As many of you probably know, I had the pleasure of going on a week long vacation to the Philippines with my three roommates. We chose the island of Boracay because we had heard nothing but good things. And good things the week was full of.
We left Taiwan at 130 in the morning on Sunday and arrived in Caticlan after a layover in Manila. Boracay is a smaller island off the small island of Caticlan. So once you land at the airport, you take a trike (a scooter with a side car-ish thing attached) to a boat (or the water vehicle equivalent to a rickshaw) and then get another trike when you get to Boracay. So needless to say, when we finally arrived at our hostel at 8am, we were very ready to have arrived.
The hostel we stayed in was great. The rooms were all made of bamboo and were very beach-y and island-y. And the main beach was just a short walk, maybe two minutes. So we dropped our stuff off, changed into suits and let the base tanning begin.
What was supposed to be tanning became burning quicker than we noticed because we all passed out on the beach. But it turned out to be okay. Rooney assured all of us that the red to brown plan was the way to go.
There were so many good restaurants there because they weren't Taiwanese. Haha. Not that I have anything against Taiwanese food, but it's so nice to have a variety! We ate all kinds of food like Mexican, Italian, Greek, more Mexican, and more Mexican.
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| white beach |
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| mojito and coco drink |
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| puka beach with a storm rolling in |
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| josh |
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| 730am |
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| our view |
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| base tanning |
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| sailing |
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| fastest boat in boracay |
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| going to dinner |
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| our new friend otmane |
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| happy hour at the hostel |
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| two of the swedes |
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| fire dancin |
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| a trike |
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| puka beach |
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| delicious lunch |
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| alexxxx |
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| jeff the hostel man |
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| alex and josh with one of the singers, marvin |
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| english sandwich, oliver and james |
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| bracelet boy |
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| live music |
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| ollie |
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| you can almost see his butt pit |
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| wooooo |
The weather wasn't the greatest because of rain, but we definitely had enough sun to enjoy. We spent a lot of time at the northern beach, Puka Beach. It is much less crowded and so beautiful. It really felt like we were sitting in a magazine picture. It was perfect.
Some of our weekly activities were sun bathing, reading, relaxing, eating, laughing, swimming, sailing, snorkeling, making new friends, and general good time having. Oh and getting massages. Those were great. We went sailing twice with the same guys because they became our friends. The first time we just sailed around the island and got to see it all. Such a beautiful place. The next time, we had two more friends with us from Taiwan, and we went around the island and also stopped to snorkel. It was awesome. The water was clearer than pool water and there were so many fish. Raffi, our skipper, bought bread for us to attract the fish. It was a little scary at first, but so cool because we were swimming with hundreds of fish. We also didn't know it but Rooney had gotten out and was throwing the bread right around our faces so the fish were coming at us and one of the guys, Oliver, panicked. And by that I mean that the swam over me, pushed me at the fish and gave himself a head start back to the boat. Haha. So much for chivalry.
I tried on multiple occasions to watch the Euro cup games, but each time failed. The takeaway lesson, don't try to watch soccer in the Philippines.
We also met two separate groups of Swedes traveling. One set, a pair of girls, are studying Chinese in Bejing. So we bonded over the impossibility of the language and the weird things they do. The other was a group of six, three guys, three girls. They were coming from Vietnam after doing a medical program there. They're all med students in Sweden. And the whole lot of them were great. We spent a lot of time with them over meals and at happy our. I'd love to see them all again, sometime.
There was also a plethora of live music which was a very welcome change from Taiwan. There isn't much live music here, or if there is, it's all the same couple English songs. But in Boracay, there was live music at almost every restaurant and they had it at our hostel three times. It was great. We befriended the singers at our hostels and saw them a couple times. Live music is a life enhancer. We also saw a couple fire dancing shows which were pretty cool.
All in all, the vacation was good. A lot of fun and relaxing. Now I'm gearing up for my vacation home which I can't wait for! Which means I'll be seeing most of you soon! Mahal kita!! (I love you in Tagalog)
