Bohol Experience (1 Day Itinerary)

Long time no post guys! I've been really busy sorting things out in my life right now. haha. But as promised on my Back in Cebu post, this is our 1 Day Itinerary and some travel tips in Bohol. It wasn't really a planned and prepared trip, so if you have been in Bohol and you have some tips to add, feel free to post on the comments section. :)

So we woke up at 5:00 am and left the hotel at around 6:15 am. We rode a taxi to Pier 4 Cebu City, which was about a 10-minute ride if you are from the town area (we paid about Php 98 for the fare).

When you reach the entrance of the pier, tell the taxi to drop you off on the ticketing office. In our case, the driver brought us straight inside the pier. As a result, we have to walk our way out to the entrance for us to buy our tickets. (noob mode. haha)

Make sure you get off in this area. But if you already have a ticket, you can go straight inside the Pier.

There are so many ferries to chose from. But since Weesam Express cancelled their morning trip, we chose 2GO (formerly known as SuperCat).

Fare for Cebu-Tagbilaran and Tagbilaran-Cebu is Php 875 for one person. For the Business Class, the fare is about Php 1,500.

This was the boat we rode to Tagbilaran. The trip was about an hour and 45 minutes, so if you got to the pier early, it's your time to sleep here. hehe.

We arrived about 8:55 am at Tagbilaran and there were a lot of Tour Agencies inviting us to avail their services. Their prices were pretty much the same, Php 2,500 for Car rental and 3,500 for Van rental. But since I am good with haggling, I got a Php 2,000 deal for a Van rental. Yipee!

The itinerary was Chocolate Hills, Loboc River and Floating Restaurant, Tarsier Sanctuary, Butterfly Garden, Baclayon Church and Blood Compact Site.

Saudi Prometric Exam for Nurses (Saudi Council Exam)

According to POEA, the Saudi Council mandates all foreign nurses to pass the Prometric Exam before working in the Kingdom. So for the last 2-3 years to this present date, Filipino nurses who would want to work in Saudi take the Prometric Exam standardized by the SAUDI COMMISSION FOR HEALTH SPECIALTIES (SCHS).

Prometric is a trusted test development and delivery provider to more than 400 organizations worldwide. They have testing centers in Manila and Cebu. I was originally planning to take it in Manila, but since we have a scheduled vacation in Cebu, I decided to take it there rather than spending again for another set of tickets.

It took me some time to figure out where to go to schedule the exam. So to make it easier for you guys follow the simple steps below. :)

How to Schedule a Prometric Exam: 

1. Go directly to this link: https://securereg3.prometric.com/ 

2. Select your Program: Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (non-elig) (Note: this option is only for those outside of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.) Then, click NEXT >.

3. It will then refresh into a new window. Click  Schedule an Appointment.

Back in Cebu!

I was gone for a quite a while because of some important matters and we celebrated my Mom's birthday in cebu. We actually went to Bohol also, but just for a day. I think I may be posting some travel tips and sample itinerary for that trip.

Since it was already our third time in Cebu, we just went to the places where we haven't visited yet like the Taoist Temple and the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. 

How to go to the Taoist Temple: To reach the temple, you can ride a taxi from your hotel and just tell the driver to bring you to the Taoist Temple. From town proper to the temple, it's just around Php130-150 (or more, depending on where you stay). The temple is located inside a subdivision, so when your taxi slows down and there's a checkpoint, that means you're entering Beverly Hills, and you're already near the temple.

This is where taxis unload their passengers and where private vehicles park. 

Note: If you don't have a private vehicle, tell the taxi driver to wait for you (they usually charge Php100-200), or you can do what we did - walk 'til you see a taxi (haha). But don't worry, there are usually habal-habal (public motorcycles) that are about a 5-minute-walk away from the temple (they usually charge Php10 per person). But since it was still early in the morning, we just walked and luckily we saw a taxi near the entrance of Beverly Hills Subdivision.

Lazada Philippines Review

I've been meaning to buy at Lazada for the longest time, but I'm always afraid to try their site because of some horror reviews.

But since I am moving out of our house next month, I thought of giving this site a try. They offer free shipping nationwide and I saw some good deals which were hard to resist. So last August 14, 2012 I hit the checkout button.

While checking out, I saw that they have the Cash on Delivery option which was great, but I also observed that they don't have the Paypal option. (I wanted to use Paypal so that I can be sure that my Credit Card details are safe). But anyways, I still went for it using my CC. 

Upon Checkout you will see this message: 

"Dear ______,
Thank you for your order. Your order confirmation number is: 
123456789
If you'd like to track the status of your order, log on to your LAZADA account. etc"

The next day, I checked my orders page and saw this:

And I thought, uhh where's the status? The "View order" link leads you to the list of items, but still no status.

The Beach!

Yesterday morning, my mother woke me up because she wanted me to drive her to the beach. Not because she wanted to swim, but because she wanted to get stones and pebbles to place outside our house. :-| haha

Well, anyways. The Bible says "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. - Ephisians 6:1". So at 6 am, we hit the road. But before I left the house, I brought my camera so that I can take some photos of the beach (seascapes makes me excited!).

Two of my cousins joined us, and we brought our dog Chimee (a 5 year old female pomspitz) along with us. Sayang nga lang 'coz I forgot to take some photos of my dog. haha

Anywho, here are the post processed beach photos I took using my Panasonic LUMIX FZ47:

This is my favorite shot. I just love the water splash! hehe 

I also love this horizon shot.