1. Sinulog Festival

   
   This is an annual festival celebrated every third Sunday of January in Cebu city (1 hour 15 minutes from Manila by air). The festival is characterized by a very long parade with many groups of people dressed in colorful costumes while dancing the Sinulog. The Sinulog dance is a traditional and ritual dance in honor of the local's patron saint, Sto. Niño (Child Jesus). It was said that while dancing Sinulog, people were shouting their petitions and thanksgiving to the Sto. Niño. The shouting (of Pit Siñor!) was necessary because the pilgrims have to be sure their petitions and thanksgiving is heard by the Sto. Niño.

2. Dinagyang Festival

   
   This is an annual festival celebrated every fourth weekend of January in Iloilo City (1 hour 5 minutes from Manila by air.) The festival is characterized by frenetic stomping of feet and hypnotic drumbeating. It is a colorful whirl of thousands of people dressed in unique costumes dancing and chanting all day and night. The thundering of "Hala Bira!" by the celebrants makes the celebration a lively one. Dinagyang is the only festival in the world recognized by the United Nations to promote its advocacy campaign on the Millenium Development Goals (MGD).

3. Panabenga-Baguio Flower Festival

   
   This is an annual festival celebrated during the whole month of February in Baguio City (50 minutes from Manila by air). The festival is characterized by showcasing Cordillera flowers on parade (flower floats), with garden shows, exhibits, lectures and competitions. Panagbenga is a Kankanaey term for "season of blooming". Since February 1995, the festival is held every year to help Baguio City forget the 1990 earthquake that distressed much o the city.

4. Kaamulan Festival

   
   This is an annual festival celebrated every first weekend of March in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon (1 hour 30 minutes from Manila to Cagayan de Oro City by air; 1 hour 30 minutes from Cagayan de Oro City to Malaybalay City by land). I know it's quite a long way to go, but wait till you see what it's like. It is worth the travel. The festival is characterized by a showcase of tribal/ethnic songs, dances, games, crafts and rituals. Kaamulan is a Binukid term for "social gathering".

5. Moriones Festival

   
   This is an annual folk-religious festival celebrated during the Holy Week of April in Marinduque (45 minutes from Manila by air). It is week-long festival featuring finely-carved masks worn by colorful warriors depicting the fierce Roman soldiers of Christ's time - Longinus. Legend has it that Longinus pierced the side of the crucified Christ. The blood that spurted forth touched his blind eye and fully restored his sight. This miracle converted Longinus to Christianity and earned the ire of his fellow centurions. The term Moriones refers to the masked and costumed penitents who marched around the town for seven days in search for Longinus.

6. Bangus Festival

   
   This is an annual festival celebrated during the month of April in Dagupan City, Pangasinan (6 hours from Manila by land). The festival is characterized by the ceremonial lighting of 1,000 barbeque grills which are used to cook thousands of Bangus (Milkfish). Did you know that the barbeque grills stretch for nearly two-kilometers and thus making it to the Guinness World Record for the longest barbecue grill? Isn't that simply amazing!?! It also highlights "101 Ways to Cook Bangus" brought to you by hundreds of chefs who compete to cook the tastiest and most creative Bangus dish. Yummy!

7. Pahiyas Festival

   
   This is an annual festival celebrated during the month of May in Lucban, Quezon City ( 3 hours from Manila by land). The festival is characterized with a line of beautifully decorated homes with the town's best agricultural products. One of the festival's attractions is the "kiping," a wafer made of rice and shaped into a trea leaf which comes in different colors of pink, green and yellow. The festival is celebrated in honor of the locals' patron saint, San Isidro Labrador, as well as, a thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest. It was believed by the locals that the Pahiyas festival must be done in order to avoid bad luck, drought and famine.

8. Mudpack Festival

   
   This is an annual festival celebrated every third weekend of June in Murcia, Negros Occidental (1 hour 10 minutes from Manila to Bacolod City by air; 20 minutes from Bacolod City to Murcia by land). The festival is characterized by a lively street dancing parade with participants wearing almost nothing but mudpacks. Isn't that a bit itchy!?! A symbolic celebration of man's return to primitive time when he was closer to nature. It seeks to instill in people the awareness and care of environment and the use of natural materials in arts and crafts.

9. Sandugo Festival

   
   This is an annual festival celebrated during the month of July in Bool, Tagbilaran City, Bohol (Two hours from Manila by air). The festival commemorates the blood compact (sandugo) peace treaty between Rajah Sikatuna and Capt. Gen. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi marking the beginning of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. The term Sandugo is from the Visayan root word "dugo" which means "blood". In a Sandugo, participants each drink a small amount of the other's blood, thus making them brothers binded by blood. This was the traditional way of formalizing friendship treaties in the Philippines.

10. Kadayawan Festival

    
    This is an annual festival celebrated every third week of August in Davao City (1 hour 45 minutes from Manila by air). The festival is characterized by a week long celebration and thanksgiving for nature's bountiful harvest in a form of grand colorful parade of fruits and orchid-bedecked floats and tribal street dancing. Kadayawan is a Mandaya term which means anything that brings fortune, celebration and thanksgiving for the bounties of harvest and serenity of living.

11. Tuna Festival

    
    This is an annual festival celebrated during the month of September in General Santos City (1 hour 45 minutes from Manila by air). Heard of Manny Pacquiao? He is the first Asian (Filipino) boxer to win three world titles in three different weight divisions. Well, General Santos is his hometown. The festival is characterized by a floating parade representing giant replicas of tuna together with its fellow creatures from the sea. It commemorates the tuna industry which is the prime fishing product of the city, contributing 60% to its economy. General Santos is known as the country's Tuna Capital.

12. Lanzones Festival

    
    This is an annual festival celebrated during the month of October in Mambajao, Camiguin Island (1 hour 30 minutes from Manila to Cagayan de Oro City by air; 2 hours 15 minutes from Cagayan de Oro City to Camiguin City by land then ferry). Another long ride, but will soon be rewarded by the delicious fruit specialty they are popular of -- the Lanzones. The festival is characterized by a street dancing extravaganza featuring the Lanzones -- Camiguin's favorite fruit. Lanzones is a tropical fruit that grows abundantly on the north-central coast of Mindanao. It is said that the sweetest lanzones comes from Camiguin.

13. Higantes Festival

    
    This is an annual festival celebrated during the month of November in Angono, Rizal (2 hours 30 minutes from Manila by land). Angono is known as the "Art Capital of the Philippines" -- the hometown of two national artists namely Carlos V. Francisco for painting and Lucio D. San Pedro for music. The festival is characterized by a fiesta of "gigantic" proportions highlighted by a grand procession of 10-feet high papier mache puppets surrounded by a crowd of drenched, water-fighting revelers, thus the term Higantes.

14. Shariff Kabunsuan Festival

    
    This is an annual festival celebrated during the month of December in Cotabato City, Maguindanao (1 hour 30 minutes from Manila by air). The festival is characterized by a colorful display of Muslim religion and culture. It commemorates the arrival of Shariff Kabunsuan, an Arab-Malay missionary from Johore, via Rio Grande de Mindanao who introduce Islam religion to the natives.

15. Binirayan Festival

    
    This is an annual festival celebrated during the month of December in San Jose, Antique (1 hour from Manila by air). The festival is characterized by the re-enactment of the landing and settlement of the ten Bornean datus in Antique (1240) who founded the first Malay settlement in the country. "Binirayan" literally means "where they sailed to".

Holy Week is fast approaching and together with my boyfriend, we decided to spend the long vacation in someplace far, interesting and quiet - more like a honeymoon prone place.

Day 1: March 20, 2008 (Thursday)

We departed Cagayan de Oro City around 8:30AM on a ship bound for Jagna, Bohol. The time spent on board the ship was more on eating, sleeping and a little picture taking. We didn't have much activity. We were conserving most of our energies for the days ahead.

We arrived in Jagna, Bohol around 2:00PM, looked for the terminal and rode a bus (which they termed as "truck") which is bound for Tagbilaran, Bohol - the capital. Since our destination would be for Loboc, we need to make a stop over at Loay and then took a jeepney.

Upon arriving in our destination, we rested for awhile and then proceeded with conquering the place. The only place we were able to conquer was the Loboc River, where they once filmed the "Panaghoy sa Suba - The Cry of the River". My boyfriend was really thrilled and took pictures all over the place.

We retired early in the evening - got really exhausted from all the trip.

Day 2: March 21, 2008 (Friday)

We woke up around 10:00AM and got really excited to try the famous Loboc Floating Restaurant. We paid Php280 for the buffet lunch and supposed to be a trip to Busay Spring, but because it's Holy Friday, there was no trip available - only the lunch.

The next trip we had was to get a look at the famous, smallest monkey - Tarsier. It was just a walking distance from the floating restaurant. There was no "pay per see", but only donation boxes where you could drop any amount you wish to give. Donation boxes are much better than mandatory entrance fee. It's because, a person's experience may vary from one another, and satisfaction too. If you were satisfied, you could donate as much as you want to; and if you were not satisfied on the other hand, you could donate not a single centavo if you like.

Anyways, we learned that the tarsiers they had in-kept were already tamed. Tarsiers living on the wild are much faster and difficult to spot, probably dangerous. Crickets and other small insects are their food. They are nocturnal - animals that are active at night variation.

In the late afternoon, the local had their usual religious procession. It ended around 7:00PM.

Day 3: March 22, 2008 (Saturday)

On the third day of our trip, we went to Tagbilaran. From Loboc, you need to embark on a jeepney bound to the city and would be paying Php50. We disembarked in one of their famous malls - The Island City Mall. The locals would call it "ICM". We left our baggages inside ICM and headed directly to the nearest Kodak shop where we could burn the images we had stored in our digital camera. We visited a lot of shops inside the mall and one of my boyfriends favorite was Bo's coffee shop.

Another mall we visited was Bohol Quality - this was located much more on the downtown area. My boyfriend got real shocked when he learned that the building we ushered ourselves into was a mall. We had a tour inside and stumble upon Gerry's Grill - again another shock for him. He never quite expected to find it there. He got so thrilled that he decided we'll have our dinner there. We ordered three menu - Chili Cheese Sticks, Pork Sisig and Bicol Express. We got so full and sleepy, that we just did a little grocery and then retired for the night.

Day 4: March 23, 2008 (Sunday)

Early morning, we hired a taxi cab that would take us to Panglao Island - famous for its white sand beaches. It was their rule of thumb that the one-way fare should be multiplied by two, to cover the cost going back the city proper - we paid around Php300 (a total of Php600).

Our destination was Bohol Beach Club (BBC). There was an entrance fee of Php350/person, where the Php250 is consumable. And indeed, we consumed a yummy lot. During our lunch, we ordered for a Beef Steak and Sinugbang (Grilled) Pusit - it was really delicious. We both enjoyed the scenery and the food.

Our journey didn't stop there. We then conquered BBC's white sand beach. Even though it was raging hot, we took pictures of ourselves with the serenic view. A pose here and there, laughing and just plain enjoying.

Later in the afternoon, we had a late swim on the beach and just enjoying the warm water. We also looked for a starfish that we could take it home with us as a souvenir. We got really tired and relaxed with all the beach tripping that we just went directly to sleep afterwards.

Day 5: March 24, 2008 (Monday)

Our fifth and last day in Bohol. Our trip for Cagayan de Oro was due 7:00PM that evening. We spent the early and late afternoons inside ICM buying stuff as "pasalubong". Around 5:30PM, we hired a motorcycle that would take us to Tagbilaran Port where it costs us Php20/person (a total of Php40). Inside the port's waiting area, we took our last look at the place we stayed in for five days - Bohol, before we embarked on the ship that would take us back home.

Hope you enjoyed reading this and soon be able to share similar experiences.