Philippines: Boracay, March 8-11

     My first cruise turned out to be everything I ever expected and more.  After checking in, we decided to drop our things and head for some fresh air.  We found the top deck is the outdoor deck.  Covered with a plexiglass roof, there is a circular bar and a stage set-up for music.  Before we leave for sea, we had a beer and enjoyed the environs.  The warm, humid breeze, the frenzy of people heading to their bunks (most beds are in dormitory style bunks), and the announcements from the crew made it feel like a real cruise.   First there was the 'head to your check-in zone' calls, followed by the call for dinner (I had no idea our ticket included dinner), the instructions for wearing our life vests and finally, a prayer. It was thanking God for protecting us during the cruise - being agnostic, at this point I am thanking my own little spirits for my 'lucky charm' from Tina.  

     We were checked into a 4 bed suite.  When we set sail, we saw one of the other two beds was occupied with a back pack on the bed. With no idea who it was, (we were secretly hoping that we were lucky enough to be the only two in the suite), we went about our business.  Sitting upstairs on the deck, another white guy (Kareem from Hong Kong, Tunisian dad, Irish mom; interesting fellow) asked if he could join our table.  But of course!  We chatted for a while. He lives in Boracay and has been living there for 6 years.  He has a boat and does charter service, this week he is setting sail with some people who are kite surfing on a tiny island in the Boracay area.  As we continue to chat, we find that he is in our suite! Now how great is that.  Jon has found someone to chit-chat with as I write. He is an interesting character and could be the study of an entire journal entry, but that is for another time. 

     The open area bar zone has live music, which, Kareem tells us, is typical Filipino.  It is all about the schmoltzy cover tunes.  I am loving it.  We are on a 'cruise' to a beautiful island, live music, warm breeze - how much better can it be?  Our beds in the suite are comfy with crisp clean linens, fresh towel and air conditioned.  The private bathroom even has a decent shower.  Everything was just peachy.

      As we chat with Kareem, we discover that he was kicked off the boat the night prior. Turns out, he had tried to bring his dog, Otto, on board.  No such luck, he was left behind and ended up on the cruise with us.  We tried to help him convince the staff that it was ok for Otto to stay with us in the suite, but despite great efforts from Jon, poor little Otto had to remain in his carry bag.  The next morning, however, Kareem snuck him in and we had a great little cuddle. He is an absolute sweet little monkey.  As a thank you for trying to help Kareem, he offered to bring us to White Beach on his zodiac.  After de-boarding, paying all sorts of small fees, we boarded the zodiac from a small beach where Eddy, Kareem's first hand, was waiting.  We had a short peek on Kareem's catamaran, a 44 ft long beauty and then headed for White Beach.  He even brought us to a hotel to check out.  We decided to head further along the beach for accommodation and found Alice in Wonderland, a nice small hotel on the beach, but with the front door down a small alley.  This would be our home for 3 nights. 

     We spent our time on Boracay as most others do - lounging on the beach, swimming and eating.   White Beach is a 4km long beach on the west coast of the island.  The beach itself is ined with palm trees that provide some (although not enough) much needed shade.  Back from the line of palm trees are restaurants, bars and shops.  The beach sand goes all the way up the their door fronts.  At night, the restaurants spill out onto the beach creating a whole different ambience.  By day, you'll find swimmers huddling under the shade of an umbrella or palm tree, by night, you'll find people lounging in bean bag chairs, or other low laying seats.  Small tables with candles, lots of hooka pipes filled with aromatic combustible material (I'm not sure what it is that they burn), can be seen everywhere.  Different music can be heard - lounge music, jazz, or tops hits played by small bands or acoustic renditions.  There are also a few large club type bars that send out coloured light beams onto the ocean.  And there are people everywhere; there are way more people than can be found in the daytime. It's a pretty interesting environment but not one that warrants a few days of time.

    One afternoon, we jumped in an electric tricycle and headed to the north end of the island to a beach called Puka Beach, named so because of the special shells that are found there.  This beach was absolutely beautiful.  The water was perfectly clear and aqua blue in colour. The swimming was wonderful.  We had a great day, it was a really beautiful beach.  

     Three days in Boracay was enough to revive us and allowed us to eat what we wanted, we had good coffees every morning (a challenge), and were able to catch up on our sleep.  We both agreed that three days was enough; it was a bit of beach life mayhem and time to head back to the 'real' Philippines.  So we headed to Panay, took the bus down the coast to Iloilo - our goal was to move onto Negros.