I got up 5.15 and enjoyed the famous and outstanding white beach for a morning jog. Already at this time there was people on the picture-perfect beach - either sunrise junkies, drunk people on their way home or joggers like me. It was a beautiful morning - and the beach is without a doubt just as white and breathtaking as all the guidebooks shows.
I used my alone time afterwards to search for a new place to stay. There was countless opportunities, and it was hard to choose, but eventually I made up my mind. M & E guesthouse won!
It's located in station 3, the cheap and so-called old part of White Beach. It provided what we needed - brilliant wifi connection, aircon, fridge and a nice little porch. We payed a little extra for our luxury, and in trade we got our blog uploaded. We were also lucky to have time to enjoy the beach and the dazzling sun. Boracay is for sure a dream destination... Off cause there's many tourists, but the beach is 3 km long, and it didn't get crowded at any point.
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| White Beach ín the early morning hours |
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White Beach   |
We walked to Lapuz Lapuz beach on the other side of the island, quite far actually, and only to discover that it was all private property with fancy resorts and rich people. Definitely not a place for us! The bright side was that we saw a big part of Boracay on our stroll there, the darkside was, it was smoking hot and we didn't get to a beach before we were back at White Beach again.
That beach is one of the most stunning we have seen - no wonder it's Philippines biggest tourist spot. We spend our last night together with Tom & Verity, and a big family pizza.
Unfortunately I didn't feel good, had some stomach problems, so they left our place early and we never got to try the Boracay rum. That's a good excuse for coming back!
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The kite surfing side of Boracay      |
Sunday 1st June
He arranged a liveaboard trip to Apo Reef which was leaving on the 4th, but we had to be there the 3rd. Against my will we left with a ferry towards Mindoro island.
The ferry was delayed so when we arrived in Roxas, it was already dark. Our plan was to travel down to Bulalacao, but we got met by some problems at the pier of Roxas. The van drivers was trying to rip us off, there was something suspicious about the prices they told us, it was almost double the price as other people in the vans had payed for the same distance. Frankly it was penny we were talking about, but just didn't want to pay extra, just because we're foreigners.
Some guys in trikes told us we could get a van from the busstation in the city and they offered to drive us there. We told them we wouldn't pay for the trike, if we got to the busstation and there wasn't any vans leaving anyway... Then a few of them got mad cause they realized they couldn't play that trick on us - but we got even more mad at them.
They knew there wasn't any vans at this time of the day, but off cause they would drive us into town to earn some money! Well, that's not how it works with two stubborn experienced backpackers!
None of these guys deserved any of our money. We decided to walk into town and find a place to sleep for the night. Quickly we discovered it was a far walk and since there was no streetlights it was a bit dangerous to walk on the mainstreet.
Some local ladies outside their house was helpfull and organized a trike for us, and we payed a reasonable price (30 pesos = 3,5kr) to get into the little ghost town. We got a room at a spooky little hotel, looked like it was taken out from a horror movie.
We had to be careful where we stepped, cause nails was sticking up from the floor and there was small holes everywhere aswell, the walls was water damaged with dark odd pictures on, the toilet facilities was nasty, disqusting and only with a bucket to shower in, but for the price of 300 pesos (36 kr) you cant expect a lot.
As a matter of fact the owner was really kind, welcomed us with a smile and nicely showed us to our room. We were forced to eat pizza for the second night in a row, it was the only restaurant open at this time.. Actually they were closing at 8 pm and we got there 2-3 min before.. Just in time to order one of the great looking pizzas on the pictures, in reality it wasn't that great - but it served it's purpose.
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| Ferry to Mindoro |
We slept as babies in the poor room with the fieldmatresses. In daylight in was much easier to find a van, without being ripped off.
The trip to San Jose only took two hours, it felt a lot longer due to the packed van and the minimum space. Well it was easy to find a hotel in San Jose, not that there's many of them, but we were lucky to get dropped off at the right place.
We spend some hours on the dirty beach outside the town.. Definitely nothing like Boracay. We were far away from any tourist spots, and we were an interesting sight as we were laying there on the beach. A trike full of young filipinoes were watching us, and a girl came and took a selfie, with us in the background.
As we were just trying to kill time in the town later, and we both needed a haitcut we went into a hairdresser. The guy there didn't get what I was on about, so he cut my hair totally short, just the same lenght as when we left DK.. I got so angry, and depressed at the same time. My hair was so uneven and the style was nothing like I told him. Neighter did they understand how Erik wanted his haircut.. After a little verbal fight we left the store, both with half done haircuts - and not paying them a single pesos for their bad custumer service.
It was sad that this guy ruined my hair in just 2 minutes - I was crying inside. We found a decent barbershop on the other side of the street for Erik, where he got the haircut and the shave he wanted. I found a ladyboy who cut my hair even in both sides, but I still have a lot of uneven hair! So depressing!
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| The ghost hotel in Roxas |
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| Who's talking about a window.. I can only see teddy bears |
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| Public beach in San Jose |
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| At the barbershop |
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| Jollybee, and a sad girl with too short hair... |
The night at the resort was included in the price, and was a necessity to go diving, since we were leaving early next morning and there wasn't any other accomodation around. Luckily Erik managed to get a discount on the room. We brought our own dinner - cup noodles... So when the others were eating from the nice smelling buffet, we gave our priority to cheap beers and cup noodles in the bar instead.
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| Our roommate at the Apo reef resort |
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| Erik found this little fellow in the men's CR (comfort room) |
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| Beach at the resort |
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| Apo reef club |
Wednesday 4th June
We were 10 divers - 6 Chinese and 4 Europeans. The plan was to do some amazing diving around Apo reef, which is known for big stuff, like sharks, mantas, barracudas etc. It was 1 night - 2 days, and up to 8 dives. The boat was everything but clean and comfortable.
The price we payed was pretty much the same as the other liveaboards we've been on, but the quality was seriously bad. The floor was dirty and yet not cleaned from the last time they used the boat, we didn't get our own cabin, but should all sleep together on the upper deck, the bedsheets were dirty and not changed either. They served us corned beef for breakfast, the only dry area was the dining area, where two hard benches on each side of the table was provided for our "comfort".
We were both exaggerated disappointed about everything on board. It made us angry at the "nice" swiss guy, running Apo Reef Club... Frankly he had ripped us off - that bastard!
We had only payed for 5 dives, and we didn't plan to do more than that. Didn't want to put more money, than we had already did, into his business. We skipped the first dive, a macrodive around a wreck. We did some snorkeling and saw the wreck from above instead. Were really happy about this decision, since the dive seemed really boring, and only on 9 meters dept.
We did the 3 following dives... They were great, but we weren't out of control of happiness. Had expected to see more big stuff.. Saw white tip reef sharks far away, schools of barracudas and two eagle rays. We know that the divecompany can't control what happens under water, but we just had mixed feelings about this whole experience.. It was overpriced and disappointing - from our point of view.
We dived at same divesite twice, eventhough there's like 16 different around the reef. We had a terrible divemaster, which didn't make the situation any better. We tried to look at the bright side of life, and make the best out of it, but it was unfortunately very difficult.
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| The live aboard boat |
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| Views from the light house at Apo reef island |
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| The beautiful people |
On the sandy bottom we woke up a sleeping white tip shark - or in fact it was the camera flash from one of the Chinese that woke it up. We visited a area with countless triggerfish... They were massive and they looked so cool by the fast way they move around. Honestly I wasn't a big fan of that part of the dive, since they are so territorial and agressive in their nesting season, but our divemaster (another than the day before) assured us that it would be okay to pass the area. None of us got attacked, so he was right.
We just had two dives this day, we had to respect the rules about decompression sickness - and it has to be at least 18 hours since your last dive, when you're flying. We were flying the next morning, so we couldn't even do another dive, not even if we wanted to. We worked on the blog, while the others did the last two dives.
When we got back to the resort, the owner Michael sensed that we weren't satisfied with the trip, so he tried to be gentle and offer us a free ride back to San jose, in a open jeepney loaded with dive tanks, and actually also a free beer for our journey. It gave us more mixed feelings, cause it was a nice gesture but it couldn't compete with the terrible boat, the bad food and the general bad service level on the boat.
To our surprise the jeepney stopped at a resort and picked up 15 big asians, who all carried their body weight in luggage. So our free ride literally became a pain in the arse. It was officially our last bustrip in Asia, and that was worth thinking about. We checked in at Sikatuna hotel in San Jose again, and ate our poor cup noodles. Both looking forward to be leaving Asia.
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| Relaxing on the outtriggers of the boat |
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| Not the worst sunset we've seen |
Apo Reef Liveaboard
Nestor (K's private driver) picked us up in Manila airport, brought us to K's condo and we shortly catched up with Kristoffer, before he left towards the airport.
We used the day on finally getting our blog updated, catched up with friends, did our last shopping before leaving the redicolious low price country and splashed out and ate at peoples palace for lunch (the thai restaurant Kristoffer introduced us to last time we visited).
Kris had sat us up with his good friend, Mandy, who we met one time before, and she took us out for dinner and drinks at night. It's unbelievable how privileged we felt. Mandy had her own driver as well, he picked us up, and waited around till we were done having fun. So we didn't need to worry about anything with transport - or money, because Mandy insisted to pay for the whole evening!
Their drivers have a great job compared to Filipino standards, but they're actually not expensive. Kristoffer driver cost him around 10000 pesos (1200kr) a month. Who wouldn't do that a home, if that was the price. Off course you need to provide them a car to drive in as well, and the fuel, but still - it's a good deal. The bar/restaurant we went to, had a service level and a food quality that we're definitely not used to as backpackers. We enjoyed every second of our last night in the Philippines, and Mandy was just as friendly and easy going as Kristoffer.
At midnight it was time to go home. Mandy had to work the next day and we were leaving to Singapore early in the morning. By the way, Mandy also arranged for us, that her driver would pick us up in the morning, and drive us to the airport - we couldn't be more happy.
At midnight it was time to go home. Mandy had to work the next day and we were leaving to Singapore early in the morning. By the way, Mandy also arranged for us, that her driver would pick us up in the morning, and drive us to the airport - we couldn't be more happy.
We had some filippino pesos left - and during the day we hadn't had time for our well-needed massage, so Erik got this clever idea about calling a homeservice massage company (Kristoffer had recommended it). It was almost 2 am before they arrived, and we got the best massage ever. It was fantastic to lay in bed and go to sleep straight after 1 hour fullbody massage. It was an absolutely outstanding experience.. And again who wouldn't do that, if the price was just 600 pesos = 72 kr for two. Living in a country like this speaks more and more to us! We just need to find a way to make money! Simply love the Phillipines!
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| Last night in Manila - clean clothes, blog and repacking everything |
The Philippines video
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