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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Our Province

WARNING: really long again. and more pictures to be added hopefully next week...

last week my family went home to the province. and our province is Bohol. my dad is from bohol and it's the first province that i've known. and also Cebu. hehehe. that's why when my are planning to go to cebu or bohol, i would not join them. coz it's like my second home already. unlike in cebu, wherein i haven't visited the famous tourist spots, in bohol, i think i have visited 90% of the tourist spots. but for last week, we didn't go to where tourists usually go and as a matter of fact, me and my cousins are trying to think of places we can visit that we haven't been to. i'll just share the places we've been to last week and the typical places the Racho family visits when in Bohol.

since Bohol is our province, we usually stay at my grandfather's house in Tamblot or in my uncle's house in Dampas, both in Tagbilaran. but since the tamblot house is being rented out by another family and we do not want to be a hassle to my uncle's family who are also vacationing, we stayed in a pension house, the Le Pensione de San Jose in Tagbilaran also. it's okay for a place if you just want to rest your sleepy head. and there's a bar downstairs where you can have your own concert. hehehe.

of course i had my concert. hehehe.

when i hear Tamblot, it's not the hero that i think of but my grandfather's house. where me and my cousins would spend our summer and Christmas vacations. we really nagged our parents that we're going to visit the place. so, we went there and was surprised that somebody's living there. i didn't know. hahaha. the dining table where the whole family would eat is still there. and me and my cousins were shocked. coz it's like it's small. coz for all of us, we always imagined it to be really big. hello! 5 families fitting in one dining table.. wouldn't you think it to be big? and maybe with our children's eyes, we thought everything was big. hehehe.

this is the table where we ate our meals when we were younger

of course, my family especially my uncle who have not been to bohol for two years visited their farm in Balilihan. it's an inheritance from my grandparents to our parents but the ones to use it daw are us the grandchildren. but we haven't thought yet of what we're going to do with the place. and since nothing is to be seen there, we just had our pictures taken and scared ourselves with ghost stories. hehehe.

since the reason why we went home to bohol every Christmas and fiesta are my grandparents, it is just right that even when they left the earth, we would visit them. and also our aunt. so cemetery is always included in the itinerary.

our parents grew up in Loboc so when we were kids, we would always visit that place to visit their childhood friends and neighbors. and even before the Loboc River Rafting became a popular tourist attraction, we would ride that already. and when i tried out the popular tourist attraction two years ago with some officemates, i got disappointed. coz it was a short route and it's not as wonderful as when i was a kid. coz when i was still a kid, the river tour would start from the Hydroelectric Powerplant down to the falls. and i believe there are more than one waterfalls. small and big ones. we would eat on the raft and try fishing but i really don't catch anything. yes, Bohol has its own Hydroelectric Powerplant. and i don't know why it's not as popular as others. but it's the first hydroelectric plant that i've visited. and hopefully in the future i get to experience a field trip there. coz i wanna hear the experts and not only my dad or uncles explaining the place. and of course coz of conceitedness factor. hahaha

a picture in the hydroelectric plant taken years ago.

bohol is not only known for the Chocolate Hills and the tarsiers, but also of the beaches specifically in Panglao. when i was a child, i would rather visit Panglao than Chocolate Hills, to be honest i don't appreciate the hills that much. and in the recent years, the resort we would always visit is the Panglao Island Nature Resort, but this year we didn't go there coz we wanted somewhere new. so we tried Amarela in Panglao. but didn't swim. we just ate there. takaw talaga! hahaha.


when we were still in resort and thinking of another place to go to coz we can't swim due to low tide, i suggested what i read from Ferdz's blog, Water Tubing! i really wanted to try it out. but i found out it's in Danao. and i saw the distance between Panglao and Danao. it's not advisable.

thinking of another place. it was decided on to go to Bohol Bee Farm. a resort that sells bee products. i guess this was decided upon since the elderlies need healthy food. wahehe. and that would be great for me coz i want to go there since some friends who have been there said it was a nice place to stay. so off we went thee and even saw some relatives. sosyal kme magreunion. hehe.

and as with every Filipino, wherever you go it's like a must to buy pasalubong. and if you're in tagbilaran, nice place to buy these is in the mall. Island City Mall for the peanut kisses and to buy some bread para baon mo. but as my cousin Joan said, better broas should be bought in Bohol Quality (BQ). personal advise, when you buy pasalubong from bohol, it's better to bring home broas than peanut kisses. that's my personal opinion. coz broas are more yummy than peanut kisses. hehehe. so of course we headed to the malls. and we're glad we went to ICM coz we saw the owner and got invited to his farm. saya!

when i was a kid and we go home to bohol, be assured that when i return to manila, i'm darker (coz of the beautiful beaches in bohol) and bigger (due to the many food served). and contrary to others who would think of eating seafood in bohol, i always associate bohol with lechon. i remember waking up to the cries of the pig as it is being killed to become lechon. that's why it's a big wonder why me and my cousins never became vegetarian after witnessing tragic killings of animals to be our food. yup, even goat, chicken, turkey. sorry... anyway, it's like it's in bohol where i learned about having two snacks, one on the morning and one in the afternoon. and in bohol, there would always be lechon and of course dinuguan (so the blood of the pig won't be a waste). for the foreigners, these are yummy food. trust me! hehehe. but the best part is the next day, when the lechon is cooked as paksiw! sarap!!!!

the lechon and other food

as a summary, what makes Bohol a majestic place is actually the Racho Family :)



*thanks to julie for the pictures...

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow! kababayan mo si tamblot :P

sarap ng lechon...sana makabalik ako sa bohol someday

Anonymous said...

my Mom is also from Bohol. Tsk. haven't been there in ages...do you also visit Bohol during their fiesta month of May? I know yun ang pinaka-bongga na month for them, most of the Boholanos I know would take time out from their hectic sched and go home every May.

kakaaliw naman yung story mo and the matching pics. i do agree, lechon and dinuguan are yummy talaga. nakakataba nga lang. sigh.

Richard said...

Great post and pictures!

Waah! Too much talk about food. You made me hungry and now I want to try dinuguan. (on the weekend, I made my daughter try blood sausage, I didn't tell her what it was and she didn't want to know).

I am sure the tan makes you glow even more and the extra food makes you more voluptuous ;-)

Good ending, it is never the place or the activity, but the people that make life worth it.

Bryan Anthony the First said...

fun fun fun!!!

pahingi ng litson...

woof!

Lazarus said...

ang saya-saya. ang pretty-pretty ng mga nasa pictures.

i'm sure you did enjoy your vacation.

Anonymous said...

Galing! Nakauwi ka pala sa Bohol. Good for you. Kami next year pa :(.

Sarap ng lechon ah. Baka mas lalo kang sumiksik don Tin ha?

Anonymous said...

Oh lovely pictures Tin-Tin. Hopefully I can really meet you when you pass by Cebu!!! Mwuahhh

Unknown said...

gRabe... I missed a lot in our province (AKlan). It really reminds me of our place--the ricefields, the orchard, the (party) animals, the food, the people--I wanna have a vacation!

Wil said...

thanks for the bohol tour and also for the bit of history regarding tamblot. all i know about bohol are the tarsiers and chocolate hills. sounds like a nice place. :D

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Tin-tin,
That's a perfect post you have here. It has everything in it. Thanks for sharing your wonderful vacation experiences in Bohol. I really love to go to Bohol. To me Bohol and Palawan are two of the best vacation spots in the Philippines. I became aware of the beauty of Bohol because of the widespread campaign of Cesar Montano for all people to appreciate its beauty. I think he even shot a whole film in the scenic spots of Bohol. One of these days, by the grace of God, I will be traveling there too. Thanks for the wonderful post. And you can sing too, he, he, he. Sana you can have a video posting of your singing. Smile always. God bless and have a wonderful and fun filled weekend.

Anonymous said...

Wow, interesting!

:D

I love the photos; you guys looked so happy!

Anonymous said...

You've given us a lot of insights on Bohol. Looks like a nice place to visit :)

You sure look like you had a lot of fun. Nice pics and you look great in it too :)

TK said...

You are right. mahaba nga. I just looked at all the pictures, and will read the river of text later on. Btw, Pretty ka and your family too.

Anonymous said...

nakakatuwa naman kayo magpipinsan.
so tin, magconcert ka rin ba sa 17? :)

Sidney said...

Looks like a great vacation!
Back to your roots!

Unknown said...

welcome back Tin!ang ganda naman ng provinces mo,bohol and cebu!wow!

salamat sa pasalubong,hehe,tumulo ang laway ko sa lechon.

ganda ng pics,ang saya!

wishing you a nice week ahead!

ghee

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your bday greetings in Multiply and in Friendster, Sweet Tin-Tin. I haven't been to Bohol. It's my must-see places before I go abroad. So cool for you to have roots there. :)

Tinunuy said...

Ang sarap naman ng lechon! Glad to know you had fun with your family and cousins! :)

Unknown said...

ellow Tin,bumalik at tiningnan uli yung mga pics lalo na yung lechon :)

Happy Wednesday!!

ghee

Anonymous said...

i suggest that you try the broas from baclayon. there are stores at the back of baclayon church. really very yummy than those at BQ mall