BEAUTIFUL BORACAY AND HER BEACH

WEATHER: Hot EVERYDAY AND 31c

Boracay is a small island of the Philippines located approximately 315 km.  Boracay Island and its beaches have received awards from numerous travel publications and agencies.   In 2012, Boracay has been named the Best Island in the World by an international travel magazine, Travel + Leisure and I definitely see why.  As of 2010, Boracay has in excess of 350 beach resorts offering more than 2,000 rooms ranging in quality from five-star to budget accommodation.  There is also a wide range of restaurants, bars, pubs, and nightclubs to frequent during your stay.  It surprises me, I have been to a lot is islands similar to this and everything is so expensive, well not here.  I didn't get to see many prices of things while I was in Manila, but when you are paying 4.50AUD for a cocktail and I saw on a menu a lobster tail was 7.50AUD that is SO cheap and for an island that is rated in the top ten in the world I think that is pretty amazing in itself.  This would be a BIG thing to differentiate it from some of the other top ten beaches.    

Sofia Gonzales Tirol and her husband Lamberto Hontiveros Tirol, a town judge on nearby Panay Island, took ownership of substantial properties on the island around 1900 and planted coconuts, fruit trees, and greenery on the island. Others followed the Tirols, and cultivation and development of the island gradually spread from this initial beginning.  Tourism came to the island beginning in about the 1970s. The movie Too Late the Hero was filmed in 1970 on locations in Boracay and Caticlan.  In the 1980s, the island became popular as a budget destination for backpackers, By the 1990s; Boracay's beaches were being acclaimed as the best in the world. 

The name Boracay is attributed to different origins. One story says that it is derived from the local word "borac" which means white cotton with characteristics close to the color and texture of Boracay's white sugary and powdery sand. Another credits the name to local words "bora," meaning bubbles, and "bocay," meaning white. Yet another version dating back to the Spanish era says the name is derived from "sagay," the word for shell, and "boray," the word for seed.

The island is approximately seven kilometers long; dog-bone shaped with the narrowest spot being less than one kilometer wide, and has a total land area of 10.32 square kilometers.  Boracay's two primary tourism beaches, White Beach and Bulabog Beach, are located on opposite sides of the island's narrow central area.  White Beach, the main tourism beach, is about four kilometers long and is lined with resorts, hotels, lodging houses, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses.

In the central portion, for about two kilometers, there is a footpath known as the Beachfront Path separating the beach itself from the establishments located along it. North and south of the Beachfront Path, beachfront establishments do literally front along the beach itself. This is where you will find most of the shopping.  As you stroll the beachfront path you will be approached by men selling sunglasses, pearls, model sailboats, carvings, fake watches, belts and numerous other trinkets.  There are also stalls set up selling pens, keyrings and bracelets made to order personalized with your name on them.  After dodging them you also have the tour operators wanting to sell you the activities, with laminated cards with the pictures of what they offer on them.  And lastly no tropical paradise is complete without the call for massages.  ‘You want massage’? You hear this the whole length of the walk.  Some are drumming up business to go into a beauty salon, others have the chairs/loungers right there and you can tell these women as they are all wearing what looks like a nurse’s outfit of the same colour.  They also offer manicures, pedicures and also on offer is henna tattoos and hair braiding.  I did notice when I was on the beach that none of the sellers were on the beach also.  They mustn’t be allowed on the beach which I think is a great idea.  Some of the watersport people were there, but I think that can be forgiven as their activities are water based.  There were even banana boat rides that you could do and they always seemed quite busy with people during the day. 

D’Mall is the main place where you will find what you need.  Like an outdoor shopping centre as such it runs from the main road that is parallel to the beach and travels the length of the island, all the way through to white beach and here you will find designer clothes, pharmacies, souvenir shops, travel agents, optical and dental services and upscale and budget restaurants and bars with happy hours, that run longer than an hour! 

 

Even though there are a lot of people around, the locals remember you.  I was walking along the beach on my last day and I do remember this guys as he tried to sell me a scuba (wrong person buddy) on my first day, and I was down the other end from where my hotel was and he said that I was staying at Le Soleil wasn’t I.  I said yes and he said if I still wanted to scuba I could (still the wrong person) but thanks for remembering me.  It still has that personal feel and if you are there longer than a couple of days then people do start to remember you and say hi.  This was a nice touch. 

So my 3 whole days in Boracay were amazing.

Breakfast was a little ordinary here at the hotel.  I seemed to pick the best time at around 9am, missing the early rush of deckchair hogs to the later arrival of our Korean friends at 9.30am.  I had got a bit of a routine happening where I would complete a blog (or 2) at night in my room and then I would bring my laptop down to breakfast, upload the blogs and the photos I had taken the previous day and that was the only light of day my laptop saw while I was here.  So my days were filled with beach walks and you will be happy to know that I applied SUNSCREEN each day as my skin had copped a flogging when I was in Mirissa in Sri Lanka and it had just finished peeling and even I knew I would be an idiot to go out without anything on.  Hands up who are proud of me!!!!  The beach always looked busy, but when you walked it didn’t seem as crowded as it first looked.  The northern end had hardly anyone up there when I went up there on my last day, so it was nice to get a photo of the beach with not many people on it.  There are local kids that hire out skimboards and they can be seen doing this all the way down the beach.  You basically throw a mini surfboard, thinner as well, on the small waves that hit the beach and then you jump on and go for a skim…..  It looks like it would take some practice and I saw more than a few people fall off when the board skid out from under them and they fell on their bottom. 

There seems to be a permanent black cloud that hovers down the south end of the beach on one of the surrounding mountains, but I have yet to see any rain.  The driver said when I had arrived it had rained all last week, but the weather was supposed to be okay for the days I was to be here.  I’m not sure what I would do if the weather turned sour as all the activities are outdoor save the massage places, but I am not really into them much.  Leisure activities available on or near Boracay include scuba diving, snorkeling, windsurfing, kiteboarding and cliff diving.  Boracay is the site of an 18-hole par 72 golf course designed by Graham Marsh.  Yeah, well I still wouldn’t know what to do.  There were kids on the beach that were

I was here in low season (rain predicted) so I knew that when I made a booking I just wanted to hope for the best.    My daily routine consisted of breakfast, uploading blogs and photos.  Out of the hotel by 11am, out and about till around2pm with lunch thrown in there somewhere, back to the hotel for a little rest and swim in the pool as it was so hot each day, with a book in hand I would float around in the pool for 2 hours back to the room for a small rest before heading out to what the sunset looked like for the day, I would then go to dinner while I was out and then head home around 8pm.  Not a bad little daily routine I have to say.  I don’t see any enjoyment going to a bar on your own and I really wasn’t in the mood for small talk with strangers, sometimes my whole story is complicated that you just can’t have a short version and for the daily activities I have done them all before (except scuba) but I sometimes think you need to do them with people you know to maximize the fun, I know it sounds weird, but people are so caught up in the excitement they don’t think to ask a single traveler if they want their photo or to chat to them and I think it takes away from the experience.  If there was something I really wanted to do I would do it in my own, I wouldn’t miss out but otherwise I was just here for relaxation this time.    

It rained 3 times while I was here and it was all at night time after 9pm. The good thing it seems it doesn’t last for long and so I think I may have been lucky with the weather while I was here.  Besides one night out of 4 I got some amazing sunset pictures.  It really is a true paradise here without all the bells and whistles of what small islands are normally like.  The atmosphere here was great, it had a great vibe and I know that if I had the chance I would definitely come back here again, with someone-if it be friends or for a romantic liaison, but I would come back for at least a week, maybe longer if you plan to do some of the activities. 

I spent 4 days in paradise and it was now time to face the world again tomorrow and to also do something that I have been thinking about for a while and putting off.  Knowing that I couldn’t do it anymore I have to face the cold hard facts with Zeme and my relationship and tomorrow was going to be the day. Ugh.  I feel sick.