Second half of our stay in the Philippines was planned as island hopping for two weeks. In Banaue, we had to decide where to go based on the flights availability and prices. The cheapest option was to go to Boracay, and we were actually glad to do so, because Christmas was just in a day time, and Boracay, being a party island, seemed like a perfect location.
It was hot and sunny when we left Manila, but when we were approaching Kalibo/Boracay airport an hour later the weather was very cloudy and rainy.
May be it was the weather, but when our plane began to decent, all of a sudden, it started to go up again very rapidly. Dima said that probably the pilot missed the runway... And indeed he did. We were not so much scared, but annoyed, because we already had an hour delay on departure and now we were even more late landing.
Finally once landed, we still had a long way to go. To get to Boracay, we needed to take a bus first for 2 hours, then a boat and then a tricycle to the town center... Not to mention we still needed to find a place to stay at least for the night.
During the bus ride the villages and towns we were passing were quite poor.
The rest of the territory is mostly covered with the rice fields.
Local transport
Somehow on all medical vehicles in the Philippines the word Ambulance is written backwards. Why?
Two hours later we got to ferry port. It was already dark and raining hard. First, we saw people getting into this boat and we felt a bit insecure, especially with the wind and rough sea.
But because we booked our transfer to Boracay with the larger travel agency (we could have arranged it privately, which would have been much cheaper, but then it would also have been much longer), we actually got a better, and more stable boat. Inside it's like an airplane.
The boat ride is very short, just 10-15 minutes.
Already on Boeacay, all the people from the boat were divided between the vans depending on their destination. Since we didn't have one, we were the last ones to leave and to be dropped of on the main street.
Since drivers are usually on the loop about available accommodations, we asked ours if he knew a place we could stay at. He said that he will try to find us something and after making a couple of calls, he found us a private room at very nice price and just 5 minutes walking from the beach.
Since it was getting late, we decided to find a place to eat and to go sleep, because we were very tired from a night on the bus earlier and all the travelling we did in just one day.
We stumbled on this restaurant by accident, by it turned out to be an absolutely awesome one.
They have fantastic food, the best we tried so far, and their chillie chicken with lemon grass and ginger is simply awesome! We got addicted to it on first try and were ordering it all three days we stayed on Boracay.
While we were eating the rain became really hard and almost flooded the place. We were saved by a tricycle :-)
The next morning the weather wasn't much better and although it stopped raining the clouds were heavy and quite depressive. Nonetheless, we decided that it was time to get to the beach. There are two main beaches on Boracay: Bulabog beach on the east coast line and White beach on the west. We went to the Bulabog first...
To be honest, we were disappointed, not at all what we expected from the famous Boracay beaches.
It seems that the beach side of Bulabog is mostly occupied by kite boarding enthusiasts and windsurfers.
Towards the end of the beach it got even dirtier.
After the disappointment here, we decided to check out the other side - the White beach.
To get there we needed to pass through the part of the island where most of the locals live.
Dima was not happy, and neither was I..
When we got back to more central location and on the way to the White beach the surroundings became more what we were expecting and we knew that now we were going in the right direction.
And there it finally was - the normal beach!
The White beach is very long and very crowded, but because the weather wasn't very nice still, we managed to find two sunbeds and an umbrella that belonged to a cafe, under the condition that we buy drinks. Most of the sunbeds belong to hotels and they have a strict "only for guests" policy. Not like in Europe or other places where you can rent them per day.
About half an hour later the sun finally showed up and everything around immediately started to look nicer.
At the end of the day we watched the sun go done and made a wish for some sunny weather the next day.
That evening was Christmas eve, so we went back to the beach front, where all the night life of Boracay is happening.
There is really a lot going on.
Lot's of places with different life music for each possible taste.
Fire throwers are apparently a very popular entertainment here.
Instead of sunbeds there were now tables.
The choice of seafood and meats is just crazy and you probably can find absolutely everything here (for a price, of course).
Because the beach front is very long (more than 10 kilometers) and fully packed with all kind of restaurants, cafe's, bars and clubs, you can easily spent quite a few hours here just walking from one end to the other. We walked around a bit and finally settled at a nice place with live reggae and classic rock music.
It was a fantastic evening and we really loved it. Merry Christmas!
The next day our wish came true and the weather was excellent, so we decided to spend all day at the beach, relaxing and getting some tan.
The sunbeds we found the day before were all busy and with so much sun, we (actually I) really needed the umbrella not to get burned. So we tried our luck at the hotel's sunbeds one more time. After some persuasion and bribing the security with a mango shake, we had our umbrella for the day.
Excellent day of sun and sea!
And yet another gorgeous sunset :-)
The next day we were leaving Boracay and taking the flight to Cebu city first and then the ferry to Bohol.
Next: Panglao, Balicasag and Virgin Islands
It was hot and sunny when we left Manila, but when we were approaching Kalibo/Boracay airport an hour later the weather was very cloudy and rainy.
May be it was the weather, but when our plane began to decent, all of a sudden, it started to go up again very rapidly. Dima said that probably the pilot missed the runway... And indeed he did. We were not so much scared, but annoyed, because we already had an hour delay on departure and now we were even more late landing.
Finally once landed, we still had a long way to go. To get to Boracay, we needed to take a bus first for 2 hours, then a boat and then a tricycle to the town center... Not to mention we still needed to find a place to stay at least for the night.
During the bus ride the villages and towns we were passing were quite poor.
Already on Boeacay, all the people from the boat were divided between the vans depending on their destination. Since we didn't have one, we were the last ones to leave and to be dropped of on the main street.
Since it was getting late, we decided to find a place to eat and to go sleep, because we were very tired from a night on the bus earlier and all the travelling we did in just one day.
We stumbled on this restaurant by accident, by it turned out to be an absolutely awesome one.
While we were eating the rain became really hard and almost flooded the place. We were saved by a tricycle :-)
The next morning the weather wasn't much better and although it stopped raining the clouds were heavy and quite depressive. Nonetheless, we decided that it was time to get to the beach. There are two main beaches on Boracay: Bulabog beach on the east coast line and White beach on the west. We went to the Bulabog first...
It seems that the beach side of Bulabog is mostly occupied by kite boarding enthusiasts and windsurfers.
To get there we needed to pass through the part of the island where most of the locals live.
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| Water was excellent! |
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| Christmas is all around :-) |
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| Local boys built dozens of them everywhere |
There is really a lot going on.
The next day our wish came true and the weather was excellent, so we decided to spend all day at the beach, relaxing and getting some tan.
Next: Panglao, Balicasag and Virgin Islands
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