Boracay: White Sand, Turquoise Waters, Easter Sunshine

Turquoise water at Puca beach

Philippines can proudly boast of having one of the world’s most beautiful beaches in Boracay Islands. So, being in Manila, Easter holidays, how could we not plan a trip to the famous Boracay Islands?  We had the long four-day Easter weekend for which we planned well in advance for Boracay. 

Avadhoot and Shiv planned with their respective better halves while I was invited to join my old friend from Prague, Haris to join their group of Amit, Chhavi, Menchu and himself.  This was the ideal arrangement I could ask for, though my plan was to stay a day less than the rest of the group.
Everyone in the group took the flight to Kalibo en route to Boracay on Wednesday evening, the 27^th. I did not want to take any chances with work and hence booked myself alone on the Zestair flight the next morning.

Day 1
I was up in the wee hours of the morning for my early morning flight. The cab took me to the modest looking domestic terminal of the airport which I reached well in advance. As expected I dozed off as soon as fastened my seatbelt and by the time we were charging down the runway for the take-off, we were already an hour late which I hardly realized as I was into my power nap.
On arriving at Kalibo international airport after an hour long flight, I had to take a 90-minute bus ride to Caticlan from where a ferry would take me to Boracay. There are a large number of comfortable buses plying between Kalibo and Caticlan, most having tie-ups with hotels and providing a drop facility to the hotels. Since that luxury was already availed by my friends the previous night, I had to make my own arrangement. It wasn’t the most difficult job and by around 10:30 AM I was on my way to Caticlan. Arriving in Caticlan port gave that first amazing feel of a great beachside vacation.
The site of the beautiful turquoise waters under the bright sunshine set-up the tone for the vacation and soon I booked my ferry tickets. The ferry ride was another out of the world experience with the waters providing the build-up to what is in store for us over the next couple of days. I clicked on a number of photos from the boat deck as we approached Boracay.  I reached around noon and soon availed of a tuk-tuk to take me to the hotel where Haris and our group were put up.  After a few hiccups in locating the place, I dumped my luggage in the room which I were to share with Haris and Amit, and set off for the beach where the group was waiting. 

The White Sand

So finally I was all set to enjoy the beautiful beach town.  First view of the beach was breathtaking. The white sand and the turquoise waters under the bright Easter sun made for wonderful viewing and after a dip in the water and a few clicks to start with, we decided to proceed with the various water sports. We hired a boat that would take us a bit into the sea where a structure was built from where you set-off for the water-sports. We planned to do the banana boat and the flying fish. We got our life jackets and while we were in the queue, we all decided to just dive in and take a dip in the lovely blue water.
 After having a bit of fun, we were set for the banana boat ride. It would accommodate all nine of us. I had been on this once before in Goa and it was a thrilling experience where you would rush over the waves on the boat (more like a raft filled with air)  which is pulled by a speedboat. And after you reach a fair bit into the sea, the boat is turned upside down and all fall into the water. And then you have to climb on to the boat again.  The ride was bumpy as it is supposed to be but much less than I was mentally prepared for. Hence the thrill was somewhat missing. After going a fair distance, we all hoped that now they will turn it around but that never happened. So it all ended in an anti-climax without us getting wet. 
 This was compensated fully by our next activity – the flying fish. This would be similar but more unstable and while it runs into the wind, the boat is supposed to “fly” and become almost horizontal while the people on it are expected to hold to the hooks in order to avoid hitting the sea at high speed.  This would accommodate four at a time so the group was split. Chhavi, Menchu, Haris and I went first up.  It was a mind-blowing experience and as the “fish” hit the air and almost “flew”, I felt I hung on to my dear life. Miraculously I held on as we almost flew in breathtaking speed and every second I thought that now my hands are going to come off and imagined what would happen if I hit the water. After this super thrilling adventure, while I was relieved to have just about survived it, the others wanted a repeat ride. I was having none of it so I relaxed on the boat of the guide and once they were done with their second round of thrill we were taken back to the base. 

Flying Fish

Now we were all hungry so we headed back to the beach. We had to split for lunch as there were a few vegetarians in our group. So while they settled for some pizza we went to a restaurant and ordered a sumptuous meal which included a variety of sea food including lobsters. Such was our hunger that whatever we ordered was finished in no time and nothing looked extra. As we finished our meal and came out, it was nearing dusk so we walked along the beach and witnessed the sunset. 

It was now time to get back to the hotel, freshen up and get ready to party at night. We were planned to go to a pub Cocomangas for the evening and were expected to party there till late in the night.  By this time I was dead tired as I have been on the move since morning. So first thing I did on reaching the hotel was to crash. Haris, Amit, Chhavi and Menchu left for the pub and I would join them a bit later after catching on some sleep. Unfortunately my sleep turned out to be longer than what it should have been and I woke up almost at midnight. Nevertheless, I got ready and rushed to the pub. It was still alive with the music but most of the crowd was on their way out and my friends were already many beers down. I still enjoyed some snacks and a couple of beers after which we decided to move on.

The ladies headed to the hotel while we guys headed to the beach to catch up on some beachside parties. While we reached they were all in full swing and I managed to catch up on some more beer. We finally retired into our rooms at around 3:30 AM.

The Group

Day 2

I had a great sleep and was geared for the long and full day which happened to the Good Friday.  As I woke up I had the breakfast at the hotel, freshened up and walked to the beach with the group who had joined us at the hotel. Today’s plan was to do island hopping on a boat. It sounded like a great experience with some snorkeling on the way in the middle of the sea.  After a few “warm-up” dips in the water, we set-off for the sea. In the middle of the sea we were provided with our snorkeling gear which looked like a mask which would cover your nose and eyes (like swimming goggles) and which would help us breathe under water.  Fascinating was the word as in the middle of the sea with the aggressive waves we just went into the water and got a great view of the water world – corals, rocks and fishes.
 The waves made it extremely bumpy and that added to the thrill as we had to hold on the boat in order to not get washed away by the waves.  Once done, we resumed our boat ride towards the island. The ride now became extremely bumpy as the waves were roaring and at their aggressive best. We saw various islands on the way, one of which had a luxury hotel and probably a private beach. Finally we reached our destination, a beautiful deserted island where the white sand looked whiter and with much lesser footmarks. We learnt that this was the Puka beach.
 The sun shone beautifully and the sand was burning hot so we had to be in our footwear. It gave us that life-has-paused type of a feeling as we saw the magnificent sight of the white sand and the seemingly still turquoise waters showing multiple shades up to the horizon.  The particular island seemed to be far away from all the commercialism and the glamor associated with a beach-side destination. It was just nature. The overdose of the sunshine finally took its toll on us and we finally felt a bit tired.  In addition, it was lunch time and all the breakfast was digested by this time. We headed back to our base on our boat and opted for an Indian restaurant. Just how tired we were, we realized once we took our seats in the restaurant.
 We just didn’t feel like going anywhere from there. It was not the best Indian food served but such was our hunger that we ordered almost anything possible. We took all the time in the world to eat and finally when we were ready to get up, we decided to have no other activity for the day and just relax.  I looked around the shops a bit and also met another friend of mine, Pushkar, who had come from Cebu.
We went back to our rooms to freshen up and get ready for the evening.  Then came a bit of a dampener. This being Good Friday, we learnt that there will be no music in any of the bars for the whole evening. And hence there would no parties like what we saw the previous night.  So the beach was kind of subdued though there was enough and enough happening. We had a few drinks, some long walks, a pizza dinner and finally returned to our rooms a few minutes past midnight. It was most disappointing for me as I would be leaving for Manila the next day morning while the others would enjoy another great day out in the sun followed by beach party at night.

Sunset

Day 3
My flight was around noon so I had to wake up a bit early. I took out some time to visit the beach one last time.  After that I started the multiple legs of the journey by different modes of transport – Ferry to Caticlan, followed by SUV ride and finally boarding the flight from Kalibo airport.