Biking in Bohol

Planning my trip to the Philippines was one of the hardest, actually. Because there are so many places I want to visit and see. This trip, I only have just over 2 weeks, so to do all the things I wanted without feeling rushed was a challenge.

I think the amount of time I spent in Coron, the expedition and El Nido was about right for this trip. I would have loved to have stayed more there, but one thing I had always wanted to see were the Chocolate Hills on Bohol island.

So I flew from Palawan into Panglao airport just south of Bohol. From here, I took a bus up to the ferry terminal (where you get a ferry to Siquijor) and rented a moped for 24 hours.

From there, I planned to drive the moped (with all my backpacks) to my accomodation on Loboc river, then visit Chocolate Hills, then drive back to the ferry… It was a jam-packed itinerary!!

The drive was great! The roads were nice and smooth, and not too much traffic at all once I was out of the city. It was awkward driving with my big backpack stuffed down in front of me; with my feet on the pillion foot rests instead, but I made it just fine.

My hotel was very nice, right on the river, but it was also pretty quiet and not many other people were staying there.

After I arrived, I headed into the small village and ate at a place I found on HappyCow, which was very tasty!!

Then that evening, I joined a free night river cruise by my hotel along the Loboc river. In all honesty, I didn’t even know about this before I booked, I literally only stayed here for it’s proximity to the chocolate hills, but Loboc river is famous for fireflies! They congregate in the trees along side the river, so we drove off in pitch black to see them. It was amazing, there were so many, and they flash in sync! My photos were terrible with my phone, and no tripod or anything to stabilise a long exposure in the dark. This was my best one:

I ate in the hotel for my evening meal and then got an early night ready to go to chocolate hills first thing the next day.

The drive there was very scenic. Through rice paddies and villages, and also a man-made forest.

As you get closer, the hills start appearing, and have the same shape as the iconic chocolate hills. I think to this day nobody really knows how or why the hills have formed the way they have. The strongest theory is that they were on the sea floor millions of years ago, and now erosion of the limestone, as well as tectonic activity and sinkholes cause their uniform structure.

They are also covered in grass, and so during the dry season when the grass browns, they look like chocolate chips, or the segments of a bar of chocolate. But right now it was more of a mint chocolate vibe going on, as the grass was still green.

I drove back to the ferry port via another tasty vegan restaurant I spied from HappyCow (Vegan Shack).

I got to the port in perfect time for my ferry to another  Filipino island, Siquijor.

I did like Bohol, and it looked very beautiful, but as I mentioned at the start, I had to made some tough decisions, and I decided that Siquijor would be a better island to spend the last 4 nights of my trip. Still, I am really glad I took a quick jaunt to see the chocolate hills. And it was also a good way to get here, since Siquijor has no airport, the only way to get there is via ferries from Bohol (Tagbilaran), Cebu (Liloan) or Negros (Dumaguete). So I needed to spend a day in one of these islands regardless, and I’m glad it was Bohol ☺️