A long way to the next island

To get from Moalboal to Bohol I had to travel quite a distance. First, at 7 am, I took the tricycle to the bus stop in Moalboal. I waited there for about 20 minutes. I then took the bus back to Cebu for 4 hours.
From the bus stop in Cebu I had to take a taxi to the ferry.

Since I was at the wrong terminal, I had to be taken to the next terminal by scooter. Never in my life would I have thought that I would fit on a scooter together with all my luggage and the driver. But here in Asia, as is well known, pretty much everything is transported on a scooter, so that wasn’t a problem for them.

I then took the ferry two hours to Bohol. Since I had absolutely no idea how to get to my hostel on Bohol as cheaply as possible and I hadn’t found anything on the internet either, I was a bit overwhelmed.
Luckily I sat on the ferry next to two Dutch girls who stayed in the same hostel as me. We then took a tricycle together. The price was a bit too high for us at first, which is why we still negotiated. In the end, we paid 300 pesos ($8 AUD) each for the one-hour tricycle ride.

With all our luggage we all had to somehow squeeze into the Tricycle anyway, but to make everything worse it started to rain.
Of course we were visibly relieved when we arrived at the hostel. I had found the hostel the day before on Hostelworld. It was fairly cheap and the reviews were all very good.

Arrived at Bohol Hammock Hostel

Upon arrival we were greeted by the hostel owner. The hostel was a family farm surrounded by a really pretty garden. The showers were in small bamboo huts with some leaves. The hostel consisted of a hut with two floors and was open all around.
On the lower floor was a seating area, the kitchen with dining tables and the bathroom. On the upper floor there were mattresses on the floor on which we all slept.

In the evening we all had a family dinner. The hostel owner cooked for us. At this time everyone always came together, ate and talked. Later we played cards together.

Driving a scooter for the first time

The next morning after breakfast, which consisted of rice with vegetables, a few girls from the hostel and me rented a scooter with whom we wanted to explore Bohol. Since I didn’t want to depend too much on the plans of others, I decided to rent my own scooter for the first time.

The owner of the hostel first let me practice a bit on the hostel lawn. After I figured out pretty quickly how to drive a scooter, the five of us made our way to the Chocolate Hills.

I really enjoyed riding the scooter. For me it was just a completely different kind of freedom. Also, the view that you have all the time over the landscape can be absorbed so much better on a scooter.

Welcome to the Chocolate Hills of Bohol

It wasn’t far to the Chocolate Hills, although we initially took a wrong turn. When we arrived at the parking lot we parked the scooters and then had to pay 100 pesos for a shuttle that took us up to the official view point of the Chocolate Hills. It was only 10 am when we got there, but it was already packed with tourists.

The view over the Chocolate Hills was still super nice. During the dry season, the Chocolate Hills are brown, that’s were they have their name from. But since it had been raining a lot lately, the Chocolate Hills were green.

After only five minutes, the girls wanted to move on. But since I wanted to enjoy the view a bit and didn’t just want to tick everything off like a tourist, I decided to stay there a little longer and come later.

I spent quite a while at the viewpoint until I finally took the shuttle bus down again.

Next I wanted to go to the Tarsier Sanctuary. It was quite a long way to get there by scooter. I didn’t really feel comfortable driving such a long distance alone on a scooter. After all, I had only just learned to ride a scooter.

Just as I was about to start driving, a Swiss woman and a Chinese woman came back from the Chocolate Hills to their scooters. Since I had seen the two in my hostel earlier in the morning, I approached them and asked where they were going. They also wanted to go to the Tarsier Sanctuary so we decided to go together.

Heading to the Tarsier Sanctuary

It took us quite a long time to drive, because I was driving pretty slowly and it started raining every now and then. Riding a scooter in the rain is really not much fun as you get the rain in your face all the time. Of course, the sunglasses I had on didn’t help much either, because they got wet and I couldn’t see much anymore.

Luckily the rain stopped pretty quickly and around noon we arrived at the Tarsier Sanctuary. There we first watched an informational video about the Tarsiers.

Tarsiers belong to the primate family and are the smallest of these. They are not bigger than 9-14 centimeters. They can rotate their necks 360 degrees, while their large eyes are always fixed. Tarsiers are nocturnal. They hunt their prey in the dark. Their long hind legs allow them to jump far. During the day the tarsiers rest in the trees. So it was also important that we were quiet during the tour of the Sanctuary.

After the information video we went to the Sanctuary. The tour went quite quickly and we saw a total of three Tarsier. I had already heard from the others in my hostel that they are much smaller than you think. In fact, they were no bigger than my hand.

After we had visited the sanctuary, I separated from the Swiss Girl and the Chinese Boy and went on my own again. In the meantime I felt safe to drive long distances alone.

Driving in the rain

My next stop was the Man Made Forest. On the way there I first stopped on 7/11 and bought a small snack.

From there I finally drove to the Man Made Forest. But it wasn’t really spectacular. After all, it was just a forest through which a road led.
When I finally wanted to drive back to the hostel, it started raining at exactly that moment. I waited just a moment for the rain to let up. Then I drove on, but only a few minutes later it started raining again.

The rain was getting heavier and I still had a long way to go. Finally I stopped under a tree on the side of the road and waited for the rain to pass.
The tree didn’t really protect me from the rain, but it was much better than driving in the rain. Since the sky was already getting much lighter, I just waited for the rain to stop.

When the rain let up, I drove on. But it still wasn’t really better for the scooter, which is why I stopped again at a gas station to wait there for the rain to pass.

Shortly afterwards it stopped raining and I was able to drive back to the hostel. In the evening we all sat together again at the family dinner and talked about our day and our travels.

Chasing waterfalls

The next morning I woke up very early and the sun was shining so I decided to get up and seize the day before it rained.

Shortly after 8 am I drove off with the scooter in the direction of the waterfalls. On the way there I first stopped at a local market and bought some snacks for the day.
From there I am then drove in the direction of the waterfalls. Once off the main road the road got pretty bumpy. There were always places where the road was not paved. Of course I had to drive very slowly there. Therefore, the distance of almost 20 kilometers dragged on quite a bit.

Arrived at the waterfalls, of course I got a bit lost. A local guide finally approached me and then took me to the first waterfall, the Ingkumhan Falls.
Nobody was there but me, which is really nice in itself, but the waterfall was far from spectacular.
The moment I got there, of course, it started to rain. I then sheltered in a hut and waited for the rain to pass.

The famous Pahangog Falls

When it actually stopped pretty quickly, I drove to the better-known Pahangog Falls. There a local guide took me to the waterfall again. The way there was quite muddy and the last part was down some stairs.

A few more people have stayed at the Pahangog waterfall, but this one was also a lot more spectacular. I actually spent almost two hours there. Finally I made my way back from there to the hostel.
It took me almost two hours to get there. But I took my time especially on the bumpy road and stopped once because the view over the sea and nature was just too beautiful.

Just before I arrived at the hostel, I could already see that the sky was turning quite dark. So I hurried to get back to the hostel. I didn’t want to end up in the rain again.

In the late afternoon it started to rain and thunderstorms. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a loud thunderstorm in my life. But after the rain passed, the sun went down too, turning the sky into a beautiful pink.

In the evening we all ate together again at the family dinner and talked about our travels. The next morning I checked out of the hostel early and made my way to Siquijor.

If you would like to know how my trip to Siquijor was, check out my next post Chasing waterfalls on Siquijor – Philippines Travel Dairy.