![]() |
Doljo beach |
Bolod |
My first visit, three years ago, was a sneak peek of this
beautiful island as I spent most of my time in my aunt’s gorgeous home, The
Glass House, which she herself has designed.
She took me around the city and around some resorts. We had ice cream, pizza, and a movie date to let me get a feel of how life is in Panglao.
I spent an afternoon at Alona beach taking a
stroll, sitting by the beach, enjoying
the sunset with a cocktail drink in one of the beach bars. My stay
was a dream as I woke up to a gorgeous sunrise view and closed my day taking in
an inspiring sunset view of Panglao every day of my stay at the Glass House.
From that experience, I learned how to get
around in Panglao which is so much simpler than traveling to Boracay. Going to Boracay, involves a plane ride,
a van ride, and a boat to get to my destination. In Panglao, I just had to take a trike from
the airport to my accommodations.
After my initial trip, I was certain to return to
Panglao. When I chanced upon bargain ticket
prices with Air Asia two years later, I grabbed the chance to return to Panglao
the year after. This time around, I planned to go island hopping with the many
white sand beaches in the island.
After days of researching and comparing to get the best
value accomodations for my budget, I found decent beach front accomodations in
Bolod and Doljo beach area. I wanted to visit more beaches but I only had
4 days of stay so I simply booked for a day or two in each beach area. Thanks to the convenience of my reliable paymaya card, booking in advance was a cinch, as well as paying for my stay. I just had to load my card the day before at any 7-eleven branch and I was assured of a place to stay.'
From the airport, we (including my son and daughter) took a
trike that charged P300 for the three of us already to Bolod beach. The beach was peaceful and gorgeous, (that is
my concept of how heaven should look like) I was in heaven.
Clear water,
super fine sand, coconut trees framing the blue ocean and blue sky, I was in awe
of such a picturesque scene and the magnificent creator. We had the beach to ourselves. I just kept taking pictures capturing the
beauty and memory without realizing the slow sunburn.
I kept strolling around, sitting in the sand,
and the shallow water simply appreciating the blessing and meditating on such
wonderful creation. I was alone most of
the time, but I enjoyed just being there.
The nights were cool in the balcony that had a rocking
chair. The quietness was refreshing as I
simply sat on the rocking chair alone, while the kids were watching tv
inside. There were so many opportunities
for a prayer of thanks.
From Bolod beach, we proceeded to check out Doljo beach. The
hotel got us a trike which charged P250 to Doljo. The afternoon we got there, I wasn’t as impressed with the beach compared to
Bolod.
But early the next morning was a
different story. The beach was just as gorgeous as Bolod, I couldn’t decide which was better anymore. I spent the whole morning strolling to the
left end of the beach not realizing my sunburn was starting to hurt. I took as many pictures as possible even
selfies to prove that I was really there.
The accommodation was decent, not as comfortable or scenic as the
earlier one. But the people were the
plus side to all insufficiencies, the
staff in all accommodations were helpful and welcoming. The provincial feel was more apparent in my
accommodations at Doljo. After an
overnight stay, we left after lunch to our next and final destination.
For a change, we took
the ever-present habal-habal or motorcyle ride from Doljo to Scent of Green
Papaya Resort. I was glad I did because
the kids clearly enjoyed the motorcycle ride which cost P50 per head from beach
to beach.
From Doljo beach, the
next stop was Alona beach. One has to
visit the most popular beach in the
island because of its nightlife and sunset.
Apparently, everyone seemed to be in Alona beach. It was packed to the shoreline, I mean
literally. There was hardly a shore to
stroll in. I got to Alona beach after we
dropped off our bags at Scent of Green Papaya resort.
The kids decided they wanted to hang out in a pool this time around after
Bolod and Doljo so I just left them by the pool as I took the resort’s free
shuttle to Alona beach. After an hour of
taking photos and enjoying the sunset view of Alona beach, I was looking forward to spending time in my
comfortable room at the Scent of Green Papaya resort .
There was a brown out all over Panglao that
day so the resort was on generator. We
lingered in the warm pool for the meantime until the lights went on in the
room.
The brown out wasn’t an inconvenience at all as the pool was
so relaxing.
When the lights went on at
around 8pm, I wanted to savor the clean
shower before snuggling between the crisp,
comfortable sheets of the spacious bed.

There were more than enough charging outlets in and out the room, one of the few important details that other accommodations overlooked.
We woke up
the next morning, rushed our American breakfast, before the hotel called for a
trike to bring us back to the airport. The trip back cost P300.
The early morning drive to the airport was another visual treat with greeneries on both sides of the empty street and blue waters occassionally peaking on the left side. The clear, fresh-aired morning capped our memorable stay in Panglao.
On the way, the driver shared about their apprehension over
the Panglao airport project which would begin construction soon. This clearly would change the feel of the
island: trees would be removed, more cars on the road, the temperature would
increase, the fresh air would decrease with more polution and traffic.
I forsee another overcrowded Boracay in the making . . actually it is already happening in Alona beach. Hopefully when I return for my third visit, I will still see the beautiful clean beaches and add two more beaches to my itinerary: Momo beach and Danao beach,
I forsee another overcrowded Boracay in the making . . actually it is already happening in Alona beach. Hopefully when I return for my third visit, I will still see the beautiful clean beaches and add two more beaches to my itinerary: Momo beach and Danao beach,
No comments:
Post a Comment