was called, but it looked pretty nice. We went back to the resort, and did whatever thing we wanted to do O.o It felt pretty good for the past few days sincce it was windy (stark contrast to Manila, seriously) and the temparature was great. Me and my sisters went off to the beach, first thing. We wanted to make a sand castle, and we did, though one of the bigger waves actually hit it. it had towers, wallls, moats and everything. We then went over to the sea and we really had fun with the waves. We had to go back up to have lunch tho, but after that, we went back to the beach to go to the waves. They got even bigger than before (some are a little taller than 6 feet) we had fun with the waves crashing on us, it was absolutely kickass. so after a while, we got back up and this guy invited us over to the infinity pool. We got free pool inflatables too (coz of my sis, i was thinking the guy was being nice to us since she was a girl lol)
It eventually got too cold for us so we got back to our room to rest, then dinner at some restaurant owned by a German guy that had pizza, seafood, non-seafood and other stuff (it had meat pies and the best sausages I ever had). We ended the day with each of us having our own sessions with a masseus/masseur (none were blind tho). It made me feel like I was levitating lol.

Yeah, next day, and I mean "that horrible day" we woke up around 6 to pack up and get set for the flight back home. We ate at the breakfast buffet, this time they had a different selection, but still damn good. We went over to the van that was supposed to get us back to the airport, but we couldn't leave since some people were supposed to come with us. My dad and my sis were getting pissed. My dad was complaining to the staff (sighh.. another embarassing moment with my dad) but it was a good thing I couldn't make out anything he said since I was in the van already. The people came and it turns out it was this ?American? family that I keep on seeing around the resort. I wasn't really pissed at them, hell, i didn't really care. My dad wanted to scold them or something, but my mom calmed him down, thankfully XD so yeah, we got to the airport and I was listening to my ipod. Our flight was delayed by an hour coz of the rains, but I didn't care since I could play tekken with my sis and listen to my ipod all I want.

We got back to Manila though (and It's kinda a bad thing too XD). Bohol was paradise for me this summer, I would've stayed there till I got sick of it (which would take a pretty long time, trust me) It was F-ing hot and I remembered the refreshing breeze there, and everything we left behind in Bohol. Dammit, I'm gonna miss that place.

But hey, I know I had to leave sometime. But it was nice to be back to my actual home, where all the people I love and care about are.


I F***ing miss Bohol
~Carlo