The Life of Brad: November 2024 - Philippines Part 2; Siquijor and Bohol Islands

In the second half of my two weeks in the Philippines were I made it to Siquior Island for a scooter around the whole thing and the same distance on Bohol Island which barely made a dent. Good food, good weather, friendly people and decent scooters all for reasonable prices. Easy to see why lots of people come to the Philippines. And the giant clams of Siquijor!!! OH, bring as much cash as you can cause they don't take cards and banks charge 3-5% per withdrawal!

Day 8. Caught the 30 minute ferry over to the town of Siquior on the Island of Siquijor. Grabbed a Mr. Sizzlers for the boat over which I enjoyed after the ridiculous amount of security BS we had to go through for the short trip to a low population island. Weird.

chaos coming out of the hotel

a Church in Dumaguete

1.5km walk to ferry in 29 deg C

This security ritual made sense
for the short little drug dog.

Mr Sizzlers rocks!

A rough boat bathroom

Siquijor pier, I'll be back...

Sifted through a few scooter shops to reject their first offering due to a bald front tire at Emon Motorbike shop then got this solid Honda for $6/day for my 3 day tour of Siquijor. I would say the highlight of my time in the Philippines and the right size island to perhaps live on for a bit.

At first not a fan of yellow seat

Yeah, me likey

100 km on scooter over 3 days

A bit of construction

Not the cheapest, but I thought you can't go wrong right on the beach...well kinda true.

The lone apartment

A long haul from my apartment to get to some water depth in the low tide, but very cool and worth it.

The tide stacks the garbage nicely

Odd sea snake like creature to remain nameless cause I don't know, haha.

Wow, look at this little sand crab in a seashell house.

Relax in your hammock everyone

Headed out for dinner then a few drinks at the famous weekend party at JJ Backpacker Village that the whole island tries to get to. I chose to stay only 200m away so I didn't have to deal with getting home.

Tasty dinner at Roadside Diner

Look to stage from the beach

The music was loud enough, but couldn't inspire my hungover ass.

Developing pool sharks waiting to jump in

Day 9 - headed 18 km down the road to Lazi where I found Sabas Beach and Campsite thinking to stay right by the water again as you would expect on a small island. Arrived early enough to have lunch then head to Cambugahay Falls and went back to town for dinner and some Karaoke song competition.

Odd side story: Turns out the remote Sabas' food was pricy for the size of plates, did not provide water free of charge and turned the internet off immediately after I checked out the next morning. Weird.

Little road video example.

Parking stops back here which is
clever to get people out of their
cars to have a look...gotya

Another swallow beachfront

$10 for the whole dorm since
there were no other guests

Tasty, but tiny at Sabas.

Cambugahay Falls 10 minutes from Sabas.

Nice spot, $1.50 entry.

Later that night I went to Lazi town centre for some eats only to encounter all restaurants were closed for the Saturday Night Philippine version of the Voice...?

I just couldn't do it...chicken feet and intestine

A sample of great Philippine pipes!

$2.50 CAD

Day 10 - Last night on Siquijor. Quick look for around for some snorkelling close to the hostel; high in adventure, low in visibility. Later connected with Jaya an United Statians who had moved here and is building a place. We went to the famous Salagdoong beach after checking out Jaya's view and checking in to Bangka Beach Bar right on the beach not really close to anything.

lovely sunrise from Sabas hostel

Listen to the birds blow out this video!

Where am I?

Must be something cool

Mom and kids can do it!

Wow, what a view

I was hopeful, but no visibility as per the video.

One hell of a path down to the shore

Packed up and headed to Jaya's place to figure out the rest of the day.

Awesome!

Wild road up to Jaya's

Even a more wild entrance to
his place!

But what a view!

Not much around here

Banka Beach Bar, Green door is mine. $32 CAD

A beach sign... then you gonna pay! ($2 CAD)

James bond like spot

brave girl

Back to cabin for a nap!

Jaya taking this girl for a big jump!

Day 11 - Moving to Panglao from Siquijor, but first the best snorkel of the entire trip!!!

Enjoy Olang Marine Sanctuary...The Giant Clams!

Beautiful and clear!

Giant clam 3 feet wide. Open with mid lip size

Closed with lips retracted

Full lips!

Satisfied

Back to Bangka, packed up and off to ferry to Bohol.

Not a great beach, but nice view

Loaded up

Not the cheapest bananas, but needed!

riding along the sea

The other way to tour the island
with your suitcases and buds.

$1.50 for a quick lunch before ferrying away

The markers look huge when on land

Fathering my 15 kg bag on my lap for 2 hr.

Pork rinds and banana chips

Is that Siquijor? Nah silly.

Cool ferry

quite the walk to exit and to ticket office

A little thuggy by the port

Pretty sweet. $6/day

A surprisingly long 30 minute drive to Villa Juana near the town centre of Tawala where I stayed for 2 nights. First night just relaxing and enjoying the super touristy town Tawala near Alona Beach.

Bridge from Bohol Island
to Panglao Island

Lots of wild road images

Right on the beach, which in hindsight is almost
never necessary in the Philippines ($27/night)

Reasonably priced street bbq
places, like $10 with Soju

Signs of big tourism

A little fire show in the main bar area where you are not aloud to lotter. Philippines is always charging, nickel and diming.

Alona Beach

Bulgogi Beef! Seaweed!

Sounds good

Day 12 - Off to the chocolate hills one of the main reasons to come to Bohol island with a stop at the Tarsier Sanctuary. A good and again longer then expected trip to get around the spots of the island.

A quick look at the not so amazing beachfront I was staying at.

Looks promising

It wasn't promising

gross

Off to the Tarsier Sanctuary.

Such a Vegas still sign

About 20 km in to the day

At the Tarsier Sanctuary $2 CAD.
Learning about Tarsiers and how to be quiet.

So hard to find!

Sleepy little guy, size of a fist

Beautiful garden of flowers

Cutie pie

A secret market I found asking for bananas
"oh yeah they are right behind this wall"

Bit of rain, but ok

Glad I'm on a scooter...

Reminds me a lot of Colombia

Chocolate hills!

Cool guy

Following some new Frenchies

Trying to get to a good view

but never got there

I just don't know...

Love this photo, chocolate hills in the depth

Check out the rain protection

$2 to have a good view

neat?

I have no idea how many hills there are. Google says minimum 1260 hills!

This looks as touristy as it gets. An ATV tour.

back down to reality

Popping colours

Is someone under that hat

Road side diner.

Cool little lunch stop. $4

about 15km till the bridge back to Panglao island.

River boat tours

Panglao

What a photo

Back to Pang-Vegas

Great loading

omg, fried sweet bananas

Another street BBQ

Big prawns!

Day 13 - Last night in Philippines, returning back to Cebu to be a stones throw to the airport. A 2 hour ferry back to the main terminal in Cebu, then took a local ferry across to Mactan island to regroup quietly before the 15 minute walk to the airport the next day.

Great day to be on a ferry, smooth.

back to the busy, crunched Cebu city.

WTF!

$0.85 ride for 20 minutes across the pond and 10 min tuk tuk $1.25 instead of fighting through traffic in a cramped scooter taxi for 35 minutes and $4. Easy choice.