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Published: December 6th 2017
A lot of people I know go to Boracay almost regularly. I already know that I'm not a party person so I've never considered going to Boracay. But since everyone has been, even some of my non-Filipino friends, I felt that I was missing out. So I booked a flight to Boracay after it was announced that we would have a five day long weekend in November to give way for the ASEAN Summit that was being held in Manila.
I was alone on my first day. Check in was not until the afternoon so I went to church first like I usually do on Saturdays. I couldn't pay attention as I was so sleepy. For some reason I couldn't sleep the night before. It seems strange for me to be excited about a trip to Boracay but I think I was. Well it rained most of the day on my first day. Then late in the afternoon I took a walk along the famous beach that is station 1 and station 2. It was hard for me to see the beauty of the place because there were thousands of people on the beach. It's like Kuta beach in Bali.
I've never seen so many tourists in the Philippines before. I'm not used to seeing that many international tourists in my home country. I know Boracay has been voted several times as one of the most beautiful islands in the world but I just don't see it. My grandmothers backyard (beach) in San Vicente, Palawan is way prettier and with waaay less people.
The next day Hazel arrived. I met her at the airport and we went to the nearby province of Antique. A friend of mine posted a photo of him getting cooked in a big pot and I wanted to do that. It was an outdoor spa up in the mountains. It didn't matter that we had to travel two and a half hours to get there just for that experience alone. It was totally worth it! They heat up your bath first then put out the fire before you go in. It was a little too hot at first then soon my body adjusted. After that we took a swim in the river. It felt so good to swim in the cool and refreshing river after a hot bath. We only paid 250 pesos ($5) for
the hot bath. There was also a nearby falls but the pictures did not impress me so we just went back to Boracay after.
There's really not much to say about Boracay other than I didn't like it because there were throngs of people. Plus the food was super expensive. There were cheap options but I'm vegan and fast food and local diners don't usually have vegan options. After a couple of days in Boracay we took a boat to Romblon. The boat ride from Boracay to Romblon was not enjoyable though. The sea was rough as hell! I was looking at the nearby islands imagining how I'd swim to shore. I'm not a strong enough swimmer to rescue Hazel but I taught her how to swim when we were in Boracay so I hoped that was enough for her to survive.
I didn't really know what to see in Romblon prior to booking our return flights to Manila from there. But it was a lot cheaper than flying back from Boracay so I chose to fly back home from there. It was one of the best random decisions ever!
We arrived in Looc and were immediately
accosted by the locals offering expensive rides to our resort. I played hard to get and got them down fifty percent less than their initial offer. There is no reliable public transportation in Romblon so booking the expensive motorcycles is the only option most of the time. Our first activity was to go to the fish sanctuary. There was a raft in the middle of the ocean. We took a ten minute boat ride from the pier and stayed in the raft for a few hours and swam with the fish.
I was surprised to see how beautiful Romblon was as we drove to our resort in Ferrol. The streets were clean and the island was very green. It reminded me of Palawan back in the day. There were only two resorts in Binucot beach and there were very few guests. You'd see perhaps a maximum of ten people on the beach throughout the day. We had the luxury of quietness and privacy for our three day stay there. We planned to rent a motorcycle to go around the island but we were so satisfied and happy with Binucot beach that we didn't feel the need to leave until
we had to go to the airport. The coral reef starts immediately when you go in the water. There were lots of different types of soft and hard corals and thousands of colorful reef fish. I didn't need to go anywhere else. It was paradise.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Too much of a good thing...
I've read so much about Boracay in travel articles, but it's great to get a realistic and honest opinion of it. I know the sort of people Kuta beach attracts and I can see how that wouldn't be pleasant. Romblon looks so beautiful and serene, but after people read this blog, I think you may get questions about directions to your grandmother's backyard in Palawan :)