Slow, and sometimes extreme, Bohol

There's something quite liberating about feeling the cool air against your face as you whisk past huts, children in school uniforms walking side by side, and old women in Sunday dresses biking their way to church.

 

A walk through a humble pier would take you to a view of the sunset overlooking mangroves and boats, with the occasional father-and-son tandem paddling their way to shore.

 

In the early morning, it's common to see bagfuls of pan de sal dangling from the side of motorcycles and bikes, their drivers clearly just having woken up, pedaling home from the nearby bakery where several others have made a beeline as well.

 

Such was the life in Panglao Island in Bohol province we saw while on a motorcycle—poignant, simple, and characteristically free from the trappings of the five-star resorts hidden somewhere along its coastline.

 

Having previously motorcycled our way around Cebu's Bantayan Island and Palawan's Coron all the way to Calauit Island's safari, we were raring to find out how Bohol would be like outside the air-conditioned van.

 

We made the right choice staying in Panglao, well away from the humdrum of the province’s capital city. In contrast with high-traffic Tagbilaran, Panglao hardly had anything on four wheels except the occasional bus and jeep, and everyone else was either on motorbike or bicycles too. Once we even saw a Caucasian tourist walking barefoot on the side of the road.

 

We instantly felt we belonged, and if not for our two-wheeled buddy, we would not have seen the province the way we did.  

^{Father and son head home after a day's fishing, taken near the mangrove-lined pier of Panglao.}  

Driving under the rain

 

Afternoon rains had been frequent, and we weren't spared. We were caught under a downpour while treading a dirt road that had no waiting sheds nearby. We were on our way to Hinagdanan Cave, some 15 minutes from Alona Beach (which hosts the largest concentration of tourists in the island).

 

We had earlier made several detours, having missed the signs more than once. Besides, we found it quite fun to pick up speed along the well-paved, tree-lined main road, and simply headed back when it was obvious we were heading the wrong way.

 

This is also where we experienced how welcoming the people of Bohol are to strangers. Lola Vicenta smilingly let us into her house when we stopped by to seek shelter. Had we spent a little more time on the road, we would have been completely soaked.

 

Two days later, we found ourselves in the same situation, seeking refuge from a waiting shed as rains teasingly poured early in the morning. One by one, men on motorcycles started stopping by as well. Soon, five of us were playing the waiting game, somehow trusting that the downpour will stop momentarily so we could go ahead.

 

But even then, time wasn't so much a commodity; we figured that if we had to wait for hours for the rain to stop, we would. Nobody was in a rush, and any plan that wouldn't push through will simply have to wait for the next sunny day.

 

It took a while to get used to such laidback attitude, but it was a welcome diversion from the usual mad dash, if only for a couple of days.

 

San Agustin Church, mangroves, and a bakery

 

The photogenic 80-year-old San Agustin Church at the northwestern tip of Panglao was another discovery, and certainly one we wouldn’t have visited had we followed the usual tours. Coming from Hinagdanan, our map to the church was nothing but a short verbal note from a local: we were to drive straight for about 15 minutes until we see it. "You wouldn't miss it" sounded reassuring enough, so we set off, passing by several identical chapels and kids singing out loud while walking back home from school.  

^{The picturesque San Agustin Church and the expansive park around are an ideal place to observe locals.}  

Done in aging concrete that gave it a withering, timeless look, the church was set off from the road by an expansive, well manicured park and a four-post archway. Time seemed to have been on a standstill as we drove noiselessly toward it, its six Corinthian posts looming larger and larger, revealing painstaking detail.

 

Loud clangs from cymbals and drums from somewhere we couldn’t see interrupted our reverie, until we turned a curve and saw a student marching band rehearsing on the side. An old bell tower also revealed itself, and somewhere further behind was a humble pier.

 

We would later find ourselves returning to this area almost every morning, and return again in the afternoons to the pier for the sunset. We quickly made a habit of driving there for breakfast as well, having taken a cue from the numerous people we saw motoring or biking their way to the bakeshop for a bagful of hot pan de sal.

 

The Chocolate Hills, this time via ATV  

 

^{The author on an ATV in Carmen, Bohol}

We took a break from driving and headed for Carmen, about two hours from Panglao, to see the Chocolate Hills. We drove on four wheels alright, but it was an all-terrain vehicle we had rented from the lone rental shop near the entrance to the Chocolate Hills Complex.

 

Not having learned to drive anything on four wheels before this, I felt a mix of anxiety and excitement as we test-drove the ATVs along the muddy trail behind the shop. Expectedly, the motor died on me twice, once in the middle of a huge puddle that could easily have swallowed the vehicle whole.

 

With a lone guide, we set off for their shortest route—a 30-minute ride around Barangay Buena Vista in Carmen—where we would be seeing the Three Sisters Hill, a clump of three hills joined at the base.

 

Though my right thumb quickly got numb from pressing the accelerator, I had a great time navigating unpaved roads with a few slopes and puddles to challenge any beginner. We passed by huts and plains, and one or two giant dome-shaped hills far into the distance. Halfway into the ride, we reached a clearing that was the nearest we could get to our destination.

 

And then I was a kid again, finally seeing something in the flesh previously known only through books and postcards, somehow also dismissing it as too hyped up to even merit a visit.

 

I was amazed alright, and as I would soon realize after climbing the viewdeck and wrestling our way through the crowd taking souvenir photos, these silent hills are best viewed in silence and by one’s lonesome. If not from the ground, just like we did, then at the crack of dawn and well into the morning, when sunlight bathes the mounds with a fleeting, magical glow denied from everyone else for the rest of the day. —KG/TJD, GMA News

 

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Motorcycle rentals (P500 per day) in Tagbilaran are available at Speed Motor Rental (09065077848), Boysam Motor Rental (038 411 2594), and B21Bern Travel and Tours (+639204229127, www.rentacarbohol.com). Motorcycles are also for rent at Alona Beach and Danao Beach, Panglao.

 

Follow more of the author's travels at www.two2travel.com.