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Published: January 10th 2008
Leaving Palawan
the northern islands are beautifulMine and Justine's next destination was an island in the far north of Palawan. But getting there wasn't straighforward. There were two cargo ships a week, but the timings weren't suitable. Hiring a fishing boat was also out of the question because it was an 8-hour journey over open seas. We eventually found a private company that sailed a 40-person boat every Friday. Once again, this boat left at the magical time of 7am. The boat looked fairly seaworthy, which is always a good sign when venturing into rough seas. But when they fired up the engine, thick black smoke started pouring out of the engine room. Their initial solution was closing the door to stop the smoke from escaping. Then another more capable crew member came to the resuce with a kettle of water, which seemed to help. We then set sail. The design of the boat was the same as all Filipino vessels. Large wooden struts stick out from each side of the boat, and they have lengths of bamboo at the ends. These act as stabilisers, and help to stop the boat rocking from side to side in rough water. Strapped to the top of these wooden struts
Lifeboat Recovery
the crew pull the lifeboat to safety after it broke the wooden stabilisers on the boat was our lifeboat, a small wooden boat which could probably hold ten people maximum. This didn't fill me with confidence, since the boat was rated for forty passengers.
Four hours out to sea and disaster struck! The weight of the lifeboat was too much for the stabilisers, and they snapped! This sent the lifeboat crashing into the water. It hooked onto a splintered beam, and was being dragged by the boat. Immediately, four crew members scuttled out onto remaining wooden beams and hauled the lifeboat back onto the remaining wooden struts. During this delicate procedure, the captain didnt' even slow down. He maintained full speed while his nimble crew were balancing precariously on the wooden beams. We arrived in Coron safe and sound, but the final drama with this dodgy boat was a leaky hold, which meant my rucksack and it's contents were soaking wet
Our time in Coron was brief, because we had a flight pre-booked to Boracay for Christmas. Boracay is a small yet bustling holiday island with a four-kilometre long beach. Justine and I had decided on a spot of luxury for Christmas, and had booked five nights at a resort. We had air-con, fridge,
White Beach
despite the name, the beach on Boracay isn't white. Still very nice though, and it stretches for 4 kilometres cable TV and hot water. These were things which I had forgotten had existed! And there were other aspects of Boracay for which I was glad:
1. People here could actually get my name right. Filipinos usually have trouble with my name. Whenever I say my name is Pete, they say "Peach?" No, Pete. "Ah, Peach". So I tried using Peter instead. Then they call me Pizza. Another funny mistake was when I was asked who the Prime Minister of Britain was. I said Gordon Brown, and the guy said "ah, Golden Brown". So he'll be telling everyone that our country is ruled by Golden Brown
2. We ate our meals with a knife and fork. For some bizarre reason, Filipinos eat with a fork and SPOON. Bearing in mind tha meat forms a part of almost Filipino meal (vegetarians will starve here), using a fork and spoon makes no sense. Even if you order a big, fat steak, you will be given a fork and spoon. The spoon is a fine device for scooping, there is no better utensil for this. But for cutting steak is really sucks.
3. Proper Western breakfasts. Before Justine came out,
Boracay Sunset
these were in plentiful supply I had a two week period where the only breakfast option I could find was the Filipino breakfast. So to find restaurants which served such rare treats as bacon, sausage and backed beans was very welcome. The classic Filipino breakfast is "Tapsilog", which is garlic-fried rice with a fried egg on top, with a serving of fried beef strips on the side. Varients on this are hotsilog (rice, egg and hotdog sausage), cornsilog (rice, egg and corned beef) and chiksilog (rice, egg and chicken). So you can see why I was glad to eat some Western fare.
4. You can buy decent bottled water, from a natural source. Actual mineral water is a rare thing elsewhere in the Philippines. Most water is heavily treated. A popular brand is called "Nature's Spring", which sounds like a nice, naturally bottled water. But when you look on the label, it says "this water has been treated by Carbon Filtration, Ozone Sterilisation, Reverse Osmosis, UV Sterilisation and Carbon Block Polishing." Talk about overkill. This is like using a rocket-propelled grenade to kill a mosquito.
The weather on Boracay was hot, hot hot, even when there was cloud cover. Yet the beaches were
Late Arrivals
the Filipinos come out when the sun gets low empty for most of the day. But at 4 o'clock, swarms of Filipinos would hit the beach, and hundreds of Filipino kids would suddenly appear out of nowhere and start splashing in the sea. Filipinos do not like to get a tan, and seem to avoid the hot sun. In fact, it is fashionable to be as white as possible. Whereas Western suncreams sometimes contain tanning agents or tan prolongers, Filipino suncream contains a whitening agent. Beauty products are the same, with most moisturisers containing whiteners. There are even tablets called Gluco-White and SnowTabs which people take for "once a day whitening". They contain a compound called glutathione, which reverses the metabolism of melanin, turning dark pigmentation into light pigmentation. This trend for white skin is also reflected in advertising, and many of the adverts and billboards use models with lighter skin
Despite Boracay being somewhat touristed and commercial, it manages to avoid being tacky, and has refused to lower itself by having any chain restaurants. There are over a hundred restaurants and bars along the 4km beach front, but there was not a McDonalds or a KFC in sight. Hurrah! Many of the restaurants have candlelit tables on
Merry Christmas!
a very cool sandcastle the beach at night, nestled amongst the palm trees. In fact, Boracay transforms itself at night, the whole beachfront becoming a hive of activity with music, neon-lit palm trees and the smell of BBQ seafood wafting through the air. I must admit, I did have doubts about visiting Boracay at first. I thought I would be continually harrassed by people selling sunglasses, and offering taxis and tours. This element does exist, but infrequently, so it didn't annoy or iritate. Although on Christmas Eve, the sunglasses sellers were out in force, patrolling the main sidewalk with their portable boards of glasses. One this particular day I wrote a sign and placed it on our table whenever we sat down for coffee or a beer. The sign said "No Sunglasses, thank you". It worked! Sunglasses vendors would start walking towards us, see the sign and then veer off at the last minute.
We met a nice crowd on Boracay, and hung out together for a few days. We were all the waifs and strays who were away from home for Christmas, and we got together for some festive fun. We were a great mix of nationalities, and it was like a
Christmas Eve Celebrations
all of us were drunk and wet from dancing in the sea, but loving the party! United Nations outing in the evenigs. There was Judy (Canada), Phil (England), Steffen (Germany), Jerome (France), Mick & Jem (Canada), and Madeleine & Maria (Sweden). We spent the night of Christmas Eve in a openfronted bar by the sea, with DJs belting out some half-decent dance music. It was fairly quiet until our crowd turned up, and then we started dancing and soon got the place rocking. The sea was lappng at the front of the bar, and so we were all dancing in the sea up to our knees. It was an excellent night, and I think we stumbled home at about 5am, very wobbly after too many beers and tequila.
On Christmas day we were so hungover we didn't manage to leave the hotel room until 7am in the evening. We finally struggled out because we had a Christmas Dinner booked at "Nigi Nigi Noo Noos". This was a hilarious name for a bar, and I took great pleasure in saying it whenever I could. Say it out loud now - "Nigi Nigi Noo Noos". Love it! The name is a general term for spooks, spirits and spectres. Things that go bump in the night! Anyway, back
the lads
Left to right: Jerome (France), Mick (Canada), Damien (England), and Phil (England) to the Christmas Dinner. It was four courses, but the main event was a roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings, including roast potatoes AND mashed potatoes. We thought this place must be owned by Westerners, because only they could understand the importance of having two types of potato with your Christmas dinner. God Bless Nigi Nigi Noo Noos. They also had an interesting offer for beakfasts here - "all you can eat eggs". I don't know how many eggs I could eat, but I wish I had given it a try. I could have started with a fried egg, then had a poached egg, before moving onto scrambled eggs and boiled eggs. Perhaps there is an egg surplus on Boracay, because I remember walking home one night, and some local guy tried to sell me some eggs. If you want to sell eggs to someone, 3am is not the best time to try it.
We certainly spoiled ourselves here. We had several massages because they were so cheap. Although the atmosphere of my first one was ruined somewhat when the bar next door started loudly playing "there's a rat in me kitchen" by UB40. Some of the massages
Wakeboarding
Justine gets some tips from our cool dude instructor were quite rough at times, with the masuesse pumelling us with their hands. Justine was actually bruised at the end of one massage! We also spent a bit of time doing watersports because they were so cheap. Justine kicked my arse at Jetskiing, lappng me twice on a racecourse set out with buoys. And she did far better at wakeboarding than me. I also did a morning of kitesurfing, thanks to our friend Jerome, who had bought his own kit. Kitesurfing was much more dangerous here than when I did it in Peru, because there were so many people doing it I counted the kites at one point, and there was more than fifty on the coast! And considering that some people were cruising at speeds of 60kph and above, a direct collision could be nasty. Just as I was wondering how people manage to avoid tangling their kites, some beginner comes flying towards me and tangles his kite with mine at high-velocity. Wipeout! Took a while for me and Jerome to sort that mess out. I'm keen to take up Kitesurfing properly when I get back to the UK. Anyone fancy joining me?
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Francoise
non-member comment
So Cool
So cool to see you and Justine seem to have the time of your life. Happy New Year.lot of love,money and a good health and may the force be with you. xxxx.