"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." a white sand Christmas, that is! Although I wasn't home in Wisconsin, surrounded by white snow, I compensated by surrounding myself with the white sand beaches of Boracay, a small island in the Philippines. My trip was great- truly relaxing, once we got out of Manila, that is. Adam, Joshua, Trena, Mia and I all spent 10 days together baking on the beach! Our vacation was great because at the end of our trip I didn't feel like I needed another vacation to recover from vacation! Here are some highlights of the trip:
Manila- a crazy jumble of a city! When I got off the plane I wasn't quite sure to expect. I guess I was expecting something similar to Seoul, but it was nothing of the sorts.
This is a jeepney, one of the main forms of transportation you will see in the city. They are basically like decked out mini buses. They all have crazy names and decorations. We saw Jazz, Blue Kiss, El Shaddai, Everson, King of Kings, Jason, Angel, John 3:16...etc. We spent about an hour outside of a gas station watching them all fly by, packed with people.
Trikes are also another popular way to get around. A trike is basically a motor bike with a little carriage attached. Some also are just pedal bikes. They are very small, it looks like only 2 or 3 people can fit in it , but I saw trikes with 7 or 8 people packed in!
We took a trike downtown Manila on New Year's Eve. Adam and Josh are sitting on the back of the bike with the driver!
On to Boracay...
It took a lot of work to get there! From Manila it was a 35 minute plane ride. Then from the airport in Caticlan we had to take a trike to the ferry station. From the ferry station we took a a small boat over to Boracay. To get on the boat we had to walk down a plank about as wide as your foot, balancing our bags, to get into the boat. One wrong move and you are in the water next to the boat! It was a little nerve racking, but at least the boat guy was there offering his hand to everyone trying not to fall. At the boat station in Boracay we had to take another trike to get to our hostel. Finally!
Boracay is beautiful! We stayed right on White Beach, about a one and a half mile strip of beautiful sand. The beach front is definitely touristy, but if you go to the main road you will find all the local shops and restaurants- and much cheaper prices too! My trip wasn't too expensive, I spent a little under $500, including lodging for the whole 10 days I was gone. Not bad!
Also, I saw a moonrainbow! I have never heard of such a thing, but I definitely saw one. As the group of us were walking down the beach one evening we saw a rainbow coming off of the moon. Obviously the colors weren't as vibrant as a rainbow you would see in the daytime, but it was amazing and unusual!
I also saw a ton of ladyboys, as the locals call them. They were all over the island. It added an interesting dynamic to all the people on the island. I saw men that look better than I ever will as a women! I also saw plenty of men who had no idea they were making out with a man until a little later in the evening. However, I made friends with a few and got to talk with a few of the "girls." I'm not exactly sure, but I think the "ladyboy" culture is very respected. One of the girl s I met, said she had been training herself to be a woman since she was 15 years old. She has done shows in Korea and had recently moved to Boracay from Manila to work. It is not uncommon for young boys to start acting and looking like women when they hit puberty, then they go make money working as a transsexual. The girls I met were great, they were funny and nice and I enjoyed my evenings seeing all of them out and about.
The beach was beautiful, the water was always clear and the most beautiful shades of blue-green.
We truly were beach bums the whole week. It was great!
Here are some local vendors selling various goodies. Bargaining was quite fun. I think I did alright and got some good deals.
We took a boat around the island and stopped at this beach to see the bat cave. I didn't go into the bat cave, but instead played with these cute kids and their puppies.
These guys, Don Don and Godly (yeah, that's really his name) made our week fantastic! They were both extremely nice and we hung out with them all week. Don Don worked for a boating company and he took us out on a boat for the day so we could snorkel. We ended up renting a boat three times that week to snorkel.
One thing that really surprised me about the island were all the local kids running around all the time, especially at the late hours of the night. These kids collected bottles and also did their share of "interacting" with tourists. They were good at it too. The guys in this picture thought the kids were so cute that they always gave them money. I think the fact that the guys were drunk worked in favor of the kids. The night this pic was taken I saw them give out probably close to $15 bucks, or about 600 pesos, which goes a long way on the island.
One night, starting about 11pm, the island got drenched with torrential rain! It was the loudest rainfall I have ever heard, and it didn't stop until about 11am! This is what we woke up to! Our whole hostel was flooded. The owners set up little bamboo planks and stones all over the walkways, but your feet still got wet. This is our path leading out of the hostel, on our way to the beach. We are all standing on stepping stones here. It took about 3 days for all the water in our hostel area to completely disappear. The beach dried up within the day.
Part of one of the local neighborhoods behind our hostel. The area was kind of swampy so it naturally collected a lot of water. This was taken before the big rain!
The corner store Boracay Jesus! The Philippines in general is a very Catholic country. It was not uncommon to see religious figures/ alters set up all over the place. I found this Jesus quite amusing. Notice the poked out eye? haha
There is no need for an ice cream truck in Boracay, they use ice cream boats! This guy would paddle around to all the snorkelers selling ice cream!
Snorkeling was a lot of fun. I saw a coral snake, a lot of fish, and a TON of jellyfish. On Christmas day the five of us went snorkeling and all five of us got stung within the first 10 minutes of snorkeling! Ouch! I don't think this normally happens, but it was high tide and a full moon so I think those were big factors. We ended up moving to a different part of the island to snorkel where it was free of jelly fish.
Here is the whole group chilling on the beach. Our hostel was just a 2 minute walk behind us.
I'm going to leave you with these two videos. The first one is just a pan of Puka Beach. The second one is Joshua dancing with the island kids. Enjoy!
Matt is in the black coat. On a side note, the building behind us is one of the oldest landmarks in Korea, Sungnyemun. It is one of Korea's most famous landmarks, constructed in 1398. It is the only remaining gate from the Joseon dynasty, when Seoul still had walls. A few days ago, on February 10, a 70 year old man set it on fire! I haven't seen the damage, but I heard it will take a couple years to fully restore it.
