Image credits: Jean Beltran-Figues via bitLanders.com
Hello guys! Am back with the second part of the the blog topic Things To Do When in Guindulman. As mentioned in the previous blog part, Guindulman is my home town and I would like to share to you a piece of what you can do just in case you come across the Philippines, thought of visiting Bohol and your feet had brought you to this lovely coastal town.
Previously, I did mention four things you can do such as :
1. Climb Mount Kapakla
2. Chill at Balay Lingin
3. Take an early breakfast at the main town
4. Walk at muddy or dry paddies
Check out the previous blog here: Things To Do When in Guindulman Part 1
Today, let me give you more activities to try on. These are really easy ones and that you can definitely spot locals doing the same thing. It is fun and enjoyable at the same time plus, you'll get satisfied too because most of these items involves food and drinks. Continue reading!
5. Have a shot of local coconut wine
Image credits: jun rebayla via Flickr.com
To be more of a local, hanging out with the locals who are normally having their drinking session early afternoon on a weekend at the local store would be the best way to learn more about how the lives of the gentlemen are. You can easily find one, you can distinguish it by a table with single glass filled with red colored drink with a group of men passing the glass to the next person who have red necks after few shots. This is referred as "Tagay", a drinking style between the brotherhood.
Tuba - a local coconut wine is a hit in town because it is the cheapest among the liquor options. Coconut wine has its medical benefits but it isn't taken because of that but because of its alcoholic contents.
Image credits: Karlans via Flickr.com
When local men are a bit tipsy, rest assured that they had already consumed around three gallon containers of this drink. Because the alcoholic content of this wine isn't really that strong compared to the expensive drinks, it would take lots of glass shots before one gets drunk. It would take hundreds of repeated funny story and the group busts in heavy laughter as they hear the story again and again.
Video credits: Vincent Ellica Juezan via YouTube.com
They drink for its sole purpose of just being merry. So it is one of the things that one should also try out while in town but don't ever let it get you. Thank them after a few shots and get your way out as there's a usual scene of fights after all the members of the drunk squad have drank to their hearts out. The fight will eventually be forgotten the next day as their memory had only saved it as temporary event.
6. Go white beach hopping
Image credits: www.bituon.com
As Anda is blessed with lots of white sand beaches, in fact almost all of its shoreline are white sand beaches, Guindulman has been given a few of those as well, this is perhaps because Anda is just right next to our town. So, if you feel like Anda is a bit far, you don't have to worry, you can just stay in town and walk around the coast line area where you can definitely encounter white sand beaches too! And good news, most of these are public beaches! Let me site a few :
Warren Beach Resort
Bonbon Beach
Coco White Beach
Bituon Beach Resort
Upon checking on this list, I realized, I have never blogged about these resorts even if I had already visited them, perhaps because I don't have much photos and videos with these spots. Now, I guess I will have to make blogs for each beach resort once I get home to Bohol soon.
Image credits: www.bituon.com
So, there you can see there are lots of white sand beaches that you can select from on the list above. Coco White Beach and Bituon Beach Resort are actually private ones however, for the latter, there's a public stairway from the highway going to the main beach which is quite a dangerous route but definitely worth it after you get to the main shore.
The rest are public beach which only require a few bucks for the entrance fee. It doesn't really cost a lot to get here.
7. Pooling at Lake Side View
Image credits: LakesideViewCottageInnResort
Aside from the mentioned above and on the previous blog, Guindulman is also blessed with lakes and an example to that is the one which has been turned into a resort, the Lake Side View Cottage Inn Resort.
This lake actually was situated just very near to the high way. In fact, it is visible from the bus or any vehicle upon passing by this area in Barangay Guio-ang. It has been a marker for me too whenever I travel via bus from Ubay to Guindulman, I would always look at the right side of the road so I would know that I am already in Guindulman.
So, lately, I learned that some business man had built a resort out of this lake which was not really popular before as a place to visit to. It was in fact somehow curse because when it rains hard, it would be overflowing to the extent of flooding that part of the barangay.
But anyways, my parents and brothers had been there already and I have not yet visited that place so it is just time for me to also check out that location very very soon.
Apart from it having swimming pool area and cottages for overnight stay, they also have function halls for events and the most common one is weddings! A couple of my friends and neighbors had held their weddings here and I have seen specific photos of it and I found the location decent enough to be used as a wedding venue.
Check out their social media account here: Lake Side View Cottage Inn Resort
8. Pick seashells at the black sand beach
Image credits: commons.wikimedia.org
A favorite activity which I would always have fun doing even after growing up is picking up seashells at the shore line where I grew up as a kid. Once upon a time when we were still living together with my grandparents and other relatives, our house was located just in front of the beach. We have a black sand beach shore and during low tide, most of the kids and even the grown ups would start walking at the shore line, bowing down and gazing for some edible seashells!
Image credits: ofseaandshore.wordpress.com
The good thing about this activity is that even if we get ourselves wet because of running around while trying to find these shells, our parents won't get mad at us because we got something for dinner!
Yes, these seashells are really valuable as we can have them cooked for dinner. We usually make a hotpot full of seashells or perhaps we would grill them if they are huge enough but it would require a few hours of waiting as we have to place them in the water so they'll spit the sand out of their system so that when we eat them, we won't be eating all the sand that they have inside their shells.
9. Make a sweet buko slop in a fine afternoon
Image credits: jillianlaagan.files.wordpress.com
Bohol is blessed with lots of hilly areas and even flat ones, then there's an abundant number of coconut trees scattered everywhere. Either they were planted by man or it was there all along. Whoever owns that land, the coconut trees that have grown there are also his.
Image credits: www.foodblogph.com
So, it has been a usual scene in our town that in an area where there are coconut trees, most owners would climb up to a coconut tree that of which has good looking coconut fruit (if that's a fruit) and would pick them straight from there, drop it as carefully as possible so to not break the shell.
Here's how we had made our own with my husband's colleagues whom we hosted when the visited Bohol last year.
Video credits: Jboy Cagumbay via YouTube.com
As soon as he is contented with the number of coconut he has picked, he'll go down, break these coconuts into halves, saving the coconut water and the scraping the soft meat inside into a huge container. Condensed milk shall then be added into the mixture, ice cubes to make it cold as well as adding few cups of hard biscuits. That's what we locally refer as "Buko Lamaw". Perfect to quench each one's thirst on a hot afternoon! You should also see the entire process and have your own glass of this yummy treat!
I believe there are still a lot of things to do in our town but so far these are the only things that I fully recommend. Hope you can visit our town too so you can also experience how it is to be living in this remote but beautiful town.
xoxo,
Jean
