Philippines: Boracay
Getting here was an adventure, to say the least. #jsheldswin
March 27: was looking for a check-in email from the airline, which arrives 24h before a flight. Somehow I thought my flight left at 8pm on March 28 .... turns out, it left at 1:45am. I have never packed so quickly, or with the help of so many people. I'm not even certain what I've packed or how I misunderstood my flight time so terribly, but I do know that 5 notebooks is too many.
March 28/29: 1 hour drive to YYZ, 15 hour flight to Taipei, 4 hour layover, 2.5 hour flight to Manila, 3 hour layover that includes an hour of customs, luggage retrieval, taxi to domestic terminal (far enough away to need a taxi), 45 minute flight to Caticlan, very confusing 1.5 hour van/ferry/tuk tuk thing to Boracay. Total: 30 hours from leaving my house in Waterloo to arriving at my hotel in Boracay. Can't remember the last time I was so excited to shower and brush my teeth. Yowza. Mad props to EVA Air: delicious meals on BOTH flights (was very surprised to be fed on a 2.5 hour flight) and excellent in-flight entertainment options. Wandered the beach, ate a shawarma, and passed out at 8pm.
March 30: Yay, jet lag! Woke up at 4am... Stellar hotel breakfast of fresh mango, fried egg, toast, and (disappointing) coffee. This will be breakfast everyday here, since it's included. YUM.
Forgot just how humid southeast Asia is .... my hair is HUGE and will be almost always up. Ha.
Coffee shop reading, chatting with a local, and first Filipino beer. I seem to always be hungry and thirsty. Good thing stuff is cheap! First dinner was corn on a stick; cheap, and delicious. It's everywhere! I got hungry around 9 so found a crepe place, because the kitchen staff of the place I wanted to go was having a dance party. Legit: a bunch of people in chef hats did a series of choreographed dances to live music. It was fantastic, and now I'm even more excited to eat there.
I didn't expect there to be so many people here - apparently it's summer in Philippines; glad I'm at the far end of the beach, where it's quiet. Amusingly, the only decent spot my phone can get wifi in my hotel is on /beside the toilet .... not ideal.
March 31: Turns out, I'm not really a beach person and I have forgotten what it's like to travel alone with confidence. Fears and anxieties are quite real; I am so grateful to various supportive people in my life who can help me to fight through the fears and get to the truth of what it means for me to be solo. I am not lonely, though I am alone. I remember the days (2012) when I was super confident in traveling by myself. I am now trying to figure out why now is different: what has changed, what hasn't, what makes me feel great/terrible/terrified/excited. For someone who prides herself on being very self-aware, there are many layers to work through... and as my dear Andy said 'You're like an open book with some of the pages stuck together in different parts.' Woof: real talk.. Time to start working to unstick those pages, wherever they may be.
Went for a quick swim; so much seaweed = surprise bathing suit greenery haha
Had a massage in my room. Amazing! Getting to shower right after was awesome (so. much. baby oil.) Took myself out for dinner and a drink. Live music at restaurants all over the beach is really nice, but man does it feel weird to consistently dine alone.
April 1: Spa day! Such luxury at Mandala Spa: delicious lunch (the view from my table as pictured), free sarong, my own hut that included a HUGE tub and shower, a delicious mango shake during my petal-infused bath. Amazing.
And let me say, Filipinos have no qualms about bodies. In Canada, there are rules about not touching naked breasts or buttocks; not here! I actually found it funny that my modesty was considered in the shower/tub, yet she had scrubbed my bum and boobs. She had seen everything, so it felt strange that she was so against me simply walking naked to the shower. In my head I kept thinking 'the illusion of modesty must be preserved!'
In case anyone had any doubts about easily I burn or how white my skin is .... in the 10 minute, semi-shaded, walk to the spa, my shoulder burned. 10 MINUTES. Ludicrous.
The sunsets here are said to be beautiful. I tried to enjoy it but there were clouds most of the time. Womp womp. I saw one half sunset (the clouds were low, so I could see the beginning but not the real beauty.
I decided not to eat dinner alone tonight so invited Vanessa, the hotel desk woman, to come join me. She was excited about a place that I thought had authentic Filipino food .... it was all Western. I had an incredible Shepherd's pie, a major comfort food for me, but felt kind of weird because I don't miss food yet or need comfort food. Regardless, delicious.
After yet another glorious walk along the beach, Vanessa and I decided to stop in at Red Pirates: the only bar on the beach with plant life.... Basically, the owner, Joey, really likes gardening and planting things. He has decided that it's stupid for every place on the beach to be only chairs/tables in the sand. So his are in the trees. And, since Joey grows a bunch of stuff, the mojitos had SO. MUCH. MINT. and were really delicious.
I was wondering how people meet strangers; we learned after chatting for a few minutes. Yaseen from Morocco interrupted our conversation with 'Hello; is that an American accent I hear?' No. 'Really? I've lived in America and it sounds the same.' I'm Canadian. 'Oh, great. May i join you two?' He then regaled us with a tale of teenage love that has taken him 10 years and several countries to encounter once more. He's a fool, on several accounts, but he paid for our drinks so it wasn't all bad. And now I know one way to interact.
April 2: Early morning rainstorm! So great! And the spa gave me a sarong, which makes it much simpler to wear very little clothing when I'd prefer to wear none, like at breakfast.
While walking along the beach after brunch, I ran into a friend from the hotel. so we had a coffee and decided to go to Puka Beach. I'm so glad to have Filipino friends who can get better deals on transit! And, who know where they're going ha. This island is way bigger than I realized. We took the scenic route to the beach, and I swear I could feel my windswept face (from the motorcycle around the island) for a couple of hours!
After hanging out at Puka, which is SUPER windy and has BIG waves, we took a tricycle back (a motorcycle with a covered sidecar big enough for 4 people) and had fried chicken. Here, unsurprisingly, it's served with rice rather than fries.
We got back to the hotel, and had some drinks with whoever happened to be coming in at night. Yay, new friends!
March 27: was looking for a check-in email from the airline, which arrives 24h before a flight. Somehow I thought my flight left at 8pm on March 28 .... turns out, it left at 1:45am. I have never packed so quickly, or with the help of so many people. I'm not even certain what I've packed or how I misunderstood my flight time so terribly, but I do know that 5 notebooks is too many.
March 28/29: 1 hour drive to YYZ, 15 hour flight to Taipei, 4 hour layover, 2.5 hour flight to Manila, 3 hour layover that includes an hour of customs, luggage retrieval, taxi to domestic terminal (far enough away to need a taxi), 45 minute flight to Caticlan, very confusing 1.5 hour van/ferry/tuk tuk thing to Boracay. Total: 30 hours from leaving my house in Waterloo to arriving at my hotel in Boracay. Can't remember the last time I was so excited to shower and brush my teeth. Yowza. Mad props to EVA Air: delicious meals on BOTH flights (was very surprised to be fed on a 2.5 hour flight) and excellent in-flight entertainment options. Wandered the beach, ate a shawarma, and passed out at 8pm.
March 30: Yay, jet lag! Woke up at 4am... Stellar hotel breakfast of fresh mango, fried egg, toast, and (disappointing) coffee. This will be breakfast everyday here, since it's included. YUM.
Forgot just how humid southeast Asia is .... my hair is HUGE and will be almost always up. Ha.
Coffee shop reading, chatting with a local, and first Filipino beer. I seem to always be hungry and thirsty. Good thing stuff is cheap! First dinner was corn on a stick; cheap, and delicious. It's everywhere! I got hungry around 9 so found a crepe place, because the kitchen staff of the place I wanted to go was having a dance party. Legit: a bunch of people in chef hats did a series of choreographed dances to live music. It was fantastic, and now I'm even more excited to eat there.
I didn't expect there to be so many people here - apparently it's summer in Philippines; glad I'm at the far end of the beach, where it's quiet. Amusingly, the only decent spot my phone can get wifi in my hotel is on /beside the toilet .... not ideal.
March 31: Turns out, I'm not really a beach person and I have forgotten what it's like to travel alone with confidence. Fears and anxieties are quite real; I am so grateful to various supportive people in my life who can help me to fight through the fears and get to the truth of what it means for me to be solo. I am not lonely, though I am alone. I remember the days (2012) when I was super confident in traveling by myself. I am now trying to figure out why now is different: what has changed, what hasn't, what makes me feel great/terrible/terrified/excited. For someone who prides herself on being very self-aware, there are many layers to work through... and as my dear Andy said 'You're like an open book with some of the pages stuck together in different parts.' Woof: real talk.. Time to start working to unstick those pages, wherever they may be.
Went for a quick swim; so much seaweed = surprise bathing suit greenery haha
Had a massage in my room. Amazing! Getting to shower right after was awesome (so. much. baby oil.) Took myself out for dinner and a drink. Live music at restaurants all over the beach is really nice, but man does it feel weird to consistently dine alone.
April 1: Spa day! Such luxury at Mandala Spa: delicious lunch (the view from my table as pictured), free sarong, my own hut that included a HUGE tub and shower, a delicious mango shake during my petal-infused bath. Amazing.
In case anyone had any doubts about easily I burn or how white my skin is .... in the 10 minute, semi-shaded, walk to the spa, my shoulder burned. 10 MINUTES. Ludicrous.
The sunsets here are said to be beautiful. I tried to enjoy it but there were clouds most of the time. Womp womp. I saw one half sunset (the clouds were low, so I could see the beginning but not the real beauty.
I decided not to eat dinner alone tonight so invited Vanessa, the hotel desk woman, to come join me. She was excited about a place that I thought had authentic Filipino food .... it was all Western. I had an incredible Shepherd's pie, a major comfort food for me, but felt kind of weird because I don't miss food yet or need comfort food. Regardless, delicious.
After yet another glorious walk along the beach, Vanessa and I decided to stop in at Red Pirates: the only bar on the beach with plant life.... Basically, the owner, Joey, really likes gardening and planting things. He has decided that it's stupid for every place on the beach to be only chairs/tables in the sand. So his are in the trees. And, since Joey grows a bunch of stuff, the mojitos had SO. MUCH. MINT. and were really delicious.
I was wondering how people meet strangers; we learned after chatting for a few minutes. Yaseen from Morocco interrupted our conversation with 'Hello; is that an American accent I hear?' No. 'Really? I've lived in America and it sounds the same.' I'm Canadian. 'Oh, great. May i join you two?' He then regaled us with a tale of teenage love that has taken him 10 years and several countries to encounter once more. He's a fool, on several accounts, but he paid for our drinks so it wasn't all bad. And now I know one way to interact.
April 2: Early morning rainstorm! So great! And the spa gave me a sarong, which makes it much simpler to wear very little clothing when I'd prefer to wear none, like at breakfast.
While walking along the beach after brunch, I ran into a friend from the hotel. so we had a coffee and decided to go to Puka Beach. I'm so glad to have Filipino friends who can get better deals on transit! And, who know where they're going ha. This island is way bigger than I realized. We took the scenic route to the beach, and I swear I could feel my windswept face (from the motorcycle around the island) for a couple of hours!
After hanging out at Puka, which is SUPER windy and has BIG waves, we took a tricycle back (a motorcycle with a covered sidecar big enough for 4 people) and had fried chicken. Here, unsurprisingly, it's served with rice rather than fries.
We got back to the hotel, and had some drinks with whoever happened to be coming in at night. Yay, new friends!
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