Travelogue Boracay 23rd - 27th Dec 2013 (Day 1 & 2)

The ending of 2013 and a good start of 2014, I shall blog about my Boracay trip!!! :)

Out of the beach vacations I went, I can say this is one of the best I've been to!

The beach is clean and white (maybe that's why it's called white beach), the sky is just beautiful.

Isn't it just beautiful?

But before you get to the beautiful island, the travelling is a tiring one.

Singapore to Boracay Travelling:

We took Tigerair to Kalibo International Airport (3.5hrs),

Bus travel (2hrs), 10min boat ride to the island, and a mini shuttle into our hotel. In between, there was some waiting time. Basically, by the time we reach our hotel, we were tired and hungry cause we didn't eat since 11am. Due to flight delay, we reach at about 8pm. 

We checked in at Patio Pacific Boracay which is in between Station 1 & 2.  

Our bedroom. It's very basic room, bed was so-so only.

I was amazed the TV is not CRT tv. haha... which most of us expected that!

Review of Patio Pacific Hotel

After 4 nights of stay, the rooms are cleaned daily and neat. What I didn't like was the bed was too thin. You can sort of feel the spring. Also, the BAD BAD thing about the room is that the wifi sucks big time! The whole trip I gave up trying to connect to wifi cause it takes forever! The only strong connectivity is if you go to their swimming pool area.

What I like is the swimming pool is rectangular shape in a decent size. I don't like irregular shapes cause difficult to do laps. Also, they have free rock climbing but we didn't go that. They have a small gym which looks decent too.

Personal preference, I wouldn't go back to this hotel. Many other hotels looks more promising than this.

Anyway, back to Day 1, we dumped our bags and just went out to have our first meal. Without hesitation, probably because we were all just very hungry, we settled for the nearest available local food. Big Mama.
Food's tasty but I think Philippino food are generally too salty for me.

The popular Sisig (some hot plate pork with egg) it's good!!!! Must try!

We ended our day 1 early as all of us were tired from travelling. And also, to get ready for Day 2!
We walked to the white beach which is behind our hotel. And it's just amazing! Took some time capture moments and photos.

If you have seen Nikon Coolpix advert in mags, this is it. I am zero gravity!

We spent our Day 2 on ATV!!! And best, we managed to get cheap deal which is just behind our hotel!
Shall explain at the end of the whole trip blog. :)

A briefing before our ATV.

My first time doing ATV!!! Yay!

It was a 15min drive up to see the top view of the whole of Boracay.

From the top, you can see that the other side of the beach, there are many kite surfing. I think this is the spot where you get the best wind. It's really very windy!

After 30min, we drove back down and we went to the art museum which is free. Well, the ATV is inside an amusement park which is not maintained. So only a few is open. So this is one of it. But there's quite a lot of the arts, and does look real!   

Another free ride was a cycling roller coaster. It was scarier than a proper roller coaster! Maybe because firstly, it didn't seem well kept, rusty, and everytime you cycle, it squeek! It's so slow that when you look down, you won't feel safe. hahaa... I was screaming when turning. So embarassing!

We ended our activities around late afternoon, and went to the white beach to take a dip! We also tried Standing Paddle for only 80 Peso! That's like $2.50?! haha... just had some fun or why not? 

We took this chance to go all the way to near Station 3 to have the famous Jonah's shake!!! It's near the willy's rock so just keep walking.

It was fantastic! fresh and sweet! Shiokness to the max that every day I had one!

The water's so clear and blue and the glimpse of light showed hope.

After sunset, we went back to bath and decided to go D 'Talipapa for dinner. This is a marketplace with fresh seafood where you get to choose live seafood and ask any shop to help you cook. Choose local restaurant, don't go chinese restaurant because they don't cook as good as the locals flavour.

 We spent some time haggling over prices which you must do it else it's overpriced!!!
We bought 2Kg live lobster, 1Kg (8pcs) tiger prawns - dead, 1Kg live crabs, medium size fish for a total of 7,000 Peso! That's like $25 per pax which is considered reasonable since we chose fresh seafood!
Luckily one of our friend knew someone (Singaporean who moved to Boracay) here, and he recommended how to ask them to cook the way it should be eaten best!
The lobster head - Make porridge. Lobster - cheese. Tiger Prawns - grilled with garlic. Crabs - Curry.

Lobster head porridge. First time eating a head that really had meat inside!!!

Curry crab. Not to my liking because the curry taste weird to me.

Steam Fish

Cheese lobster. Fabulous!!! The gravy is superb!

Chicken (ordered from the restaurant)

After the food coma we had, it was raining till flooded and had to camp at one coffee shop before the rain stopped.

After that, we went to one of the bar along the white beach to have our drinks and countdown for Christmas!

Mr. Sunshine brought a hat from SG. haha.

 

We had lots of fun dancing the night away and drinking like water cause it's just damn cheap to drink. A local beer (Red Horse) cost like $2 only!!!

Fun night to Christmas! That marks our Day 2 of Christmas eve!!!