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Published: November 5th 2012
At the airport
We all had matching head pillows!Hi Everyone!
So I figure the best thing to do after the first day back at school in dark, rainy Seoul, is to blog about how amazing my holiday in Boracay was! :-) So here it is……
I finally finished doing school work at around 8pm on the Friday evening, just in time to go Salsa dancing. I left the Salsa bar ‘early’ as I needed to commence the packing of the suitcase, arriving home at about 11pm knowing I was getting in a taxi at 4.30am! So I packed, ate an omelette and finally went to bed at 2am, with the alarm set for 3.30am. Obviously when that alarm went off it hurt! A LOT! But the excitement of going on holiday spurred me on! So much so that us girls annoyed the boys immensely during the taxi ride to the airport, discussing how great our holiday was going to be (whilst they tried to sleep!) The wittering continued throughout check-in and security until we got on the plane and then we promptly fell asleep! Well, in between the random flight games such as ‘guess the song’ (sang by the air hostess) and ‘show me’ (e.g. a shoe,
Boracay Island
The view from the plane and the point at which I got VERY excited! passport, boarding pass), to win some rubbish beach bag! Obviously I’m not going to keep going on about the travelling as that is really boring but I do have to say that the music on the bus (the one that took us to get on the plane) at Manila airport was amazing! It was like being in some sort of jolly silent movie and we all ended up bobbing up and down to it alternately going up and down. I think Ian got a video on his ipad so I’m hoping it makes it’s way to facebook quite soon!
Anyway, we had our second flight to Boracay airport, which is actually on Cataclan, not Boracay and departed into the smallest airport I have ever seen in my life. We did arrive on the smallest airplane I’ve ever seen in my life so I shouldn’t have been that surprised! So after finding out we were on a different island to the one we should be on, despite the name of the airport being of our destination, we bought tickets to get there. This consisted of a journey on a tricycle (a motorbike with a metal box on the side), followed
Cruise ship
Dad, this photo is for you! ;-) by a ferry that you had to walk the plank to get onto it, followed by a rickety old bus and a short walk. But eventually we made it to ‘Le Soleil de Boracay’ which was to be our home for the next week!
We were greeted with a necklace made from shells and a lovely non-alcoholic cocktail. We quickly dumped stuff in our rooms and rushed out to the beach to catch the last rays of sunshine before watching the beautiful sunset over the sea! I even managed a quick dip in the sea J That evening we went out for dinner and a few drinks. I had some fish and meat on a stick! Great! We then had a little walk along the beach to check out what bars would be available for the rest of the week and then got an early night so we could get a few hours of sun in the next day!
Day 2 was more of the same – beach, swimming, a nice lunch with a chocolate milkshake, more beach, more swimming and another great sunset! This was the day that we discovered how much the fish liked to eat
Arriving at Boracay :-)
Smallest and most simple airport ever! our feet! They travelled in packs (as I like to call them) and they would attack one person at once and start nibbling at their feet! Because they were the same colour as the white sand they were rather difficult to see so you couldn’t really prepare yourself for the onslaught – the little blighters! After this day I spent a lot of time with my feet off the bottom, however shallow the water!
That evening we had a nice evening dip in our hotel pool and a lovely Italian for dinner. We then visited the local bar for a few drinks and a little bit of dancing! I had another early one as I was still suffering from the previous lack of sleep and I wanted to be up for my free breakfast!
The third day was slightly more interesting in that I bought a load of tat! Magnets, pearls and bracelets were among my treasures, and I spent a long time ogling after a large owl made out of shells but sadly decided to leave it on the seller’s stall as I just don’t think it would have made it home in one piece. If it
Rachel on the first tricycle
M and Katharine shoved Rachel in the back and piled the luggage on top of her! had got past being thrown on top of the roof of the ferry, it never would’ve made it through the airport luggage handlers! I of course, spent more hours on the beach this day, and in the sea, and of course watched the lovely sunset! We then had a Thai for dinner and Katharine and I went for a romantic walk along the beach. We saw fire throwers, a giant flip flop and had to walk through the sea to get to our destination as the other end of the beach was otherwise impossible to reach! It was actually delightful :-)
The next day was awesome, even though it did involve a near-death experience. Ten of us went on an 'island-hopping' trip with Jo-Jo, our guide. He got some beers, some water and a load of food and we set off into the middle of the ocean. We stopped to do some snorkelling and all happily climbed into the water without life jackets on. I was looking at the lovely purple and electric blue fish, drifting along, not realising that I was gradually getting further and further away from the boat. It was only when I looked up and
noticed how far I'd gone, and that my shoulders were aching from trying to swim, that I thought I should probably try to get back. It was at this point that I realised I couldn't!! I was trying to swim and the boat just got further and further away. I started to swallow water by accident, and got really exhausted. Me being me, just thought I was being weak and was slightly embarrassed that I couldn't get back, although then I saw that Mark was being held up by Andy and Rosanna and he later explained that he actually thought he was going to die and they had saved his life. Anyway, I floated on my back for a while to get my breath and then a man off the boat came to rescue me with a life jacket! He couldn't swim back either because the current was so strong so he called the boat over. It was only when I got on the boat that I realised I had almost drowned (once Mark said that he had and looked like he was about to poo his pants). I swear, I am one of the only people in the world
who can be near to drowning and not have a clue about it! I honestly just thought I was incredibly unfit! However, we didn't let such an experience ruin our day and on we went to 'Magic Island', which is an uninhabited island in the middle of the sea. People go there to meet people off the boats like ours, and they cooked the food we had taken over. It was delicious! Crab, fish, pork, chicken legs and rice! Just great! I ate loads and constantly talked throughout the meal about how amazing the meal was! The toilet on the island took me back to Thailand time as it was a squatter with no toilet paper. It made me a little homesick for my Karen village! The sunset we saw from this island was incredible. I took some awesome pics as well as some highly corny group shots! We then got back on the boat and headed back to Boracay island. The guys put some tunes on in the boat, including Gangnam Style, and we had a little boogie on down! They were extremely excited that we were all from Korea because obviously Psy and Gangnam style are the talk
Rachel and Katharine....
.....excitedly arriving aboard the ferry of the world at the minute ;-) We also say the hotel that belongs to some famous Filipino boxer or something, but I don't really know why I'm mentioning it as I don't know his name or anything else about him!
That evening we went out and got a bit drunk, I think to cope with the shock of the nearly drowning. By this time we were laughing about it (well actually we were laughing about it within about half an hour of it happening) and were ripping it out of Katharine for brushing her hair on the boat whilst me, Mark and Andy were fighting the waves! There were dance moves involving mimicking the hairbrushing and of course the drowning! I met some guys from York, which I LOVED! I got really excited at hearing a well broad Yorkshire accent again and talking about street names in York. Classic! Then Katharine spotted some cool characters doing some organised dance routine behind the bar but well chilled. We decided to join in and proceeded to go behind the bar and join in. They loved it! There's a video which will probably appear on facebook where you can see my
great moves. I wasn't as cool as the guys but I was pretty good! We also saw Lorenzo on this night, who was a waiter at the hotel and then went back to the hotel and had a chat to Mervin behind the desk before bed at 4am! We didn't make the hotel breakfast session the next day.........
Of course, the best way to cure a Boracay hangover is to go parasailing! So that was the plan of action for me, Rachel and Katharine on the following day. We relaxed on the beach for a couple of hours first, and then off we went! Jo-Jo took us again and we went on a powerboat to a jetty in the middle of the sea and then got on another boat where we were attached to a parachute and flung into the air! It was actually one of the most relaxing experiences of my life as we casually drifted through the skies looking at the beautiful islands below us. Not so relaxing when they ducked us in the sea at the end for a laugh! We got some great photos of the whole experience, including a brilliant one of Rachel and
Katharine's 'special' faces! Not sure how Jo-Jo caught that on camera but I have spent hours crying with laughter at it since! Of course after such an eventful hour we had to go and sit back down on the beach to get over it, and watched yet another sunset! We also did a little bit of shopping before getting ready for out big Halloween night out!
So it turns out that the Philippines loves Halloween! It was bizarre to see decorations up when it was such warm weather, but we got into the spirit of things, got dressed up and went on our way! We had dinner, partied about, did a bit of dancing and a bit of drinking. The face painting left a lot to be desired, which is quite worrying as Andy was doing it and he's an art teacher! I went for the classic 'witch' costume, despite leaving my lovely witch's hat at home with my Mum. I'm hoping Mum wore it at some point over Halloween as it is a beauty and it needs to show itself every year! Anyway, it was a good night with a fairly early bed time as I didn't want
to miss breakfast 2 days in a row!
The next day I ate my breakfast and then promptly followed that with a visit to Starbucks. Yes, we were on a remote island and there was a Starbucks! I had a chocolatey thing and found it really amusing that I could sit and drink it in my bikini – hence the photo!! We then continued our walk down the beach towards ‘Willy’s Rock’. Basically it is a rock in the sea that somebody has put a Virgin Mary on. We decided to have a photo on it, and in the cove underneath it because it was a bit of a tourist attraction, and we were massive tourists! After this extensive walk we started to make our way back to our trusty sunbeds and beach towels only to be stopped in our tracks by a ‘Make your own Havaianas’ stall outside the Havaianas shop! You could choose the colour of your sole, the straps, and the ‘bling bling’ you wanted! I chose black and silver with a fabulous glitzy bow on each one! I’ve put a photo on so you can see how amazing they are! The fact that I am
now back in Seoul and won’t be able to wear them for at least 4 months (and that will be because I’m on holiday) had no bearing on the situation at all!! We eventually made it back to our sun loungers, after 3 indecisive girls had bought 5 or 6 (I forget) pairs of Havs between them and we chilled for the rest of the day, followed by a little bit more tat shopping after watching the infamous sunset!
That evening we headed out for Andrew’s birthday celebrations. It wasn’t his birthday, and still hasn’t been his birthday, but we wanted an excuse to wear matching t-shirts and brightly coloured / UV Raybans (cringe!) We had a lovely meal of sea bass and Andrew got a cake. There was joyful singing of Happy Birthday and then a later rendition by the waiters with their pots and pans banging away that made us all nearly jump put of our skin! We then watched a rock band on the beach who enjoyed playing Guns and Roses and other old school rock, as well as a further rendition of Happy Birthday for Andrew. I’d just like to reiterate that it really was
nowhere near his birthday! Anyway, the heavens suddenly opened out of nowhere and everybody looked a bit scared all of a sudden. Of course, the majority of us are British so we soldiered on with our evening, and to be honest, it stopped pretty much as quickly as it had started! We went to one bar for 5 minutes to have a Jagerbomb, then moved straight onto the next, which happened to be a good 15 minute walk away, again through the sea! We were on our way to Cocomanga’, which has a score board in for the number of people from different countries who are ‘still standing after 15 shots’. The guys had been saying all day that they were going to do it and promptly chickened out as soon as we got there, but it was interesting to see that England was 3
rd on the scoreboard, considering this island is literally the other side of the world! The Brits abroad…….they’ll always take on a drinking challenge! Anyway, the night went down hill from there really. The drink flowed, the toilets got more and more grimey the more bars we went to, and the me, Sue and Katharine ended
Second sunset of the holiday.....
......and yes I did take a photo every night, but I won't subject you to them all. up away from the rest of the group dancing to cheesy English pop songs! We then thought that swimming in the sea at 4am was a great idea, and ran in without a care in the world. Of course we gave our bags and newly designed Havs to Mervin who worked behind the desk of the hotel as we didn’t want to be completely irresponsible! I had a lovely swim and then at 5am thought it was probably time to go to bed and off I went!
Well, unsurprisingly I didn’t make it to breakfast the following day and I just about managed to roll to the beach by 1pm and lay down on a lounger, then in the sea, then on a lounger then back in the sea. It was the hottest day of the week and I found it quite difficult to cope with! I had a lovely lunch at 4pm consisting of a chicken burger, chips and mashed potato! Once the sun had gone down and we were feeling a little better, Katharine, Rachel and I headed out for a lovely ‘last night’ dinner. We found a lovely place on the beach with an acoustic band
and great food. We had a beer, they played acoustic ‘Gangnam Style’ and I even supped coconut water (or whatever you call it) from a real life coconut. It was a bit warm but tasty! After such a relaxing evening you would’ve thought ‘Great, now let’s go and pack our stuff and have a nice 7 hours sleep or so before our flight’. That’s where it went wrong! Firstly we realised we needed more money than we had for all of the terminal fees we had to endure at every airport / ferry terminal so off we went to a cash machine. Every cash machine on the island wasn’t working! We went up and down on a tricycle trying to find one and couldn’t! So we went back to the hotel thinking we would do it in the morning as the money exchange places would be open before we left at 7.30am and we had Korean won to change. This is when we found out that no, the flight had been cancelled and we were getting up at 3am, to leave the hotel at 4am, to catch a much earlier flight. We realized we couldn’t leave the country without the
Swimming in the sea
At this point I made a comment like "It doesn't matter if I drop my camera in the sea, it only cost £100". As if £100 in nothing! What has happened to me!?!??! cash we needed so Katharine and I went on an hour long walk to a remote cash machine that one of the others had found earlier in the evening, which was actually working! We then started packing at midnight, went to bed at 1.30am and go up at 3am! A slightly less relaxing end to an incredibly relaxing holiday!
Anyway, the bus-ferry-bus transfer all went smoothly and we arrived at the airport in plenty of time. They made us sit outside and wait whilst they did the National Anthem, then let us in to charge us yet another terminal fee, excess baggage charges, and to then delay the getting onto our flight a little bit more! Every single one of us passed out for the entire hour flight to Manila, and I’m pretty sure some of us were still asleep as we walked off the plane and to the bus to take us into the airport. Unsurprisingly, our reaction to the ‘jolly silent movie’ music was less jolly on this particular journey! I’m not sure any of us actually even had our eyes open! We then had a rather painful 7 hours in Manila airport! Me, Rachel and Katharine
just chatted for the whole 7 hours, but by the end were just talking nonsense and laughing hysterically at each other. Even my food choices went random as I had a bowl of plain rice with English breakfast tea as my breakfast and then later a Burger King! The real level of insanity however came about as we went through security. Basically, on the way out of Manila airport to fly to Boracay, Rachel had introduced us to ‘Cinnabon’. I had no idea what it was before this but basically it is a big wad of dough wrapped into a spiral covered in cinnamon and sugary goo! It is amazing! Anyway, we had been very excited about having one on the way back but as we came through security we realized that you could only get to the shop if you were a domestic flight passenger, not international! There was a plastic wall separating us from our Cinnabon! Well, it was too much after such a long wait in the airport so we basically stood at the plastic wall looking longingly through it, until a woman asked us if we were OK! We explained what we wanted and although she
worked at Krispy Kreme she agreed to get us our Cinnabon’s. She even got staff discount! We bought her some Guylian chocolates from the duty free on our side of the wall to say thankyou and happily made the exchange! It was great and completely made up for the fact we had been stranded for so many hours! Of course, now this has made me want a Cinnabon again and I can’t have one so I’m going to stop talking about it! Just look at the photos!
So that was that! I had a sleepless flight from Manila, which led to an epic 12 hours sleep on Saturday night. I spent yesterday washing, chilling and getting ready for the day today, which was rather depressing considering it has been dull and rainy all day! Was great to see the kids again though so I can’t complain too much!
Before I go, here are a few things I noticed about the Philippines:
1) The people are lovely!
2) The sunset is extremely fast – one minute it’s there and the next it’s gone!
3) Filipino’s like to take photos of Westerners, and they’re not shy about
A night time walk :)
You could only get part way down the beach at this time without having to walk to the next bar via the sea..... always wear flip flops on a night out in Boracay! it! One girl asked to have a photo with me in my bikini and then creepily said “frieeeeeeend” as the photo was taken.
4) They like their fakes – especially Havaianas and Raybans!
5) The money is rank! It doesn’t sit in your purse straight and its all flimsy and dirty. Korean money is much nicer!
6) There are security guards everywhere on Boracay island! It made me feel safe :-)
7) Everybody calls you “Ma’am”. If somebody is trying to sell you something the sentence always starts with “Yes Ma’am”.
8) If you ask someone to take a photo of you, they will always take more than one, saying “one more’ each time. They love being asked!
9) The sellers are great! If you say ‘tomorrow’ they accept that as a response and then leave you alone!
10) It’s really hot in the Philippines! (I just didn’t want 9 points, I wanted 10!)
A great holiday! :-) I’d recommend it to all!
Claire xxxx
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Charel
non-member comment
awesomely cool!
Your blog is really great! Been to Boracay last 2008 & would definitely love to go back again this year:)