The Do-It-Yourself Tour of 2007

Sembreak started in the middle of October. Finished all my exams and projects, think I did okay. Ran straight back into my boyfriend’s arms.

‘Course time crawled sooo much longer than that statement.

I’m home (in Zamboanga), safe and sound now, back from a totally exciting one-week city-hop adventure. From Manila, I flew to Dipolog to meet Gim and spent 6 carefree, food-full days exploring Dapitan/Dipolog. Then on impulse (we dare live on the edge. er… of bankruptcy!) we decided to visit Cebu and Bohol – and we did! So crazy of us! We had only 4k to spend between us but somehow we made it through! Hehehe. No pricey tour packages for us.

These are but a few pictures of our super enjoyable island hop! A.k.a. the Gim-and-Fli Do-It-Yourself Tour. 🙂

A shot of the shore at Sunset Boulevard, Dapitan. The foamy stuff is waste excreted by microscopic sea creatures – the same that cause Red Tide, my boyfriend the doctor says, but in this picture they’re fairly harmless ‘coz there’s not too many of them.

Ah, here’s the handsome doctor. 🙂 Academically, he already is. He starts clerkship next week. Good luck, doc!

Waterfalls! This is my first time seeing a waterfall up close! They’re bee-yoo-tee-fuuul ! But I had the boyfriend go in first. ‘Coz they’re really scary too… All that water rushing, rushing, rushing! If you look down at the gushing river for more than 5 seconds you get the feeling you’re gonna get flushed down too! So I crawled, and got really wet. It was sooo much fun! 🙂

Mmmm!!! Chopsuey and Beef! Yummyyy!!! All I ate in Manila were fried cold cuts! And junk food! I was miserable! (‘Coz I can only be truly happy when I am well fed… hehe) I hate Manila food, by the way, ‘coz everything tastes refrigerated for far too long. Even food in restaurants. And all food is expensive, double or more the price of that at home. Especially veggies. So the first lunch I had in Dapitan consisted of vegetables!! Yumyum!! Gim and I feasted every lunch and dinner (beachfront, no less), having veggies, beef steaks, pork fillets, fried bangus, grilled squid, barbecue, calamares, everything, complete with our fave dessert, halo-halo with ice cream! And each time our meal cost at the most only a little bit over P200, and at the cheapest only P60! Mmm, my mouth is watering!!

And I don’t even care that Gim teases me about the extra rolls on my waist. ‘Coz he got some too! Hehehehe.

Now this picture is of a guy sending up some prayers for me. This was taken in Cebu, at the Sto. Nino Church, one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. Well, that’s what Gim said. If not oldest. We bought candles and paid an old man to take them, dance around shaking the candles and muttering incantations.

This is my only picture of the Church because it was Sunday, so many people were praying, it was very crowded and very hot. Two things I hate. And Gim made me fall in line to see the original Sto Nino image that Magellan himself brought from Spain. And it took a looong time. By the time I got to the Sto Nino I was mad, hot and ready to burst in tears. No more pictures! No more Church! No more people!!!! I couldn’t take it anymore!!!! And so I stomped off not even bothering to look at the Sto Nino I had waited in line so long to see, and Gim hurried to placate me.

Yeah, yeah I’m a spoiled brat.

This is how Gim stopped my flood of tears in the taxi ride from Sto Nino. He took me to the Taoist Temple. It was pretty and not filled with people, there were many tourists but still lots of breathing space. And it was colorful and interesting. I didn’t even care that it was also hot.

Pretty simple to make me happy. Just give me wide open spaces, a beautiful view, delicious food, and my boyfriend – that’s it. Hehehehe.

From Cebu we travelled to Bohol by OceanJet, a fastcraft whose interior looks a lot like a plane – but it has a better view. I don’t know how to swim (someday I’ll learn to, promise) but I do love the ocean. Gim and I spent a lot of the time outside taking pictures and we got sunburned. Huhuhu. But it was still fun, the wind slapping your hair and face and some of the surf spraying your body with salt from time to time. Yeah, that kinda sounded painful and gross. But trust me, it was fun.

Loboc River Cruise! It was my first time to cruise a river, much less eat in a floating restaurant! I was so excited I didn’t know what to focus on, taking pics or eating. I kinda did both simultaneously most of the time, and I don’t recommend that. It was messy. But messy = fun! Loved the lush green views and loved all the novelty of it.

Yummy food! Our floating restaurant was an eat-all-you-can buffet! The food was not the tastiest (some dishes weren’t, some quite good), but I don’t think I tasted it much ‘coz I wolfed down all my food as fast as I could so I could also take some pics. The cruise was so so short – only an hour. I wish it had lasted longer.

After the cruise, my boyfriend and I walked around Loboc trying to find things to amuse ourselves. This was, after all, the Do-It-Yourself tour. (We didn’t have a ride.) We found this leaning tower of Loboc, right in front of the Loboc Church. But the clock doesn’t work anymore.

We explored the Loboc Museum, which was connected to Loboc Church. I don’t think there was a guide available because the cashier toured us around and let us take pictures of everything. (Isn’t that prohibited in most museums?) Obviously, I was giddy with the chance! The museum harbored lots of religious artifacts like statues of Jesus, scribes of the old monks, and original robes of the Virgin Mary. It was an enjoyable experience.

After the museum, we went up to Carmen by bus and visited the chocolate hills. I was tempted to throw a temper tantrum because they were *green* and not dark brown. But the guides explained that they only turn brown in the summer. I really couldn’t fault my Gimmi that, so I decided to enjoy myself instead.

After Bohol, Gim and I went back to Dapitan for a rest and the following day, tracked home to Zamboanga. Though our trip lasted only a few days, we had a total blast and so far, that was the best adventure we’d ever had. 🙂

I have soooo many more pictures but I’ll post the links next time around. 🙂

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