Trip Ko Lang

Buying Tempura on stick

Seeing a food cart parked along the beach was really surprising for me. Being the only food cart we saw; we quickly checked it and found out that it was selling Tempura – wow, another surprise! Only here in Panglao, you can buy Tempura from a food cart and sold as street food.

Frying Tempura

In an instant, we ordered one piece each for only 3 pesos.  We waited some time because frying time was a bit long and there were a lot who ordered.  I think this Tempura is the cheapest food that you can find in Panglao, eat it with rice and you can already have a satisfying and definitely the cheapest meal.

Dipping Tempura in sauce

We dipped it in a spicy sauce, for me it tasted like Kikiam and generally tasted good. Good thing we discovered this Tempura food cart while strolling along the beach, another new food experience for me. So the next time you visit Panglao Island, make sure to look for Kuya and his Tempura food cart along the beach and experience eating the cheapest Tempura only in Panglao Island.

Enjoy every bite of your Tempura

Thanks to my good friend Leo, for being my model in this blog entry.

Panglao Island Bohol

Panglao Island is considered as the most popular beach in Bohol.  Tourists prefer this island for its Boracay-like features like having several restaurants and bars along the beach and creating a real night life beach experience.  We decided to stay along Alona beach, where there were more shops and people.

Panglao Beach 2

Personally, I was a bit disappointed seeing this part of Panglao Island – the scenery was dull; no relaxing mood and water not that clear.  I just loved the cool breeze and soft sand.

Panglao Beach 3

It wasn’t hard to look for a resto because there were a lot of options, depend on your preferred cuisine, budget, and ambience.  Restaurants, coffee shops and bars are accessible just by strolling along the beach.

Restos and Bars by the beach

At night, the beach is kept alive by lights, creating a more relaxing and romantic mood.  Dining at night can be a perfect time especially if you are with your partner.

Restos by night

Paluto is also popular here, where they sell variety of fresh seafood and meat which you can choose and have it cooked in your preferred dish.  Some items can be a bit pricey and/or not cooked delicious.  So you just have to try them and find the best Paluto for you.

Paluto by the beach

Panglao Island is a good place to simply relax from your stressful life, enjoy moments with your loved ones, discover a new adventure, take good shots, and a lot more.

A place to simply relax and be with someone you love

Tierra Azul Beach Resort

We were tourists on a budget and so finding a decent place that is within our budget is our main concern.  Tried to look online for resorts in Panglao Island and only Tierra Azul is the cheapest resort we saw.  At first they offered us the standard room for 2 at 1,500php with breakfast, additional person is charged 300php.  We planned to get 2 standard rooms for the 5 of us but then they gave it to a group who had deposited earlier and offered us the dormitory room for 8 at 2,000php per night with free breakfast.

Tierra Azul breakfast area

We arrived in Tierra Azul around 6pm or 7pm after our whole day tour in Tagbilaran, Bohol.  Here’s a quick review on the good and bad points about Tierra Azul which we experienced during our stay.

Good points

-          Friendly staff

-          Free breakfast, food is good.

-          Room, bed sheets, pillows are clean.

-          Free use of towel, soap, and tissue.

-          It is true that they are 20 steps away from the beach.

-          Situated in part of Panglao Island where there is night life.

Outside Tierra Azul

Bad points

-          Water interruption.  We experienced this twice – (1) when we arrived, we had to take a shower but unfortunately no water would come out of it and so we had to ask for a bucket and dipper. (2) Morning on our last day, no single drop of water would come out of the faucet; we were not able to take a bath before heading to the airport.

-          Problem with door lock, broken window, and no proper lights outside and within the vicinity.

-          Narrow hallway on the 2^nd floor.

-          Aircon not in good condition.

-          Room locks and surroundings do not look that safe.

I would advise you to stay in Tierra Azul if you are on a budget trip and you just need a decent room for sleeping and a place to put your stuffs.  But if you are on a serious vacation and you want a relaxing beach experience better find another resort that is a bit expensive and with better accommodation.

Tierra Azul beach front

TIERRA AZUL BEACH HOUSE
Alona, Danao, Panglao, Bohol, Philippines
Tel # +63385029065
Telefax # +63385000694
Mobile # +639128952165 / 09085401784

Bohol Trip 2009

It all started with PAL offering seat sales; our group checking available dates, promo fares online and eyeing Bohol as our travel destination. We booked 30 Aug to 1 Sept for the reason that 31 Aug was a holiday and gave us an extra day for our trip. Days after, we paid for our airfare in PAL office, emailed and called resorts, texted tour guides and waited patiently for these days to come… Then the budget needs to be in place and so we came up with a summary of our ideal budget for the whole trip in Bohol.

Here’s a quick summary of our Bohol budget  for a group of 5 pax.

Airfare – 2,000php/pax (paid separately)

——————

Hotel/resort – 4,000php/2 nights
Day/land tour – 2,500php
Sea tour – 1,500php
NAIA terminal fee – 1,000php
Tagbilaran terminal fee – 100php
Entrance fees – 870php
Loboc buffet lunch – 1,800php (plus the driver)
Food (5 meals) – 5,000php (free breakfast at the resort)
Other expenses – 2,000php

Total – 18,770php
Per pax – 3,754php – 4,300php

But at the end of our trip, we still had 3k left and managed to take home 600php each.

Here’s our planned itinerary:

Day 1 – 30 Aug 2009

8am to 9am – Depart from Manila to Tagbilaran
9am onwards – Day Tour starts upon arrival – includes blood compact, Baclayon church and museum, biggest python,  Tarsier, Loboc river, hanging bridge, man made forest, butterflies, Chocolate hills, Hinagdanan cave and Bohol bee farm

Actual Itinerary:

9.30am to 11.30am – Visited blood compact, Baclayon church and museum, and Tarsier.

11.30am to 1.00pm – Lunch at Loboc river

1.00pm to 5.00pm – Chocolate hills, butterfly, man made forest, hanging bridge, biggest python and souvenir shop.

Due to time constraint, we missed to visit Hinagdanan cave and Bohol bee farm. For further details of our exciting day tour, please wait for my following travel blogs… If you are interested to avail of our day tour, you may contact Kuya Tatsky at 0910-8112091, he is very accommodating and we got our ‘sulit‘ day tour for only 2,500php with a friendly driver Kuya Roy and riding a comfortable Starex van.

6.00pm to 7.00pm – Travelled to our selected resort Tierra Azul

8.00pm onwards – ‘Paluto’ dinner by the beach, inuman and sleeping time

Day 2 – 31 Aug 2009

5.30am onwards – Start of sea tour – includes dolphin watching, Balicasag island and Virgin island

Afternoon – Free time

Actual Itinerary:

6.30am – Boat ride started; of course we had delays (typical pinoy ), too much time eating our breakfast and getting ourselves ready…

8.00am – In the middle of nowhere, haha, waiting and watching the dolphins… It was fun, they didn’t disappoint us and we saw quite a number of dolphins in action.

9.00am – Arrived in Balicasag Island, known for the snorkelling spot but we didn’t avail of it, but if you are interested they offer snorkelling gears and mini boat ride for extra charges (I think around 150php per pax for the gears and another 100-150php for the mini boat)

9.00am to 10.30am – We walked around the island and stumbled on a pleasant looking and I think the only resort on the island – Balicasag Island Dive Resort. We paid 200php to swim in their pool and beach. Had some of our photos taken in the beautiful island with clean water, and relaxing scenery.

11.00am to 12.30pm – Satisfying lunch on the island

There’s a ‘paluto’ on the island, where you can buy seafoods (fish, squid, shrimps, etc.) and have them cook any style you want – have it fried, with soup, grilled, etc. We bought one big fish, forgot the name, we had it grilled and sinigang; and bought squid and made it calamares. There was a cooking fee of 100php per style. I think our food amounted to almost 1,300php with rice, coke, water and 2 buko. It was delicious and this is the meal we most enjoyed.

12.30pm to 1.30pm – Visited Virgin island, which has the sand bar, and is definitely a very beautiful spot to simply relax, enjoy the island view and take wonderful shots.

1.30pm to 2.30pm – Travelled back to Panglao on a bit rough and scary boat ride due to big, big waves….

For our sea tour, our contact is Mang Viao, another very accommodating person, you can reach him at 0916-4645214 and we got the whole sea tour for only 1,500php.

3.00pm to 5.00pm – Rest time, played cards in our room.

5.00pm onwards – Walked by the beach to take some shots and find a place for our dinner.

Day 3 – 1 Sept 2009

Actual Itinerary:

5.00am – Wake up time; bad morning for all of us, water disruption in our room, I’ll explain on this further in my resort review.

6.00am – Travelled to Tagbilaran airport.

7.30am – Flight back to Manila.

Though the trip was really short, we all had a great time exploring Tagbilaran, Bohol and Panglao Island. Had fun bonding moments, took great snap shots, and will forever remember this adventurous experience in Bohol.