Friday 11 April 2014

Bikini. Beach. Boracay.

Boracay (Phillipines) is the No.1 World's Best Islands, rated by NBC and Travel+Leisure magazine.
TripAdvisor.com released its 2012 Traveler's Choice of Award Winning Beach Destinations where Boracay was ranked No. 2nd.

Bikini, Beach, Boracay

Beating beautiful places like Bali, Maui and even Santorini (Greece), Boracay has one of the most beautiful beaches the earth has known. Famous for it's powdery white sand beaches that stays cool despite the heat, dipping into crystal clear blue waters with breathtaking sunsets makes Boracay Island one of the top favorites amongst beach goers, honeymooners, even family trips!

Enjoying the breathtaking sunset @ Willy's Rock

8 Days in this Beach Paradise

It's an island of Sand, Sea, Sun, Music and lotsa Fun.
Sounds abit too long for just a beach holiday? Not at all, because there were so many activities in store to do everyday.  Furthermore, thank you to Tiger Airways having direct flights to Kalibo Airport, it's much easier getting to Boracay now.

Let's go!


Day 1: Singapore to Boracay

Final call for a photo before I board the plane
Flight
Singapore - Kalibo Airport (flight time approx. 3hr 20min)

Land
Kalibo Airport - Caticlan Jetty (journey time approx. 2hrs by mini van/coach)

There will be alot of taxi/van service agents approaching you at the entrance of the airport, pick the one that offers mini van + boat pass (250 pesos).

Sea
Caticlan Jetty - Boracay Island (15min by boat)

At Caticlan jetty, you'll have to pay an additional compulsory Terminal Fee (100pesos) and Environmental & Admission Fee (75pesos) before boarding the boat. Upon reaching Boracay jetty, if we did not have our hotel arrange for transport over, so we took their tuktuk (their three-wheeled taxi) which cost about 100pesos to our hotel.

Finally....

Finally... We reached Boracay



We stayed at Nigi Nigi Nu Noos Hotel Suite as we wanted beach-like huts instead of the usual modern contemporary ones and to our delight, our room was a 2 storey room (sleeps four people), pretty spacious, cosy, clean, free WIFI plus it even had a balcony. Location was perfect as it was right smacked on Station 2, where all the fun and activities are mainly located at.



After checking in, we walked around the island, soaked in the beach atmosphere, had some food to fill our starving tummies and headed back to rest to recuperate ourselves for the next day where the fun officially begins!


Day 2: Island Exploration

Boracay Map

Well rested, we started our day from Noon by exploring the island and gathering information on how to fill our days in Boracay with nothing but fun. Above is the map of Boracay Island, main areas are:

Station 1 - Quieter, more expensive and luxurious hotels
Station 2 - Where all the action is, bars, restaurants, hotels, activities
Station 3 - Quieter, more budget friendly hotels

Bird's eye view of Boracay Island
Isn't the island just BEEEEAAAAUUUUTTTTIIIIFULLLL? -Breathes-

There are plenty of local tour guides selling the same activities. You can customize your preferred activities, the price will vary accordingly. We got a local guide called Paquito as his price was the most reasonable among a few that we have compared with. Apart from the local tour, we planned dive and Ariel's Point on our own.

Things to do:

Local Beach Activities with Tour Guide Paquito 4,000pesos/pax

1.. Sunset Sailing (45 min)
2. Jet Ski (30 min)
3. Parasailing (15 min)
4. ATV Trail (30 min)
5. Island Hopping (3 hrs)

Diving with Calypso PADI Dive Centre 7,000pesos/pax

3 Dives + 2 wreck Dives, includes all gear rental

Ariel's Point cost 2,000pesos/pax

A MUST-GO!
Featured as the No.1 Top Boracay attraction by Cosmopolitan Magazine and TripAdvisor, Ariel's Point is a great daytime activity for travelers looking for some adventure. With five cliff diving sites, immerse in lush mangrove forest, free flow of alcohol and buffet lunch including activities like snorkeling, canoeing with gears rental, it's nothing but a fun filled day. Not to mention, it's also a great way to meet new people and make hell lot of friends from all over the world!



D'Mall Boracay

Now that we have settled our local activities that would stretch over the next few days, we continued walking around and checked out D'Mall, a place with a wide variety of shops and boutiques selling art, clothing, restaurants and seafood market.


Sunset Sailing

As the sun begin the start setting at about 5:30pm, we made our way for our sunset cruise!

"Giselle" was our boat that took us out to sea

As we arrived at White Beach Station 3, all the sail boats are getting ready to sail out into the beautiful sunset! With our cameras and Go-Pro ready, off we go :)

In just minutes, the sail was up and we were sailing out to sea! The weather was great with sea breeze blowing non stop, looking through the clear water beneath us as the sun slowly dips into the sea.

Sunset sail
The sunset sail lasted about 45 minutes, and we headed back to Station 2 for dinner and drinks by the beach. There was live music everywhere that slowly turned Boracay into a party island full of life!

Drinks by the beach, with live music
Fire show by the professional lady boys
Beach bars lined the shores across Station 1 and 2, music of different genres playing from bar to bar, from R&B to live bands, the island simply comes alive with these entertainment as we whine the day down.


Day 3: Ariel's Point


Woooot!
Boy, are we excited for the much raved Ariel's Point! Meet up point for all was at Ariel's House on Station 1, where the trip's briefing was conducted. As the group of travelers was pretty big today, we were split into two groups (two boats), and given Ariel Point's tags as we boarded the boat to a 30 minutes ride with FREE FLOW OF BOOZE! Time to get crazy hahaha

By the time we reached Ariel's Point at 12:30pm, some of our new friends were already high. Without further hesitation, we went straight to CLIFF DIVE!

There are three heights to jump from, the 5metres, 8metres and 15metres.
Let's not be a pussy and go straight for the 15 METRES CLIFF JUMP!! GO HARD OR GO HOME!


Ok fuck. This is high. Can I just call myself a pussy and go home?
OMFG. Let's just go!


!@#$^$#@$^*^%$ YOLO ^$@!#%%$#!@#

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
It's probably just a 3 second freefall but oh my god, it feels like FOREVER!
The adrenaline was definitely there, and the landing was freaking painful.

I suffered mild bruises on my back upper thigh, a friend had stiff neck, another tore his lips, and I heard some people had multiple fractures on various parts of their bodies. It may seem fun, but safety always comes first. You've got to make sure you jump in as straight as a pencil, to minimize impact upon hitting the waters.


We all jumped about 3 - 4 times, including the 5metres and 8metres one for fun. Those who didn't have the guts to jump were a good sport too, by cheering "go! go!" at the side for those jumping.



After getting smacked by the waters enough, everyone just chilled around with music in the background, soaking in the lush mangrove, watching the glittery clear waters as the buffet lunch was served before some headed out to canoe and snorkel.

Look at how the water sparkles! This is my beach paradise!

Lunch
At about 4:00pm, the boat sirens go off and it's time for us to head back to White Beach. What an experience it was! Definitely recommended to all who are visiting Boracay :)


Day 4: Jet Ski, Para sailing, Island Hopping, ATV   

As we knew today was gonna be a day filled with many activities starting from the morning, we slept early last night to reserve our energy. Our local guide, Paquito, came to pick us up at 10:00am to Station 3 where the activity registration point is, before taking a speed boat heading out to a floating platform where all the sea activities were carried out (Jet Ski, Para Sail, Flying Fish, Banana Boat etc).


Jet Ski

The waters were pretty choppy so it was more fun as if you know how to ride the jet ski well, you could take multiple jumps on it and try to fling your partner off. That was basically what I was trying to do all the time hahaha oh and, wear goggles. The salt content in the sea is very high so when it gets into your eye, it stings.

Para Sailing 

With new machinery installed on the speed boats, para sailing has never felt so steady and safe from sitting down at the rear of the boat to being hoisted up more than 50 metres up in the air and landing back into the boat. The view was magnificent and waters was so clear, we even spotted a huge sea turtle taking a breather as we were up in the sky. After awhile, it got kinda boring.

Getting onto our boat for Island Hopping

Snorkeling with many fishes @ Crocodile Island


Island Hopping

We headed back to White Beach at about 12:30pm to transfer to our local boat guide to take us around Boracay Islands. This includes Crocodile Island, Crystal Cove Island, White Beach, Puka Beach. It was mainly sight-seeing from the boat with snorkeling around Crocodile Island until the last stop for lunch. Skip the lunch there as the food isn't good yet it's overpriced to exploit tourists.  
SKIP IT!



ATV

Ready for some off road fun, we decided to ride the ATV up the hill at 5:45pm so we could also catch the beautiful sunset on high grounds, overlooking the whole of Boracay. To our dismay, there's no dirt to play as we traveled on roads. The sunset was beautiful though.


Beautiful Boracay

Day 5/6: Diving 

Loading our gears and getting onboard our boat
  
Our day started early at 8:30am as we prepared to go out to sea. Since I was traveling with a Specialty Dive Instructor Tay from Sunny Cove in Singapore,  I decided to might as well do my Advanced Open Water Course here in Boracay! There were many dive centers here but after checking out a few, we found that Calypso Dive Centre offered the most reasonable rates with gears included and the staff was really friendly. 5 Dives for only SGD $200! I'm guessing my instructor used his charms to get those awfully reasonable rates, LOL. 

 


Man, it was difficult getting into the wet suit because our skin has too much friction. Just donning on the suit exhausted me. Donning and removing the wetsuit in the pool is much easier as there would be less friction. But okay, don't I look good in it? Hehe :p I look funny after I put the rest of my gears on like my goggles, fins, BCP and oxygen tank. Slapped on tons of sunblock as well to avoid getting sunburn. You HAVE to do that wherever you go in Boracay if not confirm sunburn.


Spot the noob
I am a noob diver, despite having my Open Water Dive License hahaha I mean, just look at me.. I look lost. My instructor almost felt like strangling me underwater because somehow I wasn't really listening to his instructions? Hahaha but well, I did what the course required me to do lah. 

My new friend "Starfish"

Visibility was pretty good as we descent up to 28 metres deep, and could see about 10 metres ahead. There were alot of corals and fishes, saw a few rare sea creatures like the baby seahorse, sea snake, sea slug, hermit crabs etc. We did 3 deep dives, 1 ship wreck dive and 1 plane wreck dive. I made a new friend called Starfish too! 

Plane wreck dive

Took me a little while to maintain balance buoyancy as I either deflate my BCP too much and end up doing leopard crawl on the sand or inflate my BCP too much that I find myself ascending and my instructor will have to pull my leg to get me down. Despite his frustration in teaching me, too bad he can't scream underwater, HAHA. 

Part of Advanced Open Water Course was also Navigation skills underwater. Sounds bad right? Driving on land, people already say women have no sense of direction. Underwater diving.. LAGGI (even more so) don't have! But I did alright, at least that's what I think. Haha

And so, I'm now officially an Advanced Open Water Diver! Yay :)


Day 7: Staying in Spider House Resort




Ranked #14 out of 130 hotels in Boracay and Traveler's Choice Award 2014 Winner by TripAdvisor, Spider House Resort is located on Diniwid Beach, in a more secluded and quieter area compared to White Beach. We thought of escaping from the crowd and loud entertainment so we decided to try out Spider House Resort which boasts to have beautiful sunset views everyday directly from our very own balcony. 

Our suite that sleeps 4

The balcony's view

We stayed in the Bamboo Twin Suite with sea view. The place was made of bamboo and hay roofs all around which gave a really beach-like feel and to our surprise, there are literally spiders residing IN THE RESORT, IN OUR ROOM, along with their cousins like lizards, ants, other insects. We even spotted a cockroach (eek) and there are a bit of mosquitoes hence their beds come with mosquito nets. There is no air conditioner in their rooms, only fans, so we could enjoy the sea breeze throughout our stay. Other than that, the stay was peacefully nice in this tranquil environment.

Spider House Beach Bar Day
 
Spider House Beach Bar Night


Spider House beach bar was amazing! In the day, I could just lay all day long on their comfortable daybeds, overlooking the sparkling clear blue waters, sipping my Pina Colada as light jazz music was playing in the background. When the sun sets, the pretty lights come on, the DJ was spinning away some acid jazz music as a beach party is on and with a beer or cocktail in hand, everybody is just having a darn good time! Ah.. this is life.

Diniwid Beach is really quiet with barely any restaurants nor bars so most people just hang out in their resort as it's self sufficient.


Day 7: Jonah's Milkshake @ Willy's Rock



You've got to try Jonah's fuitshake, the most popular milkshake in the whole of Boracay.
Situated right in front of the famous Willy's Rock, I had the mango fruitshake which was reeeaallyy thick and reeaallyy good! It was damn filling because it was one pint of it.


Super "gao" (thick) mango fruitshake
The weather was pretty hot so a huge pint of fruitshake definitely cools the body down. The food there was average but because we were hungry, we ordered some seafood platter. After filling our stomachs and hydrating ourselves, we decided to walk out to Willy's Rock to snap some postcard perfect pictures as the sun sets!


Willy's Rock @ 6:55PM

Willy's Rock @ 7:27pm
Isn't the sunset breathtaking? This is the view I get to see for the past 7 days and it's wonderful! Just dipping in the cool sea waters watching the sun set slowly.. listening to nothing but the gentle waves and sea breeze. Ah... It's sights like these that reminds me the world is so much bigger than we know and there are many beautiful amazing places waiting to be discovered by us.


Day 8: Lunch @ Cyma's Restaurant & Hair Braids


Cyma
Ok I know, that's a bad picture but I just couldn't wait to dig into the glorious food presented in front of me so I just quickly snapped a shot of how the restaurant looks like heh. Anyway, Cyma is a Greek restaurant that serves mouth-watering food so delicious that every bite potentially can cause an orgasm. IT'S SO GOOD, that explains why it's always full house especially during dinner time. If you want to escape the crowd like we did, go slightly after lunch time like around 2:00pm.

Orgasmic foods
Surprisingly, we couldn't find much local food in Boracay because maybe it's already getting commercialized. Apart from the seafood markets, most restaurants served Mexican and Western foods. At Cyma, we ordered the Signature Flaming Cheese which had multiple intensity of flavor that would dance on every one of your taste buds. The beef looking lasagna were layers of soft custard cheese that would melt the minute you gently chew into it. The seafood pasta had prawns soaked in a perfect blend of tomato and cream sauce that makes you ask for more. I'm drooling as I'm telling you this now. Cyma is a must-go if you ever visit Boracay and I promise you will definitely not be disappointed.

My new hair braid!
After a satisfying meal at Cyma's, as we were on our way back to our hotel, I decided to do something which I could bring back to Singapore - hair braids. And so I did! Done by a lady by the beach, it cost only 100pesos and it took her only 8 minutes to do my hair! Hehe I love my hip and cool hairstyle now hahaha. Niceee? :)

The waters are so cooling
 One last dip before we heading back to our hotel. I will miss this so much!



Alas, we came to the end of our beach paradise holiday and it was time to say goodbye to lovely Boracay. We checked out of our hotel and took a taxi to the ferry point where we got onto the boat to take us back to Caticlan Jetty to take our 2 hour journey coach to the airport (the same way how we got to Boracay), cost is about 600 pesos/pax including boat & coach fees.

Till we meet again, my beautiful Boracay!
You are indeed my best beach holiday.