The Freeburgs: Boracay

Over one year ago we arrived in Korea 14 days before Christmas. We were like deer in the headlights with no knowledge of Seoul or any sort of presentable plan for Christmas. We had virtually no money and were plagued with early onset of homesickness. What we achieved last year during Christmas vacation was basic knowledge of our home for the next 14 months. We decided after that week that we were going to commit to something 1 year in advance...Boracay.

We attribute the choice of Boracay to some co-workers of ours who had gone there the Christmas we stayed in Ilsan. Having no former knowledge of the existence of Boracay, and a long time of mispronunciations of the island, we knew we wanted to go after seeing pictures and hearing tales.

This trip was very different from any sort of trip we did this past year. All the other trips I have ever done, including travels in college, involved a very active itinerary. Even as a married man, our honeymoon last October required a lot of activity. Our trip to Tokyo and our two trips to China also involved a lot of "on-the-go" behaviors in order to ensure maximum absorption of culture, sights and good times. Very rarely have I ever been on a vacation where we stay in the same place for 7 straight days. We knew this going into our trip to Boracay and we were both excited and weary of this fact. To the trip!

The day started off just right waking up at a ripe 4:45 in the morning after 5 hours of Skyping and 2 hours of sleep. We left Incheon International Airport for a 4 hour flight to Manila. Once arriving in Manila we had to board a domestic flight to Kalibo, which is an airport on Panay Island in the Philippines (note the map below).

There are two airports on Panay Island, Caticlan and Kalibo. Caticlan is much, much closer to Boracay Island but our travel agent sought it necessary to book us through Kalibo. Anyway our hotel arranged for us to be picked up at the airport and ride a 1.25 hour charter bus to the Jetty Port, where we took the 10-15 minute ferry to the island itself. Boracay Island, as mentioned previously I'm sure of it, is only 7 km long and is composed of primarily beaches and resorts.

Kelly getting ready for the ferry...in her winter clothes

Our ferry to Boracay Island. We were so glad that we packed in backpacks. Other tourists brought their rolling suitcases with them, which provided them with many obstacles and difficulties on this leg of the journey.

When we finally arrived to the island we had to ride on a tricycle, which was a little three wheeled apparatus attached to a motorcycle to cart us around the island. Our first impressions were not what we had in our mind of Boracay, but those thoughts would soon be thwarted.

Our hotel from the 25th-29th. We stayed at a place called Erus Suites. It was a nice place but wasn't exactly in the greatest location. We were, however, happy with our room and the service was great.

That Christmas evening we spent walking along the beach. We were not prepared for what the beach had in store for us that evening, but it was really fun. There were dozens of barbeque buffets feet from the shore, resorts opening their doors to wondrous buffets that rival Robin Williams and The Lost Boys.

There were Christmas lights in Palm Trees and fake snowmen on the beach. There was Christmas music being played from restaurants and bars as well as children singing carols. We were hardly able to swallow the fact we were celebrating Christmas in a tropical paradise.

Many locals specialize in making ridiculously large and detailed sandcastles. This one clearly was on New Years Eve, but we also had one from Christmas day.

That evening we were pretty tired from the long day of travel. So after an incredible Christmas special buffet at Regency Resort, we went and got a full-body, 1 hour massage in D'Mall, the touristy shopping area. The two of us spent a combined 600 Php total on the massage for one hour ($14).

The next morning (and ensuing 6 days) we tackled the White Beach. Prepare yourselves.

Boats abound the White Beach, offering limitless services for the tourist.

The White Beach had such crystal clear waters, it looked like pool water.

Clear.

We were also able to enjoy the sunset just about every night.

On either day two or three we took a special trip to the north side of the island called "Puka Beach". This part of the island held no particular form of importance. There were supposedly a lot of shells (all to which have been picked up by now), a lot of waves and hardly any people. We took a tricycle ride to the beach (15 minutes and 150 Php) and spent the greater portion of the morning and afternoon there.

Behold Puka.

Kelly zombied out on the beach.

One thing about Boracay (that's either its blessing or its curse) is that there are a lot of locals who offer their services for water sport activities. There are tons of things that you can do if you have the cash to burn, which is what most people have if they go to a place like Boracay. Services include sailing, parasailing, jet skiing, scuba diving, snorkeling, tubing, banaboat, etc. The list never seems to end NOR does the amount of Filipino men who want you to pay them to take you. We were able to use that to our advantage, however, and utilize those services for a few different occasions.

The first of which was parasailing. I had told Kelly prior to our arrival in Boracay that I'd like to do one of the following. 1.) scuba dive 2.) snorkel 3.) parasail

We finally were able to choose option 3. One thing that is great about so many people wanting to charge you to go out on the boat is that they constantly undercut their competitors. The first guy we talked to about parasailing wanted to charge us 1,500 Php/person ($68 total). We went to another guy and he wanted to charge us 3,500 Php/person ($158/person). We told him that was an outlandish price and the "other" guy was going to charge a whole 2,000 pesos less per person! Realizing his folly, June (the guy who was overcharging) sought this auspicious moment to drop the price and charge us 1,300/person. We took that deal and made a reservation.

June and I. Thumbs up for parasailing. Way up.

Here is a video of our parasailing adventures.

On December 29th, 2010 the year of our Lord, we moved from Erus Suites and transferred to Tonglen Beach Resort where we would meet Winnie and Joel for the duration of our time in Boracay.

With Winnie and Joel we were able to tackle the White Beach more furiously. We were also able to go sunset sailing which was incredibly relaxing for only 1,000 Php for the 4 of us.