Just when I thought Philippine Airlines (PAL) had shaken off its unofficial moniker, "Plane Always Late", well whaddaya know? Nick and I arrive at the airport quite early only to find that our flight to Tagbilaran City was delayed by an hour. The check-in staff didn't even mention anything about it (nor did he ask for identification), we only found out when we got to the gate and saw a handwritten note taped over the counter. The brief flight ended on an auspicious note when our pilot landed the aircraft at full-speed and applied the brakes furiously, causing us to be thrown forward in the cabin. One of the passengers, apparently also in the aviation field, noted that this was the proper way to land a jet on a short runway. Say that again?! Now I know why they insist on passengers wearing seatbelts during takeoffs and landings.
After our driver/guide/gofer Landel picked us up, we drove to the town of Loboc to experience their famous lunch cruise on the town's eponymous river. Essentially it's an 1 1/2 hour Filipino lunch buffet on river boats, aka floating restaurants, with some entertainment and sightseeing along the way. A long line greeted us at the makeshift tents where you purchase the vouchers (Php280:US$7) and are assigned seats on a specific riverboat, exacerbated by the seeming inability of Filipinos to form a single queue to keep things orderly. Nor did any official staff try to impose any sort of discipline on queue-jumpers. Trust me, queueing is not the greatest strength of Filipinos (Karaoke probably is). So Landel got stuck in line for about thirty minutes, while I contented myself with whetting my appetite by looking at enticing pictures of various native dishes prominently displayed by the tents. "This is gonna be some buffet", I even muttered to myself.
Vouchers in hand and growing hungrier by the second, the three of us excitedly rushed to the dock for...more waiting. Our riverboat was still in the process of ferrying the previous batch of tourists, and there was no word on when our turn would come. In the meantime, we watched other people stuffing their faces on meat and seafood dishes inside the boats docked nearby. I counted at least fifteen different floating restaurants, each one varying in capacity from 30 to 60. Just when I was becoming delirious from hunger, our names were called and before you knew it, we were sharing a long table with a family of four, who looked equally impatient at getting their hands on some grub.
At long last, the dishes were set up on the buffet table (a disappointment in terms of both quantity and quality), and everyone proceeded to line up, plate in hand. I use the term "line up" loosely, as in the best Filipino tradition, all hell broke loose. On one side people furiously scooped as much meat onto their plates while ignoring the stares and mumbling of other diners unfortunately situated behind them, some were pushing their way forward to get the last remnants of baby shrimp which the first five people had apparently claimed the majority of, and most alarming, some folks decided that they couldn't be bothered to stand in line and thus created their own queue at the other end of the buffet table (where the desserts are located), and their counter-flow of traffic now collided with ours with the force of a ten-wheeler truck.
Somehow I managed to get out alive, albeit missing out on the chicken and getting mostly glistening fatty pieces of pork, and made my way back to our seats. Surprised at the sight of diners at the adjoining table feasting on pork barbeque on stick, I rushed back to the buffet but couldn't find traces of the dish. Totally bummed, I sat down and decided to make do with whatever I had, at the same time wondering where the hell Nick had gone to. My question was answered two seconds later, as I turned my head and saw him coming towards us clutching ten (ten!!!) sticks of pork barbeque, the look on his face indicating his intent to impale anyone who tried to grab them away. To this day, I haven't bothered to find out how or where he hijacked them from, but those sweet BBQ truly saved the day.
I should note that the rest of the lunch cruise went by pleasantly. The riverboat slowly wound its way up the Loboc river until it reached a series of mini-waterfalls (emphasis on "mini"). Ideal photo op for camera-crazy Filipinos, to say the least. At this point, the boat turned around and on the way back, we also stopped a hut on a wooden raft where forty or so entertainers sang several native songs, accompanied by some guitar-playing and enthusiastic dancing from small kids. I actually liked the choreography, and wondered if they're being groomed to join those dance contests on TV programs. All part of the Loboc river cruise experience. An interesting, enjoyable, and mildly chaotic start to our visit to Bohol.
One of the things I noticed was the newly-constructed bridge connecting both sides of the Loboc river. It initially seems to be a rather ordinary bridge, one of numerous projects by the government's public works and highways department, but if you look closely at the picture, you'll see that the bridge ends just right above where the brightly-colored jeepney is and basically leads nowhere. The building in front of it is San Pedro Church (built in 1608, rebuilt in 1670 after being destroyed by fire and survivor of many floods), which adjoins the Museo de Loboc. Would the church need to be demolished? No one seems to know why the bridge was built in the first place, nor if and when it will be finished. For now, automobiles crossing over the Loboc river still use the existing rickety bailey bridge, and the new white elephant of a bridge serves no purpose other than giving locals a venue for their evening stroll. Just another example of money wasted and possibly stolen in this country of hours. Ah, but we're used to it anyway (shrugs).
As we were getting into the van to make our way out of town, we realized that we were parked right in front of the Museo de Loboc, so might as well check it out. Judging from outward appearances, I didn't expect much from a museum housed in such a crumbling, unprepocessing stone building whose sole decorations are Christmas lanterns. After paying the Php15 (US$0.40) entrance fee, a guide (the only one, in fact) presented himself to show us around the three-story building. The most interesting exhibits are on the ground floor relating to the town's religious musical traditions and history; not for nothing is Loboc the "music capital of Bohol". They are also rightfully proud of the Loboc Children's Choir, which in 2003 represented the country in an international folksongs festival in Barcelona and promptly bagged the gold medal in the Children/Youth category, and were awarded the Festival Cup for garnering the highest point average (a nerdy 97.5!). So in short, they kicked other countries' behinds big time.
The rest of the museum consisted of a room containing statues of saints used in various religious processions, and a big open area where the choir practices. The guide led us out onto the balcony of the third floor, and pointed to the church bell tower (which for some reason is across the street from the church itself). "Notice that the tower is leaning?", he asked. I squinted really hard and yes, it appeared to, ever so slightly. "It's from all the pile driving when they started constructing this damn bridge", he continued. So there, it appears we have a local counterpart to the leaning tower of Pisa, our homegrown Very Slightly Leaning Tower of Loboc. (Click on the picture to enlarge, and judge for yourself). Also notice the two men who have made the bridge their personal playground.
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