Trip Lang #13 - Boracay - A Trip for the Graduate Day 1

My brother Ron has been one of those kids who repels academic stuff. He's more of a street-smart-person and had problems finishing high school due to his different outlook in life. My mother would always talk and try to make sense out of him, lure him back to school but to her frustration, my brother never did until something happened that forced us to send him back to Sultan Kudarat, our home town. There he stayed with our cousins and had no choice but to go back to school.

To cut the long story short, he was able to survive his remaining year in high school and finally become one of the graduates for the year 2014. To pay off his effort and for finally making our mother happy, I decided to treat him and my partner Alvin for a holiday in Boracay. I’ve been to this place before and have put up a post about that trip I had on 2012.

I combed the internet for the lowest fare I could get for his almost a month vacation here in Manila. Then I grabbed the Boracay package I was offered by one of my colleague, Khyle. Few weeks before our original trip schedule, we found out that there was a problem with our reservations. Khyle had to refund our money because the agency that was supposed to book our trip was “awesome” enough to NOT book it. Grrrrr… I know. What a pain. We felt it hardcore especially for Khyle who’s been in constant communication with the agency. I usually do my own reservations and create my own itinerary for my previous travels. It’s a first for me to trust a travel agency to handle and arrange my booking and the outcome was “great” and when I say great it means the opposite, not a good first impression.

So after the mishap, I scanned the net, made phone calls, send emails and text messages looking for the best price I can get for flight and accommodation. The plan was to stay in Boracay for four days and three nights.

May 4 – 7 was the selected date of travel. I filed for a few days of vacation leave from work and had to work half day on the day of our departure. After checking in online and printing our boarding pass, we headed to the airport for our 7AM flight.

We arrived ten minutes earlier than our ETA in Kalibo airport. A land transfer with Southwest has been booked prior so I just had to get our stickers for guest identification and we were off to Jetty Port in Caticlan. Due to lack of sleep, we all dozed off for the entire 2 hours of the trip. Upon arriving at Jetty Port, we paid for the terminal and environmental fee.

A nearly ten minute ride and we reached Boracay Island. Multicabs, (these are small vehicles that have the same purpose as tricycle mostly found in Visayas and Mindanao area) were waiting when we disembarked the Southwest vessel. Another ten minute ride for us to reach Boracay Station 3 where we started walking towards the direction of The Orchids Resort where we will stay.

We were too early for Orchid's check in time but they let us in the room anyway. It was almost lunch time and we were already starving to death so we quickly changed and head to station 2 to eat.

A few minutes of walk under the scorching heat of the sun (+ awesome view) and we were all exhausted before even reaching our destination. The plan was to eat at I Love Backyard BBQ but when we get there the line was never ending. We looked around and saw 888 Seafood Restaurant. Eating here was a bad idea I thought. The food we ordered was not delicious at all. I'm not sure if that's how they roll but what they served was not equivalent to its price, let just put it that way.

After lunch we started beach bumming. We walked on the beach towards the island's famous grotto and got some refreshing drinks along the way. Good thing we had brought a Nalgene container filled with ice and water. Saves us from dehydration and heat stroke.

I'll never get enough of this captivating view of Boracay beach. The fine sand, crystal clear water, the breeze... Lucky are those people who lived and see this view everyday. Though it would be more majestic with less people littering like ants along the shore. Hehehe... I wonder how this place looks like before it became very famous. It must have been very beautiful and serene.

The grotto was equally majestic. Swimming here felt like swimming in a pool because of its clear water that reflected the sky. This was something I never experienced the first time because it was the rainy season when I first had my vacation here.

When we were satisfied with all the walking, we decided to go back to the hotel and rest for a few hours to prepare for dinner and a night of drinking. I was ecstatic to find out that Chatime, my favorite cool drink, was having a buy 1 take 1 opening promo. We had a quick stop over to buy a few and grab some snacks along the way.

Another stop over was talking to one of the locals for available tours. We got one package worth 2500 per person. This package includes island hopping, snorkeling, helmet diving, zorb, ATV ride, skycycling and a tour within the Red Coral.

Of course, who would want to miss posing on the famous sand castle with "Boracay" sculpted on it? 

Not us.. 

Due to exhaustion, we decided to sleep the rest of the afternoon to recharge for the night. It was twilight when we woke up and prepared for dinner. We ended up drinking beer at Red Pirates.

After a few bottles, we walked to station two to eat a proper dinner. Our target, I Love Backyard BBQ. We ordered one of their set meals good for four plus an additional grilled longanisa.

About an hour after eating, with full tummy and rest-deprived body, we called it a day. This conclude our first day in Boracay.

I have to break our Boracay trip in to parts because we've done so much during our stay and putting it in one post is too ridiculous. So... Day 2 post, to come soon...