Boracay,
the small island famous for its white sand, clear waters and non-stop partying.
I'd always here stories from friends of their Boracay adventures - the
epicness of the booze, music and beach bodies galore. But I am more of a
beach girl than a party girl, so Boracay never really attracted me. I'd
rather enjoy the beach by myself, with no strangers roaming around. So,
rather than going to Boracay with friends, I'd rather visit my relatives in
Negros Oriental.
But,
as fate and luck would have it, off to Boracay my family and I went! Papa
was lucky to have won the raffle prize at his office's Christmas party.
Originally, the prize was two roundtrip tickets to Hongkong.
However, Mama isn't a fan of Hongkong so Papa decided to have the tickets
converted to four roundtrip tickets to any local destination. Two of our
choices were Coron and Boracay. Papa, Mama and I wanted to go to Coron
but my brother wanted to go to Boracay. So...we chose Boracay. My brother's the
bunso, btw. :)) We were also very lucky because Papa's officemate knows
the owner of a hotel in Boracay that might just allow us to stay at their hotel
for free. How cool is that? ;)
Plane
tickets bought, reservations made, bags packed, and it was off to the airport!
1. Checking for the flight!; 2. Bioy, the Boracay Boy; 3. That killer propeller!; 4. Papa with his shades, loooking stressed at the line.
Our
plane was supposed to leave at 9am, and we arrived at the airport at 8.30.
The airport was't that crowded yet, it was just typical end of summer
traffic with most people in their summer gear. And we thought it was only
Cebu Pacific whose flights get delayed, our AirPhil flight was also delayed!
It arrived an hour later! I made a mistake though with the
seat selector. I knew that the plane to Caticlan's small, I just didn't know it
was a propeller plane! o_O What I thought was an advantageous seat, was
quite scary because our seats were right where the propellers were! While
take off, it felt as if those propellers were out to cut out our heads! :))
Being
the small plane that is it, the seat capacity was roughly around 60 passengers.
The seat in front of me was occupied by a young lesbian with nice
features. She/he (I'm not sure with what pronoun lesbians prefer to be
addressed with. Someone enlighten me please?) has a perky nose, nice skin
and dimples. I must say, she/he is attractive. :) Don't judge! Gender is fluid!
;)
1. Hello Boracay's brand new airport!; 2. Blind musicians offering music at the jetty port. Don't forget to give them a little something before you hop on the boat! :D; 3. At the port, filled with ads! The whole island is practically littered with ads!; 4. Mama, excited to hit the beach.
After
a rough landing coupled with a splitting headache (I really hate small planes
and short run ways!), we were finally in Caticlan! :D Out with the
shades! The Caticlan Airport is new, but smaller than Dumaguete's
airport. Good thing that it was airconditioned because the short walk
from the plane to the arrival area was scorching! There was only one conveyor
belt but since we were the only flight at that time, we were able to collect
our bags right away. Paying all the other fees (environmental fee, trike
fee) took quite sometime until we were the only ones left inside the airport.
As we stepped out, we were surprised that someone approached us and
told us that he was looking for us. This person was someone from
Southwest Tours. Apparently, airport and jetty transfers were part of the
deal. :) Since the first batch of Southwest clients went off first, we
waited a bit at the airport. We chatted with Kuya for a bit. Too bad we
weren't able to give him a tip since he was very nice to us. But then
again, that is his job in the first place. The "tip" culture here in
the Philippines is really inevitable, and while it has been ingrained in our
culture, there seems to be no standard to tipping. How much is too much?
How scarce is too scarce?
Para-para-paradise! :)
Anywaaays,
back to Boracay...the van ride to the jetty port was short. Konting
tumbling lang, jetty port na. The porters from Southwest helped us carry our
luggage to the banca. The banca was filled with foreign and local
tourists and locals. The sea was calm so we didn't get any sea water
inside the banca. After a couple of minutes, we finally arrived at the
jetty port. People from Southwest picked
us up, and off we were to the hotel! :)
We stopped by the main road and walked along an eskinita to the
hotel. At first, we thought that the
walk would be really long. We passed by
sari-sari stores, a billiards hall where the locals hang out, then the touristy
part of Boracay came into sight. Hotels,
lodges then finally the beach. Aaah.
Itook of my sun glasses to bask in the glorious view of the sun, the
sand and of course the sea. We walked a
bit, and we finally reached Sun Village Central.
Sun
Village Central is at the north end of Station 2 beside another smaller hotel
(I forgot the name, sorry) and BomBom Bar.
It's just a minute of walk away from Dmall! :) Sun Village has its own kawayan/bamboo beach
beds with pillows. When we arrived we
were welcomed with smiled, shell necklaces and fresh calamansi juice. :) The
juice was really refreshing! :) Check-in was a breeze so we went up our room to
cool off. We got the de luxe room number
2. It overlooks the beach. It has two
big beds. The aircon was cool, and the beds were very comfortable!
In fact, we spent half our stay holed up in the hotel room! :)) The room has cable tv so we were able to
watch our shows, particularly, American Idol. :)) After exploring our comfy
room, we went down to have lunch. The
Mongolian buffet was spread out. It
really looked delicious but we weren't that hungry. We decided to try their buffet some other
time. Instead, we ordered rice
bowls. Mama ordered sweet and sour fish,
my brother and I ordered pork asado, and I forgot what Papa ordered. :))
After lunch, we all went up to take a nap. We sure do love sleeping, even in the event-filled island of Boracay! :))
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