Advertisement
Published: January 17th 2007
As a result of the timing, a national Korean holiday known as Chusuk (similar to Thanksgiving) happened to fall on the weekdays, meaning I had the whole week off! My friend Jenny and I planned a trip to Boracay to take advantage of this rare holiday.
MANILA
We arrived in Manila on Sunday afternoon and rode a company taxi into the main city. FYI for future travelers en route to Manila, metered taxis are not allowed in the international airport b/c they are potentially dangerous and notorious for ripping people off, so only company taxis are allowed. Since they have a monopoly on the airport, they charge you nearly triple of what a meter taxi would cost. So I suggest that you walk out of the airport and ride a metered taxi (but be smart about it!).
Our driver's name was Ace. He seemed so nice that Jenny and I warmed up to the idea of hiring him for the next day, to take us around the city to run errands, shop and site-see. I met some guys at a bar in Seoul, who had visited Manila, and they suggested this idea b/c meter taxis can be pretty dangerous.
I tried to negotiate with Ace, but he was pretty adamant and we settled on $60.
Jenny and I shopped at Robinson's Place, which is in the heart of Manila. As with most modern malls in the city, there are sections for the lower class and the upper class. It's crazy! One moment, you're looking at cheap clothes, and the next thing you know, you're in front of Lacoste, which has an armed guard in the front. There is another mall in Makati, which is a financial and commerce district, called Ayala Center, and there are four levels of the mall, and the higher you go, the more upscale it is. Even the taxi driver said that level one is for the lower class and level four is for the upper class. The blatant segregation between the haves and have nots was a bit shocking.
Back in the comforts of our guesthouse, Jenny and I had a moment of brilliance when we decided to take on Manila ourselves without the use of a driver. On our map, we plotted all the places we wanted to visit and decided to call Ace the following morning to cancel. We figured
it would be cheaper to do it on our own, using the local's form of transportation.
(For everyone who knows my talent of exceptionally detailed storytelling, here is where it finally gets exciting) I woke up the next morning around 11 a.m. I went downstairs to phone Ace, who was supposed to be at our guesthouse by noon. I informed him that we needed to cancel because "something came up." And he says, "I'm nearly there. Just wait." So after repeatedly telling him that Jenny and I CANNOT meet him, he says that we still have to pay him anyway! WTF?!?!? So I run up to our room, wake Jenny, and ask her if we should just make like a ball and bounce. It took us a whole minute to opt for bailing out on Ace. From then on, we are scrambling to pack our stuff, and within minutes, we hustle our bags down the stairs into the first cab we saw; the whole time, I'm saying, "Go, go, go, go…" It was so much more dramatic being there than thinking about it in hindsight. Thoughts of Ace seeing us trying to elude him were beyond scary. (Some of
3 HOURS after the all night drinking
Here I am with Brian and "Hot and Sexy" at 7 a.m., drrrrrrrunk and tired, but ready to learn!you may feel indifferent to this thrilling/near death experience, and buy into the stereotype that I'm a horrible, detailed, climax-less storyteller, but bah-humbug! You had to be there!!! It was scary!)
The rest of Manila was shopping, eating and riding Jeepneys around town. Jeepneys are leftover US military jeeps from World War II and now they are one of the main forms of inexpensive public transportation around the city. Other than the thrill of figuring out the public transportation system, Manila didn't really leave much of a lasting impression. Well, for one, traveling around the city on Jeepneys is probably worse for your health than chain-smoking all day. At the risk of sounding ignorant, Manila in general seems very westernized (but not modernized), where there are more fast food chains than there are local eateries and all of this makes it a bit uninteresting. But the people we met at the local bars and in the Jeepneys were super friendly, and Jenny and I never stopped hearing, “You Korean? Wow, English so good!!!” People in the in Phillipines seems to speak English well, but that’s because their own language (Tagalog) has limited vocabulary, so they substitute it with English.
Start of our island tour
This was so awesome...dipping our feet in the water while driving out to sea (and hoping we don't fall in). Since they don’t really have formal English training, there are interesting communication barriers (ME: “Is the bakery close enough to walk there?” LOCAL: “No, it’s open”).
BORACAY
After two nights in Manila, we are on our way to paradise! Woohoooooo! We rode a small charter plane to an island called Caticlan, from which we took a 20-minute boat ride to Boracay. From the shore, we took a motorized tricycle to White Beach, a 3-mile stretch of exceptionally pristine, white powdery sand.
Boracay is an island that has over the years catapulted into a tourist destination, and consequently, it is slowing showing signs of the adverse environmental impact. Nonetheless, it is still absolutely spectacular. Boracay is famous for several things, such as crystal-clear blue water and fine, powdery sand that never gets hot.
For our first night, we asked a local for suggestions on where to stay and he suggested "Alice in Wonderland" which ended up being a great recommendation. It's a cute bungalow community a short ways off from the beach, with its own private pool and hammock. The only thing about it is that its bungalows are a bit like a concrete box on the inside,
Jenny is all smiles post-operation
We went to eat barbeque on this small island. Poor Jenny got the biggest fishbone stuck in her gums and Dr. Grace had to operate. as are most accommodations here. Anyhow, for the next four nights, we ended up relocating to La Caremela de Boracay, a beachfront hotel. Here, our room was fairly decent except for this really foul smell that lingered in our room the entire time. Jenny said it smelled like rotten paint while I thought of a more vulgar and disgusting comparison that I don't care to share in my ode to Boracay. But seriously, when we'd first walk in, before our noses got a chance to become immune to the stench, the smell would knock us over at the force of a sledge hammer. Ka-Pow!
During our stay, we pampered ourselves with rest 'n relaxation, delicious eats, and thrilling water sports. On Tuesday, we rented all-terrain vehicles (ATV) and went riding through the mountain and the beach. We had to hustle Toto (the dealer) to give us a price that was nearly a fourth of what everyone else paid. That was the start of our great business affair with Toto…he's the man! The ATV riding was really fun, as we drove up to the island's highest point, Mount Luho, and back down to the beach.
The next day, we
went on an island hopping tour, where we went to small, neighboring islands and snorkeled at the sites. Our group had about 10 people and we met these nice Americans who also happened to be English teachers in Korea. During our snorkeling excursion, the current was too strong deep out in the ocean, so instead of peacefully snorkeling, we were like Iron Man Tri-athletes fighting against the current to stay near the boat. Nonetheless, the underwater scene was still stunning, as the water was so clear that you could see to the bottom of the ocean floor. We also went snorkeling in and near a cave (with much calmer tides) and the underwater life and environment was absolutely S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G. The fishes were as vibrant and colorful as M.A.C. eye shadows (I know Julie would appreciate that similie). There were fishes that were multi-florescent and it was just so crazy and unbelievable that there were such unique and striking creatures by the hundreds and thousands.
During my serene swim along the crystal clear water, admiring these M.A.C. fishes, my hypnosis was interrupted by a muffled, wailing sound, varying in pitch and tone. Kind of like, "Ahhhhhh-hhuhhhhhh-uuuuhhhhhhhhhh-hmmmmmm-mmmmmm." I thought, "What is
"Vive Ut Vivas"
is a latin phrase meaning "live that you may live"... that one should live life to the fullest and without fear of a possible future consequence
that?!?!? Maybe our guide is trying to get us back into the cave." I stuck my head above the water and I heard the sound coming from, no other than Jenny's snorkel (everyone was looking in her direction). I first thought she was practicing her singing underwater, thinking that no one could hear her. It was so hilarious that I burst out laughing, and I couldn't stop because Jenny kept on with her mating-esque call. Jenny stuck her head above the water because she heard my laughing and she swam over to me. It turned out that she was trying to test if fishes are afraid of sound! Hahahaa!!!
The next day, we did lots of exciting water sports, like jet skiing, wakeboarding and fly fishing. The jet skiing was fun except fearless Jenny was whizzing over the waves, especially when I thought I spotted some cuties jet skiing. I thought we would have man-overboard, but I held on tight (and screamed into Jenny's ears the whole time!). Wakeboarding was really hard, and I never successfully stood on the board, although Jenny triumphantly stood and held on for about 5 seconds. I tried four times, and each time, I
jetskiing
The guy took us to see the perimeters had about a gallon of saltwater shoot straight up my nose. Then we tried fly fishing, which is a flat inflated raft that is attached to a speed boat. It has handles that you hold on to while it stands vertical and "flies" along the waves. They take quick turns to try and make you fall off, but if you can endure it, you can last a round without falling into the water. There are handles on the middle of the raft and on the bottom, so when you hold on to the bottom, it's that much harder. For some reason, Jenny and I had SOOOOO fun that we rode it for two extended rounds.
That night was our last night in Boracay, so Jenny and I decided to get tattoos…the real thing! While we were hanging out by D'Mall (this big shopping area), we saw Tyler, one of the Americans we had met on the island hopping tour. He came with us to the tattoo shop and he said, "Remember, tattoos are forever," and things to that nature. So Jenny and I chickened out and got henna tattoos instead! We ended up partying with the tattoo guys all
Peace!
Getting the boys into the photo pose synonymous with Korean photo taking. night. Up to that point, we had partied along boat station 2, not realizing that the other half of the island is partying it up on boat station 3. We partied it up at Cocomangas, the oldest and most popular club, and another club that I can't seem to remember its name. It was a great drunken night of laughing and dancing. The guys were really nice and we had a blast partying it up with Tin-Tin and his crew. We called it a night around 4 a.m. or so.
The next morning, Jenny had to DRAG my still-drunk self out of the room. She used this brilliant method of the world's most annoying chant, "wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup…" The reason why we were insane enough to wake up at 7 a.m. was to meet the guys to go skimboarding, which is a sport where you ride a board on wet sand or shallow water. Apparently, "Hot 'n Sexy" (the nickname we used to refer to one of the guys because he was always flexing…hahahhaha!) was a champion skimboarder. He turned out to be an excellent teacher and I had an absolute blast learning from him.
We boarded for the rest
of the early morning, and at 9:30 a.m., we had to bid adieu. It was a bittersweet finale to our fabulous vacation. Jenny and I enjoyed it so much that we are planning on going there next spring. Well, either there or Bora Bora, Tahiti. What can I say? I'm a tropical island addict! Salamat!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0474s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
mikel
non-member comment
good to hear you had a great time in boracay. FYI, jeepneys are actually manufactured like that in the philippines, although the original concept evolved from the wartime american-made jeeps. also, there are many restaurant choices in manila. but this being your first trip and without the recommendations on where to go for eats, you didn't find them! too bad... also, filipinos speak english as it is thought in schools, patterned after the US educational system; the country was a colony of the US for 3Osome yrs. so people, speak english albeit some more than others..not because tagalog has limited vocabulary!!!!