So my friend and i took tiger air, it's a 5hrs flight to Kalibo Airport, with a short transit at Cebu Airport. Upon reaching Kalibo Airport, it's approximately another 1hr30mins - 2hrs coach ride to a jetty , and from there catch a ferry to Boracay. We book the coach transfer directly via Tigerair Philippines as we believe this would be the most trusted channel rather than booking through some private tour company. The transfer took longer than expected on that day because it was raining really heavily. Upon reaching our hotel, we were told by the staffs that shortly before we arrived there was a mild typhoon that hit Boracay. But we were really lucky that the weather got so much better right after we check in the hotel
We stayed 4 days 3 nights in Boracay Mandarin Island Hotel. Say frankly, the hotel is not cheap, but its location, hospitality and services, tight security, facilities make it up for the cost. There is nothing that i would pick on and i would definitely recommend to anyone who is going to Boracay.
So this is the kind of seaview we woke up to on the 2nd day. The 50 shades of blue you get in Boracay is just too rejuvenating. Very blessed for this awesome weather during monsoon season.
Our initial plan is to go for water activities on the 3rd day, but we thought that we should just embrace the good weather and go for the water activities right away in case the weather turns out bad on the 3rd day. Along Long Beach, we were stopped by many tour operators promoting their tours and activities. After we asked a few and had a good feel of the market rate, we decided buy from 1 of them and book all activities from this particular tour guide to bargain for better price with economist of scale.
We went for snorkelling half day tour on private boat, lunch at D' Talipapa Market and Para-sailing. We choose the private boat for snorkelling instead of group snorkelling as we do not like to snorkel with a crowd. Sometimes it really spoils the whole snorkelling experience. And it is more flexible as you could choose to leave the snorkelling spot as and when you wish rather than waiting and accommodate to the rest of the people in a group.
I've been to countless snorkeling trips and this was by far the best experience. The visibility of water is very high. On this snorkelling trip, i've seen marine creatures that i've not seen on other snorkeling trips like the water snakes, blue huge star fishes and other species of tropical fishes. After approximately 2 hours of snorkeling, the tour guide took us to Illigan Beach, a less crowded beach on the other side of Boracay. As there are much lesser boat activities on this beach, the waters are extremely clear. We spent so much time on this beach taking pictures as the beach is too breathtaking. No filter needed for the photos, these so true to the eyes.
We spent approximately 1 hour or more on this beach. Couldnt bear to leave this place but feeding our stomach with food is more important. So we returned to Long Beach and the tour guide brought us to D' Talipapa seafood market. This is the famous seafood market in Boracay, you buy seafood from the market and bring to any restaurants beside the market for them to cook for you. You can choose how you want the dishes to be done. BUT! i wouldnt recommend to eat here as they would mark up the prices by alot. Our tour guide was really nice, we went to various restaurants and asked for the price but he rejected as felt that that it was to pricey. So eventually we went to a restaurant that offered a lower price. In total the seafood and preparation of food cost up to approximately SGD60 per person. The most expensive food we had in Boracay. We asked the tour guide why is the seafood so expensive here, he told us that Boracay has very limited supply of seafood. Most of the seafood in Boracay were imported from other places in Philipines like Cebu and other bigger islands. Now we learnt that not every island offers cheap seafood.
After lunch, we carried on our water activities. We went for Para-sailing! We took a boat to a floating platform in the middle of the sea. On this platform everyone was waiting for their water activities, they have banana boat, jet ski, flying fish, para-sailing etc. We waited quite awhile for our turn but we had fun watching other people falling into water on their flying fish & banana boat ride. Finally it was our turn! We told the para sailing operating to raise us high, we told them" Up up up!" And eventually they really release the rope so much that we were the highest among all the other Parasail.
So this sums up our activities on first day. At night we roam around the walking street. Walking street is so lively at night and great that our hotel is right smack on the walk street. It has many restaurants, souvenir shops, merchandise shop, pubs and mini marts. Boracay serves really good mango smoothie! Any restaurant you go, it is a must to order their mango smoothie, you will never regret. This is this long queue mango smoothie/ice cream stall. It is really yummy and refreshing!
We bought their handcraft souvenirs as well. There are many shops that sells handmade key chains at a very low price (less than SGD$1). Some don't offer free customise service. We look for those that we could get the shop owner to write names on the back of they keychain for free. I bought a whole lot for family & friends. So don't rush into buying souvenirs, slowly shop around and look out for those cheap and worthy-to-buy ones.
We stayed 4 days 3 nights in Boracay Mandarin Island Hotel. Say frankly, the hotel is not cheap, but its location, hospitality and services, tight security, facilities make it up for the cost. There is nothing that i would pick on and i would definitely recommend to anyone who is going to Boracay.
So this is the kind of seaview we woke up to on the 2nd day. The 50 shades of blue you get in Boracay is just too rejuvenating. Very blessed for this awesome weather during monsoon season.
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| Boracay Long Beach |
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| Boracay Long Beach |
Our initial plan is to go for water activities on the 3rd day, but we thought that we should just embrace the good weather and go for the water activities right away in case the weather turns out bad on the 3rd day. Along Long Beach, we were stopped by many tour operators promoting their tours and activities. After we asked a few and had a good feel of the market rate, we decided buy from 1 of them and book all activities from this particular tour guide to bargain for better price with economist of scale.
We went for snorkelling half day tour on private boat, lunch at D' Talipapa Market and Para-sailing. We choose the private boat for snorkelling instead of group snorkelling as we do not like to snorkel with a crowd. Sometimes it really spoils the whole snorkelling experience. And it is more flexible as you could choose to leave the snorkelling spot as and when you wish rather than waiting and accommodate to the rest of the people in a group.
 |
| Our own long tail boat |
We spent approximately 1 hour or more on this beach. Couldnt bear to leave this place but feeding our stomach with food is more important. So we returned to Long Beach and the tour guide brought us to D' Talipapa seafood market. This is the famous seafood market in Boracay, you buy seafood from the market and bring to any restaurants beside the market for them to cook for you. You can choose how you want the dishes to be done. BUT! i wouldnt recommend to eat here as they would mark up the prices by alot. Our tour guide was really nice, we went to various restaurants and asked for the price but he rejected as felt that that it was to pricey. So eventually we went to a restaurant that offered a lower price. In total the seafood and preparation of food cost up to approximately SGD60 per person. The most expensive food we had in Boracay. We asked the tour guide why is the seafood so expensive here, he told us that Boracay has very limited supply of seafood. Most of the seafood in Boracay were imported from other places in Philipines like Cebu and other bigger islands. Now we learnt that not every island offers cheap seafood.
After lunch, we carried on our water activities. We went for Para-sailing! We took a boat to a floating platform in the middle of the sea. On this platform everyone was waiting for their water activities, they have banana boat, jet ski, flying fish, para-sailing etc. We waited quite awhile for our turn but we had fun watching other people falling into water on their flying fish & banana boat ride. Finally it was our turn! We told the para sailing operating to raise us high, we told them" Up up up!" And eventually they really release the rope so much that we were the highest among all the other Parasail.
So this sums up our activities on first day. At night we roam around the walking street. Walking street is so lively at night and great that our hotel is right smack on the walk street. It has many restaurants, souvenir shops, merchandise shop, pubs and mini marts. Boracay serves really good mango smoothie! Any restaurant you go, it is a must to order their mango smoothie, you will never regret. This is this long queue mango smoothie/ice cream stall. It is really yummy and refreshing!
We bought their handcraft souvenirs as well. There are many shops that sells handmade key chains at a very low price (less than SGD$1). Some don't offer free customise service. We look for those that we could get the shop owner to write names on the back of they keychain for free. I bought a whole lot for family & friends. So don't rush into buying souvenirs, slowly shop around and look out for those cheap and worthy-to-buy ones.
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