During our winter vacation, Fred and I headed to Bohol Island in the Philippines with a few of our friends, Steve, Josh and Justin. We left on Thursday December 23 right after work on a 9:30pm flight from Incheon to Manila. After a very long layover in Manila, we took a 8:30am flight to Bohol Island. We arrived around 9:30am on Friday and headed straight to our hotel. We paid a little bit more money to be located right on the beach. It was worth the price! We walked right onto the white sand beach, Alona Beach, from our hotel. This is how our week went.
Friday: Once we checked into our rooms, we explored the beach. The hotels were a lot closer together than we imagined. They seemed to be stacked against each other in order to get the most out of the views of the beach. We also walked around and browsed in a few shops. Right away we had our hearts set on a seafood dinner. We went to a restaurant right next to our hotel for the night. Fred had a tuna steak and I had snapper. We also met a couple from Minnesota at the restaurant bar. The man had on a Twins shirt so we were immediatly drawn to them. It turned out that they live in Korea, about 8 subway stops from us. The woman teaches French at an international school. What a small world! It was a great way to start the vacation.
Saturday: We spent the day laying around the beach. The weather was very warm, mid-90's, each day. We took a Christmas dinner suggestion from our new MN/Korea friends, Maggie and John, and reserved a table at another restaurant. We spent Christmas night at a luau style pig roast. The menu had everything from pork, fish, Filipino steak, chicken, fresh veggies to curry. We were also joined by another new friend, Yann from France who had met Josh on Friday. We all enjoyed the dinner and music before a large display of fireworks filled the sky. This was by far the warmest Christmas we will ever experience.
Christmas Day on the beach
Enjoying Christmas dinner
Sunday: On Sunday we again enjoyed the white sand beach. We spent the day drinking mango shakes and tropical drinks as we tried to Skype with family members back home. In the evening, we all met for lobsters on the beach.
Monday: On Monday morning Fred, Josh and I woke up at 5:30 for a 6:00am dolphin watching and snorkeling tour. We jumped on the boat we hired and set off to search for dolphins. We saw a few swimming about 50 meters from our boat. From there we went to an island to snorkel. We got off of our big boat and got into a much smaller one, similar to a canoe. We took this boat to an area a little ways off of shore. The water was so warm and crystal clear. We were snorkeling in water that was about 4 feet deep however that soon turned into a huge dropoff. The coral ground literlly just dropped down at leat 50 feet. We were able to hold our breath and dive down however we could not see the bottom. We saw numerous types of fish and beautiful coral. Our guide even brought bread for us to hold under water to feed the fish. The fish would come right up to us and eat the bread. Some of them were so big that they made me drop some bread out of pure shock from their size. I really wish we had brought a water-proof camera! From there we went to one other island, that was basically like a large sand bar. Nobody lived on it. We walked around and drink out of coconuts. Once we got back to Alona Beach we met up with Steve and Justin. Later in the day, we ran into Fred's friend William and his girlfriend Andrea who lived in Pohang with Fred last year. We all spent the night together and had a great time.
On the snorkeling tour
Tuesday: On Tuesday morning we got up and changed hotels, as we could not find one hotel for all nine nights. We then met up with William and Andrea and spent the day on the beach.
Wednesday: On Wednesday morning Fred, Josh, Steve, Justin and I headed out on an island tour. First we went to a few historical sites including the second oldest church in the Philippines. From there we went to see Tarsiers. They are the smallest primates in the world. Next we went on a lunch river cruise. The food was ok but the sites were beautiful. There was a singer and guitarist who played during the one hour river tour. At one point they sang a Korean pop-song, which we all sang along to, complete with claps and smiles. Then we went to see the Chocolate Hills. They are dome shaped hills that are covered with plants which make them appear to be covered in chocolate. Then we continued on to a butterfly conservation center. We saw tons of different types of butterflies. After this we went to a hanging brige. The bridge was made out of bamboo and ropes. It hung over a river which was very terrifing. As we were clinging onto the sides, small local children would run past us, shaking the bridge and making us scream out of fear. Finally we moved onto our last destination. We asked our guide to take us to a zipline. The zipline was about 500 meters high, between two mountains. We were strapped in so that we were hanging like Superman. The zipline lasted about 1 minute and was very scary however it turned out to be our favorite part of the day.
At the Chocolate Hills
Tarsier
Zipline
Zipline
Hanging Bridge
Thursday: On Thurday we once again spent the day on the beach.
Friday: On Friday we relaxed on the beach and got one hour massages for about 10 dollars. To celebrate New Year's Eve, we went to another luau-pig roast at the same restaurant. We enjoyed the same delicous food before welcoming 2011 on the beach with fireworks!
Saturday: On Saturday we relaxed on the beach and had one last delicous dinner on the beach.
Sunday: On Sunday we woke up and headed to the airport. We had a one hour flight to Manila then a 3 hour layover before heading back to Korea. Our flight was an hour late leaving Manila so we made it back to Korea later than planned. We ran through the airport, immigration and customs in order to catch the last bus to Suji at 10:10pm. We made it by about 10 minutes and got back to our apartment a little after 11pm.
Our 10 days in the Philippines was exactly what we needed. We were able to relax and spend some time away from the stresses of everyday life in Korea. We were sad to be spending the holidays away from our families and friends however it was wonderful to be in a tropical paradise. We were able to be around people who spoke English, we could watch western TV such at the Discovery Channel, we ate delicous western food and seafood and we spent our time with great friends. It truly was a Christmas and New Year's to remember.
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