Summer Break Flashback Part 4b: Boracay

In Boracay you can find many people offering a boat cruise around the island for less than ten bucks. In the Bay Area 10 bucks wouldn’t even be enough for you to get a round trip from Vallejo to San Francisco. So when we were given the opportunity for all seven of us to be shown around the island on a boat, we hopped to it. And so here goes the story of our three hour tour.

We sailed straight pass all the tourist on the beach to a little cove where a few other boats had already dropped anchor. Once we reached the other boats one of the guides then pulled out some snorkel gear and dropped it in front of him. We were told if we like we could jump in the water and try feeding the fishes. The offer may have seemed a little more enticing if the gear wasn’t lying right next to his crusty toes, and I didn’t know full well that those things have never been sanitized since the day he bought them... or maybe even longer. So I hesitated for a moment but then figured what’s a lifetime of herpes when you can go out there and feed a few tropical fish for a couple of minutes. I took the gear and jump in the water with one other foolish soul.

The water was crystal clear. I could see coral and several small colorful fish down below. The guide gave me a piece of bread and hundreds of fish began to swarm around me to grab a bite. Some of them I could see clearly as they paused to nibble on the bread but mostly of them were just a blur of colors, blue, yellow, orange, red, and black, darting in and out. It was something you only see on a documentary for National Geographic. It was amazing.

Then I felt it. A sharp sting on my left arm as if something was trying to crawl under my skin and after failing to see what it was I popped out of the water like a torpedo. As I was trying to tell every one on the boat what had happen I could start to feel my whole left flank and neck start to burn. I realized then it must have been a jellyfish but as the pain continued to worsen the guides repeatedly denied that there were any jellyfish in these waters. However, after the welts started popping up all over my body they must have realized it was pointless to continue on lying to me. Finally they admitted that there are jellyfish that inhabit these waters but they said they were only small ones and that the pain would go away in a couple of hours. Like the f*@# I was really going to believe those @$$#*!%$ after they so blatantly lied to me just seconds ago.

Now, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was living out another one of National Geographic’s documentaries but this one didn’t have that oooh, ahhh, amazing feeling. I recalled their special on a certain species of jellyfish, no bigger than the size of a quarter, living off the coast of Australia. Apparently these small jellyfish are amongst the most poisonous in the world and were responsible for killing a string of people off the Australian coast. I then began to wonder how close is the Philippines actually to Australia. From maps it doesn’t look that far. In any case it was way too close. I also realized that the jellyfish that stung me must have been really small since I didn’t even see it. Then I didn’t really know if the reason it was getting more difficult for me to breathe was due to the toxins of the jellyfish or my fears.

The rest of those who were with me on the boat asked me if I wanted to be pissed on, in order to somehow counter act the poison. Now, though it had gotten a little more difficult for me to breathe I knew what the answer to that would be right away… No way in hell. If I was gonna die, I was gonna die a man. Not as some dead fool who smelt like piss. And despite my splendid condition we ended up just continuing the rest of our trip. And after not a couple of hours but several hours later the pain and the welts finally started going away.

Now, I suppose the boat crew initially denied the presence of any jellyfish because it would obviously be bad for business if people were to know that jellyfish were stinging divers along the coast. But you know what? Screw them... Beware of the jellyfish!


Some of the welts still left on my arm after the boat ride.

Summer Break Flashback Part 4a: Boracay

Waiting for the buffet to get started I found my self sitting on one of the hottest bikini clad beaches in the Philippines... with my parents. Well, at least I didn’t have to pay for anything during my stay in Boracay.



When you ask people which is the best beach in the Philippines there are two destinations that usually come up, Palawan and Boracay. In Borocay however, you don’t have to worry about contracting malaria as much as you would in Palawaan. And now after having been to Boracay summer I would also have to agree with what most of those people have to say. The beach sand is white (at least whiter than the black sand in Batangas) and the water is clear with minimum algae (unlike in Pagudgod). Also there is hardly any trash anywhere (unlike most of the Philippines). There are actually people on the beach with rakes combing thru the sand to keep it debris free as possible.

For all that Boracay is however it is not your idea of a “secluded” tropical paradise. This place was definitely designed for tourist and the party crowd. All along the beach strip there are bars, restaurants, tattoo parlors, souvenir shops, etc., and even a mall. What I found surprising was the number of shops with signs written all in Korean. It seems that the Korean crowd is a big market in Boracay. There are also a lot of other things to do if you are more of the adventurous type such as parasailing, island hoping, scuba diving, etc. I didn’t get to do too much of that but I did go snorkeling for a bit and I’ll have to tell you more of that in the next post.

Now rather than just lying on the beach and being contempt with taking in the sun, if you know me at all there were just a couple things I had to find and complain about. Despite being one of the major tourist attractions in the Philippines and hallo-hallo being one of the more famous Filipino deserts my parents and I were hard press to find any place that actually sold hallo-hallo during our stay. We went to three restaurants, one right after the other, and though they all had hallo-hallo on their menus for whatever reason they couldn’t make us one. One place had no ice, the other said they had no ice cream, and the other place had nothing at all. Eventually, we just gave up our search and settled for an American style shake at this little establishment owned by a Caucasian woman from the Bay Area. In reality however, not having what’s on the menu in the Philippines is quite a common thing. I’ll give them one thing though, they did have the only Ice Monster I’ve ever seen in the Philippines that actually had strawberries in stock.

The other thing I found a little odd was the lack of authentic Filipino souvenirs. Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of shops that sell souvenirs made by Filipinos but what one of my dad’s friends was trying to find was something with meaning. Something that represents the essence of the people, their struggles, their joys, their sorrows… The heart and pride of the Filipino people! OK, maybe not that deep but maybe something with a bit of cultural significance or at least with some authenticity. We didn’t really have much luck finding it though…

It appeared that what most of the shops where passing off as Filipino were really products of another culture. At one souvenir shop that also did alabata tattoos, we told the lady what were looking for and pointed us to some of the pendants she had. We were told that one pendant which was clearly a musical cleft was the symbol for one who loves music. Though maybe what she said held a little bit of truth it wasn’t exactly that part of the Filipino culture we were looking for.

These masks seem to be Polynesian.



The shop owner told us that Aetas in the mountains used these mask to scare away evil spirits in order to bring good luck to their business. Hmm, personally I couldn’t see why a bunch of hunters and gathers would be in such a need of a thing for their “businesses”.

This is maybe African in origin?



The mask of tragedy and comedy with a bit of a Filipino twist?



These are clearly resemble American Indian dream catchers however I was told they are also part of Filipino culture.



All in all I would have to say that Boracay is a nice place to go. I would not recommend against anyone going there. However, if you are looking for a bit of Filipino culture to take home as a souvenir you better just bring a camera.

Summer Break Flashback Part 1: Pagudpud

Well it seems the semester break has come and gone, and I have to say these past two weeks have been quiet adven… Actually it has been pretty much mundane so how about I this post into a flash back about last summer vacation.

During the first week of last summer vacation I took a trip to the white beaches of Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. From Binan that's about a 590 kilometer drive to one of the most Northern points of Luzon. For you Californians that would be about the same distance as driving from Vallejo to LA, a trip that would take the average driver about 6 hours. However, since the physics of time and space follow different rules here in the Philippines this trip is about a 14 hour ride. Anyway, after everything I have heard about the place and then finally getting to see it first hand ... I have to say, OK ...

The beach shore was nice and definitely cleaner than most other places you will find in Luzon. I didn't see one piece of trash floating in the water either and the water so clear that you could see… all the seaweed. The seaweed was just about everywhere. When you are looking thru all those internet sites of Pagudpud and the pictures of the beach you don't really see the seaweed but believe me it's there. The people there were saying it's pretty much like that all year round. I guess you probably could still swim thru it but I didn't really want to try.


White sand? Looks like ordinary beach sand to me.


There weren't very many people there.

I staid the night at the Apo Idon Beach Hotel, which has some really good rates. (Maybe the low prices also had to do with the fact that no one else was there. I guess my summer break didn't coincide with that of the majority of other college students here in the Philippines.) Anyway, the rooms were still considerably nice and large for a beach resort for the price. A piece of advice however, if you see a conc shell in your room don't put it to your face. Whatever originally inhabited the shell must have been left in to rot and die. That shell smelled so bad.




Did I mention you get a free meal with your stay?
Mmm, lechon. I can feel my heart stopping now.

I guess the place was nice but I don't think it exactly lived up to all the hype but then again they did have a monkey chained to a tree.


Poor monkey, they are all gonna laugh at you.