Not Sweating the Small Stuff

Mini Travel Post - The Delight in the Unexpected

I was watching 'From Sydney To Tokyo By Any Means' on BBC Knowledge last night and was reminded of travelling round the island of Bohol in the Philippines a few years back.

We'd done the usual touristy things - inspecting the C16 Spanish-style baroque church ...



... with its beautiful interior wooden panel paintings, as yet deliciously untouched by the restorer's hand ...



... and too endlessly photographing a beautiful traditional house or 'bahay cubo' ...


... when we came across what might be a unique geological phenomenon - the Chocolate Hills ...


I could rattle on about how these roughly 1500 conical mounds or karsts were formed by volcanic action through a limestone sea bed ...


... but what was more important to us then, as now in reflection, is their quite extraordinary almost other world-ish visual impact ...


We pretended we needed to break our journey and quickly booked into a hotel - so we could spend the next few days malingering and lurking round these seductively regular structures!

Now, the really unexpected and further bonus was the 1960s built hotel itself, situated on top of one of the karsts, broad balconies from each bedroom, with a view to die for laid out in front of you to the very horizon.

Blissful blissful time!!!