Hello, Hivers!
It's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted my experience in the Dessert Museum. I've been busy since then with this exciting yet uncomfortable challenge for my growth #Bolder2020. I can't wait to share my thoughts about the uncharted waters I'm in. Soon.
I may have not posted since, but I'm lurking. I'm ecstatic to see newbies making their introduction posts! Welcome to Hive, @queenielee, @glecerioberto, @francisjurado, and @jsmalila. Chemical engineers and a chemical engineer to-be bloggers! Woot woot! Thank you for introducing and guiding us on this wonderful platform, @ybanezkim26. It's truly a relief for introverts to find a community where we could share our thoughts and interests.
That being said, my musings lately are about travel. Even a "travel" to the mall to watch movies is good enough for me already. But I can't.
I'm left to resort to daydreaming. To reminiscing to almost a year ago from today. When I was on the beautiful island of Boracay with my close college friends. Drinking a glass of margarita. Running along the beach with fine sand beneath my feet. Carefree dancing and laughing with the sound of sea waves in the background. The taste of salty water, sand in the hair, and sun-kissed skin.
Daydreaming Boracay Island Vibes.
We just really wanted a quick weekend getaway from being the corporate slaves in the busy city. Typically, the planning of this Boracay trip involved warm reception at first, heated discussions about the availability of schedules, and people bailing out as the travel date was fast approaching inducing dramatic open forums. Yay🍸 In the end, all was well, and the vacation pushed through (finally). @jsmalila was supposed to be on this trip, but he was still finishing his research paper at that time. There's always next time though :)
So, I and Alvin were coming from Manila, a.k.a Team Manila. Meanwhile, Law, Faith, and Gail were coming from Cebu, a.k.a Team Cebu. Lastly, Gerald was coming from Clark airport, a.k.a the one-man Team Clark.
🚢 Team Manila
We rode a 2Go passenger ship from Batangas to Caticlan. Our trip's ETD was 9 PM, and the ETA in Caticlan was 6 AM the next day. Just right in time when Team Cebu will arrive in Caticlan. We'll just meet on the island.
From the jetty port of Caticlan, we still had to ride a boat going to Boracay Island. We rode the Oyster ferry boat for PHP 400 each including environmental fees and a tricycle ride to our lodging house. Compared to the economy boat ride from Batangas, this ferry boat took only around 15-20 minutes and the room was air-conditioned. It was a short expensive ride 😅
We spent our nights in Bambooze Hauz located at Station 2. The rooms were big enough for the 3 girls in one room, and the 3 boys in the other. The air-conditioned rooms had one bed and one extra foam on the floor. This is ideal for budget travelers who spend most of their time exploring outside.
🏝 Boracay Island Vibes
The last time I've been to Boracay was on our first family trip when I was in Grade 6. It's been a long time since. I had high expectations before I got there because of the island's 6-month rehabilitation. I think tourists flock to Boracay more than to any part of the PH. With the national government's initiative, the island was closed to everyone but the locals for a span of 6 months. Establishments were inspected and regulated thoroughly.
Well, those 6 months did its work! Establishments were moved farther away from the beachfront than before. Also, tourists are not allowed to enter the island if they can't show a reserved hotel booking.
We didn't have any water activities planned on our first day on the island. We figured it would exhaust us more to chase appointments after the travel. We were just content to chill along the shore and swim into the sea. These were our snapshots of the beautiful beach of Boracay. Nothing else I've been to can compare 😍
🏝 Seaside Rendezvous
I'm the leader of all things immature (don't worry, only in harmless ways) just for the laughs. And so I convinced them to run along the beach like models. I know we're far from what we were aiming for. But we got the tummy-aching laughs. There's a bummer, tho. When we recorded the videos, the phone's jack was connected by a cord to the selfie stick. So while we were recording, the mic was off. As a result, we looked stupid laughing without any audio. We wanted to do it again but we were tired and it won't feel as authentic as the first time we did it. Anyway, here's some of our videos I've compiled. I added Queen's "Seaside Rendezvous" for the audio so we'll look less stupid 😆
🏝 Boracay Nights
We strolled around D'Mall which is the main open-air mall in the island. As we were walking around the mall, we noticed a shop that was more crowded than others. It was an ice cream shop called "Coco Mama". Of course, we tried one for ourselves.
Another restriction after the rehabilitation were the famous beach parties. They were not allowed anymore, so the shorelines were dark, quiet, and serene. There are still parties, but all were indoors.
As for us, we didn't party. We were content already drinking margaritas and eating pizza while listening to an acoustic live band.
After two or three glasses of margarita, we decided we had enough of indoors. That's when we played music from portable loudspeakers as we walked, sang, and danced along the beach. Oh, we took some videos. This time, we made sure the mic was on. They're too embarrassing to be shared here 😆
Truth be told, when we were still at the university, we spent so much time together but we didn't have money. When we had jobs to earn money for ourselves, we're short in time. Right now in quarantine, we have time and accumulated money (I suppose from being at home all the time while hustling), but we still can't get together. Funny how life works. You really can't have it all.
Closing Notes
That's it for now for Part 1!
In my next post, I'm going to share our island hopping experience, the UFO ride, and our free buffet experience that felt like a lure to a trap. I'm leaving you with a teaser below. Till the next!
🌊 END OF PART 1 🌊
