Us on Puka Beach, Boracay Island
Sean's Sand Turtle (Kai and I made one too, but not quite the same quality as this one.)
The two very full, very heavy bags of trash we picked up, just from the little stretch of beach we were hanging out on.
The boat we took from Boracay Island to the Catlican airport. See Sean lugging our huge suitcases on that flimsy little plank?!?
17 May 2008: Apparently, we arrived to Boracay right in the middle of a big storm, with another one right behind it called Cosme. The day we arrived was also declared the official beginning of monsoon season. Good timing, huh? Sean’s been pretty nervous about the storms coming in and out of the area and keeping close tabs on the news, especially the one that just hit the Luzon province, our destination next week. We’re crossing our fingers that weather won’t an issue for the rest of our stay in this country.
The first five days in Boracay were less than stellar weather, lots of wind and fast gusts of rain, even some thunder and lightning. But we made the most of it, either staying inside, letting Kai nap well and watching TV including an American Idol marathon. We got to see an entire season, so we were prepared for the season finale. And when there were small breaks in the weather, we’d go out and play in the sand/water or go out to eat. Sean enjoyed body surfing and skim boarding. One night, he taught Kai how to play pool downstairs from our room at Mango Ray. Kai enjoyed making sand castles with some sand toys we bought her. Sean liked eating Filipino breakfast every morning, with rice, corned beef and fried eggs. Kai liked having juices made from fresh fruit as well as her daily yogurt from a European deli that we found in D’Mall. There, I also found some Tuscan mineral water, cheese and salami, and lemon for my daily morning drink, hot water with a squeeze of lemon wedge. I became addicted to one of the restaurants in D’Mall, Aria, where we ate at least once a day. They served Italian food. Although I’m still “over” pasta after Italy, they had salads made from organic lettuce and arugula and pizzas made in a wood fired brick oven. We also tried some other places there, such as a place that had great BBQ and a sushi place. Our last night there, we got a tip to take a short tricycle ride down to the other side of the beach, to this place, D’Talipapa. It was similar to D’Mall, with souvenirs stalls, etc. But, it also had a fresh fish, meat and produce market area. We picked up a Lapu Lapu fish, the local fish, as well as a couple huge prawns. From there, you take it to one of the stalls that offer cooking services, where they grilled it up for us and served it with vegetable rice. That was definitely a cool experience! Too bad Kai decided to nap the entire time!
On day two, we moved accommodations from Le Soleil de Boracay to Mango Ray, just a couple doors down. We pretty much moved from a bona fide hotel to a small 10 room operation. But, it’s fine with me. The place is quite sufficient, and they gave us a break so we’re saving a couple thousand pesos. The bummer is, after we went through all the trouble of checking out of the first place, moved our stuff into the second place and settled down, they tell us that they made a mistake and we can only have our room for 3 days instead of 5. The offered us other rooms, but I don’t like any as much as the one we’re in. Only one comes close, but it has two twin beds. I really didn’t want to move again! The other bummer is that the room smells like insect killer spray, which it didn’t when we first saw it. (I hope that’s not why Kailani and I can’t seem to do anything but sleep!) After the first night, these fast little baby ants started coming out of the woodwork. So, now I understand why. So for the last two days, we moved to The Tides, a “designer” hotel right in D’Mall. Although the price goes up even a tad higher than place #1, I don’t care to stay at Mango Ray out of principle. It’s quite a bummer! I guess we’ll be sampling a few places along this stretch of the beach. I might as well review them when we’re done. I’ve also come to the conclusion that my backpacker days are over. I’d rather stay in nicer places than I used to a decade or two ago. Good bye backpacker and welcome flashpacker status, with child in tow!
The last two days, the weather finally got better. It cleared up in the afternoon. So after dinner, we played in the sand by moonlight with live music from one of the bars in the background. The next day, we hired a driver to take us to see the rest of the island. He took us up to the highest peak with a great view. At the entrance, the owner of the land (you had a pay a few pesos) Kai saw her first live monkey, who decided to lunge at her. It scared the heck out of Sean and I, but we both grabbed him before he could do damage. Then, we went to another beach called Puka Beach. (ie puka shell necklaces) Puka beach was described to us as “just like White Beach back in the 80’s”. It had beautiful white sand as well, and the clearest, bluest water we’ve ever seen, but no resorts, shops, restaurants or people. We would have loved to stay there, but we weren’t prepared and didn’t want to make the driver wait for us. So, we went back to White Beach for more play time. Unfortunately, the recent storms must have pushed a lot of trash onto the beach, or trash was washed into the water from runoff. We’re not sure. But, it was pretty hard for me to play around without seeing it everywhere. While playing with Kai, I started with picking up what was floating next to me, and what I was walking over. Eventually, we had two HUGE bags full of trash, and that was only from the small stretch of beach where we sat. I’d say 95% of that was plastic, mostly bags. Unfortunately, what you see sold in stores are lots of small bags/packets rather than larger bottles of cosmetics, soaps, detergents, etc. We saw lots of these in the water, as well as plastic bags that held food snacks and candies, and shopping bags. Originally, I wanted to think that it was a culmination of currents picking up stuff from neighboring countries and all landing there. But, all you had to do was read the label on the bags to find that they were all manufactured in the Philippines. It was a sad reality. We carried the trash up to the foot path and couldn’t find any trash cans to deposit it into either. Finally, we were at the reception area of our resort, so I asked the staff they could take it for us. The gal said “your husband must be very environmental”. What’s up with that?!? “Your husband”? Anyway, Kai still had a great time making sand turtles and “swimming” in the water. She’s really getting brave getting out there, going underwater, and paddling her arms and kicking her feet.
On our flight back to Manila we were actually bumped to a flight a couple minutes earlier AND no delays/cancellations, yea! On the shuttle/ferry to the airport, we met couple, Eileen and Mark, who was also staying at the Tides. We had a nice time hanging out at the Asian Spirit pre-departure lounge that Mark pointed out, rather than the stuffy, overcrowded area that everyone else was at. Thanks Mark!
Back at the Mandarin in Manila, we’re making the most out of the two days here. The room came with a similar model MFC printer as what we own. So, we photocopied stuff we’ve needed to do, sent letters off, repacked, consolidated and found another stack of stuff to send home. We did laundry, which now consists of sink washing and hanging with the AC on, if we can stand it that cold (although I know, not the most energy efficient). Then, we finish drying with the hair dryer and iron as needed. We used their business center to print etickets. Then, we ventured to the mall, a huge Filipino past time. I tried to get a new SIM card from our Spanish Vodaphone cell phone. But, the phone’s software doesn’t seem to be compatible (or reprogrammable), despite what the guy that sold it to me said. So, we might just have to buy a whole new phone. Urgh! And one more thing, we watched the season finale of American Idol. Not that I’m a huge fan, but after that seeing the whole season…of course HAD to see the end! :-)
The first five days in Boracay were less than stellar weather, lots of wind and fast gusts of rain, even some thunder and lightning. But we made the most of it, either staying inside, letting Kai nap well and watching TV including an American Idol marathon. We got to see an entire season, so we were prepared for the season finale. And when there were small breaks in the weather, we’d go out and play in the sand/water or go out to eat. Sean enjoyed body surfing and skim boarding. One night, he taught Kai how to play pool downstairs from our room at Mango Ray. Kai enjoyed making sand castles with some sand toys we bought her. Sean liked eating Filipino breakfast every morning, with rice, corned beef and fried eggs. Kai liked having juices made from fresh fruit as well as her daily yogurt from a European deli that we found in D’Mall. There, I also found some Tuscan mineral water, cheese and salami, and lemon for my daily morning drink, hot water with a squeeze of lemon wedge. I became addicted to one of the restaurants in D’Mall, Aria, where we ate at least once a day. They served Italian food. Although I’m still “over” pasta after Italy, they had salads made from organic lettuce and arugula and pizzas made in a wood fired brick oven. We also tried some other places there, such as a place that had great BBQ and a sushi place. Our last night there, we got a tip to take a short tricycle ride down to the other side of the beach, to this place, D’Talipapa. It was similar to D’Mall, with souvenirs stalls, etc. But, it also had a fresh fish, meat and produce market area. We picked up a Lapu Lapu fish, the local fish, as well as a couple huge prawns. From there, you take it to one of the stalls that offer cooking services, where they grilled it up for us and served it with vegetable rice. That was definitely a cool experience! Too bad Kai decided to nap the entire time!
On day two, we moved accommodations from Le Soleil de Boracay to Mango Ray, just a couple doors down. We pretty much moved from a bona fide hotel to a small 10 room operation. But, it’s fine with me. The place is quite sufficient, and they gave us a break so we’re saving a couple thousand pesos. The bummer is, after we went through all the trouble of checking out of the first place, moved our stuff into the second place and settled down, they tell us that they made a mistake and we can only have our room for 3 days instead of 5. The offered us other rooms, but I don’t like any as much as the one we’re in. Only one comes close, but it has two twin beds. I really didn’t want to move again! The other bummer is that the room smells like insect killer spray, which it didn’t when we first saw it. (I hope that’s not why Kailani and I can’t seem to do anything but sleep!) After the first night, these fast little baby ants started coming out of the woodwork. So, now I understand why. So for the last two days, we moved to The Tides, a “designer” hotel right in D’Mall. Although the price goes up even a tad higher than place #1, I don’t care to stay at Mango Ray out of principle. It’s quite a bummer! I guess we’ll be sampling a few places along this stretch of the beach. I might as well review them when we’re done. I’ve also come to the conclusion that my backpacker days are over. I’d rather stay in nicer places than I used to a decade or two ago. Good bye backpacker and welcome flashpacker status, with child in tow!
The last two days, the weather finally got better. It cleared up in the afternoon. So after dinner, we played in the sand by moonlight with live music from one of the bars in the background. The next day, we hired a driver to take us to see the rest of the island. He took us up to the highest peak with a great view. At the entrance, the owner of the land (you had a pay a few pesos) Kai saw her first live monkey, who decided to lunge at her. It scared the heck out of Sean and I, but we both grabbed him before he could do damage. Then, we went to another beach called Puka Beach. (ie puka shell necklaces) Puka beach was described to us as “just like White Beach back in the 80’s”. It had beautiful white sand as well, and the clearest, bluest water we’ve ever seen, but no resorts, shops, restaurants or people. We would have loved to stay there, but we weren’t prepared and didn’t want to make the driver wait for us. So, we went back to White Beach for more play time. Unfortunately, the recent storms must have pushed a lot of trash onto the beach, or trash was washed into the water from runoff. We’re not sure. But, it was pretty hard for me to play around without seeing it everywhere. While playing with Kai, I started with picking up what was floating next to me, and what I was walking over. Eventually, we had two HUGE bags full of trash, and that was only from the small stretch of beach where we sat. I’d say 95% of that was plastic, mostly bags. Unfortunately, what you see sold in stores are lots of small bags/packets rather than larger bottles of cosmetics, soaps, detergents, etc. We saw lots of these in the water, as well as plastic bags that held food snacks and candies, and shopping bags. Originally, I wanted to think that it was a culmination of currents picking up stuff from neighboring countries and all landing there. But, all you had to do was read the label on the bags to find that they were all manufactured in the Philippines. It was a sad reality. We carried the trash up to the foot path and couldn’t find any trash cans to deposit it into either. Finally, we were at the reception area of our resort, so I asked the staff they could take it for us. The gal said “your husband must be very environmental”. What’s up with that?!? “Your husband”? Anyway, Kai still had a great time making sand turtles and “swimming” in the water. She’s really getting brave getting out there, going underwater, and paddling her arms and kicking her feet.
On our flight back to Manila we were actually bumped to a flight a couple minutes earlier AND no delays/cancellations, yea! On the shuttle/ferry to the airport, we met couple, Eileen and Mark, who was also staying at the Tides. We had a nice time hanging out at the Asian Spirit pre-departure lounge that Mark pointed out, rather than the stuffy, overcrowded area that everyone else was at. Thanks Mark!
Back at the Mandarin in Manila, we’re making the most out of the two days here. The room came with a similar model MFC printer as what we own. So, we photocopied stuff we’ve needed to do, sent letters off, repacked, consolidated and found another stack of stuff to send home. We did laundry, which now consists of sink washing and hanging with the AC on, if we can stand it that cold (although I know, not the most energy efficient). Then, we finish drying with the hair dryer and iron as needed. We used their business center to print etickets. Then, we ventured to the mall, a huge Filipino past time. I tried to get a new SIM card from our Spanish Vodaphone cell phone. But, the phone’s software doesn’t seem to be compatible (or reprogrammable), despite what the guy that sold it to me said. So, we might just have to buy a whole new phone. Urgh! And one more thing, we watched the season finale of American Idol. Not that I’m a huge fan, but after that seeing the whole season…of course HAD to see the end! :-)
2 comments:
Hey guys, its danny the rafting dude from hong kong. just wanted to say hello and that i'm enjoying reading your blogs. Keep on trucking over there.
Hi Danny the Rafting Dude, Sean can't seem to find your email address. If you see this, please email us. We want to hear how your trip to Thailand ended up!!!! Gloria, Sean and Kailani
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