WEATHER: Hot and 32C
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Arriving in paradise
BUMMER OF THE DAY: An effort to get to paradise-but worth it
WORD OF THE DAY: STUNNING
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 844km
Today I head to the paradise they call Boracay. I have seen some beautiful beaches in my
time. The Seychelles, Tanzania, Reunion
Island, I mean Australia have amazing beaches.
But I have been told that Boracay is one step above. Well we will see. It is a bit of a drama to get to this
paradise and I had in my head a peaceful haven, not many people (due to the
rigmarole to get there) and palm trees and white sand beach.
I was able to have a leisurely start to the day as my
flight was not till 2.05pm. My transfer
wasn’t till 11.30am and I was able to enjoy that monster buffet one last
time. It was hard as you don’t want to
eat too much, but I even ate pasties, which I never have, but they looked so
good and they tasted so good I just had to have 2 (mini size of course). And I was hooked on with the siomai which are
like little dumpling filled with pork/prawn/mushroom and steamed. Nom, nom, nom, nom-they were delicious. My driver was waiting for me at 11.30am and
the drive to the airport took 45 minutes.
Traffic is a real issue, but I think part of the problem is the traffic
lights take so long to change. Their
theory seems to be let more cars through in long changes than to have shorter
changes. Seriously you can wait up to
5-8 minutes per change. I am not sure if
that works for the flow of traffic, but then I am sure they do it for a
reason.
I was dropped at the airport and then after checking my
ticket, my passport and my bags scanned I was in the terminal. Cebu’s Airport is dated. It reminds me of Darwin’s old airport back in
the 80’s. When I got to Cebu Pacific’s
check-in counters they had their slide boards up and each line was for a
particular destination. The airport I
was flying into was Caticlan and then I would be getting a ferry to the island
of Boracay. So I stood in the correct
line and when I was next in line I started to pay attention to what was
happening in front of me. Once the
check-in agent had taken bags, she would go to a computer at the next counter,
do something, come back hand something to the passengers, some had to go in
another line and others not and then before they left they had to stand on a
set of scales with their hand luggage to be weighed. MAN.
How big was this plane we were going on?
I checked where the scale display was and it was not pointing where
everyone could see (thank goodness) and the thought of me getting on scales in
front of some-one was horrifying but necessary.
When my turn came I went through the same procedure though I didn’t have
to line up in the other line (looked like an excess baggage payment line) I was
weighed and then I asked for a window seat, which was given no worries. From here you had to pay a departure tax of 200
pesos, a ticket and ID check and then you were through to departures. There were a few shops around and a few eat
spots, but I had eaten a later breakfast and decided to just make my way down
to my gate. It was a ground floor
departure, which always involves a bus transfer and we were called on time and
once we drove to the plane it was an ATR74, propelled plane with a rear
entrance and a 2x2 seat configuration. I
was sitting in the last row and sitting next to a small waif of a woman and my
backpack just fit in the overhead. It
was a good day.
It was an hour’s flight from Cebu to Caticlan. There weren’t any refreshments served but we
did get the game ‘name that tune half way through the flight. I do take off my ears to listen and the last
one the Hostee gave a hint that it was going to be an English song for the
western people (there were 4 of us on the flight) and I wasn’t fast enough, not
that I didn’t know what it was, you would have to be dope not to when she
started to sing Mama Mia…… Damn I could have won a Cebu Pacific bag. Never mind.
I am so glad that I asked for a window seat. It was a beautiful day flying over the ocean
that would occasionally be dotted with deserted islands, some not. The Philippines has over 7195 islands, only 3590
of them have names and over 2000 of them are inhabited. I think we may have flown over 8.
Well as we were in the very last seats of the plane, we
were first off after we arrived at 2.45pm.
We had to walk across the tarmac, we are in the tropics now, and as we
entered the terminal building we had to register our details at the information
counter. The airport was tiny and 5m
away was the baggage carousel and 5 minutes later my bag was out. I walked out of the terminal and there was a
guy with my name on a board, so my bag was taken, a sticker of the hotel where
I was staying slapped onto my shirt and I was escorted to an air-conditioned
minibus. The itinerary was very wishy
washy on the exact details of what would happen, what taxes I had to pay and
how far things were etc…. I was just
being reliant that all would go to plan and if I got stuck I would ask some-one. Typically on an island, everyone knows
everyone and what is happening and worst case scenario I had the mobile to the
office in Manila if I got super stuck.
We only had to wait for 6 more passengers and then we were transferred
the 2 minutes to the ferry terminal. It
really wasn’t far, a little embarrassing really, but if people had big luggage
and the heat was pretty bad, so I guess I will just stick with the transfer, but
you could seriously walk it in 8 minutes.
Once we arrived at the ferry terminal it looked like an
organized chaos. It was busy. There was security, porters, food sellers,
tourists, locals, transfers coming and going…….The guy that had the board with
my name on it, passed our small group to another guy with a walkie talkie who
was to guide us through security where our bags got scanned and then told us we
had to pay an environmental and admission fee of 75pesos and a terminal fee of
100pesos. After I had given him 200
pesos, he told us to take a seat and went and purchased all the tickets and
paid the fees for us and was back in 10 minutes. He went to give my 25pesos back, but I told
him to keep it, he earned it. So we than
passed through the payment check, the ferry pass check and then we were out on
the dock and being escorted onto a rather shabby looking boat they call ‘fast
ferry’. This thing looked lucky it was
able to float. But I am now on the
islands and this is how they roll. So we
walked a dodgy plank to get onto the boat, which in its favor had
air-conditioning and it was grab a seat and wait till departure as we bobbed up
and down with the swell. Luckily I don’t
get sea sickness that much (thinking back to the Isle of Harris ferry crossing)
we had about 20 more people board and then we lifted anchor…well the plank and
we were on our way for the 10 minute ride to the actual island of Boracay. I am SO glad that I didn’t have my monster
bag, it really would have been a pain in the bottom and I think it would have
taken a toll on my arm. I really couldn’t
see much out of my window as they had that window tint that was applied like
100 years ago and people had tried to pick it and it was like looking through a
pair of beer goggles.
Everything you read about Boracay is that there are
different ferry stations. Depending on
where you stay is dependent on what ferry station you get off at. We were given a small tourist book on Boracay
as we headed through the ferry terminal and it still had that information in it
as correct. But when we got to the first
stop and everyone was looking at each other to see who was to get off here we
all got the word that we all had to get off.
Okay, not going to argue and once we had got on the pier at Boracay
there was a guy in a Le Soleil uniform waiting for me. Talk about a military precision of 5 people
making your arrival all go smoothly.
From the board guy, to the ticket guy, to the ferry guy to the pickup
guy you are continually being met by people who are where they should be and it
was quite a nice feeling. I asked the
transfer guy about the station stops and he said that they don’t do that anymore,
there is just this stop on the other side of the island as no boats are now
allowed on the White Sand Beach (main beach) of the island. We had a 15 minute drive to the resort from
here.
So driving through the small villages and the shops where
the locals shop, we turned down a small beach road 20 minutes later. We stopped in the lane and I was told that
due to the new restrictions they weren’t allowed to drive on the beach road
anymore and there was a security guy waiting for us to walk me the 8 minutes to
the hotel. Again another link in the
chain all working smoothly getting me into the hotel at 4.15pm. I was able to see the beach clear as day as
we walked along the sandy path. All the
hotel entrances face the ocean and with outdoor tables set up for dining
(joined to the hotel) there was nothing else blocking out that view. All the hotels are literally 5m from the
front doors. I could see the aquamarine
blue glinting with the beautiful white sand.
Once I had checked in I asked reception for directions to the closest
supermarket and decided to have a little look around. I was actually also a little relived that
there was no Wi-Fi in the hotel rooms. I
needed to have a break from 24 hour access and what a better way to do it than
not having a connection. They had it in
the restaurant downstairs, so I as I was passing through I would quickly check
and then be on my way again. Now who
ever would have thought they would have heard me say that!
The main area is called ‘White Beach’ (for obvious
reasons) and this is where 85% of the accommodation is located. There are stacks of restaurants of all
standards, people selling ‘fake’ pearls, small bead stalls, femo looking pens
looked all the rage, massages on offer and Henna tattoo seems to be all the
rage for the Koreans from first look.
People are just walking around in their beach wear and the whole place
just had an amazing vibe. The main
shopping/eatery section is called D’Mall and with my impression of a mall as
such it was an open air shopping/eating district with anything you wanted you
could get it from here. I found the
supermarket no problems and stocked up on some goodies for the 4 days. I got some biscuits, found some camembert,
bought a bottle of Boracay Rum (coconut flavor) for 3AUD and that was for a
LITRE and the berry juice I bought to mix with it was the same price-CRAZY!!!! I also invested in some SUNSCREEN (I know don’t
fall off your chairs) and I also bought 2 bowls of 2 minute noodles as a backup
for dinner or lunch to save some money and if I didn’t want to go out, I had a
meal. So with snacks in hand I headed
back to the hotel and then not wanting to waste a sunset, I sat on the beach at
5.15pm and watched my first Boracay sunset and it was brilliant. I have said that it is unusual to see a
sunset over water, I saw one in Galle, in Sri Lanka, and now in the Philippines
I see another one. Looking up and down
the beach there looks like there are thousands of people and that shocked me,
as I really thought this was a secluded, not many people come here type of
place. WRONG. But as I walked further up the beach even
though looking it looked like a lot of people, when you walk it doesn’t fell
crowded at all. There were still people
in the water after 6pm, kids building sandcastles, Frisbees being thrown, a lot
of people also enjoying the sunset and a lot of people also walking the
beach.
It was a magic way to end what was quite a busy day. It certainly isn’t the easiest place to get
to.
A transfer in Cebu to the airport
The flight from Cebu to Caticlan
A mini bus transfer from the airport to the ferry
terminal
The 10 minute ferry ride
The transfer from the ferry to the hotel district
The 8 minute walk from the van to the actual hotel
And even after all that it is totally worth it. I didn’t see too many western people around, a
lot of Koreans and Japanese. It makes me
wonder why there aren’t more Australians here with direct services from
Australia to Manila; you think that wouldn’t be too much of an effort and
certainly not as far as our European friends travel. Either way, if you get a chance to visit-DO
IT. I can see why it is ranked one of the
top 10 beaches in the world. PARADISE-and I am here for 4 glorious nights.
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