Cebohol 09 - Summer's Last Hurrah IV

Day 4 - Back to Manila or so we thought...


It was an exhausting adventure we had for the past few days, and as what they say "some good things never last". We had booked a flight back to Manila via Zest Air scheduled for 11am, me and the wife got up early to catch a last glimpse of that Panglao sunrise and maybe make an early morning hop to Bohol Beach Club to have some last minute phot ops. Got some shots of the sunrise though there's some clouds blocking it. We also strolled along the shore to check out BBC, which is one of the premiere resorts in Bohol. It was quite early so the guard kinda dozed off in his chair and we made a go for it :-). We got some photo ops of their beach with that trademark huts in view. We decided to head back to the resort for the kids may already be awake at that time, I promised they could make a quick dip in the pool before we pack up and head off to the airport. They would also want to say goodbyes to their new friends who I think would be going back the day after we left.


A pleasant surprise

We planned to have breakfast at the DBR I Grill, we went there and to our dismay says they won't be open until 8am. So I thought we could just make do with some bread and cup noodles for the meantime. Then just as we were about to go back a vendor told us if we would like to get some breakfast delivered to us, I ask how much and he told me it won't be that high coz its outside the resort. He gave us the number to text and ask what the current menu is. She text back and gave us a breakfast line-up for the day. We decided on 6 fried rice, 4 fried eggs and 2 "bistiks" (beef mind you). And our bill? P168 only!!! Wow the food is great, the serving is generous, plus they would also allow you to borrow spoon/fork/plates as well just need to deposit P100.

How it works? You text Ate Yayeng (0926-7036108) ask for the menu (breakfast/lunch/dinner). Food isn't allowed in the resort's resto but you could always bring in food in your rooms. They would deliver the food at the main gate(the guards actually encourage this kind of set-up) you just have to fetch it there, an additional P20 is added for the habal-habal ride. You text them back once your finished to get the deposit from the utensils,etc. Wish I could have known this much earlier...

To the Airport

Mang Gerry sent a text that he will meet us at the front lobby by 9am. After we checked out, the van was already waiting for us, we loaded our stuff and we're headed to the airport. Mang Gerry informed us that a new airport is already on the works for Bohol and it would be located in Panglao, one could notice the road widening projects on-going in the island itself. I asked him if we could make a short stop to Angel's Basket, a souvenir store with the lowest price in native Boholano delicacies like Peanut Kisses, etc.

We reached the airport shortly, people were already lining up to do their check-in but to everyone's dismay the Zest Air booth shows status as DELAYED...hey were used to it especially since it a budget airline, but the flight is at 5pm now or a 6 hour delay (grrr...that's just crazy but later on I would find out that it would still be much crazier...) I inquired and what they say is that there' some servicing being done in Manila (which I don't buy really, plane could actually be in another location flying a different route), but hey nothing we can do about it, lunchtime is fast approaching and the kids are getting weary and hungry at the same time. They told us to be back by 3pm. Heard about another mall in Tagbilaran called Island City Mall, told the gang that's where we should kill the time and have lunch.

Island City Mall

We took a tricycle ride to ICM and arrived after about 10 minutes. The mall looks like any SM actually, from the architecture, floor layout, department store and food court at the basement level. We looked at some items here and there, and got to buy some cheap Bohol shirts for kids for additional pasalubongs to my nieces. We went to the basement foodcourt to see what our lunch would be and decided to try out Jo's Inato. Its actually a popular joint in Bohol, they served chicken inato which is like inasal in Bacolod. We tried their barbecue and inato, simply good. And to top it off we got to try their buko halo-halo (halo-halo served in a young coconut half-shell topped with ube ice cream, yummmeee!!!). After that great lunch, we still have about 2 hours and a half to kill, then my lovely daughter suggested to watch a movie(yes, there's also 4 movie houses in the mall), we got to watch that Sharon-AiAi movie BFF. Leave it to my kids on what to do during idle time(darn , Zest Air should reimburse me with all of this additonal expenses!!!). After the movie its just about the right time to head on back to the airport. So we head on back to the airport, and seated in the passenger's lounge area which is filled to the brim literally with many disgruntled,dismayed and impatient passengers. We waited as the minutes grew to hours and my wife was joking about maybe the flight is already cancelled. I gave her a little dagger look and after about 10 seconds of her mumbling, the unthinkable has happened...the flight is cancelled due to some limitation on the runway or something. I don't really care to listen to the announcement but was zooming to the Zest Air booth to inquire what happened. They were so apologetic as expected(who woudln't be?) and tried to explain the problem at hand. But of course, tension was high and its almost dinner time and I guess most of them are hungry as hell. There were some passengers that have business appointments in Manila the following day that they were given an option to take a ferry boat to Cebu and try their luck on a late night flight bak to Manila. Another option is to stay an extra night in Bohol and wait for an extra flight the following day at about 6am. I choose the latter.

Free extra night in Bohol

Zest Air provided extra night accommodation in a downtown hotel. We were billeted in Wregent Plaza hotel, we were given a decent room with TV (yehey NBA PlayOffs 09; go MAGIC). Dinner was in a form of a packed styro meal (foods decent) .The kids also got a kick of their own mini swimming pool a.k.a. bath tub. The following morning we were fetched by vans going to the airport and finally got to see the plane that will take us home.

This is one truly memorable experience for me and the whole family. We're looking forward to share our experiences in the future.