From Feb 3rd to the 7th I was on a short vacation from my vacation.  I went to the Philippines and then back to Singapore, which is where I am currently.  Anyways, I went to the province of Bohol in the Philippines.  I flew into Tagbilaran City via Manila and then went to Alona Beach on the island of Panglao.  Here is the exit from the airport to Tagbilaran City.



I stayed at Dumaluan Beach Resort on Alona Beach.



The first day the water felt cold, but then the rest of the days the water was nice.  Although not as hot as I was hoping it would be, but it is the colder time of year here.  I do have to say the weather was very nice and so was the water.  I just really like warm water.  The warmer the better.  I once sat in a jacuzzi in the middle of a desert during the middle of the day and I loved it.  Anyways, above is a picture of Alona Beach which is where the resort was located.  The best part about the resort was not the beach, but Milo.  Milo?  What is Milo?  Well first you should be asking WHO is Milo.  Milo is the resident monkey at the resort and I fell in love with him and he feel in love with me too.



As you can see I fed Milo (by the way that is the name I gave him) every morning and evening.  Pop quiz folks:  What does Milo the monkey love to eat???  Did you say bananas?  Well your wrong.  He loves pancakes and mango.  He actually refused to eat the bananas I gave him.  In fact he just shoved them aside never even grabbing control of them.  And when he ate pancakes he would only eat the insides and throw away the outside.  I am curious if he did this because you usually don't eat the outside of fruit (his usual diet) or if the outside was too thick for his taste.  He truly was a fascinating and funny character.  The first day I saw him he stared at me and then he made a chewing motion while looking at the hole in the cage.  I took that as my hint to get food and put it in the hole.  So I went and got food and sure enough he reached through the hole and took it.  It was a magical moment for us.  That is when we fell in love with each other.  From then on I made sure to feed him twice a day.  I also stopped by frequently to say hi and goodnight or to just pet him.  One day he even started grooming me.  He was digging throught the hair on my arm looking for bugs and dirt to get rid of.  Then he started cleaning my nails.  It was such an honor, especially since I saw him get stand-offish with other people.  So it wasn't like he was friendly to everyone.  He also recognized me as he would run from one side of the cage to greet me (even when I didn't have food).  Oh and one time I was feeding him and he was totally checking out the container of food seeing what I had to offer and he refused to eat anything until I gave him the right item.  Here is another picture of Milo eating mango.



They also had some local birds that could speak (the A Wa Wa twins), a turtle pond, and a big monitor lizard in a tiny cage (Yellow).  I felt bad for Yellow because he didn't have any room to move and seemed to be very sad.  I tried feeding him, but he wouldn't eat what I offered, but he did seem to enjoy the attention.  So what else did I do there.  I went to a butterfly farm.



This one is known as the lucky butterfly because it lives 90 as opposed to the usual 21 days.  It is also often used at weddings instead of doves.  I also went to Chocolate Hills.



I don't know why they call them chocolate hills, but there are about 1,200 of these round sudden hills all the same shape and in one area.  I had lunch on a floating resto as they call it.



Basically it was a lunch cruise down a beautiful tropical river.  Along the cruise we stopped at a floating stage and were treated to a show of local music and dancing.



You can see the ladies in pink.  There were about 20 of them and they put on a very nice show.  I also went to Hinagdanan cave.  It was a nice little cave with an underground lake.  Here I am exiting the cave's small entrance.



The most impressive thing about the cave was the guide.  He took some pictures for me, but it was his knowledge of cameras that impressed me.  As soon as he took the camera he put it in manual mode and started changing the settings.  Then he showed me the improvements in the pictures and it was amazing.  I mean he used that camera liked he owned it.  Now I know he is a guide and uses cameras all day long, but every camera is different and yet he spent no time trying to figure out how to use the camera or even remember how to use that specific camera.  It was just amazing the speed at which he used it.  I think he could even do better than most if not all camera salesmen.  I also visited a man made forest.



I ran into a few of the local beers.



I tried the San Miguel beer, but not the red horse.  Unfortunately it was not too cold so I can't really tell you if I liked it or not as I don't like any beer unless it is cold.  And even then I am not too crazy about beer.  I was told the red horse is a dark strong beer which is why I did not try it.  I stopped at this old catholic church while touring the island.



If I remember correctly it was built in the 15th century and it is still active.  I know because I attended the mass on Sunday evening.  It was kind of interesting to not only see the church as a tourist, but to also see it in use.  The place is very old and has a lot of history to it.  So it is hard not to feel moved when attending a mass inside.  Here is the inside.



Finally I stopped at a few tarsier farms.  What is a tarsier you ask.  Well I will get to that in a moment.  First here is a flying lemur.



I got to touch them which was cool.  One of them even had a baby tucked inside.  It was so cute.  Next I saw a Malaysian civet.



These little cats are famous because they help make the world's most expensive cup of coffee.  These cats eat coffee beans and then they poop them out half digested.  So people walk around collecting these half digested coffee beans and then they brew coffee from them.  I am not sure how much a cup goes for, but I think it is in the hundreds or maybe even thousands.  The coffee used to only be available to royalty, but now anyone with money can buy a cup.  I know it is true because I saw a special on the travel channel once about this coffee.  When I was leaving one of the tarsier farms, I went to two of them, I saw this cute guy.



He must have been tired from a long day of work.  So finally we get to what a tarsier is.  This is a tarsier.



A tarsier is the smallest primate on Earth and it is only from in the province of Bohol in the Philippines.  It has huge eyes because it is nocturnal.  I found out they have a night safari where you can see them in action so if I ever make it back here I will have to do that.  They are carnivores eating mostly insects.  They are endangered of course due to habitat loss and hunting.  They are very docile and we were not allowed to touch them.  So I did the next best thing.



I rubbed my cheek against it while posing for a picture.  Okay, okay.  I didn't mean to do it, but it happened.  He was so soft ad cuddlely.  If you looked closely he is smiling.  I think he liked me.  SO that is a tarsier and the highlight to my trip.