All it took was one text from Sue to get me hyped up. She had gone with her cousins to Panglao last April, about a week before she started with her summer hospital duty as an incoming senior in med school. When she got back, she told me I should try going there to see the place for myself. "It's like Boracay with less people and less noise," she said.
So with her recommendations on hand, my family and I took a ferry from our homeport to Cebu and then jumped on the next available fast craft bound for Tagbilaran City.
Upon arrival in Bohol, we were awestruck by the cleanliness of their seaport. I mean, you could jump right into the water and swim. The water was emerald in the sunlight and there was no smell of grease, gasoline or anything rotting anywhere - a stark contrast to our seaport back home which was always guaranteed to get the soles of my shoes all black from grease. The water was clean enough for us to actually SEE fish swimming around in schools!
We were fetched by a resort car which took us to Panglao, an island about 22 kilometers (about 30 minutes) away and connected to Tagbilaran City by a bridge. I had booked the four of us in a resort located in Alona Beach, one of the more popular and more developed beaches in Panglao Island. For some reason, my sister was feeling awfully lethargic (blame it on Bonamine, maybe) so after a late lunch, my dad and my sister had a nap. Now my mom and I were fuming. We were on vacation, in a beautiful beach, in an island where there were hardly any people and the only thing they could think of was sleeping! So my mom and I went out for a walk by ourselves to see for ourselves what we could do here.
To put it lightly, Panglao is one of those places blessed with a beautiful duet of white and blue.
Alona Beach can rightfully boast of the fine, white sand which has made Boracay famous but the stretch, although generous, is not as seemingly endless as the latter. The water is also as crystal clear as Boracay's waters and is perfect for a dip during high tide. Three hours of getting prune-y from 9 AM to 12 noon was not enough for mermaid me.
But that's about as similar as Boracay and Panglao can get. Boracay, in TV terms, would be like MTV's Spring Break meets Next Top Model with the beach getting transformed into sandy runways and fun party places. Panglao, on the other hand, would have to be National Geographic meets Discovery Channel. It is the perfect place to sink yourself in cool clear water and make sand angels without smelling anything other than the salty mist or hearing anything else aside from the soft rustling of coconut leaves and the fluttering of crows' wings. In other words, Panglao is one of the best places to experience nature's perfect kiss.
Unlike Boracay where swimming does not have to be tied to a particular schedule of the tides, the same cannot be said about Panglao. During low tide (around 4 PM onwards during our stay), the water is a clear aquamarine up to only about five meters from the shore. Swimming during low tide is not recommended if you're over three feet in height because you'd end up waddling like a duck just to get the water up to your chest. Beyond that, the water shifts to a darker shade of (still clear) blue. The shift in the color of the water from light to dark is attributed to the lush underwater vegetation: a wide expanse of sea grass on the seafloor which extends into the open sea, giving the impression of an underwater rainforest to the quiet observer. My dad was curious and wanted to know if planting a bare foot on that area would give the same feeling as walking in a grassy meadow minus shoes and socks. Before we could warn him that it was not the best of ideas, he had jumped out of the water with a yelp, shouting "Something bit me!"
Having unseen things snapping at your toes would be a bane to the beach babe but it becomes a great underwater adventure to an avid snorkeller. I stood on the fringes of that "underwater forest" and silently observed what I saw on the seabed. From my vantage point, I saw two starfish, a sea urchin and something crustacean-like scurrying about the blades of the sea grasss I immediately got excited. I am not exactly an expert snorkeller and I had not snorkelled in years but what I saw was enough to have me bubbling. I then fizzled into disbelief when I realized I did not bring my old snorkel with me. Hopeful that my mom might have brought her mask, I overhauled all our bags in our room but could find nothing. I swore to myself that the next chance I get to go back to Panglao, the first thing I'll FIFO would be the snorkelling gear. The better snorkelling site would be off the coast of the neighboring island of Balicasag which we skipped because I did not like the idea of renting snorkelling gear.
Perhaps one of the highlights of our trip was dolphin watching. Sue told me about her adventure, perhaps out of some sincere desire to drive me to fits of jealousy, knowing very well how obsessed I was with these beautiful sea creatures. We met someone who offered us a good rate and told us we were to start at 5:30 in the morning. My parents were not all too keen with the idea, saying that we had seen dolphins a couple of times already. But I insisted that we should do that because it was one of the highlights of a trip to Panglao.
It is never too easy to haul your butt off bed at 5 AM when you're used to waking up at 7 AM and the blanket seems wonderfully soft all of a sudden. But I made up my mind to wake up and to do the same with all of my room mates. As my dad was putting on his shirt, he was whining about losing the extra hours of sleep. Uh-oh. If this did not turn out as good as I wanted it to be, I might get blamed for everybody's eyebags all day.
We were met on the beach by Ladio, the boatman and spotter. He had a rather soft voice and had some scars on his face, it made me wonder how he got those. We then boarded his boat, a motorized banca with outriggers called Golden Seal. True enough, there was a painting of a golden seal on the hull of the boat. When we were all settled, Ladio sailed out to the open sea, heading South. The sun was rising on the east, giving the sky a pinkish-orange tinge. The water was calm with little ripples here and there. From afar, we could see silvery-white patches stretched across the entire length of the water. We asked Ladio what that was. He tried to explain to us that it was that area of the water that the waves could not reach. True enough, when we got to that area, the water was still and glassy. Except for the path our boat had traced, the surface remained unmoving like dark gelatin wobbling from side to side. There was stillness in the midst of the turmoil of the sea, an area which even the waves could not touch. This area is what my mother thinks is called "linaw" in our local dialect.
After about fifteen minutes of seeing nothing except water and when the magic of seeing "linaw" had faded, my mother whispered to me "Seems like we're going nowhere." I couldn't be of help since I did not know exactly where we were headed. Another five minutes passed then ten and still all we saw was water. At least Noah was better off, what with all the animals on board to keep him busy. About thirty minutes after we left shore, when we were verging on boredom and slight panic, the four of us spontaneously erupted into some form of euphoria when we saw something dark partially bob out of the water like a cork and then disappear all of a sudden. Was that it? A couple of minutes or so later, we spotted another white boat looming in the horizon. It just floated there in the middle of the wide expanse of dark water and something else.
I don't know when I first saw them but at some point, dolphin fins all of a sudden graced our presence. There were fins all over the place, behind us, about ten meters from either side of our boat, about a couple of meters ahead of us. The fins seemed to spin around like wheels, emerging from the water and sinking again one after another. We were practically surrounded by pods of dolphins! A bunch of what I suppose were the pluckier dolphins would jump out of the water and then disappear again. We spotted two which swam around with their backs in the water, bellies up and exposed. A little while later, some moved just a bit closer to us, about three or four meters away, close enough to do some for us to do some scrutiny. My sister later stood up and pointed to a splash by the water. I approached her position and spotted a dolphin swimming alongside our boat! Soon another one swan beside the first dolphin, as if they were pulling our boat using an invisible rope. After about less than a minute, the dolphins Lol-lo and Saraw (43 Phil. 21) disappeared into the water's depths.
Our nights in Panglao saw us having dinner right on the beach while an acoustic trio sang to familiar songs from Bread, Eric Clapton and the BeeGees. The enterprising lead singer kept on changing the lyrics of Tears in Heaven. In the first chorus, he sang "Would you call my name, if I saw you in Germany?" He then went on to use every country from which every Caucasian tourist sitting in that restaurant hailed from. After a walk, we were all in bed by 10 PM, a far cry from our Boracay bedtime.
Panglao also has a good array of dive shops and stores which sell everything from the essentials (shampoo and sunblock) to gifts (Bohol T-shirts and stuffed tarsier teddies) and pasalubong (Peanut Kisses, of course). I bought a stuffed tarsier and immediately named him Rome. You'd wanna know why!
All in all, I desperately want to go back to Panglao not just to soak in some more sun. Because my parents wanted to enjoy the beach more, we did not go on the Bohol countryside tour which brings tourists to Bohol's heritage spots, a cruise along Loboc River with a hearty lunch which also allows them to see actual tarsiers and caps off with a visit to Chocolate Hills. Besides, I told my mom I wanted to swim with the dolphins next time, although she does not buy the idea ("God knows they might take little bites off you.") But like I said, my snorkelling gear will prominently stick out of my bag next time.
My 5 centavos worth of tips:
* It's good to make a reservation in a resort before heading off to Panglao, especially during the peak season. Most of the resorts I called were willing to accept room reservations without need for deposit. Beachfront resorts cost a little bit more than those which are located a bit more inland. If you'd rather scour around the beach for a good place to stay, just make sure you arrange for transportation into Panglao beforehand by calling up a car company. I'm not sure how much hiring taxis on-the-spot would cost. Jeepneys are scarce in Bohol...or are they non-existent?
* For those interested in dolphin watching, heading out early (like 5:30 AM) would more than make up for the lost extra half hour of pillow burial. It's better to watch the dolphins swim around you when you're the only boat floating in the middle of (sea)nowhere. More boats means more people hooting and cheering at these beautiful sea mammals and you'd soon end up chasing the dolphins around like Indiana Jones.
* Boatmen can offer a cheaper rate if you do both dolphin watching and snorkelling in Balicasag Island. For instance, an extra P500 for dolphin watching would also guarantee you a visit to Balicasag. Snorkel gear for rent would cost around P150 to P200.
* Resorts offer tour packages and the like but locals hanging around the beach can sometimes give you the same offer more or less at a cheaper price.
* Great lunch is served in Lost Horizon for those who are not calorie conscious or do not nurse cholesterol problems. They serve delicious, super-tender baby backribs and yummy sisig. They also have reasonably priced airconditioned rooms!
* If you're passing by Cebu on your way home (like us) and you're planning to horde Peanut Kisses, it's advisable to buy the Boholano cookies there. Peanut Kisses in Panglao cost between P38 to P40 for the medium-sized box and P15 for the small pack. I found out too late in a Cebu grocery store that I could get them cheaper at only P28 for the medium-sized box and P7.50 for the small pack.
Helpful links out of my backpack:
* Alona Kew Resort
* Bohol Tourism
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