July 13, 2011 - My sister and my nephew went back to the Philippines. Since she will only be here for a few days, we planned online (to save time, right? lol)about going to Bohol. All of us have never been there. She has always dreamt of seeing a tarsier. While I've always wanted to see Chocolate Hills. :)
Our family loves to travel together. And by together, I mean including the helper, driver , etc. We always think that it's safer to travel with a group.
The Hurdle:
We planned on leaving at 3:00am using our Nissan Urvan. But John and I overslept. :( So we left about 4:30am. already. Our route was Buda-Cagayan-Balingoan (where the boat is going to Bohol).
On our way to Buda, we wondered why the road was so quiet. We have not seen buses, trucks and private vehicles going to Davao. But of course, we were so excited about the trip and enjoyed Buda's cool climate that we didn't worry about it.
Then, after an hour or so of travelling, we saw a very long line of vehicles. We found out the answer to our earlier question. There has been 7 landslides the past night and it covered the road. That means, it is impassable...
Here comes the dilemma... Do we stay and wait?
We wondered, how long are we going to wait. It
might take them forever to fix the road right? So John said, let's go back. Mama suggested that we should eat first before heading back to Davao. We've done road trips several times already. So we're always prepared. :) Dan and Gerry, brought out the food - our usual "baon" during road trips: rice, bread, buttered chicken and beef steak. (We used to bring plates, glasses, etc. But we learned that it's easier to buy plastic and disposable ones. We were not that bright then. LOL Thanks to John for being so practical!)
We headed back to Davao after breakfast.
Our second dilemma, do we proceed to Bohol as planned or not? Daisy, my sister, said that the hotels/resorts were paid already. The boat tickets have already been paid also. So it was a no brainer.
We had to go.
The problem was it is such a long travel from Davao-Butuan-Balingoan. That's 10 hrs total. So John said he'll stay at the house instead. Of course, we were all disappointed because that's one family member left behind. :( But I understood. If we had known it was going to be like that, we would have just travelled by plane. That takes the fun out of it but all of us would have been together.
We decided to stay overnight in Butuan. Surprisingly, Butuan hotels are cheap. So we got 3 rooms. We paid about P1,000.00 per room. It did not include breakfast, but it's ok. What's important is that we had somewhere to sleep on that night.
The Port of Balingoan
We left Butuan around 7am and we arrived in Balingoan, 3 hours later. We were running slowly because mama does not like it when the driver drives too fast.
The scheduled trip from Balingoan-Camiguin- Bohol is at 1pm. So after showing our tickets at Oceanjet counter, we decided to eat. Again, food in this area is cheap. But then again, it was just so-so. What's important is that our stomachs are filled up because we will be arriving in Bohol late afternoon already.
Oceanjet
The fare per person is Php640.00 from Balingoan to Bohol. But if you buy a round trip ticket, the discounted price is Php900.00/person only. That's what we bought because it's the fastest way to go back to Mindanao. My other sister, Pearlie, does not like sea travel at all. So the faster we're done with it, the better. :)
The inner part of Oceanjet is nice. It's like being in an aircraft. And since it's airconditioned, it's very comfortable. What I like the most is that it's clean.
The trip was supposedly for 2 hours only. But since we had a bit of a bumpy ride, it took us 3 hours instead.
Our family loves to travel together. And by together, I mean including the helper, driver , etc. We always think that it's safer to travel with a group.
The Hurdle:
We planned on leaving at 3:00am using our Nissan Urvan. But John and I overslept. :( So we left about 4:30am. already. Our route was Buda-Cagayan-Balingoan (where the boat is going to Bohol).
 |
| Foggy road in Buda, Philippines. I loved it! |
Then, after an hour or so of travelling, we saw a very long line of vehicles. We found out the answer to our earlier question. There has been 7 landslides the past night and it covered the road. That means, it is impassable...
Here comes the dilemma... Do we stay and wait?
We wondered, how long are we going to wait. It
We headed back to Davao after breakfast.
Our second dilemma, do we proceed to Bohol as planned or not? Daisy, my sister, said that the hotels/resorts were paid already. The boat tickets have already been paid also. So it was a no brainer.
We had to go.
The problem was it is such a long travel from Davao-Butuan-Balingoan. That's 10 hrs total. So John said he'll stay at the house instead. Of course, we were all disappointed because that's one family member left behind. :( But I understood. If we had known it was going to be like that, we would have just travelled by plane. That takes the fun out of it but all of us would have been together.
We decided to stay overnight in Butuan. Surprisingly, Butuan hotels are cheap. So we got 3 rooms. We paid about P1,000.00 per room. It did not include breakfast, but it's ok. What's important is that we had somewhere to sleep on that night.
The Port of Balingoan
We left Butuan around 7am and we arrived in Balingoan, 3 hours later. We were running slowly because mama does not like it when the driver drives too fast.
The scheduled trip from Balingoan-Camiguin- Bohol is at 1pm. So after showing our tickets at Oceanjet counter, we decided to eat. Again, food in this area is cheap. But then again, it was just so-so. What's important is that our stomachs are filled up because we will be arriving in Bohol late afternoon already.
Oceanjet
The fare per person is Php640.00 from Balingoan to Bohol. But if you buy a round trip ticket, the discounted price is Php900.00/person only. That's what we bought because it's the fastest way to go back to Mindanao. My other sister, Pearlie, does not like sea travel at all. So the faster we're done with it, the better. :)
The inner part of Oceanjet is nice. It's like being in an aircraft. And since it's airconditioned, it's very comfortable. What I like the most is that it's clean.
The trip was supposedly for 2 hours only. But since we had a bit of a bumpy ride, it took us 3 hours instead. Around 4pm, we arrived in Bohol, finally! :) Thank you Lord for having brought us there safely.
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