Arrival in Bohol
Posted on October 7, 2009 by Ching under Travel.
Thanks to the kindness of Tita Susan (mom’s cousin on her father’s side) and her husband Manong Carlito, we didn’t have to deal with cab drivers (shady or otherwise) when we arrived in Tagbilaran. They picked us up and drove us to a resort on Panglao Island.
We figured that we would be fine without hotel reservations, but that turned out not to be true because our trip coincided with National Day, peak vacation season for Chinese tourists because they usually get three days off work. Due to China’s proximity to the Philippines and the reasonable prices of many of our local resorts, many Chinese tourists will come to the Philippines during their vacation. For this reason, most of the reasonably priced hotels and resorts on my list were already fully booked.
Tita Susan said she had contacted Alona Tropical Resort on Alona Beach and was able to secure a couple of rooms for us, but they only had availability for one night. They were modest accommodations and we wanted to stay in Bohol for two nights, so we tried to check out the two resorts immediately adjacent to it. However, their rates were four to five times as much. At this point, we had been traveling for 40 hours already and we were all very tired. Too tired to do a lot of thinking. The concern to keep our costs to a minimum superceded sound reasoning and we ended up staying at the equivalent of “Bates Motel” on Panglao Island (more on that later and I will include pictures).
Brian was exhausted and cranky from the unbearable heat. Though I tried to describe the climate to him as best that I possibly could, my description still did not prepare him for the heat and humidity. No words can describe it. It is really something that you have to experience for yourself.
Anyway, Brian was practically in tears and almost immediately wanted to come home. He was polite, though, and didn’t say anything out of respect for everyone. I told him to give it a chance. I figured that once we started having fun, his attitude would change. Just as I figured, he’s fine now. It just took him a while to adjust. Probably partly because of jet-lag.
The night we spent at Alona Tropical didn’t help matters, though. Brian thought he died and went to hell. Not quite, but I think the temperature there is probably the same.
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