Boracay! Worth a Second Visit?

We loved Boracay so much that we decided to visit again. Was it as amazing as the first time around? Not exactly, but that was mostly due to the less than perfect weather and that couldn't be controlled. We still had a fun time though and I was very happy to have been able to spend time with my sisters and D. =D

After Chinese New Year, I, my sisters and our respective other halves went to Boracay! We took CebuAir and although we had no trouble with them going to Boracay, it was a whole other matter returning to TW with them. There was a big delay because of heavy rains and we were stuck in Manila for a night. What a scary city! Or at least the place we stayed at was.

Ok, back to Boracay.

Look who we saw at Manila airport on our way to Boracay - Evander Holyfield!

Ya, D and I pretty much photo-bombed this picture even though we actually know the person in it. LOL

Just a tip, if you are ever leaving from Hong Kong for a trip anywhere do NOT exchange money at that airport. It is a real rip off. We got ripped off during this trip, and my father got ripped off on a subsequent trip. Better deals were to be had at Manila airport and even at Boracay itself! Grrr...

This time going to Boracay, I knew that we wanted to stay close to White Sand Beach because that was pretty much where everything was. Instead of paying an arm and a leg for a beachfront hotel, we opted to stay at Milflores De Boracay which was pretty much just a 2 minute walk to the beach. It was very affordable because we had booked it way in advance. They have a special where they price a few of their rooms at P2600 year-round. That's about $64 CAD for a very spacious and clean room with 2 queen size beds. Could NOT have asked for more especially compared to The Lazy Dog Bed and Breakfast which was the place we stayed at the last time we came and it cost about the same.

As you can see, very spacious and clean. Please excuse the wrinkled corner as the first thing D did was climb into bed in his dirty clothes. Thereafter, that bed became known as the "chilling bed."

Lots of room for storage. There were also books and CDs in case we got bored. We didn't make use of those. Instead, D and I discovered our love for Monopoly Deal. We also whiled away the time by trying to make sense of what the people were saying on Geordie Shore. After some debate, we finally had to Google to find out exactly what a "worldie bird" was. lol

The bathroom was clean, but did have some ants crawling about, but that's to be expected. At least there weren't any cockroaches. Yikes! Note of caution: Soap and shampoo is provided, but they are quite harsh. You might want to bring your own or better yet, buy some soap at one of the many stores that sell homemade soaps. We bought a bunch of Gloria's Handmade Soap located in D'Talipapa.

Our first stop after settling into our rooms was to, of course, visit Jonah's Fruit Shake & Snack Bar. The shakes there are to die for. I especially loved the Fresh Strawberry Shake (it was more expensive than the others, but worth a try) and the Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Milkshake. We came back practically everyday since it was across the street from where we were staying.

The expression says it all. YUM!

Afterwards, we grabbed a beach towel from our hotel and headed to the beach. The weather wasn't ideal as it was quite cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining.

Still the beautiful beach I remember from last year. Wow, H and A got really fit, really fast!

Up and down the pathway next to the beach are stalls and restaurants. You really do have it all here. Beach, shopping, eating...can't ask for more!

 Our first taste of Boracay's Chori Burger which is sliced and grilled chorizo (pork sausage) sandwiched between grilled bread. Quite good, but oh so fattening.

What else did we see as we strolled along the path? A huge lobster; corncobs on the beach and huge slabs of steak. They were handing out free samples that would eventually lure us into eating dinner there later that night. But first...

Sunset Happy Hour at Nigi Nigi Noo Noo's (ya, we had a good laugh at the name also.) So...what does happy hour entail at Nigi's? It's buy one get one free, so we each ordered a drink thinking that I'd pay for one drink and then someone else in our party would get one drink free. NOT the case! Everyone got two of what they ordered! So let's just say that everyone pretty much left happy hour quite happily.

Great place for happy hour. Tables are on the beach!

Since it was Valentine's Day, we had originally intended to find a romantic place to have dinner, but like I mentioned before, we were suckered by that free sample of steak and ended up there instead. It wasn't the most romantic place, and the food wasn't the best, but it was pretty decent, and the steak really was delicious!

There was a wide selection. My favourites were the steak and the mashed potatoes. YUM!

The next day, we woke up bright and early and had the breakfast included at the hotel. D and I ordered the Filipino breakfast and they were pretty good albeit a bit heavy compared to what we're used to.

D had the beef on the top right and I had the pork on the bottom right. 

 After eating breakfast, we headed back to the main island for some paddle-boarding. Although, it was quite an experience, I would not really recommend doing it here. The amount of time it took to get from Boracay Island  to the lake was just not worth it.

In the beginning, it was all fun and games until we started falling into the dirty water and our arms started to feel as if there were dead weights attached to them. Not to mention the sunburn I got in the shape of hands. HAHA...I still have that.

Luckily in the middle of our journey, we spotted a man selling coconuts so we stopped for awhile and had some coconut juice to refresh ourselves for the rest of the journey. Some of us accidentally paddled past the coconut man and had a super hard time coming back. haha...

Then we used the coconuts as hats. Stylish? Yes! Practical? Umm...not so much.

Just as my arms felt as if they were going to fall off, we made it to the bridge which marked the end point. We were all a bit exhausted and sunburned. Somewhere along the way, I turned around to find D with a pink shirt tied around his neck. When I asked him where he had gotten it, he said that he "bought" it from someone as he was paddle-boarding. Ya right! Turns out, he found it discarded along the riverbank and decided to drape it on his back to block the sun. I swear, he really grosses me out at times.

After all that paddling, we were famished and glad to just be able to sit down and fill our stomachs with food.

Ok, looks like we mostly just had watermelon, but we had chicken too and it was pretty tasty.

After that little adventure, it was time to go back to the hotel and rest. Just kidding! It was time to watch the sunset from the "booze cruise." All you can drink rum and beer gave us the courage to jump off the side of the boat.

D  just jumped without any warning so I wasn't able to get a shot of him in mid air.

There was also some "entertainment" on the upper deck for us. One of the staff just started pole dancing out of the blue!

Enjoying the sunset and the impromptu "live entertainment."

The fire dancer that performed was very impressive.

Don't let those smiles fool you. We were pretty nervous to be so close to the fire-at least I was.

That night we went to D'Talipapa and bought a whole bunch of seafood at the wet market (mostly clams) and had a delicious seafood feast that didn't burn a hole in our wallets. Although, it did give
D a rash, but did that stop him from eating more seafood the following night? Nope! But to be fair, we didn't know it was due to seafood allergies. Warning: the following pictures will make you green with envy.

We bought all the seafood and veggies at the wet market and then went over to one of the many restaurants to have them cook the food for us. Our restaurant of choice? Plato D'Boracay. I would highly recommend this restaurant. Everything was cooked to perfection and all for the low price of about $12CAD per person. That's including the food and the cooking fee!

As we walked through the market to get back to our hotel, D insisted that I take a picture here.

Can you spot why?

The next morning, my sisters and I woke up bright and early because H and I wanted to get our hair braided.

Getting our braids on. NOW, we're vacationing on a tropical island!

Originally, we had booked an island hopping tour to go snorkeling at various spots, but because it was so windy out, we weren't able to go to Crystal Cove which was a pity because that was the place I was most looking forward to visiting on the tour. Oh well...So we got onto the boat and took an extremely rough ride to another island and had a poor excuse of a buffet. At least DK had fun annihilating the crab with the wooden stick.

 We then jumped off the boat to go snorkeling. It was actually quite fun until we got closer to some island and the water became infested with seaweed. Somehow D swam though it and was running around the beach trying to chuck seaweed at us, but I decided to call it a day and headed back to the boat. I wasn't going to plow through the water with my face submerged in seaweed infested water!

After getting back to the main island, we just chilled on the beach, had a fantastic strawberry margarita, and that's right, played Monopoly Deal.

The Strawberry Margarita at the Red Pirates Pub at station 3 is fantastic!

This way to Canada!

The next day, we were off again on yet another adventure. This time, cliff diving at Ariel's Point which is rated as the number 1 tourist spot in Boracay.

We all got matching sun hats. Even D. hahaha...

The first thing we did when we got there was to go snorkeling.

We were having a grand ol' time, that is until we were attacked by jellyfish. We then promptly made a mad dash back to safety, as depicted in that last picture. Yes, you'd think that I would've learned my lesson after last year's incident, but I was hoping that it was just a one time occurrence. Guess not.

After that nasty scare, it was time for our buffet lunch.

Those red things aren't potatoes, you know? lol

Ariel's point has expanded quite a lot since last year, and it seems as though they have plans to continue expanding.. Although there are more seating areas, the diving boards are still in the same places so those areas were quite crowded. As a result, it wasn't as fun because you had to share the space with so many people.

After lunch, the braver few of the bunch (D and Y) took the plunge. I think I used up all my courage on the jump off the boat that first day.

On the boat ride back, we decided to try and get a group-selfie. I must say, it was difficult!

I think you got the creepy look down in the first pic, A. Well done!

What's for dinner, you ask? Well, since the seafood at D'Talipapa's was such a huge hit, we decided to give it another whirl!

Seafood extravaganza part II. This time we got some shrimp, crab, squid and oysters. I forgot the name of this restaurant and do not recommend it at all. The food was only ok. I regret not having insisted on going back to Plato D'Boracay. The bowl in the middle is crab meat that H de-shelled for D. He ate it with gusto even though he had that rash from the seafood we had earlier. hahaha...Also, DK had some oysters raw. Let's just say that he lived to regret that. Double hahaha...

As we were walking home through D'Talipapa, we noticed something we had not noticed previously...dried frog purses. What do they look like, you ask? Exactly what it sounds like! Frogs that have had their guts removed and dried so that he could be made into purses as is. No sewing required!

And of course, as with anything that is remotely disgusting, D has to not only touch it, but try and gross us out with it. This time, by pretending to eat it!

Walking back to the hotel, we saw a fire show being performed on the beach and stopped to have a look-see.

The moon was really pretty that night, but of course just as we were about to take our picture, it got shrouded by the clouds.

The next day, we got ready for our last full day in Boracay.

In front of the Red Pirates Pub again. This time, waiting for our Paraw ( a local sail boat with two outriggers and two sails found in the Philippines) to set sail.

LOL, H and I are reflections of each other!

Unfortunately, the weather really wasn't on our side during our trip to Boracay. We wanted to go to Pukka Beach, but once again the wind was too strong and we weren't able to go there, so we ended up at this really crusty island instead. Well, what can one do in such a situation besides make the best of it? And so we did.

We threw some stones (I almost hit H in the head. Oops!);  made some sand art (if you can call it that); caught a crab; played Monopoly deal; read and sunbathed. Until...

...That's right, lunch time! Then it was time to head back.

After drifting back onto the shores of the beach in front of the Red Pirate's, we decided to wind down with another strawberry margarita as the boys threw the frisbee around-and lost it! They then went to the market to see if they could buy one to replace it while we relaxed at the beach.

A nice relaxing time.

Let's try to take a group-selfie again...hmm...we definitely need more practice.

We were having fun until a bunch of boys came over and harassed us for money. I'm ashamed to admit it, but we got bullied by a bunch of 9 year old boys! They were scary and tough! But luckily just as things were getting a bit intense (I swear, we were literally throwing things at each other), we saw the guys and they made sure we were safe. Thank goodness! =D

I had a really good time in Boracay, but I would have to say that this time around it was more about the company than the place itself. Boracay can be great, but only if the weather is great, and we didn't hit jackpot like we did the last time we went even though it was supposed to be the dry season.

Thanks Y, H, D, DK and A for the memorable trip! I will never forget the time that we spent together and the fun that we had!

Tips by Mel:
1) As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, if you are ever leaving from Hong Kong International Airport, do not exchange your money there. Instead exchange it when you're at Manila Airport.
2) For those of you who are on a budget, there are plenty of affordable hotels that are not beach-front, but literally just steps away. I highly recommend staying at Milflores De Boracay, but make sure you book ahead of time so you can get the discount.
3) Go to the wet market to buy your choice of seafood and have it cooked the way you want at Plato D'Boracay Restaurant.
4) Haggle for a better deal at the wet market. If one salesperson won't budge, then don't be afraid to move on to another one.
5) If you're adventurous, then do Ariel's Point, but if you aren't then I suggest skipping that and just going to the Sunset Party Cruise Booty. You still get all you can drink alcohol and you can dive off the side of the boat. On top of that, you get to watch an amazing sunset, and a fire show.
6) Go island hopping on a Paraw with Red Pirates. They provide quality food and services, unlike some other tour groups. While you're there, have a strawberry margarita.
7) Get your hair braided. It really adds to the feel of being on an exotic getaway.
8) Don't forget to cover every inch of yourself in sunscreen!
9) Do yourself a favour and visit Jonah's Fruit Shake & Snack Bar for a shake.
10) Don't drink the tap water, and don't eat anything uncooked. Lesson learned, right DK?
11) Mother Nature is unpredictable so no matter where you are vacationing, just have a good time and relax!


Thank you for reading and please leave a comment for me. =D

Mel