It's more fun in the Philippines Part 4 (Boracay Trip Day 2)

We woke up early today as we were going to start our day of activities in Boracay. The previous day, I asked P to check out the price of the different activities from the touters on the beach, he spoke to only one guy and already paid him the deposit for bringing us out on a 4 hours island hopping trip which includes helmet diving.

Admittedly, the guy looked trustworthy and gave us his contact number, but I was a little worried that he would not turn up at the said time to meet us. Luckily, we spotted him as we were having breakfast at Willy's, he waved to us happily and waited patiently for us to get ready. We grabbed our things from the room, got our fruitshakes from Jonah's (same flavour as previous day) and set off to Station 2, where many boats were waiting for tourists to get on board.

View is super nice from the 2nd storey of our hotel (taken on the first day)

We waited around for a short while before boarding a small boat with another couple. It started raining the moment we stepped onto the boat and our adventure began. Luckily, it was just a passing shower and we soon approached a bigger stationary boat after a short choppy ride out at sea. After we got on board, we saw many tourists on the boat getting ready for helmet diving. This 20min session cost us 500php each and a CD with our pictures/videos were included in the package. Boracay is the first place that I've been to with this activity and it is one of the most popular activities with tourists, thus there were many people on the big dive boat when we were there. As a certified diver, diving is not something new for me but it's the first time I could get a taste of diving with P so we were still quite excited.

They got us to make this funny pose.. Picture moment!

We waited on the boat for a group of tourists to finish their session and it was our turn. The vendors gave us a short briefing (hand signals to go down, up and getting help if needed), took photos of us (it turned out to be the cover for our CD) before we descended the ladder at the side of the boat. Unlike proper diving, we did not need any equipment. The heavy helmet filled with oxygen was fitted onto our shoulder just before we totally submerged ourselves into the water, and it became almost weightless when we were in the water. A guy fitted with dive gear was with us the whole time, the dive was just 5m-8m deep but the water was nice and clear and there were many fishes swimming around. He passed us some bread to get the fishes near us and while we were feeding the fish, he was busy snapping pictures of us using a camera fitted with waterproof cover. It was fun but also funny, it was like a underwater photo shoot session as he also got us to pose in different positions. Sigh, I really miss diving and Boracay is really a good spot to dive, how I wish I can go on a dive trip again...

Beachgoers getting the sun early in the day

We emerged from the water feeling glad that we did helmet diving, at least it was quite fun. Next, Uncle Rene brought us onto the boat where we will start our island hopping session. As he promised, it was a private tour with just the two of us on board the small boat. We were soon enjoying the wind pounding on our face and the nice scenery of the island out at sea. After awhile, we reached a site where there were many tourists snorkelling, we put on our masks and went into the sea to try snorkelling. Frankly speaking, I'm not as fond of snorkelling as compared to diving, especially when the sea condition is rough and choppy. We did not venture out too far from the boat as we got tired quickly, it was also quite shallow and we were snorkelling without fins so our feet were hurting when we stepped on some corals or sharp shells. P also got paranoid when we looked down and saw spiky sea urchins on the seafloor.

The expensive fresh coconut

We got onto the boat and ride for awhile before we got to the second snorkelling site. Along the way, we actually passed Ariel's cliff, one of the popular tourist spots in Boracay. Earlier on, we had requested to stop there to experience cliff diving so that we do not need to do a separate trip for that. Unfortunately, the sea was quite rough due to the weather condition and we could not stop at the site. P had a bad experience when we went snorkelling at the second site, his masks was filled with water several times so he swallowed quite a few mouthful of the seawater while he struggled with the strong currents at the same time. We got up to the boat shortly even though the second snorkelling site was deeper than the first and there were many fishes swimming around us.

Touring around in a boat

We were feeling tired from the snorkelling and due to the rough waves, we could not get to the islands listed for island hopping, so we stopped for lunch at a small filipino eatery built on the rocks. As we were feeling slightly overwhelmed after the sea activities, we ordered tinola (a soupy dish) to calm our souls. There were many other tourists taking their lunch break there after their various sea activities, and the guides get a 5% commission according to Uncle Rene. The eatery was serving tradition filipino food at a steep cost, a fresh coconut cost 250php there, and our lunch with tinola and one pork adobo dish came up to around 1200php. On hindsight, we could have just went back to our hotel area for lunch, as we were already tired and wanted to head back after lunch was over. I had my second round of Jonah's for the day, trying out a new combination of Papaya with Mango this time.

Nice decor at the door, using watermelons

As beach bums duo, we went back to the hotel to clean up, watch video on our laptop and took a nap. When we woke up, it was already dark outside and I was craving for a nice seafood dinner. We walked to D'mall area to look for a famous seafood market D'Talipapa, but we could not find it and our stomach were growling. We saw this Paradise Garden place serving buffet for 450php per pax, it looked pretty good and even cost less than our lunch. It proved to be a good decision, as soon as we got our seats and went around to the buffet line to get our dinner, torrential rain started pouring outside. I was looking forward to the veggies and salad dishes at the buffet, my observation when staying in the Philippines is that meaty meals with lots of sauces or gravy are very common and easy to find, but people dont really eat healthy stuff like veggies here. I needed my greens badly and I had almost given up on finding a good salad, normal Chopsuey and Pinakbet were the two common veggies dishes on the menu, but those are still not as healthy as plain stir fried veggies or salad.

We were kind of stuck in the restaurant as the rain continued to pour, part of the restaurant was even flooded and they had to shift the tables away. There were many Korean tourists and they could not get out of the place after their dinner, so we kept ourselves busy eating and watching entertainers doing some fire tricks amidst the dinner (many other bars have similar shows). We started having dinner at 8pm and only got out of the place after 9.30pm when the rain finally stopped. The wind was strong outside and it was so unbearably cold when we stepped out, therefore we decided to take a tricycle back to our hotel, thankfully the public transport system there is efficient!

We got some titbits from the 24h convenience store next to our hotel (another plus point!) and cuddle up in our warm bed during this cool and chilly night. I guess most of the business in Boracay were affected by the rain as many of them thrived on serving drinks and snacks under the stars at the seafront.