Up at stupid O'clock to catch the 6am ferry to Bohol which is our last stop in the Visayas region of the Philippines. Bohol has a lot to live up to as the island and its smaller neighbour Pangalao are touted in all the tourist brochures you can find for this country. Needless to say we were a little disappointed.

Feeling like fully fledged tourists as opposed to the independent traveller we hired a driver for the day who would take us on a 'countryside tour' this is the done thing in Bohol and we along with scores of tour groups took to the road each stopping off at the same places along the way. One of Bohol's highlights is the Chocolate Hills. A large area inland is covered with over a thousand virtually identically shaped hills of varying sizes. Imagine lots of supersized toblerone chunks dotted around and you'll be some way there in imagining this natural spectacle. The hills turn a chocolate brown in the dry season as the vegetation becomes scorched in the sun, hence the name. As this is still wet season they were more of a Savoy cabbage green which I admit doesn't quite conjure up the same image.

Lunch was an interesting affair, driven to the lovely Loboc River we were destined to take a river cruise complete with buffet lunch. Doesn't that sound fabulous? The reality was being ushered onto a large floating barge already full bar two seats for us. Everyone aboard had already tucked into said buffet and nearly finished their meal. Now seated and munching our very expensive rice floating down river we were serenaded by an ageing Filipino Sinatra fan belting out oldies for his adoring audience (I was not included in this). And so it continued for a torturous forty minutes, escalated towards the end as the Karaoke kicked in. Now we have been known to partake in a little Lucky Voice style karaoke on numerous occasions but the Filipinos go mad for it. Unfortunately as a nation they appear to be collectively terrible at it. An up close and personal encounter with a freaky little Tarsier and viewing of a tremendously large python brought our tour to a close.

A short trip over the bay took us to Bohol Bee Farm where we spent the next couple of nights. Their organic honey was delicious, quite unlike anything vie tasted before. On a little tour of the farm we discovered i was a dab hand at operating a loom, maybe weaving will be a new career path? Unfortunately my skills were rather infantile and not quite up to scratch and needless to say they didn't offer me a job

After getting chomped by mosquitoes for a couple of days we left struck out on a journey that would take us away from Bohol and over the water to Camiguin. Significant life and death experiences en route to the ferry with immensely reckless driving (not mine) added to the drama. WIth a few minutes to spare we arrived at Jagna paid our 15 pesos terminal fee and we were on our way.