Bohol Vacation: Part Deux

Ok, so I left off with our visit with the world famous tarsier now on with the show!

Our next destination was the Chocolate Hills of Bohol. But before that, we passed by the so called Man-made forest. It was part of a reforestation initiative way way before I was born. Thousands of Mahogany trees (this I later found out) line the road towards the Chocolate Hills. They where wirey, but stretch pretty high up, it kinda reminded me of a cathedral with the open space underneath the canopy.

Man-made forest


Finally the Chocolate Hills. No trip to Bohol would’ve been complete without seeing them. It was quite surreal actually. We were surrounded by hundreds of them, as far as you could see. Although they weren’t chocolate in color at this time of the year, it definitely screamed “Only in Bohol”.

chocolate hills!


I got your chocolate hill right here


We continued on until we finally arrived at the Lagunay Farm where we picked some pineapples for munchies. Man, those pineapples are hard to harvest! Just getting in to position to pick them off was quite difficult as the leaves of the plants were prickly. Then we had to break off the fruit from the stem, which was easier said than done. But all that hard work made it taste all the more better.

pineapple picking


Then came the barbecue. As I would think to be the norm, us guys did the cooking while the girls chatted and assisted us as much as they could. This is not a degradation or discrimination of women by any means, it’s just that men prefer the dirty work of barbecuing than women. Anyhoo, dinner was wonderful with tons of food, good company and fresh country air…

preparing our battle plan


fire in the hole


Here are some more pics of the Lagunay farm, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves otherwise this is gonna be another long-ass post.

welcome!


lovers in paradise


the chaperone/bodyguard


practicing some artistic shots


itsy bitsy spider

warrific day

I went to war yesterday after the longest time. At first I thought I would be sitting it out on the sidelines as the battery couldn't crank my newly upgraded gun. Luckily I was able to borrow an extra battery from one of the Apo guys so I was good to go.

The first game came and went with a lot of nothing. I saw an enemy just before the game expired. The second and third games however, got me killed pretty quickly. I have a pretty nasty hit on my head from the 2nd game.

Finally on the last game, I had my first confirmed kill. I was guarding the left flank near the wall, when one of my teammates got hit. I knew there where troops right in front of me. I carefully moved about to get a visual and have a good ambush spot. I heard a couple of them exchange a few words, before one of them darted out towards one of our positions. I hosed him down, missed, and he hit the ground. I adjusted my fire and fired a burst. I heards "HIT! HIT! HIT!" as he raised his arms and weapons. Tango down! Boy did that feel good. I was barely 10 meters away.

I knew his buddies where close as they fired to suppress me as they inched closer. I knew there where probably 2 of them out there so I made a tactical withdrawal, hoping to meet up with a friendly and set-up a better ambush. But alas, time ran out and the game was over.

It was good to be back in action, especially coming out of it with a kill. Hehehe

visa woes

I just came back from the US embassy. I was not given the L1 visa for 2 reasons, 1) my passport picture is kind of falling off and 2) they require a letter explaining why I had to go to Pakistan. Freakin-a! That Pakistan trip is really being a pain! I had a minor issue with the immigration desk in Singapore, and now this!

Well, at least it wasn't an outright refusal of entry to the US. And I needed to renew my passport within 8 months anyway, so it's like hitting two birds with one stone. It's just a bit of a hassle, I just hope there are no more dramas when I go back to the embassy.

Bohol Vacation: Part I

Finally I got all the pictures and the itinerary of my recent Bohol trip and I can now write a long overdue entry about it. So here goes:

The night before the flight was a bit of a mess for me. I was already feeling sick for a couple of days so I decided to hitch a ride with an officemate, but he was out watching a movie. To make the long story short, we left for home later than I preferred and got home at around 1am. Time was of the essence since I had to be at Ven’s place to hitch a ride to the airport, but I still haven’t packed my stuff and I desperately needed rest. Miraculously, I packed my bag in record time and I think I got a couple of hours of sleep before taking a cab to Ven’s.

We had a quick breakfast and headed off to the airport. Despite being relatively early, there was a long queue to get in. We trudged along until we were finally in the waiting lounge. I think I kinda looked like an idiot wearing jeans, 2 shirts, a jacket and a cap knowing that we were going on a vacation that spells “sun and surf”. But I had to retain my body heat and “force” my body back to health, I was taking no chances. I took in as much time as I could to rest, overdosing on Vitamin C and drinking a whole lot of fluids. Luckily(?), the plane was delayed due to a couple of passengers being late. I didn’t really care, it gave me 30 more minutes of sleep.

The bad news was that because of the delayed flight, we were not able to get on the boat to Bohol from Cebu as our initial plan. So we had to wait at the pier for the next scheduled trip. We passed the time playing scrabble and watching a couple of movies, but I was itching to get the traveling over with and get some “real” rest.

Fortunately, we had no more delays and got to Tagbilaran, Bohol by 3pm. When we got to Nobs’ place, we had merienda, some chit-chat with Nobs’s parents and stashed our bags.

first night in Bohol


The following day was supposed to be the first day of sight seeing, as we planned to pass by some tourist places on our way to the Lagunay farm where we would be spending the night. We stopped by the Blood Compact site, said to be the site of the first pact between the locals and the Spanish explorers when they arrive a long long time ago, then off to Baclayon Church, the oldest stone church in the Philippines.

fooling around


Baclayon Church bell tower


Then we had lunch on the Loboc River cruise where we also saw the very unique tarsier. Man, those animals rock! They’re the cutest little things you will ever see, and we were up close and personal with the animals. To bad we weren’t allowed to touch them.

Loboc river


tarsier!


watcha lookin' at bitch?


This is getting too long. Another entry is in order...

double tap

Being without war for around 3 months has made me a bit looney. The troops and I met up last Sunday to play a few hours of SWAT4. Although it was nice to get into warring mode (even if it was just via a computer game), my trigger finger was still itchy since the point of the game is to subdue the suspects without killing them. So either you use non-lethal weapons or storm the place screaming "Police! Put your weapon down!" or something to that effect. Of course we did shoot some bad guys when needed, but it wasn't enough for me. Read JM's entry, it pretty much sums up how you feel throughout the "experience".

Recently, I have been imagining myself walking towards a suspect, pull out my gun... BLAM! BLAM! two shots in the chest... BLAM! BLAM! another two in the head for good measure. The bad guy goes down, still I keep pointing my weapon. I circle about making sure he really is down... hostage secured, mission complete. I safe and holster my weapon.

I need real warring soon as I need to get this out of my system (to some extent hehehe). Plus, I am looking forward to a live fire exercise whenever the occasion may arise.

On a side note: the entry on the Bohol R&R trip will be up soon. I will be getting more pics and the itenerary today, so the actual entry won't be far off. Apologies for the delay.

prologue

I am in Bohol right now. This place is great! I've got tons of photos and blog worthy experiences. Will post a complete entry as soon as I get back to civilization, which is around 5 days from now hehehe