I can’t believe I’m having another vacation again this year despite my big tummy. As you know, I am now 5 months pregnant and everyone in the office keeps telling me that my tummy looks like it’s going to explode anytime soon because it’s too big! Haha!

We booked our tickets in April and didn’t know I was going to be pregnant, so there’s no backing out now. And besides, my OB said I am fit to travel until my 7th month as long as there’s no complication. I just hope the security at the airport won’t interrogate me for traveling without a medical certificate. I’ll just bring a copy of my ultrasound result as a proof that my tummy is just 5 months. I hope that’ll do!

Anyway, we’ll be back in Manila on September 4 but I won’t be reporting for work until the 16th. Yep, I’m on leave for two weeks starting tomorrow.

I can’t wait to see these lovely places.

Images courtesy of Google

P.S:
I’ll keep you guys posted via Twitter. Woo-hoo!

We boarded the Victory Liner bus at exactly 10 a.m after our shift. The long hours of journey to Baguio was no joke! I swear I was bored to death! :sick: I wanted to sleep but I couldn’t. My butt hurt a little and my mouth got tired of talking and laughing for hours. When we finally arrived in Baguio, it was already 5 p.m. Whoa! :stubborn:

The Manor Hotel

I love this shot. Hehe. :heart:

We hailed a taxi that took us to Mountain Lodge. It’s an old house that was turned into a lodge and I couldn’t help but notice the musty smell. It’s located in front of Teacher’s Camp so we kept teasing each other that ghosts would suddenly appear in our pictures just like what’s reported on TV. :thinking: :geez:

After our sumptuous dinner at Rose Bowl, :apple: my husband and I decided to sleep in our room while the rest of the guys had a short drinking session at the lodge’s terrace. Then we woke up early the next day to explore the beauty of Baguio. :heart:

The President’s Kingdom in Baguio.

Here are the places we visited during our tour: The Philippine Military Academy, Botanical Garden, Camp John Hay, Butterfly Garden, The Manor (it’s the most expensive hotel in Baguio. we love it!), Zigzag Road (you can see the lion’s head from here), The Wright Park, Good Shepherd, The Mansion, Baguio Market, Lourdes Grotto, and Burnham Park.

We love the Igorot outfit!

Find the lion’s head.

After our tour, we headed back to the lodge to take a rest. Two hours later, we went to Good Taste for dinner. The food was awesome, inexpensive and came in large servings! My jaw dropped in awe when I saw our bill. It’s just 2,300 for 11 persons! k: :love:

After dinner, we headed to Dug-out Bar because my team mates wanted to celebrate our last day in Baguio. I was too tired that night so I was hesitant to join the group (but I ended up joining anyway). And besides, I don’t drink at all. As in I hate alcohol! So after less than an hour, my husband and I left the bar to have that special moment alone. LOL. :heart: :hearty:

And the rest is history! :love: *wink*

Our next stop was at Punta Cruz Watch Tower in Maribojoc. It was raining cats and dogs when we arrived so we had no choice but to leave Greggy, who was sleeping anyway, in the car again. There’s no entrance fee at this historical tourist spot. It’s like a mini park, but with a great view of the ocean. :love:

From its windows at the top, you can see Cebu, Siquijor, and Mindanao. What a stunning view! :cam: The tower was built in 1796 as a look-out post against pirates and Muslim marauders.

Dauis Church was our last stop. It was built in 1697 and the design was highly influenced by Byzantine and Romanesque architecture. It was past 5PM when we arrived at the church and there was a mass being held. Thus, it was kind of hard to look around. I got fascinated by the interior design of the church, especially the one on the ceiling. I secretly held my digicam up to take one shot, but the priest suddenly looked at me when the flash fired. mg: So out of respect, we just decided to leave. Haha!

We were supposed to visit other places as part of our itinerary for that day, but we’re too tired already. I asked Kuya Tatsky to drop us off at Alona Tropical Resort so we could check-in and rest. I told him to pick us up at the resort as early as 8AM on our 4th day for the Chocolate Hills tour. I also asked him to arrange the sea tour for us on our 3rd day. He was so nice!

To be continued…

Climbing down 197 steps to get to the falls was quite a struggle for us. My husband and I had to take turns in carrying Greggy to ensure his safety. It’s a good thing that the steps have metal handrails so we had something to hold on to. And as we got near the waterfalls, the sound of the cascading water became more deafening…

But when we finally reached the waterfalls, we knew that it’s all worth it. There were only four of us there (with our tour guide, Kuya Tatsky) so we had it all by ourselves! mg: My husband wanted to take a plunge due to the humid weather that afternoon, but I didn’t allow him. The current was too strong! :sick:

Mag-aso Falls is about 25-feet tall and is located in the town of Antequera, The Basket Capital of Bohol. more pictures…?

After taking lots of pictures :cam: , we decided to leave the majestic Mag-aso Falls. You can just imagine how tiring it was to climb up 197 steps again! LOL.

To be continued…

When I learned from kuya Tatsky that our next stop would be Hinagdanan Cave, I got pretty excited since it’s one of the tourist spots in Bohol that I’d really like to see. I even searched for its pictures online prior to our trip and was truly fascinated by its unique beauty. :heart: :hearty:

This cave has a very interesting history, by the way. It was discovered in the 16th century by a haciendero (land owner) who saw two adjacent holes on the ground while cutting up some weeds. Thinking that his discovery might lead to something else, he dropped some stones and to his surprise, he heard a resounding splash of water! So that instantly gave him the conclusion that this was a hole leading to a cave. Smartass, eh? :bleh: To gain access to the underground cave, he had to create a ladder. And there he saw dripping stalactites from the ceiling and protruding stalagmites on the ground. Plus, a deep lagoon connecting to the sea!

At the entrance, we were welcomed by the two cave tour guides on duty that day. One of them led us to the steep and narrow staircase going down to the cave. I was soooo excited! (and a little nervous… ):lol:

It was dark inside the cave. It smelled a little musty too. But at least it didn’t smell like urine just like how other travelers described it on their blogs. Lucky us! :bleh:

I glanced up and saw dripping stalactites at the ceiling. My jaw dropped in awe. But at the back of my mind, I was a little worried that those stalactites might drop on our heads! Hahaha. Talk about paranoia!

I was surprised at how knowledgeable our tour guide was when he started telling us about the cave. He was very nice and took the liberty of taking our photos and adjusting our camera settings so that we could still have nice shots inside the cave despite the darkness. Thank you, Nards!

More pictures here.

Our next stop is Mag-aso Falls in Antequera, Bohol. To be continued…

:exclamation: Travel Tip: You’ll find the cheapest tarsier ref magnets, key chains and T-shirts at Hinagdanan Cave. Don’t forget to buy these items there.

Anyway, our flight via Cebu Pacific was delayed for more than an hour so we arrived there at around 10:30 AM. Kuya Tatsky, our super nice driver and tour guide, was patiently waiting for us at the exit. And as requested, he immediately toured us around Bohol.

Our first stop was at Dumaluan Beach Resort where we had our early lunch. Dumaluan is one of the most popular beaches on Panglao Island. It has a nice beach front. The sand, as expected, is powdery white. Its public resort has a couple of nipa huts standing a few meters away from the beach. :hearty:

Dumaluan Beach Resort (public)

The weather was a bit uncooperative that day. It was raining a little eventhough the sun was shining. Unbelievable! :sigh:

view from Dumaluan Restaurant (private resort)

After eating, we headed to Bohol Bee Farm Resort and took lots of pictures. This resort is popular for its organic products and restaurant that promotes healthy living. Everything they sell in their shop is made of veggies and they offer free food tasting! From home-made malunggay spread to salabat to squash muffins – name it! I ended up buying two packs of tablea coz it’s my favorite chocolate drink. Its aroma was undoubtedly enticing. Love it! :7:

A great spot for sun bathing and swimming at the cliff…The view from the farm was magnificent! k:

If you wanna go swimming, you need to go down from the wooded platform. The beach is a combination of corals and sand. But I won’t advise anyone traveling with kids to stay at this resort because the beach has no shore at all. Kids will be scared to swim.

We also visited the Hinagdanan Cave, Mag-aso Falls, Inambacan Cave and Spring, Punta Cruz Watch Tower and Dauis Church that day. But I’ll post about them next time. :bleh:

Anyway, I’m still very busy with work that’s why I can’t blog about our recent trip yet. Bohol is such an interesting place. Needless to say, it’s amazingly beautiful. You’ll miss half of your life if you don’t go there. I swear.

If you’re planning to go there in the future, let me know and I would be happy to send you the details of our travel expenses and itineraries.

:exclamation: Note: Deleted some private information for security purposes.

My original plan was to take a flight to Cebu, spend a day there to visit the famous Taoist Temple and Kawasan Falls in particular, then take a ferry going to Bohol the next day where we’ll be spending the remaining days of our vacation. But I had a sudden change of heart. I realized that it will be very tiring for the three of us.

So even if I wanted to see a glimpse of Cebu, I made a decision to just stay in Bohol with my family so the trip won’t be too tiring for us. We’ll be staying on Panglao Island but I’m still searching for a nice resort. I’ve already made some online inquiries regarding the cost of accomodation, airport transfers, island hopping and country side tours but haven’t made any reservations yet. Our trip is in January anyway. No need to rush. I’ll take care of everything when I’m no longer busy with work.

I’m so excited! I’ve heard so many good things about Bohol.

Can’t wait to be there!

There are so many things I wanted to share but I guess I am just too tired to start writing about things that people won’t find interesting anyway. And besides, I don’t wanna talk about work all the time. That’ll be way too boring for my readers!

Moving forward, has anyone upgraded to WordPress 2.6 yet? I might upgrade this blog this weekend. But isn’t it weird (and at the same time – amazing) how developers can release a new version way too soon? I just mentioned on my previous post that I’d just upgraded this blog to 2.5.1 and then all of a sudden when I logged in to my WP admin page, there goes this UPDATE ALERT stating that WordPress 2.6 has just been released!

The bottom line is, I just wanna make sure that all the plugins I’m using on this blog are compatible with the latest version. Otherwise, I might as well wait for the plugin developers to upgrade all the plugins they developed so they will be compatible with WordPress 2.6. Waiting for a month or two won’t hurt for sure, will it?

Haven’t read Boracay get-away (day 1)? Click here.

We were up at 6am on our 2nd day and had yummy breakfast by the beach courtesy of Blue Mango Restaurant. After breakfast, we went for a swim and enjoyed the beach. Boracay was at its best during the day. The morning sun was rejuvenating. Then I spoke to Jelvin, (a very nice and helpful staff at the Blue Mango Inn and the same person who picked us up from the Caticlan Jetty Port the day we arrived), and had him arrange a boat for our exciting island hopping trip.

The boatman arrived at the inn at 9am to pick us up. Our island hopping trip lasted for six hours so we were really tired. Greggy slept on the boat on the way back to our room. Poor baby. Anyway, here are the places we visited.

The Crocodile Island
pictures? ▼

This island has a shape of a crocodile’s head from afar so it was called The Crocodile Island. It is a perfect spot for fishing, snorkeling and diving. The three of us did not enjoy it very much though due to strong currents. Leo went snorkeling while Greggy and I were waiting on the boat. Sobrang nakakahilo ang waves dito! We almost puked. Because of that, di tuloy ako nakapag-take ng video. Di rin namin masyadong nagamit yung disposable underwater camera na binili namin. Nakailang shots lang kami. Pero in fairness, ang gaganda talaga ng mga fish! Very colorful. There were also small boats roaming around selling snacks. May tourist fee din nga pala dito na 20 pesos per head.

Anyway, we had to leave right away kasi nakakasuka na talaga ang waves. Haaay. Our next stop?

The Crystal Cove

I love this place! We stayed for two hours here I think. The caves are breathtakingly beautiful! You can tell that it’s well taken care of. So never miss to include The Crystal Cove in your itinerary if you’re going to Boracay. Never! Otherwise, you’ll miss half of your life! LOL. Entrance fee is 150 pesos per head, by the way.

We were accompanied by our by one of our boatmen to the caves. Each cave has its own guard to make sure that all tourists are safe. You can also ask them to take your pictures while inside the caves. Awesome! Too bad we were not able to swim coz the waves were too strong!

Cave 1

Sobrang ganda dito! The stairs going down to Cave 1 is really steep so you have to be careful. Or else, you will slip all the way down!

pictures? ▼

Going inside the Cave 2 was quite an adventure. This was probably what I enjoyed the most during our trip. Pa’no ba naman until waistline ang lalim ng tubig papunta sa cave then we had to crawl all the way to the teeny-weeny entrance to Cave 2. Greggy didn’t even complain at all. Game na game sya! Haha.

When we’re all done sightseeing, we decided to go out of Crystal Cove and headed to our boat. But the crystal blue water was so tempting that we couldn’t resist it. Walang kalumot-lumot dito! (unlike stations 1-3). So we went for a quick plunge instead while our boatmen were waiting on the boat! Haha. They didn’t wanna swim. Sawa na daw sila!

Next stop?

Diniwid beach and Puka Shell beach! Pero sa next entry ko na lang…Hahaha. This post is way too long already.

TO BE CONTINUED…