I have been to Boracay twice. The first time was in the mid-90's with the whole family. We live in Iloilo, so land travel was the way to go via Capiz. As I recall, we left early in the morning and arrived Bora at around 3pm, quite a long and dusty trip. We stayed there for a night and left Bora after lunch the following day. Needless to say, it wasn't such an exciting trip, not only because of the short stay, but traveling with the whole bunch (although fun) has it downside too - you cannot make a move unless you have gathered everyone first. Ugh! Plus the long land travel back and forth wasn't exactly relaxing.
With that experience, I have never really made it a priority to travel back there. And knowing that it is the no.1 tourist spot here in the country, when I think of Bora what comes to mind is "way too crowded". Anyway, since I vowed to travel more and since Cebu Pacific did a very good promo, I decided to buy me a ticket to Bora. Yes, only me! My constant travel buddy was not available, so this time I will be traveling alone. Good thing I chose Bora, it's only a few hours away from Iloilo so I felt relatively safe and daring to go there alone. Also, I have a friend who works for one of the hotels there and she was able to find me an affordable place to stay plus detailed instructions on how to get there in the island. So Bora, here I come!
I arrived there at almost noon time, fairly hungry, so I just ditched my luggages in the room I rented (1k a night coz I travelled on an off-peak season), packed some beach stuff and off I went to feed my grumbling stomach. Now, I really thought I'd be shelling out a lot for food in this trip, but surprise, surprise! There are a lot of fast food resto there that serves good food for reasonable prices. For a glutton like me, this is great, hehehe.
I loved that I travelled on an off-peak season. The beach wasn't crowded at all but still with it's fair share of foreigners. I enjoy meeting them, really. It's fun trading stories with people from another culture, actually had a few laughs with a bunch of Koreans traveling as a group.
Anyway, I stayed there for 4D/3N, and did the following activities:
First day, had a full body massage along the beach, rented a beach chair and spent the whole afternoon by the beach reading a book and dipping in the waters. I wanted an Italian dinner so I ordered a whole pizza in Don Vito. Also had a couple of cocktails in a bar called Mint. Okay, that Tequila Sunrise was strong!
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| Boracay Island, Philippines |
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| sand castles (Boracay, Philippines) |
Second day, I was supposed to join an eco-tour but the agency called me up to inform me that no one else has enlisted to join it. This basically means that I am their only client that day and no way was I gonna pay them the entire tour's cost which was for a minimum of 4 persons. Too bad since I was really looking forward for that. To save the day, I decided to roam around and check out the whole stretch of white beach, from station 1 to 3. I was on my way back when I finally decided to talk to one of those people encouraging tourists to try some water sports. I avoided them before because I thought that their prices are similar to those quoted by the agency I talked to, but alas, to my joy, theirs are about half the price. There are a lot of activities to choose from and I settled for the helmet diving and parasailing. I have been wanting to try out skydiving to deal with my fear of heights, maybe parasailing is the first step, woohoo! So, I gave my camera to my "agent" and gave him instructions to be my photographer (the disadvantage of traveling alone).
Helmet diving is basically diving with a 30kg pressurized helmet over your head. Don't worry, this feels like 3kgs under water. With the pressure, you keep water from entering into your helmet, thus allowing you to breathe under. You stay submerged for about 30 mins enjoying the (few) coral reefs and feeding the fishes. This costs Php500 which includes a 5min video of you underwater and about 30 still shots, all saved in a CD. Not bad, me thinks.
From underwater, to the sky. I almost backed out when they were gearing me up for the parasailing. My fear of heights was kicking in but I just had to do it. I wanna be tough! And, boy, I'm glad I did that! Such a new and liberating experience for me. I wanted to do it again right after, hehehe. The trick is not to look directly down to avoid getting dizzy. I stayed for about 15mins in the air. And what did I do up there all those time? I did some singing, and I cursed and shouted at all the people who have done me wrong, hahaha! Try it sometime, you'll feel much better when you get back to earth.
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| Helmet diving (Boracay, Philippines) |
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| Parasailing (Boracay, Philippines) |
Third day, I rented a bike and climbed Mt. Luho. From there, you can see the whole of Boracay island, plus they have a mini-zoo, too. Biking around Bora is a breeze since detailed maps are available in the hotels and souvenir shops. I spent most of the afternoon swimming and souvenir shopping. And that night, I chose a bar with good music playing for a drink.
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| view from Mt. Luho, Boracay Island |
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| enjoying the sun and the beach, Boracay Island |
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