Just several days on Bohol. NMC Post #8

As this is the last post for my beat blog for my reporting class, I felt it would be fitting to write on one of my favorite locations that my family has ever gone: Bohol, Philippines.

A single island can seem diminutive if it is just one that makes up a country of over 7,000. This is the case of the Philippines, an island nation in the South East of Asia that has a colorful history and just as colorful a culture.When my family and I lived in China, it took a simple hop-skip-and-a-jump to travel by plane to one of the main Filipino islands, Cebu, and then from there take a three hour ferry ride to Bohol where we spent the bulk of our Christmas vacation.

Bohol itself, though famous for a few national landmarks is tiny, and not really on the map as far as major travel destinations in the Philippines. It actually is home to some of the poorest families in the country.As we got off the ferry and waited for our resort's van to come pick us up, we gathered what we could to develop first impressions of the place: hot, dry and poor. However, we enjoyed every minute of it because the Filipinos, especially ones on this island, are the friendliest people in the world. They treat tourists like kings and queens by serving warm coca-colas in glass bottles and offering their precious shade.

In this country, what I truly came to find was every person we met had the best of intentions and genuinely wanted to accommodate us in whatever way possible-- even if those ways were limited because of no money or resources.

The drive from the ferry port to our resort was three more hours on a lush, green winding road that parallels the bluest coastal waters. The driver was ready and willing to stop whenever we wanted for pictures, bathroom breaks, etc. and made sure the internal temperature of the car was absolutely where we wanted it.

The hotel itself seemed to be in the middle of a jungle, and the van had to drive over an extremely bumpy dirt road to get to it. We were literally one of two guests at the hotel, so whatever royal treatment we would have received with more guests, it was doubled.

Bohol is a town meant for walking. The farther away from the ferry port one goes, the worst the roads gets. Locals don't own cars, so transportation methods are limited to feet and rusty electric scooters. My dad and I made a point to make the hour long walk to town every morning to experience the people and sites.
There were several things we noticed on our long walks, but the most prominent memory in my mind are the kids who greeted us as we walked past their houses (or huts if you will.) They were always in big groups and would yell the only English greeting words they knew to welcome us with the biggest smiles on their faces.

When we walked into convenience stores for sunscreen and snacks, all extremely cheap) the vendors would do their best to converse in limited English and in the process would add in some Filipino words, which fortunately for us sound a lot like Spanish because of the country's history as a territory of Spain many many years ago.

Bohol is known for it's "chocolate mountains," and for that reason sometimes debuts on The Philippines travel brochures. The hills are nothing like I had ever seen before, with rounded tops and the darkest soil.

Food in Bohol was, besides dirt cheap, delicious. They focused mainly on sea food because of their coastal location, and also seemed to like chicken dishes.

My favorite part of Bohol, though it's almost impossible to choose, was sitting on the white sand beach and staring at the horizon. I remember a specific afternoon in particular when the weather was slightly overcast and the sky and water were exactly the same color. It was mesmerizing.

After departing from Bohol we spent some time in Cebu, which is more of a hot crowded city. What we discovered there as tourists is that it would take a lifetime to experience the whole of the Philippines and all of its thousands islands. However, National Geographic Traveler seemed to capture the culture pretty wholly in their picture slide show