Warming up part II

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Flight from Kuala Lumpur to Clark (Philippines), 6:45 AM, red-eye flight, by my favorite airline AirAsia, only USD 80. So we arrived in Kuala Lumpur almost midnight one day before the flight and stayed there until the flight time, arriving in Clark, I was expecting to arrive in Manila, but Clark is around 150km from north of Manila, then a bus to Manila, I couldn't understand why, but that bus was too expensive for a 2 hours trip in Philippines, PHP 450. Arriving in Manila, we went to a travel agency to buy air ticket, our plan was to take a plane to Caticlan, the airport city of Boracay, but the agent kindly suggested us to take a plane to Kalibo, that will be much cheaper, and just get a one and half hour bus to Caticlan, finally we got there in Boracay around 20:00, a simple dinner and a nice hotel to end a long day.

Boracay is a really beautiful place, the ocean, sands and sky make a wonderful scene with vivid colors, only first night was a little raining, then 4 sunny days there. There are a lot of activities to do on the island, mainly aquatic sports, the tourism there was pretty developed, great foods, bars and shops, that is why I came here with my wife, actually she already came to Boracay once before we meet, and she loved the place, so she want to come with me, but this time there are much more people according to my wife, somehow Boracay is very famous in Asia, I can sure around 80% of tourist was Asian, Korean, Japanese and mainly Chinese.
On the island, our travel style wasn't backpacking this time, the idea was enjoying the place with there's offers. So we ate a lot of seafood, nice fish, big crabs and green lobsters; we did scuba diving, snorkeling, para-sailing and jet-ski.

After 4 days in Boracay, we are heading back to Manila, to save money and to experience the road, we took the SRNH ( Strong Republic Nautical Highway), bus on the ferry from Caticlan to Roxas, bus on the road from Roxas to Calapan, bus on the ferry from Calapan to Batangas and finally bus on the road from Batangas to Manila, that cost PHP 1100 each, the bus leaving Caticlan at 14:00 and arriving in Manila at 4:00 next day. Actually you could not really sleep for long time, because the changing between ferry and bus, maybe a better way is taking a ferry directly from Caticlan to Batangas, then take bus to Manila (around 2 hours trip).

Arriving in Manila at 4 A.M. without a decent sleep in the whole night, that made us really tired, so we got a cheap hotel for half day, to sleep a 6 hours to recharge our energy, then we visited Quiapo church, Santiago fort with a museum, Intramuros with restaurant and souvenir shop, finally a shopping mall to end our day, then heading to airport to take flight back to China.

Boracay is very similar to Phi Phi island of Phuket in Thailand, at least the nature of both, but I felt Boracay's tourism is more developed than Phi Phi island, more activities and people in Boracay, for me the Phi Phi island is quieter. A trip to Philippines wasn't my plan, because it is out of my original route, but I got malaria, back to China to take a rest, and my wife wanna go to Boracay with me; I wanted to go Boracay as well, but I couldn't make it when I was in China, anyway, that was a nice trip, to be with my wife and to warm up because now I am ready to restart my journey.

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Photos

Airplane
Arriving in Clark airport

Talipapa
Seafood market in Boracay

Playing the fire
The fire players in a bar in Boracay beach

Tricycles
The only public transport in Boracay

Flags over 10 commandments
Like a funny thing, the North and South Korea national flags together, at least it means Boracay a peaceful place, no fights.

Sand sculpture
It is made by local child in Boracay, they charge some money when you take a picture, very well done work

Jeepney
This is a very common transport in Philippines, it works like local bus, very interesting by your drawings

Footprints
Footprints trail of Santiago fort