Boracay - 10.3 square km of Paradise!

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Ok, so it has taken me some time to get round to writing about Boracay but I think I have only just recovered from the experience! You can't sell me a bottle of rum for 70p and expect me to walk away in a straight line! So that was pretty much all there a to do on the island apart from soak up the scenery.

Boracay's White Beach was voted World's number one Tropical Beach back in 1996 (when the island clearly had much fewer visitors)! But now every Summer it sees an influx of tourists - mainly Swedish from what I saw! Most of the people I met there were Swedish! They were either travelling or just taking a holiday there! Suppose that all contributes to their dodgy year-round tan!

Anyways, the name Boracay literally means "White Cotton" (or something like that) and relates to the sand there. Which is understandable because I have never personally come across sand so soft in my entire life. It could get in your shoes or clothes and you wouldn't feel it!

So the days were spent asleep in a tree house by the beach (the dorms in the hostel nipa huts reached over 45 degrees in the morning so made it impossible to sleep) and night were spent in various bars. We would just sit around on eachother's verandas drinking the local rum (more often than not straight from the bottle) before we headed out to the bars somewhere between midnight and 1am! The Sun was always up before we made it home, so it was a great excuse to sit on the beach with a beer. And we ALWAYS saw both sunrise and sunset! Which was nice. One day we ventured over to the Eastern side of the island (which was not hard to do as it is only 1km wide at its narrowest point). We probably could have walked there but instead 7 of us all piled on to this tricycle for 10 Pesos each and got there in no time. I unfortunately didn't have my camera for that so no photos of sunrise I'm afraid! Just look at the sunset ones upside down!

We all did, however, find the energy to hire a Banca and do some island hopping one day. Which was a good laugh. We stopped in some caves, had a BBQ thrown on at one beach and we managed to leave Dutch Peter behind. He'd fallen asleep in the sand and we forgot him basically. About 15 minutes later, while some of us were snorkelling, he turned up with this 127-year-old Filipino man who was selling ice cream from this tiny boat. So he rejoined us eventually! Anyways, the trip ended just after sunset and just in time for happy hour where an ice cold San Miguel would cost you 35 Pesos. 50p to you and me!

So not much else to report on Boracaya to be honest, aside the weird and the wonderful. I saw the world's most unsettling bar - The Hobbit House. Owned and run entirely by dwarves!! A man running up and down the beach EVERY day juggling coconuts. A Norwegian guy getting kicked out of a bar who decided to dig his own in the sand right outside - took him the best part of 5 hours in the sun but in fairness it was actually pretty good! And well worth it to see the smile on his face when him and all his mates were sat there with a beeming smile on their faces! And every single local you walk past playing the same old broken record - "Maammm, Siirrr massaaaaggge..."!! AARRRGGGHHHH I do not want a bloody massage! You just saw me say no to the person stood next to you!!! And I STILL sure as hell don't want a sailboat or a jetski! You'd understand if you went there. And I do highly recommend it. I'll certainly be going back there 😊

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Photos

Al
a.k.a. Frank The Tank.