It seems the bags were just unpacked from the Olympics and the bags are repacked for our holiday to Boracay, Philippines. To get to Boracay, it feels like the movie, “trains, planes and automobiles”. It is a night flight to Manila followed by a small flight to Caticlan followed by a boat to the island. On the small flight, baggage is limited to 10 kilos (22 lbs). Packing for this trip, I realized our empty suitcase weights in at 10 lbs. Ok, that won’t work. Plan B was to dig out all of our old duffle bags. As I am an over packer, this is a real challenge for me. I did mange to get our 4 duffle bags at exactly 10 kilos, including snorkeling gear that weighs more than one would think.
Our friends, Yoshi and Stefan Stiller, were having a deck party at their new restaurant, Stiller’s. We decided we could make an appearance since we didn’t need to leave for the airport until 9:30pm. As usually with a Stiller party, we drank too much since the wine glass never gets close to empty. I was thinking as we were driving to the airport, “I am sure Emmy can check us all in as she is an old pro at travel”.
There are two airlines that fly to manila. On Manila Air the flight time is more reasonable, but you arrive in Manila at 10pm to check into a hotel for a short night. You have to be back at the airport at 6am. We decided to suffer through Cebu Pacific’s no-frills night flight. We arrived in Manila around 1am after riding on the most uncomfortable cheap airline I have ever been on! We had to transfer to another airport so we jumped on an airport transfer bus. The bus driver didn’t know which airport as the airport had change recently. He dumped us and other travelers at the wrong airport. We grabbed a taxi to the right airport. Once we arrived, we realized our flight to Caticlan had been delayed. I went to sleep on the uncomfortable steel seats – too much fun at Stiller’s. After airport sitting for too long, we final board around 7am.
Imelda met us at the airport. In all the years Imelda has worked for us, we have never taken her on holiday with us. Our holidays are family time. However, this was her country and we needed to send her out of Shanghai due to visa issues. She showed up and began to play with the girls…good thing as I did need that nap on the steel seats.
We finally arrived in Caticlan. In the small airport, which makes Scottsbluff look big, we collected our 10 kilo bags to board a boat to Boracay Island.
When we arrived at the other side, we piled into a pick-up truck with us in the back with our bags. We drove 30 minutes down the Island. Once we arrived there, we had to climb over fences to reach the house we had rented for the week. This was some adventure, already!
The house didn’t look like the photo on the web because the wind guards were still up. Did someone forget to tell me the wind guards would be up? We booked this trip during China’s October holiday which is just at the end of slow season. Boracay is an expensive place to visit during peak season. We paid about half the cost coming the last week before peak season. The wind guards are 3-story mesh held up with poles for the high winds.
We had the upstair unit of the Robinson House. My friend, Elizabeth Russell and family, were in the bottom half. Elizabeth and Briton have two boys, Tyler (10) and James (4). The house was split with outside access if you did not know the family below. Each level was 2 bedroom with 2 bathrooms. Imelda would share the room with the girls.
Ok, I have a saying after many Asian beach trips…”a beach is a beach”, but this beach was different from any beach we have seen…beautiful, white sand beaches. It look like a photo out of a picture book.
The girls had fun wave jumping. They only did this the first day as the waves were created by the winds. By the second day, the ocean was flat.
Sand castle building was the best we had discovered in our beach travels. The white sand is very fine detail that sticks together with a little water.
The house is next to the Friday’s Resort. Friday’s had a Happy Hour we enjoyed most days – buy one get one free! Great fruit drinks for the kids!
The view, the ocean, the beach and the sand is truly beautiful.
We took a snorkel trip to Crystal Cove. I did bring the snorkel gear AND it did take up extra pounds, therefore, we needed to use it. We took a boat over to the island.
The kids had fun in all the crazy seats.
The Dads, Emmy & Tyler walked down the stairs to the water to snorkel. Emmy had fun snorkeling with the fish. Elle and James stayed at the top to watch with the Moms. They were not ready to go in the water.
After they finished at this cove, we walked to another snorkel cove through a cave. Elle had fun collecting shells and floating about.
After snorkeling, we ate a tasty lunch of local food. On the way trip back to the house, everyone had fun jumping off and swimming around the boat.
The next day, Jim woke up sick. Since he is the only one sick, we think he has not boiled the water long enough for his coffee. He is spending the day near the bathroom. The girls and I decided to go shell searching down the beach. The girls have so much fun finding the unique shells. We spent a lazy day enjoying the sand, the beach and the ocean near the house.
We had scheduled a sailing trip with the older kids, Tyler and Emmy. The plan was for Jim and Elizabeth to take them on the sailing adventure. Elizabeth took them as Jim was still down for another day – a lesson on drinking the local water.
We all walked to the Dmall, the name of the shopping strip, for dinner. The kids have eaten most dinners in with Imelda and Girly, Elizabeth’s Philippine ayi. They are tired at the end of the day so they are happy to stay home. The walk to the Dmall is about 20 minutes down the beach. You need to time the walk back as the tied comes in. One night the four adults walked most of the way back in the water. Since we had the kids, we left early to avoid the water walk home.
The kids all had fun playing together. They could dig in the sand all day long.
The hair ALWAYS needs to be braided before we leave. I found someone who would come to the house. I thought since they could sit inside watching tv while the hair was being braided that I would let them get their WHOLE head braided. We usually just do the top. Oh, it took forever to braid Emersyn’s hair!! As always, I paid extra for Emmy as it is just not fair to these ladies that have to work three times harder to braid her mop top. Funny, she gets that mop top from her Dad!!
On our last day in Paradise, we enjoyed Friday’s view and lunch.
A beautiful sunset on our last night.
The end of another fun beach holiday to share as a family with friends.