Buffet anyone?

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Tricycle, plane, taxi, plane, minibus, boat, tricycle and 10 hours of our time. That sums up our journey from San Jose to Boracay! It's just as well we have six nights here, as we could both do with staying in the same place for a while.

Boracay is the playground of the Philippines, and is completely geared towards tourism. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but when you're away for a while it's nice to mix it up a bit! Boracay is one of the few places we've come to that seems to have some kind of town planning and control over development. The long golden beach is pristine. There are steep fines for littering and even smoking on the beach is banned! Street vendors aren't allowed to hassle you on the beach either, and most workers seem to have permits and uniforms, so everything seems a lot more monitored. White Beach (which is the main strip), has hundreds of bars and restaurants which cater for every possible taste. It's a bit of an assault on the senses. We went to a bar one night called The Hobbit House which was made to look like a goblin's grotto. It was only when we sat down that we realised everyone that worked there was a midget?? Felt a bit wrong really...

The majority of the tourists are Asian (Korean, Chinese and Filipino) and aren't big on sunbathing. In the daytime there will be a handful of westerns soaking up the sun, whilst everyone else is fighting for the shade or just walking up and down the strip in their hoards. Yesterday we approached a sun bed vendor to ask if we could pay to use his ones. The guy shook his head and looked around, 'We're fully booked I'm afraid, the only ones we have left are those ones down on the beach in the sun'. Right... Okay... Yes please, those would be the ones we'd want then??!

We hadn't planned to dive here but once again we got sucked in! There is a ship wreck about 5mins from White Beach called Camia II which sits at 28m. The ship was sunk about ten years ago so is still considered a relatively new site, but is home to loads of ghostpipe fish. It was pretty choppy at sea the day we went which made getting on and off the boat a challenge! I slipped getting back on the boat but landed on Dave so I was fine!! Once you got down though it was fun, so I'm sure it wont be long before we do another. We also did a bit of horse riding here which is always good in my books.

We stayed at a place called Dave's Straw Hat Inn, which is a quaint little resort with all the mod cons we need. On arrival they presented us with a massive chocolate cake to congratulate us on our wedding. We're both going to have to get back down the gym in a major way when we get home! 

Love Emma & Dave xx

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