Here we were greeted by the office staff who immediately place umbrellas over our head to shade us, then gave is a floral necklaces as expat South African Bollie the resort manager personally greeted us along with staff.

Up the short steps we went into a really classy looking office reception area. All bags were taken to the room for us, and when it was ready, a staffer escorted us with an umbrella to keep us out of the sun again. The only problem I had with the umbrella thing is the staffer that takes you to your room is usually a woman, and where I come from, a gentleman always opens the door for and holds the umbrella for the lady. I usually prevailed, but for women staffers who refused to let me hold the umbrella for her, we reached a sort of diplomatic detente by both of us holding the umbrella for each other.

Each private room is more like a small private, exclusive residence. Eskaya calls them “Balai’s”. We were taken in for the tour, and oh wow, I could not believe where we were going to get to stay!

Let me back up for a moment and say that I have been in some of the fanciest, most exclusive hotel rooms around. Yet when I travel to the tropics, I don’t want to feel like I am in a gaudy Las Vegas hotel room. I want to feel like I am in the Enchanted Tiki Hut at Disneyland, yet with all the modern amenities. Eskaya has that down perfect, and more.

On the Balai steps is a place for umbrellas and shoes, and once in the door, you are on a natural polished wood floor that has a custom wooden cabinet for your hang up style clothes. The Eskaya staffer opened the hanging closet door, to which a light automatically opened up to reveal brand new, lush white robes. Turning around, there is a desk with a granite countertop that has drawers, charging jacks, and an iPhone charging dock. Turning into the main living quarters is a huge bed with the finest, most luxurious new white linens I have ever seen. In front of the bed is another custom local wood cabinet with a mini-bar style fridge packed full of all the goodies. Above that is more electrical outlets, and a nice 40” flat panel HD TV, along with a PlayStation 3 and DVD player.

We won't show you all yet, but just wait till you see the HD video coming soon that includes a complete Balai tour.

I noticed the nice chairs and table next the bed, with a welcome card on it along with fresh cold fruit. That was a really nice touch!

Eskaya balai table.jpg

Passing that, we were taken through a room door to what can best be described as a luxurious semi-outdoor bathroom. A huge fancy European double vanity counter with contemporary German made faucets is against one wall. To one side is the tiled toilet nook, to the other is a huge tiled European style shower with room for 4.

Behind all that is a large, 2 person tiled-in American made jacuzzi tub with seemingly more jets than the U.S. Air Force. Behind that, and at the back of the grounds was a tropical shower set into a bamboo wall, with a bamboo tube used as the shower water fall, and even a bamboo tube handle that operates the cool fresh water that falls to your feet on a smooth black stone natural outdoor ground. Imagine taking an outdoor shower in the buff under a tropical “Swiss Family Robinson” style bamboo waterfall shower in complete privacy. How cool is that?!

Next we were taken back into the room, and out through the large slider patio doors. This leads to a huge wooden decking platform with new lounges and lounge padding, then to a stunning large private pool. The private pool shown below was deep enough so you could swim, but still stand up with your head just above the water if you were inclined. The water temperature was perfect, just enough to cool off in, yet warm enough you could stay in for hours.

Eskaya Private Balai Pool.jpg

The entire Balai grounds is encircled in lush bamboo and greenery, so if you want to lay out, jacuzzi, shower or swim ala St Tropez, you will have complete privacy.

If it were not for the incredible remaining Eskaya Resort grounds and fantastic natural adventure Bohol and Panglao is legendary for, you may never want to leave your Eskaya Balai, it is that spectacular.

After a refreshing shower, it was off for a tour of the rest of the resort. We were met at the front Balai doorsteps by a staffer with an umbrella, and the tour continued. The large Eskaya Spa grounds and facility was really tranquil. The entrance has a large European glass bowl centerpiece with fresh flower petals floating in it. Off to the side of the decking was a really clean Zen style pond where I was looking at interesting large stone frog sculptures on the rocks...till I noticed one move. They must have had formal training as mimes, as they were the most still frogs I have ever seen.

Eskaya Zen Pond.jpg

The Eskaya Spa has sauna rooms, large steam showers, a huge peaceful massage room, and various facial and other body treatment facilities. And you can bet we were going to sample that later!

The dining area was really nice. Guests can elect either for a closed room with a huge table, our outdoor dining under the enclosure. Sit down and a staffer will greet you with a hot, thick mint wet towel to freshen up with. The menu has all the fine International dishes one would require, so for breakfast we choose the below classic American, smoked ham, eggs, toast and orange juice, well, and American champagne, which is coke.

Eskaya Breakfast2.jpg

Next to this was a huge Infinity edge pool with crystal clear water as seen below. They even had a Cancun style swim up bar island with seats in the water and cold fruit, mixed and bottled drinks.

Eskaya Infinity Pool.jpgEskaya Hanging Bridge.jpg

We toured the remainder of the grounds on a self-guided tour. There are waterfalls, a hanging bridge as shown above, streams, a really clean, really large private beach, gardens, and to the North, Eskaya's new dive shop that was nearing completion. This had plenty of outdoor rinse showers, gear racks and dive and photo rinse tanks.


After returning to my room, a call to the front desk was made, and my dive gear bags were loaded up into the air conditioned Eskaya van. A quick 10 minute drive down the main road and we turned left and parked at Philippine Island Divers Divers, the dive concessionaire used by Eskaya as see below.

Philippine Island Divers.jpg

There my dive gear and underwater video production equipment bags were taken.

I set up all my gear, and had pure oxygen available for my rebreather. For you rebreather divers, cylinders and lime are available from a dive shop right on Alona beach.

At Philippine Island Divers, I was introduced to the staff there, and shown the large dive site maps and asked where we wanted to dive. How about that?! I met up with my buddy and assistant cameraman Randel van Heerden out of Manila. It was nice to see an old chum and general Philippines diving co-conspirator.

I spent the next several hours setting up and checking out all my gear. I hung out with Randel for the early evening sampling the fresh seafood stands along Alona Beach. As always, the Philippines dive destination private vendors have these humongous shrimp, and Alona Beach did not disappoint! It is sort of fun haggling over the price of shrimp, as they have 2 prices, the local price and the tourist price, which they will deny all the way to the grave. Off to the barbecue at the food stand we went as they barbecued the shrimp with a butter garlic sauce. Mmmmmm.

A nice breeze blows throughout Alona beach, especially in the evenings. After dinner there, it was back off to that awesome Balai at Eskaya. Another quick cool shower, and it was right into the middle of that giant bed, and on the HD TV went, channel surfing till something was found, then an early evening worth of sleep.

The next several days we decided to take a tour of the interior of Bohol, something Eskaya will completely take care of for you.

The first order of business was checking out the Tarsiers. These little critters are the smallest primates in the world, and are quite endangered. There are 3 places you can go to see tarsiers. 2 are tourist style affairs right off the side of the road with the tarsiers on small trees in round planters. They animals are quite lethargic during the day, but in the early evening, they become quite active, I saw them leap quite far onto the outside of their main enclosure. I asked about this and was told that feral cats are about in the evenings, and the tarsiers want into their main larger enclosure because they feel safe inside.

Bohol Tarsier.jpg

So off we were to the Official Bohol Tarsier Sanctuary, the one I would recommend. This is a large facility with a huge enclosure the size of a half of a football field. Guests are asked to be quiet, and a guide will take you through the enclosure and having made an early morning reconnoiter, will show guests the new resting spots the tarsiers pick each morning. You will see them, and up close enough to ouch, but don’t! Flash photography is prohibited as it is really hard on the eyes, so if you want to get the best shots, bring a tripod so your camera can handle the slower exposures of low light under large leaves fronds.

The Bohol Tarsier sanctuary has an interesting visitor area with lots of facts on the tarsiers and local animals, and a small donation is requested, like 25 pesos, which is about 50 cents in US currency. Put in a dollar, will you?! You will see plenty of HD footage of the Sanctuary and more tarsiers, so hold onto your hats.

Next it was the Loboc River tour in Loboc, Bohol. This is about a 30 minute drive from Tagbilaran or 20 minutes from the Bohol Tarsier Sanctuary.

The Loboc River and Loboc Region is a natural river that winds down from the north of Bohol. Cruises take place every hour, from lunch through the evening. During low season there may only be 1 river cruise boat, but in season, and especially on weekends, there will be up to 8 boats. Guests can wait inside the air conditioned waiting hall and watch TV, or you can tour walk along the embankment till your cruise boat departs.These boats are best described as floating pontoon houseboats with open sides and a roof. A complete buffet is in the center of each boat with dining tables all around. The food is quite good, with a good blend of local favorites and International foods.

Loboc River Panorama.jpgLoboc River Cruise Boat.jpgLoboc River Cruise Lunch.jpgLoboc River Cruise Performers.jpg

Once the Loboc River cruise boat gets underway, one can just jump in and get your food on your own time frame. There are usually two guys on the boat that provide the entertainment in the form of two acoustic guitars and singing. As usual, locals know the words to American classic rock songs better than Americans do, so join in the singing. I found the singers to be quite talented, and it is fun to join in the singing if you are not shy.

The boat cruises up the river. You will pass the 400 or so year old Church of San Pedro. In the evening it is all dark inside, and from the outside, the lights shining up on the old white walls cause me to remark how it would make a perfect setting for a good scary movie!