Manila to Boracay, Philippines

An "average" Jeepney (Some are way more tricked out than this)


Arrival at the airport and we get the max the ATM would allow, 4000 pesos, equivalent to USD $100. Looks like alot, huh?

Tricycle (Look at how they load them up on the right.)


12 May 2008: The overall impression that we had of Manila, from several people that have been there, is that it’s not the place you would want to visit, but the place you need to stop over at in order to get to some of the places you want to visit in the Philippines. With that said, we were expecting dirty, crowded and not so pleasant. We also heard that you can get screwed when taking taxis. So, with the exchange rate on our favor, we splurged and got a nice hotel that offered a driver to pick you up at the airport. We had our camera ready to take a picture of this guy holding up a sign that said “Riola”. ;-) But instead, we found that we needed to check-in at our hotel’s airport waiting lounge. On the way to the hotel, I saw two modes of transportation popular in the Philippines, jeepneys and tricycles. Jeepneys are these crazy Jeep-like vehicles that have an extended covered bed with two benches facing each other, to hold 18-20 passengers. They fully trick them out with Pinoy (Filipino) style graphics and lighting all over. Tricycles are motorcycles with side car attachments that hold up to five passengers, if the driver allows one or two passengers to sit on the back of his seat. It’s crazy to think that a motorcycle, designed to haul one or two passengers, can still haul that many people. It’s hard to describe, so I hope to take some pictures.

Sadly, just like in London, we spent an entire day and two nights at our hotel without leaving. At least this time, we did leave the building, to go swimming. We needed to make arrangements to get to other places in the Philippines (which are cheaper to make while you are there), and luckily our hotel had a travel agent. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to check one of Manila’s big pastimes, the mall. Because, I do need a new cell phone SIM card now that we’re in on a new continent. After the first night, I noticed that they upgraded us to a “Club Level” room, so decided to see if we were also allowed into the Club Lounge for free services. Unfortunately not, but for a mere 2000 pesos, we could. After paying for late night room service for dinner, we figured that the drinks, snacks and breakfast offered were worth it. We took full advantage of happy hour and hor’s oeuvres. The next morning, while going in there for breakfast, Sean noticed that some guy walking in at the same time as us looked familiar. He put his stuff down on a table and went to the buffet to get breakfast. We noticed that he had a script, Road Raiders. I tried to take a good look at him and but it was awkward when he looked back at me. Since I didn’t know who he was, I left it at that. The hotel, having such great service, asked us if we would like to sit in one of their open board rooms. We did have a two year old with us and I’m sure they didn’t want her to disrupt the calm atmosphere of their Club Lounge. While eating in the room, Sean finally figured out who the familiar fellow was, at least where he noticed the guy from. He said “It’s Mr. Brown!” referring to the movie Reservoir Dogs. He was the guy who had the cop tied up and was to cut his ears off. After breakfast, when the driver took us back to the airport for our next destination, he told us that “Mr. Brown’s” name was Michael Madson.

Our next destination was the island of Boracay, via flight to the city of Caticlan. Manila’s domestic terminal was pretty much as I expected it, not so modern and crowded full of Filippino’s. Sean described it as the DMV. I’d say it was that times a hundred. I didn’t see a Caucasian person anywhere, until I finally looked harder and saw a few hovering in the corners, trying not to stand out. It’s pretty strange being in the Philippines, because most are speaking Tagolog to me. Although a bit flattering, it’s starting to get a bit annoying to keep having to ask them to speak English to me. All have been surprised to find that I’m not Filipino and that Sean actually is (at least half). We actually arrived to the airport for our 12:30 flight early enough that they bumped us to the flight an hour earlier. It didn’t matter much though, because our flight was delayed due to bad weather at our destination. I do have to mention that this was the smallest plane that Sean’s ever been on, so he had butterflies in his stomach the entire wait. Finally, we were able to board the plane. But, our plane landed at the heavily raining Kalibo airport instead of Caticlan. From there, we were put on a shuttle bus that took nearly 2 hours. The bus was entertained with the movie The Transporter. I read the very expensive Lonely Planet Thailand book that I picked up on the way to the Hong Kong airport, and then a bit of the Rough Guide’s The Philippines. (I decided I like Lonely Planet books over Rough Guides.) After a while, I looked outside to see flooded rice patties with buffalos. It hit me that we were definitely out in the countryside of a third world country now! From the bus, we ended up at the Ferry Terminal that’s supposed to take you to the island of Boracay. But again, because of the weather, the ferry wasn’t operating. Our hotel shuttle was supposed to pick us up there. But instead, we ended up on another shuttle going back the other way. And then, we were put on this big outrigger boat with motor that finally took us to the island. From there, we were finally put into the hotel shuttle to our hotel. Still, we had to get out and walk down a path along the beach, with rain going sideways, to the hotel. Even at the hotel, because of the weather, our poor bell boy had to carry, or should I say lug (rather than roll on a cart) our luggage to our room, taking the long way around, because parts of the path to our room was all flooded out. We finally ended up at the hotel in time for dinner, instead of early afternoon. By then, we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We ate like pigs. The hotel had a buffet full of typical Filipino food: rice, grilled fish, BBQ beef kabobs, pork (would you like some fat with that?), etc. Sleeping that night, we woke up many times, hearing it dumping really hard. It wasn’t a great start to our “island paradise” visit. But, at least we have a week for the weather to hopefully die down.

Our next morning in Boracay, we woke and had breakfast buffet at our hotel. Again, it was typical Filipino food. Sean had rice, corned beef and a fried egg. I had rice congee. After, Kai and I played in the pool a bit. The shallow end of the pool had this gradual slope to it, which was great for Kai to run around in. Then, we headed down the path along our beach. It’s called The White Sand Beach and is beautiful with the softest sand we’ve ever felt. I’m sure will be even better when the weather clears. There are several rumors, but one is that it got its name from the local word for cotton, “borac”. It was still raining on and off. Along the path, there were other resorts (they call anything that you can sleep in a “resort”), restaurants and lots of people trying to sell you sunglasses, watches, jewelry, etc, much like Mexico or Thailand beach areas. We were staying right in the middle of the 7 km stretch of beach. To the south, it seemed to get more “Tijuana-esque”. To the north end of the beach, the beach broadened out and there seemed to be higher end resorts. Two sad sights were small children begging for money towards the southern end of the beach. Also scattered throughout, we saw a few Caucasian men with their young Filipina girlfriends. One couple we walked behind, the girl’s stature looked like she couldn’t be more than 15 years old. It’s a sad, ugly reality! I’m sure we’ll see more of this, especially as we get into Thailand. We explored Boracay’s “D’Mall”, basically an open air cluster of shops selling souvenirs and other things that tourists might want, also with a “food court” area. We snacked on some BBQ chicken at the place that was crowded with other Filipinos. We were to be in Boracay a week, but only booked our hotel for 2 nights. It was nice, but booked by the travel agent at the luxury hotel in Manila, and we weren’t sure if we want to spend that much if not necessary. So, part of our exploration was to find a less expensive place. The last half of our day, we played in the waves and built sandcastles. After dinner, again at the hotel, the wind really started howling and the power even started flickering on and off. Luckily, the hotel had back up power. But, it seems that we arrived for a pretty good storm.