11/23/15 - Boracay 2015 Pt. 2

On our third day, we didn't have much planned aside from our salubong at night.

The three of us guys in our group decided to have breakfast while the girls decided to stay behind as they were still unprepared. I was still feeling the hangover from the previous night but I managed to get myself out of bed. We decided to eat in a resto that we previously saw that serves typical breakfast food called the 928 Grill. The food was good but the service could use some improvement. They were unprepared for serving change and our change were given as we were almost done eating. Their service was also quite slow. Since the girls weren't really finished, we decided to go ahead and try to look for souvenirs from nearby stores. We were quite unsuccessful so we decided to go back to the room. The girls were not there and we found out that they left to eat already.

The three of us decided to get a full body massage which was very rampant in the island. It lasted for an hour and we felt so refreshed after. We had lunch at a resto called Bite Club and had dessert in a popular store called Halowich which served some kind of halo halo with different fruits. It was flocked by plenty of people when we got there which is why we wanted to try it.

Our free time without the girls opened up some opportunity to have some bro talk which got quite personal. It was also why the girls were quite distant to us in the entire day.

After we finished eating and talking, we bought a frisbee and decided to play for a while. We also decided to swim in the beach. It was our third day on the island and we realized that we haven't swam in our first two days aside from our snorkeling gig in the island hopping the previous day. The girls finally joined us as we tried to avoid any tension between us and enjoyed the sunset. Thankfully, everybody acted normal.

As the night were coming close, we prepared ourselves for Cocomangas, a bar where someone can take a 15-shot challenge and be part of the hall of fame if successful.

But before going to the bar, we had to eat dinner first and we went to station one where Jonah's milkshakes were. It was another popular food attraction in the island which I've wanted to try since we arrived. The food was just average but the drinks were quite good enough! There wasn't so many customers by the time that we went there so we were able to have a nice conversation between ourselves.

When we finished, we headed straight to the bar and got redirected to their second bar since the first one was full. The one where we got seated was a bigger one and more fit for partying. We had our share of drinks and played the entire night. We also spent some time dancing crazy steps which will come in handy for future partying!

It was the perfect way to celebrate our friend's birthday! The night was so wild that our friend actually got so drunk and we had to literally carry and drag her back to the hostel. It was a challenge but it will be something we can take a look back on and laugh about.

On our last day, we woke up quite late so we skipped breakfast and had lunch in Tres Amigos again because it was so good and we couldn't think of other places to eat. We initially decided to splurge in a fancy restaurant but I think everyone was just so tired and broke at that point. We checked out by noon and left our bags in the lobby since our departure from the island was still late afternoon.

We had some time to buy some pasalubong and souvenirs. We got some food for the team and I got myself some tanktops. We had some time to roam around the island and even interview people and take more pictures.

By 4 pm, we were picked up by a van going to the port. We rode the boat back to Caticlan and rode a bus back to Kalibo. We bought our dinner at some restaurant outside the airport since there were no food stalls or restos inside. Since flights for the following day were mostly cancelled due to APEC and our flight was the last one of the day, there weren't a lot of passengers waiting. We had time to eat dinner as well as play some games on the second floor. It was announced that our 9PM flight was going to be delayed for at least an hour so we had a lot of bum time. I didn't mind it since I enjoyed spending some more time with them.

The delay took less than an hour and we were able to board the plane even before 10 PM. We landed safely in Manila where I took a grabcar to go home.

Our entire stay was quite memorable and it somehow felt short but I do not regret any part of it. I was with the best people I could have asked for and I'm looking forward to going on more trips with them.

11/22/15 - Boracay 2015 Pt. 1

So our Boracay trip finally pushed through last week! After months of anxiety and preparation, the time has finally arrived.

This trip was actually conceptualised while we were in Bataan a few months ago. We decided to go here to celebrate our friend's birthday last Nov. 16.

We booked a flight through AirAsia for Nov. 13-16, 2015. It's a good thing that our schedules are quite flexible at work. Unfortunately, out of the 6 of us in our group, only 5 of us made it. Hopefully, everyone will be able yo go on our next trip wherever that will be. We already have our target destination, but that is saved for another time.


This wasn't my first time to go to Boracay, but this marked a lot of firsts. It was my first time to travel through AirAsia, as well as the first time to book a flight using a credit card. I was the only one who had a credit card so I had to shoulder the booking. The last time I went to Boracay was when I was really young. I thought back then that it was only a beach where we would only go swimming the entire day then just sleep in a nipa hut, so this time, I made sure I was prepared for life in Boracay. It was also my first time to travel with my group of friends on a plane. I usually ride PAL but since we were riding AirAsia, it was my first time to use terminal 4 which is an old terminal. We were scared of being victimized by the ongoing "laglag bala" scam but everything went well on our way to and from Boracay. We were almost thinking of wrapping our bags in cling wraps! That's how paranoid we were but that's better than being asked to pay for tons of money as well as be labelled as criminals.

We met up at the airport very early since our flight was at 9 in the morning and we were taking the first flight. Thankfully, we didn't experience any delays.

We landed safely in Kalibo and took a long van ride going to Caticlan where we took a boat going to Boracay island.

We rode a tricycle to our hostel which we found online. We opted to stay in a cheap hostel for practicality and financial reasons. We found a good hostel which was near the beachfront in station 2. We settled in for a while. We actually didn't have a concrete plan or itinerary but that's part of our adventure. We just go with the flow. we decided that we'll do at least one tourist activity and registered for island hopping for the next day. We also signed up for Pubcrawl for the following day.

We decided to eat lunch first. We ended up eating at a Mexican resto called Tres Amigos in D'Mall. The place served good food and it is highly recommended. We decided to chill for the rest of the day and was offered a free dinner buffet at Astoria hotel It turned out that in exchange for free food, they had to market us their rooms which ended up taking 3 whole hours of our lives that we can never take back. After escaping a pesky sales talk, we had some shisha by the beachfront and had our usual bonding session.

The first day was quite a success.

Our second day started early since our call time for the island hopping was at 9 am. Before that activity though, me and one of my officemates decided to get a henna tattoo. I had one done on each of my arms. We had an unsatisfactory breakfast at a resto called Jammers. After everything is prepared, including renting of snorkeling equipment, we embarked on the trip.

The first island we went to was at Magic island. It was the island where people go cliff diving and so did we! It was my first time to do it. I had jitters at first but I'm so glad that I conquered it. I was actually so excited to do it but seeing the steep fall made me lose my bravery. I'm so happy that I didn't chicken out. Each one of us did it and it was indeed a magical experience.

We went to Puka beach after where we had lunch. The beach was very beautiful and was a perfect backdrop for a photo shoot.

Our last stop was supposedly at Crocodile island but the strong waves made our tour guides decide that we'll just snorkel in some other place which is supposedly Manny Pacquiao's property. The scene underwater was spectacular. It's been a while since I've snorkeled and it's such an underwhelming experience to see the marine life, even if that means seeing sea urchins.

One of the best parts is riding the boat by the net or whatever you call its sides. It was a great moment to relax. The boat we used was wind-powered so we weren't disturbed by any sounds from an engine.

Our trip ended in the afternoon just in time to get some rest before we do a pubcrawl. We decided to have dinner first since our stomachs need to be full before we drink.

The Pubcrawl is a social event where the goal is to turn strangers into friends. There are some activities prepared by the hosts and the main goal is for everyone to get to know each other. I did meet plenty of new people which was something that I've always wanted to do since I'm not such a sociable person before.

We were taken into various clubs where free shots were served. We were also allowed to buy drinks on our own if we prefer to. We met various kinds of people and even met some tourists from Europe. We had a great time dancing the entire night away. I danced like crazy and had one of the best nights of my life. I got so drunk that night that I literally had to get dragged to go back to the room. I had some bad experiences that night which is why I wanted to drink a lot. I don't really want to talk about it though. That night, despite my drunk state, I decided to go out by myself and drink some more beer by the seaside. It's such a memorable experience to get wasted by myself overlooking the sea, thinking about things that have been bothering me for the longest time. I didn't have a clear resolution by the end of the day but it was so rejuvenating.

Part 2 will be posted on the next update!

11/3/15

I still can't believe that the year is ending. The year started out so good and now I feel like I'm just coasting along to end the year. It's too bad that I haven't documented all those important events as much as I used to but rest assured that there are moments this year that will be hard to forget.

I'm looking forward to this Friday's movie night with the Gang! There's no concrete itinerary but we'll just go with the flow. It will surely be another great night and something that I need to take my mind off things about work, something that isn't going so well right now.

We also celebrated Halloween at the office last week. I wore a costume and got a free donut from Krispy Kreme! Yay! I didn't even know they were doing that.