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Published: December 16th 2008
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The end of my 1st day in Boracay is drawing to an end and I feel like I've been here for a week already...in a good way. I woke up at 2am this morning, left the house in Manila at 3am and was at the airport by 3.30am. As sod's law would have it my flight was delayed (yet again), but thankfully it was only for 1 hour this time. I landed in Caticlan at 7.30am and took the boat across to Borcay. The sea was incredibly rough, and anyone who has read a few of my other entries, is aware that I am rather prone to sea sickness, so it wont surprise you that it took all my will power and self control not to 'blow chunks' overboard. Still feeling whoozy from the boat I then fell over on the pier in front of everyone and could do nothing except laugh at myself, along with my audience. Then to top it all off, as I was getting into my tricycle to my place of accomodation I didn't bother to drop my head down (I was still feeling dizzy) and so smacked my head ridiculously hard on the side carriage roof.
Set up
I tried not to look at this before Carl started. It freaked me out I don't think anyone else saw and although I was knocked for 6 I did manage to successfully navigate my way into the carriage on my second attempt. Admittedly, I wiped my hand across my forehead a few times to make sure I hadn't drawn any blood. It was pretty damn painful! Soon enough I had checked into my hostel and found that rennovations were being made to the shared dorm rooms so I was assigned a double room all to myself. YAY! I literally dumped my bags and went on the hunt for some food.
I walked along the beach searching and couldn't help but note how tourist orientated Boracay has become since my last visit 10 years ago with my dad and brother. Then again, I had been warned and held no hope for a quiet haven such as that which I was luckily enough to find in Palawan. I still like it here. The beach has been really well maintained and there is a chilled, friendly atmosphere. I eventually found somewhere eat and enjoyed what the lonely planet described as 'the best mango shake on the island'. I haven't tried any others yet, but I'll take
their word for it. It was pretty spectacular. The rest of the morning was spent exploring the back streets of 'D'Mall' and sunbathing on the beach (something I hadn't done for a very long time). My moods seem to be governed by my degree of hunger more and more nowadays, so as I started to feel cranky I left the beach to get some lunch at a cool Cuban place I had spotted in the morning. It was actually better than any food I had tried when in Cuba last year.
After dinner, I spontaneously decided to go to a tattoo parlour, just to have a look around...there are a lot of them here. I got speaking to a cool dude called Jun (probably the 10th Jun I've met here) about how I'd always wanted a tattoo, but never saw anything I liked enough to take the plunge so he offered to design one for me. My only request was that it include the letters 'J' and 'R' in a 'non-obvious' way, which stand my Jennie and Rudy, my parents. He told me to come back later in the day and I was starting to get bored so thought
I may aswell visit a few other places to get some ideas. That's when I met Joven and Carl at a tattoo parlour called 'Lonely Planet'. The shop was much cleaner than Jun's and had more of an air of professionalism to it. That...and it was packed with customers, so I deduced they had to be pretty good. I had the same discussion with Joven and he was totally on my wavelength coming up with ideas on the spot which I loved so I ask him to put them on paper and I would return later. In the 2 hours that followed I called my brother, my friends and cousins to find out if they thought me getting a tattoo would be a good idea and whether or not they thought I could handle the pain. They all gave basically the same advice that if I really wanted it and was totally sure then go for it. Pain wasn't an issue and couldn't be since once they start there's no going back. I saw the designs both guys had to offer and although both were great, I loved Joven's and Carl's. I had decided that was the tattoo I wanted,
At sunset
My hair matches the sky! COOL!
Did I mention I dyed my hair? but then the wuss factor kicked in and I started to talk myself out of it. I don't like pain! I lost count of how many times I walked over the shop door and walked away again feeling like a complete coward. Eventually Carl saw me and I encouraged me to come in and at least look at the design again. As soon as I did the words just flowed out of my mouth 'Sige na! Let's do this!'. From that moment on there was no backing out. I told myself over and over that it wasn't that big a tattoo anyway so I wouldn't have to put up with the pain for very long...1 hour max Carl told me.
Skip forward about 10 minutes and I was sitting reversed on a chair, biting down on my arm, squinting and sweating from the pain. I have to confess it wasn't half as bad as I had imagined it would be, but pain is pain. The long outlines were excruciating, but I kept my cool as much I was capable. After 45 minutes it was all over and I was flooded with relief. I have to say that I don't regret it for a second. I always wanted something like this to always remind me of my parents and I finally have it!
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