Oh We Do Like to be Beside the Seaside

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One jeepney journey, two ferries, one taxi and three motorbikes later..

The Philippines is the perfect place to visit for for island hopping and traveling from beach to beach, just what we need after a New Zealand winter. Of course nothing is ever as easy as it sounds though and despite our determination not to visit too many places and therefore cut down on the traveling it does take a fair amount of time, money and effort to move about this amazing place.

On leaving Bacolod we had another epic journey to our next destination, the beach resort of Borocay. The first stop was a ferry to Iloilo City on the island of Panay, we caught a jeepney to the ferry terminal (a barginous 7 pesos) from there it was a mere two hours of hard core violence on the ferries big screen dvd and we had arrived. It was raining lots when we disembarked and we were herded along with lots of other people hoping to catch a bus out of the city into a nearby taxi van which we shared with about 6 other folk. For reasons known only to the city planners the bus station has been moved from its old convenient position in the city centre to a baffling 17km out of town so it was a fair old way. Instead of catching a bus which could take up to 7 hours we were advised to join the groups of people traveling in shared mini buses over to the next large town of Kalibo. This was a great idea and the people we were traveling with were really nice and particularly helpful, the only problem was that rather than running to a timetable these vans wait until they are full of people before setting off so we had to wait 45 mins before leaving the bus station. It was ok though because the driver drove at about 300km an hour to make up for lost time, in the rain, on very small roads through crowded villages, quite an experience. At Kalibo it was a short motorcycle-with-sidecar affair (with a nice lady from the bus who was also travelling to Borocay) to connect with another minibus to Caticlan to catch the ferry over to the island of Boracay. All we had to do then was jump onto ANOTHER bike and we arrived, finally 8 hours after we had left Bacolod, and a great deal poorer we arrived at our hostel, Melinda's Garden.

Boracay is one of the most famous places in the Philippines and certainly the biggest tourist centre. mainly because of its fantastic 'White Beach' and great diving and snorkeling opportunities. We are visiting in the 'off' season which means that prices for accommodation are a whooping 50% cheaper in some places and we picked up an amazing wooden cottage set in a green tropical garden for a couple of days at a real bargain rate (and once again we were the only guests.. ) The place is obviously not full as the whole island is geared up for tourists, there are hundreds of hotels and masses of restaurants and bars. The main visitors at the moment are young Japanese and Korean holiday makers and at nighttime the air fills with the harmonious melodies of a hundred of karaoke bars. There are also Fillipino familes on holiday as well as a few other backpackers about the place, mostly here to do the PADI diving courses. The biggest difference is that whilst the Japanese and Koreans are keeping out of the sun as much as possible, buying factor 60 sun cream and liberally applying skin whitening creams the Europeans and Americans are sun worshipping all over the place and aiming for quite the opposite effect. But everyone is here with lots of money to spend and to have a good time. The place is also full of lots unattractive European men with suspiciously young and good looking local girlfriends. It reminds us somewhat of the first Brit that we met in the Philippines, a heavily tattooed ex squaddy who, having lived in Thailand for 6 years was arrested and deported, moved to the Philippines married a lady here and somehow got himself arrested again (for kidnapping no less) but released, his young wife has left him and when we met him he had been getting very, very drunk for the last few weeks.. what a great impression the islanders must have the brits.

This island is so very different than everywhere else in the Philippines that we have visited that even though we only left Oz a week ago it is strange to be able to walk through air conditioned shops and walk along tarmaced roads. There are restaurants here of every possible nationality and shops selling, well all sorts of tat. And it is fantastic! We are having a wicked time, desperatly trying not to spend our whole budget in this very cool place.

"Sunglasses Sir? Pearls? Snorkeling Mam? Dinnnnnner?!"

A classic feature of Borocay is that when you wander up and down the 3km of beach front (which we tend to do rather a lot) you are constantly being offered the most spectacular array of artifacts for sale. These range from the obvious food and drink options in the restaurants and bars to guys carrying around sunglasses, newspapers, jewelry, trousers, belts, pearls, fruit, lobsters and religious carvings. We can't help but wonder who is buying the 2 ft high model ships that are always offered up and down the strip and you can't walk 4 steps without being offered a snorkeling trip around the island. The thing is that all the people doing the sellers are licensed vendors who presumably work all year round and there simply aren't enough customers to go round.

The best thing is the completely indiscriminate sales tactics and it is not unusual for you to be just sitting down for something to eat and be offered a full body massage; or to lay out your towel on the beach and get out your book and for someone to decide that by doing this you are clearly hankering after a motorbike ride somewhere. The best is the almost constant offer of sunglasses to those of us who are, quite clearly, already wearing a pair. Not sure how many pairs one could need.. It gets a little bit old after a while but everyone is really nice and friendly. Really though we have avoided buying anything quite simply because we are terrible at haggling - don't worry Rachel, sure we will have it sussed by the time you get here.. Take for example the time when we managed to negotiate a bike ride from a hefty 100 pesos to a more reasonable 50, only to discover afterwards that it was only worth 30, tops. Practice makes perfect perhaps and big things like hotel rooms are easier to bargain for as we have a vague idea of their value. Having said that it is quite hard to get your head around the prices here. 1 us$ is about 50 pesos and some things are seriously cheap, take for example a cake from the bakery (a classic breakfast when taking a break from rice) which can be as little as 3 pesos, or a chicken and rice dinner about 60 pesos. Hotel rooms have varied from 230 to a (relatively) massive 1,500 (depending on things like air conditioning and the view). A fine example of the differences in prices would be that one day we managed to have lunch for 120 pesos (noodles and a drink) but the bill at tea time came to an unbelievable 1,700 pesos. Yes surely they were having a laugh but it was a cheap looking place where the seafood was sold by weight, and well we had no idea fish could weigh that much.. a lesson learnt there but tasted very good. Being a tourist has its added cost such yesterday’s 40 peso snorkeling fee (on top of the hire of the boat) which was collected by the ‘Environment Police’ who monitor the waters in a small wooden canoe.

Make for the hills..

After two days on the beach we moved to a hotel in the hills (appropriotly called Borocay Hills) which we had seen advertised on a late-room deal thing on the internet. The hill up to the hotel is so steep and our combined weight with backpacks so much, that at one point we had to get out of the side car so the poor bike could splutter its way up - then of course we felt compelled to run up after it and the hot hot sun (just in case he had decided to keep on going with all our stuff in the back!). Its not far from the beach though and really it is a bit posh. Owned by a lady from yorkshire along with some super friendly staff, there is a swimming-pool and free breakfast so we are as happy as, well, well fed backpackers in a pool. It also has cold AND hot water and 24 hour electricity which is unusual, as well a tv so that we don't miss out on the nightly televised cock fighting. Yesterday we went snorkeling around Crocodile Island. We were wearing life jackets as we didn’t have to move far from the boat, so it really was zero effort snorkeling. We saw loads of different corals and sea creatures, thankfully there are no crocs but LOADS of fish though who flock (can fish flock? swarm perhaps?) around for the bread we brought to feed to them. When you are not looking they sneak after you attracted presumably by the bubbles and the potential feeding opportunities and you begin to look like the pied piper of Boracay. Tom also saw a sea snake but wasn't at all scared.

Other News

So alls well here, we are staying in Borocay until Friday so we don’t even have to think about packing up our bags (let alone picking them up) for a few days. Tom has 3rd degree (sun)burns and broken (sun)glasses - luckily we know several dozen people who have some for sale. Also liz is recovering from a heavy cold, but she is rereading Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrel after Tom enjoyed it so much so is extremely content. Oh she also 'did a Caz' and stubbed her flipflop clad big toe rather badly whilst innocently walking along. We are keeping it under strict medical supervision after the horror stories Roger (of Whitsunday’s fame) told us about even the most innocent looking cuts in the tropics "..first they take off your toe, then your foot, unless the infection has already spread.. and then you could loose your whole leg..' ahhhh, other than that ITS ALL GOOD.


Lot of love to everyone. kissy kissy


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Photos

Fish
Gomez, we saw this and thought of you.

Caz, the plasters have come in very handy
Or should that be 'footy' (boom boom)

Comments

[anonymous]

haha you guys have really great stories. and your pictures are beautiful!!