20. October 2019 19:10
by Rene Pallesen
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With Kim having a few weeks gap between jobs and badly needing a break she wanted to go somewhere relaxing and where the water and weather would be warm.
After a bit of research we settled on a week to the Phillipines to an island called Boracay.
This is a small island with the most beautiful beach we have seen anywhere outside of Bora Bora (interesting that both have the name 'Bora').
The boys (and adults) managed to get a mighty sunburn already on the first day.
The island also has the most amazing sunsets at the beach.
Also lots of activity on the beach in the evenings whereas during the day is is mostly empty.
We stayed in a large resort built around a golf course. It had seven swimming pools and we spend a lot of time here relaxing with the boys and sipping cocktails.
It was really nice in the evenings to sit in a bar listening to cruisy music. Most of the restaurants and bars would have live entertainers on in the evenings.
One day we went on a snorkeling trip around the island. The boys are well accustomed to snorkeling now and love it. Unfortunately I didn't bring an underwater housing on the trip, but I can say that the coral reef looks to be in a good shape although a lot of the larger schools of fish and large predatory fish seems to be scarce.
We also did a day trip to the main island where we went through one of the local caves.
The cave was full of little bats and also had other creatures that were attracted to the bats and insects such as a snake and spiders I've never seen before.
We even spotted a large hermit crab (size of a hand).
We also went to a local river where there was waterfalls and also rafts for the boys to have a play with.
The food in general was pretty good although we only tried a couple
of local dishes (Phillipines is not famous for its food). Especially
some of the seafood was really nice.
The way we got around the island was on these small tricycles.
There are two types, the old ones pulled by a small moterbike and then
the new ones which are all electric. The government wants to have all
the old ones off the roads by 2024 which is very sensible both
environmentally and economically as even the locals say that they make
more money on the new ones.
The main road however is horrendous. In late 2018 the island was closed for 6 months to any visitors due to them sorting out a lot of issues with the sewage system. This means that they have dug up the entire road to install large pipes along with a road widening. A lot of this was still ongoing with the main road being full of holes, but given that it is such a small place it was alright to still get around.