A Weekend in Paradise

If anyone ever gets the chance to go to the Philippines, I highly recommend it. A weekend filled with the most beautiful beach, the cheapest drinks, and the biggest meals.

Thursday night, after classes, we all headed to the airport with a long night ahead of us. The flight was fairly short (2 hours), but uncomfortable since we were in “Fiesta Class” aka Economy and at the back of the plane right by the toilets. This flight I requested the Muslim Meal – best decision ever! I got delicious chicken breast and rice, while the others got some shady fish or pork. I’m definitely requesting the Muslim Meal on every Asian flight from now on.

So we land in Manila around midnight and apparently the Manila airport closes at midnight. We had to sit on some wooden benches outside where it was pretty hot, though comfortable when compared to how hot Hong Kong has been. Manila is notorious for its cab ride extortion. You get in a cab and agree on a price with the cab driver, or agree to go by the meter price, but once you get to an area that isn’t very safe they threaten to drop you off there unless you pay them at least double the price. This happened to every group of exchange students who went before us, so we were apprehensive about how we’d get from the international airport to the domestic airport for our next flight. Luckily, we befriended the airport security guards so they let us know when the next shuttle bus was leaving for our terminal. It was so easy! We get to the other airport, which is open so we can sleep inside, however this was the coldest building I think I’ve ever been inside of in my entire life – colder than the Ice Bar even! After trying and failing to sleep for 3 hours, we finally get on the smallest plane I’ve ever seen. A short hour flight and we’re cruising in for landing on Caticlan. Tuk tuk from the airport to a ferry and then we’re finally on Boracay. Tuk tuk from the ferry to our hostel and then a walk to the shore and we’re in paradise. The 15 hour journey from CUHK to White Sand Beach, Boracay was totally validated upon looking out at this beach. This was the most beautiful mile stretch I have ever seen - the calm clear sea, the whitest sand, and barely a cloud in the sky.

The weekend was filled with relaxation, tanning, and swimming in the cleanest ocean water I’ve ever encountered. So while it was fun, there isn’t much to say about the beach itself. I tried scuba diving and failed. The training lasted an hour and by the end of it I was too nauseous to continue on to the deep sea dive. The food was varied, delicious, and cheap. A meal would consist of a fruit smoothie, a large entrée (Mexican, Burger, Thai, anything) and dessert/drinks and it would all be less than US$8. The nights we went out we went to Cocomango’s – a club where you had to walk down the coast and through high tide to get to.

On our last night there, we decided it’d be best to go out for a drink and head back at 1am by the latest. Of course, this didn’t happen. One drink turned into three. Then Rachel and Leanne ran into a group of guys they had befriended earlier in the week. They were there for a week long bachelor party. Flaming Sambuca, Tequila Shots, and another trip to Cocomanga’s with their jam jars later and we didn’t end up leaving the club til around 3am. A walk down the beach and a quick swim to cool down and we didn’t end up sleeping til 4am. Did I mention we needed to leave for our flight at 5:30am? Yeah, that was not pleasant. Zarina ended up missing her flight and had to catch the next one. Which meant we had to wait in the FREEZING airport for an extra hour. But once we were all in the same city, we explored Manila. And there wasn’t much to see. Stumbled upon an Aussie Bar & Grill to have lunch in and then it started raining. We were glad to take this opportunity to go back to our hotel and nap and recover from the night before. The return trip home occurred without incident and we arrived back in Hong Kong with enough time to study and prepare for classes on Wednesday.

photos: the beautiful beach that I can't believe I was lucky enough to be on for a few days.

Upcoming blogs: since i'm so behind, i might just skip to my weekend in Guilin, China and ignore the day trips around HK for now, since they're not as culturally interesting.