[TYR@5] Day4: Bohol Sea Tour

TheYELLOWRoadtrip @5: DAY4 Bohol Sea Tour 

It's our exact anniversary day! Happy Fil-Am Friendship Day to you! Happy 5th year to us! Yey!
And fortunately, the weather cooperated and we were on our boat by 6 in the morning.

early morning boatride

After maybe more than an hour of just floating around, we noticed that we were approaching an island. I was awed by its beauty from afar. But at the same time, I was confused. We were supposed to do dolphin-watching first then snorkeling at Balicasag then Virgin Island. But with the looks of it, we might be skipping the dolphins.

Balicasag Island

I learned that I was right when we reached the island. Because apparently, we were on the shore of Balicasag island. I started to feel some irritation with Kuya Aldrin. BTW, he was the one assigned by Kuya Tatsky to do our seatour. When we were in the boat, I just disregarded the fact that he was not making conversations. Of course it will be tough trying to talk with all the noises from the boat motor. Even Dand I refrained from talking. Weee I even slept in the boat! haha. But what he did (or didn't do) in the island totally irritated me. After we got off the boat, he just went back to his boat to sleep. We were clueless. So we asked his alalay - the second man on the boat, what happened and what should we do. That was only when that guy told us that they didn't take us to dolphin island because of the waves. The dolphin will not appear anyway. And we can either eat first at the eatery in the island or we can ask some boatmen to take us to the snorkeling site. Ohhh. I was expecting a little decency to at least inform us. Nothing.

That was also the cue for some boatmen to approach us. They offered P150 each for snorkeling. And a little over-priced numbers for aqua shoes rentals. Good thing I read Girltalk Bohol thread before our tour because I read that the rates will be cheaper if you walk closer to the site to the right. And true enough, the P150 price near where the boats parked turned P100 near the site. But another confusion happened. As far as I remembered it from our negotiation with Kuya Tatsky, the P1600 seatour rate includes 5 free snorkeling masks. We only have to pay the guide. But since Kuya Aldrin was so accomodating and we were meters away from them, we just chose to pay for it instead. The guides first offered it to us at P100/head. Whoa! I tawad it down to P50/head. They finally agreed so we boarded. Our guide took us just a few meters away to where we were standing during negotiation. So this is it?! I asked to take the boat farther, at least to where the others were. He just nodded. He moved but we were still close to the beach. Anyway, we just let it be. Apparently, the guide cannot speak Tagalog so it will be a waste of time to converse. We also forgot to bring bread for the fish. The guide didn't even offer to bring us to the shore again so we can buy. Some generous guides will even do it for you right? Not this one! So going back, we just submerged a little over 30minutes. D apparently didn't appreciate it much as I do. The fish as expected didn't approached the food-less us.

As we were walking back to the boat, I noticed more people coming in. A little too many if you ask me. Maybe like us, some of them were scheduled the day before.

a bunch of people snorkeling too

You might ask how I find Balicasag Island. In my opinion, it was over-rated. The corals were not that great. Boracay has better corals. The shore has a lot of big stones and sharp seashells. Because its a snorkeling site, of course! What I didn't like here really was the dirt floating around. Those coconut husks and seaweeds I can take. But not plastic plates? Ok I get it that it just rained. But aren't there anyone to maintain their famous tourist site?

mangkok!

This time, I asked the boatmen where we were heading - to Virgin Island indeed. As soon as the boat stopped, we were bugged by a bunch of salesmen offering their sea urchins. We told them that we were allergic but that didn't stop them. aww. Still another batch approached us selling their pearls. As in all throughout our tour to the island, they were bugging us. I love the island from afar, it looked serene. But I was disappointed with the fences and the caution signs. What the hell were they doing to the 'virgin'? I asked the manang selling buko in the shore about it. She said that the island is really owned by a private individual. It is open for public viewing but some tourists exploit it in the past. They made bonfires near the trees which killed some trees in the area. So what they did was baricaded the whole island then fenced the trees. We were still able to pass through, using the open area. And BTW, see this picture below where there is a large sign of the name of the island? Under that there is another signage. It says - Beware of Pickpockets! Oh-eM! Who will do that? The people selling sea urchins? Selling pearls? Selling Buko? No one can tell.

Virgin Island

Speaking of Ate selling buko, we were happy that they have stores in the island as D was already starving to death. We bought banana cue for P20 each, boiled egg for P10 each and big buko for P40 each. yumyum!

After refilling our stomachs, we went far away from those people to swim. Where? Somewhere far enough. Really. There were no nearby shores actually. We reached it by holding on to the fence. We just hanged our things in a nearby tree, which was also half submerged in water. 

After a few minutes of dipping in the pool, we already asked Kuya Aldrin to take us back to the resort. We will be catching our check-out time. But yet another irritation! The boatmen said that they cannot take us back to DBR2 shore because of the waves. What waves?! The sea was as calm as it was in the Virgin Island. Or at least in my point of view. I am not a boatmen so I cannot really tell. But after alighting the boat, I noticed that it was written there - Danao, Panglao. Ooohhh I get it. They were from that area. And it will be a burden for them to take us to the other side of the island then back again to their shore. What a scam! They said they will take us to the resort using habal-habal. I didn't oppose anymore. I was so pissed. Good thing for them that we were into motorcyle-riding. But how about those people who don't want to do it? Hay. After it, we still paid them the full amount. Even though we haven't seen dolphins. Kuya Tatsky said it was the boatmen's rate and he cannot do something about it. Just as of this writing, I texted Kuya Tatsky about my reviews about his guides. He said he will talk to Aldrin. He better should. Or he might lose more customers. 

habal-habal ride

Anyway, back in the hotel, we already prepared for our checkout at 12nn. The driver that will fetch us will not be there until 2pm. So we just watched tv in the room first. At around 12nn, we approached the front desk for our checkout. We killed the remaining time by the beach. We again enjoyed a White Marlin for lunch plus some fishy sinigang.

Kuya Boggart fetched us on time. He was so generous to even offer to take us to where we want to go first before going to the pier. 'If you need anything from Bohol this is the last time to get it' - he said. Very nice! So we asked if he can take us to Bohol Bee Farm. Can't get enough of that Malunggay Ice Cream! haha. It was hard to compare him to Kuya Michael. They were of opposite personalities. Kuya Boggart was somewhat quiet but still accomodating. And his way of speaking was more finess. Maybe he'll do better with foreign guests.

Anyway, we reached the pier early only to find out that we have the wrong tickets! Apparently, our rebooking the day before turned out to be a failure. Instead of booking us for July 4 4:20pm, she booked us for July 3 4:20pm. Grrrrr. The lady in Oceanjet wasn't able to fix it for us. And D just agreed to pay another rebooking fee of P100. As always, the very bait D. Anyway, we again boarded in the open area of the vessel. That OceanJet Boat # 8 sucks big time! There were lots of small coackroaches on the floor. We didn't see any on the first boat. Just this one? aww

We reached Cebu past 6 in the evening. We rode a jeepney to SM Cebu to get something to eat for takeout and to buy Danggit. Would you believe we got Jollibee meals for our 5th year anniversary dinner? Oh no! We are celebrating every occasion we have in Jabi lately. This has to stop! hahaha

We rode a taxi to Mactan International Airport after. We were running a bit late, but we still made it.

us wearing cebu shirts

So would I recommend doing seatour? Of course! Your Bohol tour will never be complete without experiencing the famous Balicasag and Virgin Island. Just make sure not to get Aldrin. If you get Kuya Tatsky, ask him not to assign you to Aldrin. Also, read my misfortunes. Remember not to re-do it. :)

And of course our whole Cebu-Bohol Tour was a blast! Even though there were minor revisions to our plans, it turned out better. I guess every travel will be great as long as you are doing it with someone special. Right?

Thumbs up for Kuya Tatsky, Ate Kathy, Kuya Michael, Kuya Boggart, Westpoint Inn, Dumaluan Beach Resort 1 and all those Bisayas who helped us! :)

Till our next travel. Ciao! :)