Our journey of getting to Boracay began off in Honolulu.

Our flight from Honolulu left at 12:30 on a brilliant sunny afternoon and as we circled west over the island we handed over Pearl Harbour the place we may see the memorial to the crewmen of the Arizona under us within the bay.

Aloha Hawaii, we actually loved our quick 9 days in paradise. 

Subsequent cease, the Philippines.

Surprisingly our flight to Manila was nearly 11 hours lengthy. Who knew Hawaii was so friggin’ far-off – from every thing. It’s manner out in the midst of nowhere: 4650 miles (9 hours flying time) from Toronto to Hawaii and one other 5,330 miles (10 hours 40 min flying time) from Hawaii to Manila. Manila to Bangkok, the following cease on our itinerary, is an additional1,374 miles (Three hours). So Hawaii to Bangkok is a whopping 6,704 miles.

Thank goodness we opted to cease over within the Philippines, a rustic we have now by no means visited, to break up the journey.

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Arriving in Manila

As we steadily descended by way of the clouds into Manila we caught our first glimpses of small inexperienced islands surrounded by yellow seashores and the azure Pacific Ocean. Regularly giant jagged mountains appeared coated with a shag carpet of lush inexperienced forest. Then, like a scene from a fairy story, three darkish inexperienced volcanic cones spiked by way of the wisps of cottony white clouds. The clouds mirrored the golden rays of the solar and the darkish silhouettes of the volcanoes jumped out towards the brilliant blue background of the sky.

The impact was mesmerizing.

The islands confirmed nearly no indicators of habitation or growth. Solely the skinny trails of smoke rising from a number of fields of sugar cane gave any indication of life till we reached the outskirts of Manila the place rice paddies and the rectangles of fish farms within the bay patterned our view.

Then we have been engulfed by a shroud of smog as we dropped down in direction of Manila correct. However even right here, colors nonetheless jumped out at us as brightly painted homes in shades of yellow, orange, blue and purple dotted the bottom like a Georges Serat pointillist portray.

Though for us it was now 10:30 p.m. Hawaii time, the solar was nonetheless shining as a result of the native time in Manila was solely 4:30 p.m. – however on the following day.

We had crossed the date line and misplaced a complete day!

So, in impact, it was the very same time as again in Toronto, however 12 hours earlier. Confused? Be part of the membership, so are we. It took us two days to alter our inner clock to Hawaii time and now we have now to begin another time. In truth, I’m scripting this at Three a.m., which is 9 a.m. Hawaii time, Three p.m. Toronto time. Can’t sleep!

Within the Manila airport terminal, we have been instantly hit by a number of surprises. Everybody speaks English right here and even the indicators are all in English. Additionally they converse Tagalog, influenced by Spanish from their colonial days, and so they used to research Spanish at school. Now, nevertheless, they’re taught English within the faculties. The 2 main dailies in Manila are in English, however, curiously, half of the comics are in Tagalog. They’re not fairly as humorous because the English ones – humour doesn’t translate effectively. :;

The second shock was the presence of a number of separate customs traces for “Returning Abroad Employees.” Due to low pay and excessive unemployment within the Philippines, over 1,000,000 Filipinos work abroad or on cruise ships to ship a reimbursement house.

We observed in Hawaii that nearly all the staff within the service business (eating places, lodges, bus drivers, store clerks) have been Filipino. Actually billions of pesos are despatched again to the Philippines each month from OFW’s (Abroad Filipino staff). With out their inflow of {dollars} the economic system would sink.

Our preliminary impression is that Manila, whereas English talking, continues to be unique, with only a whiff of hazard. Each retailer and restaurant has an armed safety guard performing as a doorman, a Walmart greeter with a gun!

The streets are clogged with vehicles, vehicles and small brightly colored, gaudy buses referred to as Jeepneys. You threat your life simply crossing the road the place 4 lanes of vehicles crowd into three lanes and vehicles dart by way of the purple lights with impunity.

The sidewalks are uneven and damaged forcing you out onto the road and into the trail of motorbikes, pedicabs and handcarts all racing alongside and weaving out and in of lanes and even onto the sidewalk to get across the stalled site visitors. You want to hold one eye on the sidewalk and one eye on the motorbikes.  

Younger Filipinos push the handcarts alongside the road in flip flops. Every cart carries bamboo trays loaded with home made rice muffins, meals wrapped in banana leaves and Spam cooked in quite a lot of methods. Spam is a well-liked dish right here and also you see it in lots of eating places.  As on many islands, Spam is a legacy of the US troops throughout WWII.

In sharp distinction to the handcarts, are the Starbucks on many avenue corners. The world is shrinking, and never essentially in a great way.

Air pollution is a giant drawback right here. Numerous Filipinos put on cloths over their mouths and noses.

The smog is so thick in Manila that you may chew on it.

However not like in China the place they spit it out onto the sidewalk, right here they only swallow it in chunks.

Breakfast was an journey, however not too dangerous. Dwelling in Toronto, we have been fairly aware of Filipino dinner meals, like lechon (roast suckling pig), Adobo rooster, and sticky rice. The Philippino breakfast menu, nevertheless, was completely overseas to us. We ended up with two dishes that we shared, a scorching rice noodle with a gloopy orange/brown sauce, shrimp and a slice of boiled egg on high, and a salty scorching rice dish, like Chinese language congee, referred to as, appropriately sufficient, “Arroz caldo.” It got here with one other slice of boiled egg and a few crispy fried garlic. Each truly tasted higher than it sounds.

Initially we have been involved about coming to the Philippines due to the kidnappings previously and a report that violence may get away over proposed modifications to the present electoral guidelines. In truth, in the present day a firefight broke out between a Muslim terrorist group and the army and 19 folks have been killed. However that’s solely within the far south island of Mindanao and we can be staying additional north the place the vast majority of the inhabitants is Catholic.

Then there are the monsoons and the typhoons.

We’re previous Monsoon season, however simply discovered that three typhoons ripped by way of right here within the final couple of weeks and they’re anticipating presumably yet one more quickly. Hmmm!

All and all, the Philippines have already been a nice shock. The persons are exceedingly pleasant, which one would count on given the truth that they export “service.” Everybody from airport safety, folks on the road and even the armed greeters on the shops has been well mannered, smiling and useful. And one can simply settle for the distinction between the verdant inexperienced hills we noticed from the air and the truth on the streets of Manila, in any case there’s air pollution in all massive cities.

How to get to Boracay from Manila

However we didn’t come right here for Manila and, the truth is, we’re solely staying right here for one evening. Now we’re off to Boracay Island the place we hope the preliminary impressions of the plush, inexperienced Philippines we noticed from the air can be confirmed.

Boracay is famed for its seashores and has the second finest seashore on the planet in accordance to TripAdvisor.  It ranks fourth of 25 on Journey + Leisure’s High Ten island’s listing.

Getting to Boracay will not be simple nevertheless. As I mentioned earlier, Manila is fairly far-off from North America. Then you will have to take a 72-seat puddle leaping turboprop from Manila to Caticlan with Cebu Pacific Airways.

At first look, the flights look cheap, however when you arrive on the airport you’re all of a sudden hit with further baggage charges of 150 pesos per kilo (roughly $3.75/kilo). They even weighed us and our purses. In fact, touring for seven months doesn’t afford us the luxurious of touring gentle, so it was costly. Then there’s a terminal utilization charge, which is shocking on condition that the brand new terminal has not too long ago been voted the worst on the planet.

When you arrive at Caticlan on Panay Island you will have to pay extra entry charges, then a charge to board a small outrigger boat that takes you throughout to Boracay itself. The rickety outriggers are referred to as “Pumpboats.” I’m undecided what which means as a result of they’re motor pushed, however on the way in which over I noticed a man on the again consistently pumping a lever. Happily, the ocean was calm.

Then usually you rent a motor-tricycle to take you to your lodge. This stuff are superb for a way a lot weight they’ll carry with out tipping over or hitting backside. We noticed one which was piled so excessive with packing containers that it appeared like a shifting pyramid. Others had so many individuals crowded into then with their baggage that the passengers’ toes have been nearly dragging on the street.

The journey on the slender lane up the island to our lodge was hair elevating because the lodge vans and motor-tricycles barely squeezed by one another and in some way averted hitting pedestrians with their mirrors. We haven’t but dared enterprise out onto the lane on foot.

However, getting to Boracay is effectively price it

It’s tiny, solely seven kilometers by one kilometer broad, and is nearly fully surrounded by beautiful white sand seashore. We’re staying at Willy’s Boracay Resort proper on White Seashore, the very best seashore with 4 kilometers of packed white sand and a shallow, calm ocean in entrance. There is no such thing as a surf as in Hawaii so it’s very secure.  Native youngsters make ideas carving an intricate design into the seashore alongside along with your identify. These little urchins are literally fairly creative.

Though the seashore is stuffed with strollers, the island itself doesn’t really feel overdeveloped or crowded. We haven’t seen any high-rise lodges though there are some fashionable ones tucked away someplace. And thus far it appears that evidently the general public listed below are Filipinos with a number of Koreans and Chinese language thrown in, however only a few Westerners, so costs a really cheap.

The waters are heat and delicate and clear, good for swimming, snorkeling and kayaking. Dotting the azure and turquoise waters of our bay are brightly colored outriggers, dugout canoes and sailboats that Carolann has began calling butterflies as a result of all of them have brilliant blue sails and dart about like a Morpho butterfly. The very best half about them, aside from the colors, is that they’re not noisy in any respect, not like the roaring long-tail boats of the Thai islands that stored us awake at evening and woke us up at dawn.

Final evening we witnessed an exceptional sundown with rays of sunshine flashing into the sky and lighting up the palm bushes, the brilliant outriggers and the blue sails of the butterfly boats. What a sight! We’re hoping to take a sundown cruise one evening on one of many sailboats.

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Dinner at Willy’s Boracay Resort

Meals at Willy’s are served on an outside patio with tables set into the white sand.

Dinner was BBQ’d Marlin for me and a big tureen of Thai scorching and bitter Tom Yam soup performed Filipino fashion with plenty of fish, shrimp, prawns, squid and octopus. Every of those dishes may simply have served two or three folks. Each have been glorious and really moderately priced and we now know to order only one dish for the 2 of us.

As we sat watching the sundown, the boats flitting by and the strollers on the seashore, the sky behind the mountains was all of a sudden lit up by an incredible lightning show. Nevertheless it by no means rained, the storm stayed on the mountain because it apparently does each evening. Very curious. The night was nonetheless, the evening air was heat and we sat listening to the mild waves lapping on the sand. It was all very, very nice.

Boracay doesn’t have that personal, undiscovered, romantic feeling of Koh Lipe that we beloved in Thailand. However then we’ve discovered that even that particular place has now been ruined by overdevelopment and paved roads. Once we visited in 2004, there weren’t any vehicles and you might choose your fish for dinner proper from a bathtub of ice on the seashore.

Some folks may assume I’m complaining in regards to the island, however the fact is that when you will have visited as many locations as we have now, you’ll be able to’t assist however evaluate. It’s like being a film critic.

For seven years we’ve been questioning if we may ever return to that idyllic paradise of Koh Lipe in Thailand. Would it not be the identical? Our quest to uncover the right island retreat continues, however within the meantime Boracay is doing fairly properly, thanks.

Critically, how may you not like a rustic that has various kinds of mango in season each month of the 12 months. It’s Paradise 2.