boracay in july (part III)

one thing we didn't expect when going to boracay was all of the vendors asking for your business. if i got a quarter every time i heard, "sir, mom, eyeland hope-ing?" (i loved their accents)... one of the first guys we met on the beach was a young guy named Jay-R. He was a young, lively guy who sprung out on us like a cheetah looking for something to eat....literally. i think he came out of the bushes. ha. anyway, he gave us the whole speech, something like: "sir, mom, eyeland hope-ing? I give good price. discount. i give very good discount. 3000 pesos. ok? no? ok. 2000 pesos. good discount. ok?" we smiled and said, "we're not sure...we haven't really planned anything yet." Jay-R came up to us again and said, "Alright, I give more discount. 1800 pesos for a two hour sail. and helmet diving." pete and i looked at each other. we were weak, sleepy and way too tired to try to resist Jay-R the cheetah. we shrugged our shoulders and said, "ok. we'll think about it." Jay-R kept insisting we give him a time to meet. "meet me here at 12:00 tomorrow. promise? ok? make me promise?" we agreed.

the next day we met Jay-R at the agreed upon location. he introduced us to the captain and owner of the sailboat we would take out. when we walked up to the boat there was another young guy jumping in and out of the water getting the boat to the dock for us. he was soaking wet and wearing whitey-tighties. i diverted my attention to taking pictures of the boat....must...avoid...eye....contact...

and we were off. the sail was dreamy. the water was a gorgeous shade of aqua, clean and glistening in the sun. the sailboat was lovely with lots of character, a cool shade of orange, white sails, named after the owner's son, and it even had a flag with michael jackson's picture. it was great.

while on the boat, jay-r was hoping to have some bonding time with pete.

JR: So, sir, do you like cock-fighting?

P: Uh, no. I haven't seen a cock fight before.

JR: (disappointed) Do you want to go to a cock fight? (getting a little excited)

P: No, sorry. I don't think it's my thing.

JR: (disappointed) Do you like to drink? Go to bars? Do you drink a lot?

P: No, I don't drink a lot. I just have a drink once in a while.

JR: (triply disappointed) (*crickets*)

haha. it was funny.

we got to a dock in the middle of the ocean where they have helmet and scuba dives. we were briefed on how to helmet dive and went 4 meters down. they put a gigantic white helmet on your head that weighs over 15 pounds. then you walk around the ocean floor. it was pretty cool because you can breathe normally and don't need a mask. we were underwater for 25-30 minutes. it was fun, but after about 10 minutes i was ready to go back to the top. the reef looked a little bare. it was strange being underwater and breathing through my nose. i couldn't help but sing "under the sea".

boracay in july (part II)

we got to our resort to be greeted by warm, smiling young women. an equally warm and kind woman approached us with some freshly squeezed pineapple and mango juice. yum. i liked the place already. our room was beautiful (and cheap, might i add!). we were hungry so we decided we would go look for something to eat. we stumbled across a breakfast buffet on the beach, took a look at it and weren't too impressed, so we decided we would just sit and order from the menu. it was a yummy breakfast and we ate while listening to the crashing of waves. it was all very surreal. after our meal i realized i didn't bring enough pesos with me. i was short 200 pesos (about $5). pete spoke to our waiter and asked if we could bring the rest of the money to him later. he was very gracious about it and said it was no problem.

we were really tired; we didn't have our swimsuits or sunblock, so we took the time to just crash in our beds, hoping we would have our luggage by the time we woke up. the baggage attendant said we should expect our bags by 12:00 noon. by the time we got up from our nap it was 4pm. we thought it would be good to call the airline. the ladies at the front desk called several times only to hear the busy signal or no answer. by 5:00 i was thinking our bags were taken by pirates. soon after we called the airline for the 9th time, i heard a loud buzzing noise. i looked up and saw a young man carrying my bag on his shoulder and rolling our suitcase (very loud wheels) toward us. the noise from our loud suitcase never sounded so good. i started running toward the man. i could have kissed him!

we wasted little time. we got our suits on and went for a swim.

Boracay in July

pete taking a break from the top chef masters marathon we had going in manila airport

Peter and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Boracay for our Fourth of July weekend. The water was clear, blue, warm and absolutely beautiful.

here are some things that happened during our trip:

Boracay is accessible only by boat, so it takes some energy to get there. First, we flew from Korea to Manila. To save some money we bought plane tickets that had a long layover, so we ended up staying in the Manila airport from 12 midnight until 5:30am! it was kind of crazy, but we had fun chilling on the airport floor watching Top Chef Masters. Once we boarded our flight in Manila we landed in Caticlan Airport. Shortly after landing one of the baggage attendants told the passengers that none of our bags were loaded on the plane. what!? they said we all needed to fill out a form indicating what our bags look like, what's inside the bag and what hotel we were staying at so they could deliver our bags to us. i was so sleep deprived at this point, someone could have leaned over to tell me my bags were stolen by pirates and i would have replied, "cool. good for them." anyway, i start to fill out this pretty sketchy form while imagining some random strangers loafing through my luggage to find the dvds and snorkel gear i listed on my form. haha. so nuts.

we completed the form and handed it off to the baggage attendant (who looked like he was still in the 8th grade). it didn't seem to promising, but we walked away with faith & hope that we would be reunited with our swimming suits and snorkel gear.

from caticlan airport, we took a van to the jetty port where we got on a boat to boracay island. from there we hopped on a golf cart type van to our hotel. no cars are allowed on the island, only small buggies or motorized vehicles, so most people get around by bicycle, walking or tricycles. it was really interesting seeing the island and the people hanging out, walking in the streets. i enjoyed looking at the little markets and huts selling bunches of bananas and mangoes. we were going on hour 24 of little sleep and traveling so the ride to our hotel was blurry for more than one reason, but a lovely, colorful blur. : )

(our boat, the smaller one in front is what we rode to boracay island)