Boracay Summer 2013

Summer is never complete without the beach, and I already have my dose of the beach this summer - just came back from a 4-day trip to Boracay with my girlfriend last last week.

Hello, Boracay!

Highlights of the trip:

1. White sand beach. Just as advertised. Just as expected. Love it!
2. Parasailing and helmet diving. Tried these two activities for the first time. Awesome!
3. Fire dancers. Finally saw them for real, and they're great!
4. Great food! We loved the tapa at the Boracay Beach Resort, the crab at the Hampstead (though it was a bit pricey), the Jonah's shake, and especially Boracay's chori burger (we wanted to bring some to Manila, but we weren't able to).
5. Cliff diving. We went to Ariel's Point, a place featuring this activity (they have cliffs of different heights), but we weren't able to dive because we got so engrossed with snorkeling and didn't thought the tour would end earlier than we expected. :(

Sand castles in front of the Diamond Hotel, Station 1, Boracay.

Some interesting facts:

1. People in the island (and maybe the local government as well) are promoting the name Boracay. So Boracay, please, not Bora. :)
2. Generally the whole of Boracay (Stations 1 to 3) lie in a single stretch on the shore - you can walk the beach from one end to another, although I would advise not doing the Station 3 at night because there are areas with no lamp posts and are therefore dark.
3. There are many aetas in certain parts of Boracay. Some of them are asleep on the sand, with plastic glass or some sort of container beside them. Visitors and tourists would sometimes drop coins on the glasses, but I hope the local government would do something to help them.
4. And speaking of Koreans, many of the tourists when we went there were Koreans. They equal (or even outnumber) Western tourists. Yey for Philippine tourism!

In the background: Paraw boats

I won't do a detailed account here as I would reserve that post in my travel blog. If you want some guide in visiting Boracay (itinerary, budget, some pointers, etc.), you can head HERE. I'll be posting about our Boracay trip soon.

Hello, Long Weekend! (Holy Week Celebration)

Tomorrow is the last working day before the long weekend in celebration of the Holy Week 2013. And, tomorrow after work, I'll be off to Bicol to spend the holidays with my family. It will only be a four-day vacation, but I'm excited because this will be the first time I'll go home to Bicol this year (after my Christmas-New Year vacation).

I only went home thrice last year, and that's the average number during the past years. At the beginning of this year, one of the goals I'd written down was to go home more frequently this year (at least five times, with this schedule as the first one). I'm just so happy I'm able to stick to it despite some irregularities and hurdles. And right now, I'm just so excited to go home and see my family, especially my grandparents.

I won't be having a lot of 'gala' this Holy Week; I want to observe a quiet Holy Week at home. I'll just stay in Pandan most of the time and celebrate Lolo's birthday on the 29th, go out only once to see my family in Albay on the 30th (and also celebrate Papa's birthday), go to church (must not forget this), get my return ticket (I hope I won't have a hard time finding a reservation, with all the vacationers returning home after the Holy Week), and visit at least one place (I'm not yet sure which place, let's see).

For some ideas on things to do in Albay this Holy Week, I created a post last week - here. Not sure which of them I'll have the chance to do this Holy Week, maybe the Kawa Kawa trip, though I'm not yet sure. I feel like I have only a short time, and I want to spend most of it at home with my family. I'll post updates when I return.

Happy long weekend, everybody! Have a meaningful Holy Week celebration!