Philippines 2013: Chocolate Hills

This one of the most famous places in the Philippines, the Chocolate Hills.
About 1,200 hills are here, originated from coral deposit in the ancient times (this area was under the sea that time).

Summary

Chose The Philippines as my destination since my Filipino friend who is living in Qatar was going his hometown in Davao, and also there was a festival called Kadayawan in Davao. Also I wanted to visit this country since many years ago.

Arrived in Manila from Taipei (only 2 hours flight) on 16 August 2013, I continued my flight to Davao to meet Jay, my Filipino best friend.

The next day, we watched the dance competition part of Kadayawan Festival. Jay, somehow, was able to find a way to let us pass the VIP area so that we could see the performance at the best location.

The following day parade was easier to spot. We were waiting on the street before the parade began. Jay said this year parade was not as extravagance as previous years.

I left Jay, and continued my journey to Cebu island. Cebu City is a busy and crowded city. I stayed in the city center. Since all the beaches were private owned by the resort hotels I didn't go the any beach. The day I arrived, I tried to find a day trip to Bohol, to see the Chocolate Hills, visiting several travel agents, but the cost was too much. I found a reply from a travel agent I found in the website, which gave reasonable price, 2000 pesos for the car rental.

Early morning on 20 August 2013, I went to Bohol with ferry, then met the rental car driver. He took me the cute tersier sanctuary. After that directly to the main attraction, the Chocolate Hills. It is a unique area with about 1200 small hills, one of place I wanted to visit the most. After visiting butterfly sanctuary, I took a lunch on the floating restaurant. The floating restaurant took us to an Atti Tribe village, which was very touristic. The tribe people started to dance to welcome us. They prepared a lot of photo taking opportunity hoping us to give tips.

I decided to fly to Boracay, the most famous beach in the Philippines. Despite of being the most famous touristic place in the country, the entry to the island was not straight forward. We flew in to Cataclan a city in other island, then took a motorcycle to the ferry harbour, crossing the strait with the ferry, again we took a motorcycle to the accommodation area.

I booked a hotel in an area called Station 3 in the famous White Beach area and happy with that. It is quite and not that far from Station 2, the center of all action. It was off season in the White Beach, and the accommodation was cheaper.

I was happy I decided to come here in Boracay. Normally I would avoid resort places, but Boracay was not a boring place for solo traveler like me. With smartphones, I could find new friends, and the nightlife was cool, with fire dancers everywhere, dancing chefs, and nice clubs.

My last stop was Manila. I heard about all dangerous thing about this city, but it was not more dangerous than other big cities in the world. I felt quite safe walking around the city myself.

I stayed in 2 backpacker hostels, in the same building but different floors. One is called Our Melting Pot. Luckily, I was on the day when they conducted a free walking tour. Very amazing tour, cause Chateau, the lady manager of the hostel, she took us around the city using public transportation.

I didn't know that Manila had a nice old part of the city, which was really nice to stroll away.

The worst part of Manila was like everybody know, the traffic jam.

The taxi was cheap and good and safe enough, and Manila had MRT! that left Jakarta as the only big city in the world that has no city train city in the world?!

I definetely go back to the Philippines to visit Palawan Islands, and do the hiking in rice terraces in Ifugao.