{Holiday Recap - Day 7, 08 November 2008}

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Before calling it a night last night, K and I had a discussion as to how we were going to spend this day. The local news said that there was a typhoon in Bohol and it was heading Dumaguete. The news made me worried and disappointed a bit, because it completely changed our plans for today. There were two basic options for this day - either get up very early to do the dolphin watching / island hopping that cost 2,500 pesos or check out the resort after breakfast and do part two of the Bohol joyride that cost the same. Should we do option 2, we would ask kuya Ricky (the van driver) to take us to a hotel in Tagbilaran, so it would be easy for us to get to the pier tomorrow for the boat ride going to Dumaguete. K's concernes were, if we do the dolphin thing with this kind of weather, will there be an assurance that the dolphins will be out. Should there be no dolphins, is the resort willing to give back the money paid.

None of those options were realized, because we woke up quite late to start with, and as we walk along the shore to witness a "sunless" sunrise, K said it was probably nice that we didn't do the dolphin / island hopping thing. I thought so, too, although I was told that the island hopping was something one should not miss if you're already in Panglao, but what can we do on a gloomy day like this?

Gloomy might be the word of the day for it was indeed a gloomy day for K and I. While eating breakfast, rain started pouring in, and I just told K how sad I was that I haven't taken a dip at the beach yet! Say what? Oh yes, I still haven't done it, and now I can't because it was way too cold! Back in the room, K said it would be best not to do the joyride as well because it would be weird for us to be checking out tourist spots and have pictures with umbrellas or raincoat. Point well taken, but the problem now is, what shall we do?

K talked to the resort staff and was told that the resort only has room on the beachfront suite which cost around 5,000 pesos a night. We will be spending one more day here in Bohol, and K thought it was an outrageous way to spend a day paying that much. I asked if they have Internet, but was told that there was no connection. Hmmm... good thing K had the number of Paragayo Resort, and that this resort offers free calls within the province, so I was able to call them. I arranged a pick-up around lunch time because that's the check out time at the resort.

Paragayo Resort was a nice resort - very homey, but true to what the driver said when we got to Bohol, the Alona Beach was a few meters away, and we had to walk a few minutes to get there. I told K that I really needed to take a dip even at this beach to satisfy myself that I had taken a dip there. =) Alona Beach was nice, but I didn't like it. The water on the shore was a bit dirty, there were too many boats around, and one must wear slippers or any kind of footwear because there were so many sea urchins in the sea! It made me happy that we stayed in Dumaluan because had we stayed in Paragayo from the start, I don't think I would enjoy it that much. The ambulant vendors along Alona Beach was quite an annoyance as well!

A few minutes in the water, and I was out. K asked if I was hungry, and I said that I was getting hungry. We first checked this German food house, but was turned off with the expensive food they had. We just checked this food place in front of the Paragayo Resort (Powder Keg), and was happy to dine there, because their foods were not only delicious, it was affordable as well. K had the mushroom omelet, while I had the house specialty, the massive burger with strawberry shake. Yum yum!

K and I went to the Intenet Cafe afterwards to check mails and communicate with friends and family. We didn't eat dinner anymore and just slept early for we still have a boat to catch tomorrow.

*** Jenn ***