Philippines is an island country situated near the south china sea. There are more than 7000 islands in Philippines. Cebu is the second biggest city in Philippines after manila. It is situated in the southern region of Philippines. The airport has very good connectivity to Singapore and Hong Kong. Cebu airport is situated at Lapu Lapu city and it takes 30 minutes by taxi in order to reach Cebu city. I booked taxi from hotel for 8 hours in order to visit different tourist locations. Taxi in Cebu very affordable and this is the best way to explore the city.
Cebu Taoist temple – My first stop at Cebu was the Taoist temple. The temple was situated at the top of a hill. The roads to the temple are very steep. It was around 1 hour ride from the city to the temple. The temple’s architecture is inspired from Chinese architecture. The temple was very important place for the worship of Taoism. The complex was big and it had a multi tired structure. They have lots of prayer hall inside the temple. I spent there around 1 hour and then went to tops look out for sunset.
Tops Lookout- Tops lookout is located by around 30 mins drive from Taoist temple. The lookout offers excellent views of cebu city skyline and adjacent islands. It was a great relaxing feel in order to have a glance at the lush green hills near the lookout. The shape of the lookout was circular shape. There were lot of shops and restaurant at the lookout point but it was bit pricey. After the sunset they opened small barbecue shop it was a great place to have barbecue. The place had small beautiful hexagonal shaped stone pavements which increased the beauty of the place to significant extent. It was a great view of sunset from the lookout.
Bohol island day tour
During my second day I booked for a group day tour to Bohol island. It is advisable to book the tours from Cebu city itself because the tours available online are priced higher. It was 30-minute taxi ride from hotel to the ferry pier. The ferry was scheduled at around 9 am and it was a 2-hour ferry to the island of Bohol. We arrived 1 hour before the departure time of the ferry. Fort San Pedro was located very close to the ferry pier so we decided to explore the place.
Fort San Pedro – Fort San Pedro is a Spanish build military structure. It was built in the 17th century. Initially the structure of the fort was wooden but later it was changed to stone structure. The fort was situated very close to Cebu ferry pier. We started our ferry ride around 9 am. The sea was very rough and we reached Bohol around 11 am. We met our guide at the pier and we got into a comfortable van for the rest of our tour.
Chocolate hills – Our first stop was Chocoloate hills. Chocolate hills is the most famous landmark in the Bohol island. There are more than 1000 hills spread across a region of 50 Sqkm. The hills are covered with grass and it turns into brown color during the dry season that’s why people call it chocolate hills. The height of hills are small ranging from 30 m to 60 m. Some hills are more than 100 m in height. Our guide stopped us at the lookout point. The lookout point was situated at a good elevation and we got to see great panoramic views of the hill.
Tarsier conservation reserve was our next stop after chocolate hills. It was a great scenic ride along the man-made mahogany forest. The forest is situated on both sides of the road stretching almost 2 km. We stopped for a short time in order to take photographs of the beautiful landscape. The forest looks beautiful because of the uniformity of the height of the trees and the lush green leaves.
We reached the Tarsier conservation area around 1 pm. The Tarsiers are small monkeys, similar to the size of fingers. It is an endangered species. They have small body but their eyes are very big compared to their body. They are nocturnal animal and they are active primarily during night time. After the visit to the conservation area we went to Loboc river for our boat cruise and lunch. The boat cruise lasted around 1 hour and the lunch was served on the boat itself. The pace of the boat was very slow and you can see some small waterfall during the scenic boat ride. You can also enjoy some traditional Philippines dance and song during the tour.
Our last stop was Alona beach. The beach was situated on a small island called panglao island. It took around 1 hour to reach the beach. We arrived at the place before sunset. the beach was not the beautiful compared to Boracy. The water was not the clear.The place was not that crowded but the sunset from the beach was amazing. We stayed at the beach till sunset then our guide dropped us at the pier. Overall it was a great day tour. Chocolate hills is a great unique landscape and you will not see anything like this anywhere else in the world.
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