Destination – Philippines
–
Boracay – Row row your boat
Hanging out for
some beachtime, we leave Manila and head to Boracay. This famous island has been voted one of the
best islands/beaches in the world so many times obviously we have to see what all
the fuss is about. We decide to try the Ro-Ro
(roll on/roll off) method of transport. So we get picked up from by a van and
immediately I want to get off as it is way too overcrowded for such a long
trip. The van has 12 seats and there are 12 adults and 5 children of different
ages crushed amongst us all and the mountains of boxes in the back. There’s no
leg space and it’s also really freezing. Paul thinks we should persevere and I
think it’s a bad idea but we continue on. Well, it was a bad idea. After 3 hours the van
goes on a ferry and thankfully we get out for the 2.5 hour ferry ride. We get in the van again and go all the way to Roxas
Port (another 4 hours on terrible roads). We get there at 5.30am, missing
the connecting ferry at 4am to Caticlan (jump-off point for Boracay). We ask
about the next ferry and find out it’s only at 2pm (8 and a half hours later!!).
We are so tired and angry, dirty, grumpy,
hungry and almost defeated. I said almost. We pick up the pieces and check into
a local guesthouse for a shower and a few hours nap. The next ferry trip lasts 4 hours and after arriving
in Caticlan we take a 10 minute “bumboat” trip to Boracay island and then a 10
minute taxi ride to the Bela Casa Hotel. Not very nice at all, tiny rooms and a huge cockroach
on the wall. Bloody fake reviews on Tripdvisor!
The hotel guys are nice and come to spray and kill the beast for us. We notice
he discreetly carries a HUGE “piece – ie. pistol” stuck in the back of his
shorts. Some of the cockroaches must be
really big around here… Yeah, we feel much safer now. We crash after a few
glasses of red wine and the next morning we move to the very nice Alice in Wonderland
Beachfront Resort.
Now,
to the beach. It took us 22 hours and
all sorts of transportation to get here, it better be worth it! Well, we can’t
be sure if this is the best beach in the world but this is definitely the BEST
beach we’ve ever seen. This is a big claim as we come from both Brazil and
Australia and we’ve also seen all types of beaches in all sorts of countries.
It’s just amazing and it looks like it’s been PhotoShopped. It’s like the ones
you only see in the brochures and say: yeah, right, I don’t think so… Yeah, we got plenty of photos for you. We decide to just hang out on this amazing
island and enjoy the beach for a while. And so we do. We meet a Swedish couple
and they meet another Swedish couple and all we hang out together. The cheap
San Miguel cold beer helps so does the Tanduay Superior local rum. We change hotels again to the Azzuro Di Boracay,
not as nice room but definitely more of a beach holiday feel. Our friends from Manila come over for a four
day break and we all enjoy this wonderful beach together, eating a lot of
barbecued chicken and pork. Still can’t
believe the colour and clarity of the water here. Once smoking a cigarette on the beach, we are
approached by the “pulisya” and told we are getting a ticket (500 pesos – 12
dollars) for smoking on the beach. We
all get it that the two guys want to squeeze a bit of money out of us but our
Philippine friend talks him out of it. Good girl! We all have a great time
together and after 4 days they go back to Manila. It’s only us two bunnies
again, back to books and movies, great food with tiny portions at “Smoke”
restaurant, our new regular. Back to this wonderful, indescribable beach. After 16 days in tropical heaven, we think
it’s time to leave Boracay and start thinking of a place to call home for the Christmas
holidays, the dreaded “peak season”, meaning busy, expensive and lots of
families with kiddies. Let’s move to a smaller, less famous place, next stop is
Bantayan Island. Watch this space.