It’s another Thursday and it means another Nomads throwback post. For this one, you’ll meet some members of our “tribe”. For today you’ll meet my one and only brother and my sister-in-law.
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The Nomads Tour of Baguio City
It is a Thursday and so let’s begin a series of Thursdays where I will be writing about our past trips as The Nomads. This one is about our getaway to the Philippine’s summer capital – Baguio City.
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Bohol Bee Farm
As a part of our tour of the Province of Bohol, we went to the famous Bohol Bee Farm. It is an eco-themed tourist destination that presents a lot more than just the bees. For a very small amount of Php 30.00, you get a chance to have a guided tour of their herb farm, livelihood areas, ice cream factory, and of course the famous honey bees.
Our guide took us to the reception area where all the tours start. While waiting for our guided tour to start, we went to check out the ice cream bar that has lots of interesting and exotic flavors for sale.
Take your pick I tried the Durian flavor because I personally like that fruit and yes, it tastes heavenly. They say that the flavors were all natural and that the cone out there that hold the ice cream is made from ground tapioca.
The Tour
Our first stop is at the organic vegetable and herb section. The guide gave us a short introduction about their farm and then went on to show us the different herbs and spices that they have.
The Herbs of Bohol Bee Farm Next up is the livelihood area where we saw workers who are weaving materials from the buri leaves. The mat that they weave is later turned into bags and other novelty items that they put up for sale in their store.
Handmade bags on display at Bohol Bee Farm We were then taken to the ice cream production area. There is also an area for tableya, tea, and spread production.
The highlight of our tour is on the Bee Farm. Well not actually inside the farm. The guide showed us one model unit of their honey bee production. It is like coming back to school and learning about the life of bees with an added bonus of seeing a bee colony in person.
We were allowed to see the bees up close and we were even able to extract and taste the honey straight from their honeycomb.
The guided tour ended there and we were led to their souvenir shop.
I said earlier that the entrance fee is just for thirty pesos. I didn’t know that the exit fee is way much higher. That is because we ended up spending a small fortune for the mouth watering stuff that they have inside the shop.
The store operates like a perfume shop where there are testers for the items on sale. The items were so good and are all certified to be made with natural ingredients only. We especially liked the spreads and so we had to pay for the exit fee. Something that we didn’t regret by the way. Who are we to say no to these…
A side story: I paid for our exit fee using my credit card. I received the notification from my bank about the debit, the staff however noted that it was not credited to them. The cashier called the manager who politely told me about the issue. I just left them my phone number and told them to contact if the payment was not really credited to them. Later in the day, I received a call and they told me that upon contacting my bank, the bank said that the transaction was reversed. This means, I thought, that I have to go back Bohol Bee Farm to make the payment. The person on the line however told me that they have a stall in Alona Beach and so we just went there because it was nearer. I paid my bill and I had the chance to buy another scoop of the Durian ice cream.
In conclusion, our visit to Bohol Bee Farm is worth the entrance and exit fee that we spent. We highly recommend it specially for family trips because kids would surely love it and much more, learn a lot from it.
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Panglao Island and Bohol Countryside Tour
The Nomads spent this year’s vacation on the beautiful province of Bohol in the Visayas region. Here’s our recollection of that wonderful getaway.
Our plan is to take a 4-day 3-nights stay in Bohol so we booked our flights with Air Asia. For the tour, we were able to get a 3-days 2-nights deal with Bohol Coco Mangos Place, a resort that we discovered by surfing the net.
Wearing our newly created The Nomads shirts, we departed from Manila on August 12 and we arrived in Tagbilaran Airport after an hour of flight, itching and ready to discover the beauty of Bohol.
Disaster Strikes
Well, not an earth-shattering disaster but just a little miscommunication with our host on our arrival date. We were expecting to see someone holding a placard of our names at the arrival area but no one came. I called our contact person only to discover that they thought we were coming on the 13th of August. The owner was apologetic by the way and she said that she will do her best to accommodate us. After about half an hour, our welcome party came.
This is Day One
The Nomads: Happiness in Panglao Island This is actually our first time to go on a packaged tour on our own. Our expectation is that we would be taken to the resort, prepare our stuff, and then go on and start the tour. The guide who met us, however told us that we will immediately start with the Panglao Island tour that was included in our tour package.
Here are the exciting places that we went through:
- Dauis Church
- Bohol Bee Farm
- Hinagdanan Cave
- Panglao Church
After going through, taking snapshots and enjoying each of these places, we headed to our resort. We said goodbye to our guide and went to meet our host. As said earlier, there was a little miscommunication about our date of arrival with the resort’s staff. This, however went on to become an advantage for us, there was no room available for us so they gave us a bigger room. A free and welcome upgrade.
We then put our stuff in order and took a few minutes rest. On that night, we went to Alona Beach by the resort’s free shuttle service to have our dinner. After our meal, we headed to the beach area and watched the shows. Utoy enjoyed watching the fire dancers. We also enjoyed an acoustic band performance.
Day Two
This part of the tour is called the Countryside Tour. Our guide came by 8:00am and we set off immediately. Our itinerary for today:
- Blood Compact Shrine
- Baclayon Church
- Exotic Animal Park
- Butterfly Garden
- Loboc River Cruise
- Loboc Adventure Park
- Chocolate Hills
- Bohol Tarsier Sanctuary
- Man Made Forest
- Sevilla Hanging Bridge
Our tour package ended today but we still two more days to spend in Bohol. The resort staff told us that they have a motorcycle that is available for rent. We rented one so that we can have a ride in going to the other places not covered in our tour package.
By night, riding our rented motorcycle, we went back to Alona Beach for dinner and again watch the performers in the beach area.
Day Three
Days one and two were spent with our guides and both talked about the Tenten Bridge. We have our motorcycle today so we headed to that bridge and took some photos. After that we headed to the city in search for souvenir items and an local dining place.
We, however failed to plan accordingly and so we ended up drawing circles in the city. Instead of a souvenir shop or a local dining place we ended up on a mall. And as usual, Utoy is the happiest of us all. For he was able to catch a lot of Pokemons. He didn’t even mind that he is still wearing his helmet while catching those digital monsters.
Day Four
This is the last day of our stay in Bohol. For now, we have to say goodbye. There is still a lot in Bohol that we have not covered. A return trip is not impossible.
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Good Friday Hike to Masasa Beach in Tingloy, Batangas
This post is based on my memories of what happened during our trip to Masasa Beach in Tingloy, Batangas. It was a Good Friday on that day. I, together with my friends, used to climb our Tingloy Island’s highest peak of Pinagbanderahan each year in observance of the Lent. This time, our family went for a trek to Masasa Beach, a undeveloped tourist attraction at the south face of our island.
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Aklan and Boracay Island Escapade
The Solanos invited us for a vacation in their hometown of Aklan and who are we refuse such an invitation? So coming from three different parts of Luzon: Art from Manila, The Solanos from Cavite and The Nomads together with my brother and my sister-in-law from Batangas, took a plane ride headed southward to Caticlan, ready for a new adventure.
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