We all know that Boracay island is one of the most famous tourist destinations in the Philippines and has been also recognized as the best beach in the world. I am no Boracay expert but on my recent 5-day stay there where I had a chance to mingle with the locals and some Boracay experts, I've compiled these tips and tricks on how to enjoy and save money at the same time so you would be able to avoid the scams.
I'm writing this blog so that even if it's your first time in Boracay, you can do activities on your own.
First, let me define some of the terms I used in this article: Hawker - Those guys asking you to book their activities from them ALL THROUGHOUT the beach path. Can be annoying at times. Since they can't seem to identify my nationality, they talk to me in Korean, Japanese or Chinese. Similar to the guys in Greenhills selling 'deebeedee-deebeedee'. Scammers - Those unethical practices done by the locals and business owners that destroys the image of the Philippines and Filipinos. My Personal Recommended Hawker - Contact Ariel Cahilig. His number is 0928 4210924. Boracay Expert - Been to Boracay tons of times and know the island by heart Pasalubong - is a Tagalog word which if translated in the American English language would be "keepsake" or "presents". It is a souvenir brought for loved ones or friends.
Here are some of the things to do in Boracay (Water sports, land activities and other must experience experiences in the island).
You’ve heard of “love at first sight”. For Lucy Torres- Gomez, it was “love at first try” for her and OraCare toothpaste.
This multi-tasking celebrity goes about her hectic day not only looking and feeling good, but also smelling good. Despite her busy schedule balancing her tasks as mother, wife, TV host and the congresswoman of Ormoc City, she makes time for herself making sure to maintain her health and hygiene.
It's been awhile since I posted personal thoughts here in my blog. Well, I just thought that today, I want to write about some of the items in my bucket list. Recently, I've been pondering about this life of ours. We don't know when it'll end. I'm perfectly contented with my life right now but that doesn't mean I'm not seeking for improvement. It's actually working out like this -- I'm so contented with my life that I want to achieve more.
I don't consider myself as a risk taker but some people say that I am. To tell you the truth, I'm just trying to avoid "what-ifs". If I think something is feasible, I go ahead with it. Although I know I'm not always right. It's not like I'm going into a darkroom full of mousetraps. I try to shed some light on the path I'm going to take prior.
I'm so blessed this year that I was able to take several vacations. For my own record, this would be the year that I had the most vacations and I am not complaining. I think I have 1 or 2 more trips this year and a major one next year.
iPhone was one of the greatest tools that made a lot of lives easier. It was so powerful that it almost replaced computers. Almost. Of course, nothing is perfect and nothing satisfies humans. This attitude fuels our brains to create more and more advanced gadgets to make life easier.
I won an iPhone last year and ever since, it helped me be more productive even on the road. I had internet access 24/7. I clearly remember the third day I had my iPhone -- Ondoy happened. This calamity rendered my iPhone useless. Paperweight type of uselessness. This is when you'll realize that without power, you're gadgets are just plastic and metal art decorations.
On September 26, 2010, Immuvit will be holding its second Run Against Time in Greenhills Shopping Center. This popular bargain shopping destination is also a place where many fitness buffs that live around the area engage in their fitness regimens, making this the ideal place to for gather consumers and educate them about proactively managing symptoms of somatopause.
Someone's taking advantage of the 'rainbow tweets'. They are tweets that contains blocks of colour and this new malicious bug utilizes it to hide the actual content. Once you put your mouse over the "blocks" (see image below), you will automatically repost the same message and / or, a pop up will appear that will lead you to a malicious website.
The onmouseover is a javascript code and I hope twitter will fix this as soon as possible. This bug is currently spreading like wildfire as unsuspecting twitter users unknowingly pointed their cursors in the block text or just curious on what's written there, will make them automatically tweet it and the cycle goes on.
This is just new so there are still a lot of unsuspecting people, including me. This is why I blogged about it ASAP
It's safer to use 3rd party twitter applications as of the moment than www.twitter.com.
DO NOT USE TWITTER.COM for the meantime. You'll know you are infected when upon logging in, you have this shade of gray over your twitter page. Once infected, it will lead you to other websites.
Every year, a lot of people are looking forward for this one joyous and festive season. This year, Kraft made the Christmas 100 days earlier!
ABS-CBN and Kraft Eden Cheese partnered to hold a cook off with several towns. Each town will make their very own original and unique dish using indigenous ingredients that's famous in their own respective towns.
I'm going to start campaigning for a town -- Please do vote for Balayan Batangas. :)
The famous Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao is now open to serve you in Manila! Located at the ground floor of Virramall inside the Greenhills compound, it's not the old Crystal Jade in Greenbelt before. This is the same restaurant that's famous in Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Indonesia and other Asian countries.
I heard that this franchise came from Singapore and not from Hong Kong. I'm not sure how that will affect the taste of the food but quality-wise, it's similar to the ones I've eaten in Hong Kong. The Manila version has no Teppanyaki grills though.
Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao opened September 13, 2010 in Manila and today is their 6th day of operation. I arrived at Greenhills around 1030am and there was already a line! I had a brief meeting and did some errands before deciding to line up. On the list was several categories. They separated the "For 2 people", "For 3-4 people" and the "For 5-6 and up people". Chances are, the turn-over for the "For 2 people" would be faster. Luckily, it was only me and my brother that day otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to try it out.
We actually had no clue of the activities for the day -- Zero plans at all! I consulted this guy named Ariel, based in front of Le Soleil and recommended to me by the guard of Le Soleil.
Wind Breakers along the Boracay Beach path even if it wasn't raining - prevention is better than cure
Thank God for a perfect weather on a September :)
He suggested that we do Parasailing. Although I personally have tried that out twice prior, the price was not so expensive that we decided to try it out since the view in Boracay up in the air is of course not the same with the other places I've been to.
Our Parasailing Speed Boat
Upon boarding the speedboat, we headed towards the platform where we would transfer to another boat for the parasailing. I was surprised that the boat for parasailing was very nice! It has soft leather seats, clean white cloth like roof and awesome music with bass that makes you feel that you're on a private yacht party!
Platform where you will board the speedboat for Parasailing
Getting ready to Parasail
The weather was good and the winds were strong. That is why they agreed that the 3 of us siblings go together at the same time. The view was something else up there although while at it, I'm worried that
the rope might snap off. That is the usual fear I get when I go Parasailing. But really, what would happen if it does snap of? Will I soar freely not knowing where to land? Yes, those are the thoughts running through my
mind at the first 2 minutes above the air. After that, it was pure enjoyment and sightseeing!
[Parasailing Video up in the air to follow]
The landing was smooth even if the waves weren't cooperating because upon transfering to the speedboat to go back to the island, we were bouncing up and down like Tigger in the Disneyland ride 'The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'
We decided to wait for my mom where we disembarked because we were scheduled to eat lunch at station 1 --Willy's Beach Club Hotel.
It rained pretty hard while we were on our way to the restaurant. My mom got tired so my parents decided to eat at a persian restaurant near Willy's rock. They said the food there was not so good and comparing it to the Persian restaurant at the corner of Tomas Morato and E Rodriguez, the one in Metro Manila is 10x better!
Upon reaching Willy's Beach Club Hotel, we were warmly welcomed by the general manager, Socorro Ruchanne Gadon a.k.a. Bebot and we were lucky that she wasn't busy at that time. We engaged in a meaty conversation while having our scrumptious lunch.
I learned that she grew up in Boracay island and she is an advocate/ volunteer to safeguard the islands' natural resources. Her spirit of volunteerism has reached various high positioned officials in Metro Manila, and because of that, it was resolved one issue at a time. She might have got it from her dad, which was the previous vice mayor of the said island.
After lunch, we went outside the beach and took some photos of the famous landmark in Boracay called Willy's Rock. It's exactly in front of the Willy's Beach Club Hotel.
Willy's Rock - Located at Boracay Beach Station 1
It was scorching hot so as we were walking, I was looking for something to drink. It suddenly dawned on me that Jonah's milk shake, also famous in Boracay was I. Station 1! (I saw several branches of
Jonah's milk shake in Boracay)
Mango Banana - I Love Banana Shakes!
I ordered 2 banana-mango shakes. Our total bill was 198 pesos. I wasn't expecting it to be Starbucks-expensive. Also, I was surprised that they were serving several kinds of food there. See menu photo
below.
My verdict of the shake I ordered? So-so and overrated.
Upon reaching the hotel, we then rested for a bit and called for the in-house massage of Le Soleil. I think they outsourced it but, wow, was it good! Never have I gotten a massage tahr good here in Manila.
If you know me, you'll know that I'm fond of massages. In-room massage at Le Soleil costs 400 pesos. We gave them 100-peso tips each.
Boracay Sunset - Sometimes not as beautiful as the sunset in Manila Bay but, just as breath taking.
Since we only have a few family pictures taken at Boracay, I dccided that we meet at the beach front around 5pm+ and wait for the sunset for a family picture.
A restaurant along the beach path. Can you guess where this is?
Timing was as planned. We then walked to D Mall to try out Ole. A Spanish/ Cuban restaurant at Station 2.
The paella valenciana was one of the best paellas Ive ever tried. Best paella for me was the one in Salcedo Sunday Market.
Paella Valenciana - Php 599.00
Lengua Estofado was so-so. Didn't like it that much. I like the Abe version of Lengua.
Lengua Estofado from Ole - Php 459.00
Garlic Bread Appetizer - FOC
Mushrooms Pan Fried w/ Garlic - Php 249.00
I also ordered the banana shake in Ole. Of the 3 shakes I tried in
boracay, I would rank them in this order, in terms of yumminess:
1) Le Soleil Beach Cafe Banana shake - Php130.00
2) Jonah's Milk Shake - Php 99.00
3) Ole Banana Shake - forgot exact price, less than 100 pesos
Since I was trying hard to packlight, I removed some of my shirts prior leaving our house in Manila. I was then presented with a problem because I have no clean shirt to wear come day 5! It took me more than
an hour just to find a shirt that I like.
I got a shirt from island souvenirs. I'm a frustrated diver. I already did 3 introdives. The shirt I got was nice. It has this shark drawing in front with the colors of the diving flag on the body of the shark. Below it was the name, 'Boracay'. Similar thing at the back of the shirt, just a different angle.
Upon going back to the hotel, I immediately got my laptop and went straight out to the beach cafe lobby to leech the free wifi signal Le Soleil is providing. Tons of work backlogs. Ordered a Pinacolada (Happy
hour = buy one take one). It costed me around 160 pesos or something. Happy hour at Le Soleil starts at 5pm until 10pm. Worked until past midnight until laptop died on me. This is our last night at Boracay.
Le Soleil Bar PinaColada - Php 120++
Since I wasn't able to post some of the Day 1 videos, here they are :)
These kind of sand sculptures are famous in Boracay. You can have a photo with these sand structures just by giving a tip to the people guarding it. They actually built it and I'm not sure if this is an organized business or just a spur-of-the-moment thing with the locals.
3 Main Reasons on why you and me HAVE to attend SEMCON 2010:
1. Have you ever heard of clients or companies that would create websites and sit there, do nothing and expect visitors? Yes, there are a lot of them who does not fully understand how the internet works. The best explanation for that is this -- A store with no door. That’s your website without SEO. eSEOr said than done.Learn now! – http://bit.ly/semcon2010 #semcon (Twitter Link)
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We had our usual breakfast at the Le Soleil beach cafe. My everyday favorite was the scrambled eggs. Although there are some dishes that are served everyday, like rice, egg, veggies, they do serve a variety of viands. Sometimes they serve tocino, sometimes sausages or maybe longanissa. Each day has a different viand.
My Breakfast at Le Soleil Beach Cafe (iPhone with MiLi battery pack on the left) Watch out for my review of the MiLi Battery Pack for iPhone!
Breakfast Stubs
After breakfast, my usual routine -- Boracay Early Morning - lounging by the Beach
I never thought I can sleep so soundly amidst the noisy station 2. Le Soleil was built with the noisy party surroundings in mind and I didn't even hear the slightest sound while outside our room. Woke up around 630am and ate buffet breakfast at Le Soleil beach cafe.
The breakfast in Le Soleil was satisfying. Bacon, eggs, sausages, tocino, garlic rice, bread and juices. Their juices are powdered though. They also have fruits, congee and cereals.
Sat on the beach area after the breakfast. Here's our morning Boracay view:
Le Soleil Resort Frontage
Boracay on September??
You might ask me. Why go to Boracay on September? Well, after reading my entire 5-day post, you will realize that not only is Boracay beautiful in the summer but, it's much better on the lean season -- like September!
My trip is entirely sponsored by WOW Philippines Travel Agency because I was blessed to win their online contest. My 5-day travel package includes:
> Roundtrip airfare for 2 via Air Philippines (me and my brother)
> Hotel accomodation at Le Soleil Boracay for 4 nights with breakfast buffet
> Complete land and sea transfers (to and fro) via Southwest travel
> 5-day Lunch and Dinner (A mix of restaurants)
> Island Hopping, ATV and Horseback riding
> 5,000 pesos spending cash
Last but not the least (maybe the best): The pleasure and privelege to be toured around by the owner of WOW Philippine Travel agency. His wife, Mary Jane P. Bangga St. John, grew up in Aklan. They gave away this package to give back to the community that has been generous to them. I hope most companies/ travel agencies does this too. This is the first travel agency I've encountered to do such a generous thing.
Those perfect communities where people live and build memories are not necessarily just found in movies…
“Happily ever after” is not only just for fairy tales…
Avida Land has made it a point to provide Filipinos several developments wherein they can find the perfect setting to live their dream life.
