Archive for the year 2009
Tita Susan and Manong Carlito
Posted on October 7, 2009 by Ching under Family, Travel.
This is a photo of Tita Susan and her husband Manong Carlito taken at Alona Palm Beach Resort, one of the nicer resorts along Alona Beach in Panglao Island. We had dinner at Alona Palm on the eve of our arrival in Bohol because they are located next to Alona Tropical Resort, where we spent the night.
Tita Susan is the daughter of one of Papang Joe’s siblings. She is one of mom’s more successful cousins. Her chicharon, Susan’s Chicharon, is famous throughout the region. I think it is the best chicharon ever. At least, it is way better than the manufactured kind that you get in US supermarkets.
She actually showed us where they make their chicharon. Brian asked me why I did not take pictures. I told him that I did not want other people to take advantage of the information and then set up a business to compete with Tita Susan. I want her to continue to be the best chicharon supplier in the Bohol and surrounding area.
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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 The concern to keep our costs to a minimum superceded sound reasoning and we ended up staying at the equivalent of “Bates Motel” on Panglao Island (more on that later and I will include pictures).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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Some Cab Drivers are Liars
Posted on October 7, 2009 by Ching under Travel.
When we arrived at the Mactan International Airport in Cebu (CEB), we had to sort out the missing baggage situation. After that we had to get on a taxi cab to take us to the pier to hop on a ferry to Bohol. Our cab fare cost us P300, double what it should have cost if we would have gotten on a metered cab. That’s not too bad, though, because there was four of us. It would have been better at the correct price of P150.
The thing that irked me the most is that we wanted to ride Ocean Jet because dad is more familiar with them, but the cab driver took us to the WeeSam Express terminal instead. He told us that Ocean Jet went out of business as of October 1 because of tax evasion.
We were skeptical at first because dad rode Ocean Jet just last month when he was in the Philippines, but then we figured things could have changed between now and then so we didn’t persist. We rode WeeSam since we didn’t think we had a choice.
Anyway, we found out later on while in Bohol that Ocean Jet is still in business. The cab driver lied to us! He must be getting kick backs from WeeSam for bringing them business or something. Otherwise, he would have no reason to be deceptive.
That is what really irked me the most. Not only did we pay twice what we should have, but we were taken to the wrong ferry terminal to boot! Ugh.
I guess it could have been worse. He could have not taken us to our destination at all and just mugged us. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
When traveling in the Central Visayas area, be wary of shady cab drivers. Now we know and we won’t be duped again, or so we hope. =P
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Cathay Pacific Flight
Posted on October 6, 2009 by Ching under Travel.
Angie at work told me that I should pack a pair of socks in my purse or carry on so that I would have them to wear in case it got cold in the plane (since I’m wearing thong sandals during the trip). I had thought about it, but decided against doing that because my two bags were both so full already. As it turns out, I didn’t have to because Cathay Pacific provides those for you. They provide socks, toothbrush, toothpaste and even an eye mask on request.
These come in little pouches that are sealed shut so that you know that you’re the first one to use it.
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Worn Out at the SFO Airport
Posted on October 6, 2009 by Ching under Travel.
We were all very tired when we arrived at the San Francisco airport, but we weren’t quite done. We flew from Wichita to Denver, Denver to San Francisco, San Francisco to Hong Kong, and then finally Hong Kong to Cebu. The San Francisco to Hong Kong leg of the trip was the longest.
I was really impressed with Cathay Pacific, though. The customer service was great. They gave us moist towellettes before all our meals (they served dinner and breakfast). The food was not bad either. Okay, dinner was good but breakfast was kind of yucky. Although, they gave you beverages and snacks whenever you wanted. All you had to do was ask.
In fight entertainment was great, too. We had hundreds of movies to choose from, hundreds of TV shows, thousands of CDs for our listening pleasure and they even had games that you could play!
The journey from Wichita to Cebu was pretty uneventful. Other than the lost luggage and being completely exhausted, we made it without any hitches.
Stay tuned for more updates.
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