We arrive in Manila around 5pm, and go straight to the airport hotel for food and sleep, exhausted after the long flight. We’re up in the middle of the night to take our flight to Boracay at 5am, a holiday island further south. The plane is tiny, but with Nico’s fear of flying, he did his research before hand and was reassured that this plane model was perfectly safe. We land at 6am and take a crazy looking boat to the island of Boracay.
Once on land, we take what is probably one of the most common means of transport in the Philippines, a tricycle, that takes us to our hostel, Frenz Hotel. It’s an experience taking a tricycle down a busy Filipino road, especially when you’re still spaced out from all the travelling!
The hostel is great, 100m from the long white beach, run by an Aussie guy, named Steve, and his Filipino wife, with the rest of the family helping out. They were so lovely, that we became quite accustomed to their company over the few days we were there. The traditional style room was lovely and very comfortable.
We loved the few days we were in Boracay, which were mainly spent purely relaxing, laying on the beach, taking in the sun, drinking cocktails in the evenings at the funky beach bars , massages ... you get the picture.
The Philippines is one for some of the best diving in the world. So here, we decided would be the perfect place to confront one of our deepest fears in life ... being more than 3m under water ... we decided to take a beginners diving course. While watching the safety videos, getting the pep talk from our guide, along with practising the basic skills in shallow water, the nerves in both of us began to multiply at the rate a rabbit has babies!
However, the strangest thing was that once we were under water, the beauty of what we saw, brought an almost immediate air of calm over us. Thousands of curious fish swimming all around us, nibbling at our fingers to see what we are. The colours are sublime ... the fish and corrals ... it’s like an artist that has gone crazy with his paints on the canvas. Other than the natural sound of your own breathing, it’s a silent world, but as you float through the water, the feast for your eyes just gets bigger and bigger.
That night, we decided to stay at the hotel, as that morning, we’d been to the market and bought ourselves some yummy ingredients ... squid, prawns, veggies and spices...that the chef at the hotel then cooked up for us. Such a great concept, and absolutely delicious!
We became so greedy for more of that same underwater feeling, that we went back again the next day for another dive near an island named Crocodile Island for its shape. We never thought that we would accept to find ourselves falling backwards off the side of a boat with a big tank attached to our backs ... let alone going back for more. There were less fish this time, but the corrals were even more amazing than the first time. Renu had difficulty getting her buoyancy right in the water and so had a little difficulty either swimming straight or going in the direction she wanted, so the guide held on to her like a puppy for the whole time! We went as deep as 10m on both dives and stayed under for about 45 minutes each time. The second time Nico felt a little stressed being under water, but we still both loved it and felt very proud of ourselves for having broken that barrier we had in our heads for so long ... we even have the certificate to prove it! J
As we’d had such a great time with the family the night before, we decided to stay at the hotel again and have a few beers there to get over Nico’s stress from being in the water earlier (an excuse! J) That evening, three Slovenian guys checked in at the hotel. They were great fun and we had a good laugh together. It’s their first night in the Philippines, so they start drinking with us and buying rounds for everyone ... and of course the shots were soon on the table ... by midnight, Renu decided to quit while she was ahead and went to bed. Nico on the other hand was having such a great laugh, he decided to go and party on the beach with the boys. The next Renu saw of Nico was at three in the morning when he walked into the room, naked, after having striped off on the terrace, cause he’d decided to go for a swim with all his clothes on. He turns on all the lights, making the assumption that Renu was fully awake, and proceeds to tell Renu about twenty times with puppy dog eyes that he’d lost his flip flops. Somebody had stolen them on the beach while he was night swimming. Drunk, is a very mild way of describing Nico’s state at this point. Of course, he was very sick all night, waking even our neighbours as he painted the toilet. As well as being shoeless, he suffered terribly the physical consequences the next day!
Sunday, it’s time to leave and we’re quite sad, we weren’t expecting to love Boracay as much as we did. It was time to take our plane back to Manila ... managing to get an earlier flight as we arrived at the airport very early. Though we’re sad to leave Boracay, we’re still exited to get to Manila as we have something even better coming up ... our lovely ‘Captaine’ Celine is on a plane on her way to Manila to travel with us for a little less than a month. So excited to see her!!!
Manille, Boracay: mardi 24 au dimanche 29 novembre 2009.
Arrivée à Manille vers 17h. Nous allons directement à l’hôtel de l’aéroport pour diner et dormir. Le vol fut long et pénible. Après seulement quelques heures de sommeil, nous partons très tôt le matin pour l’aéroport local prendre notre vol pour Boracay, une petite ile à une heure de vol au sud de Manille, décollage prévu à 5h. L’avion a hélices est minuscule (32 sièges) et Nico qui a la trouille de voler plus qu’avant a fait ses recherches sur la compagnie et sur le modèle de l’avion donc aucun souci. Nous atterrissons à 6h et embarquons sur un petit bateau qui fait la traversée de 15 minutes jusqu'à Boracay.
Au port nous sautons dans un touk-touk, le moyen de transport le plus répandu sur l’ile, qui nous dépose tout près de notre hôtel, Frendz Hotel. Les quelques kilomètres parcourus en touk-touk du port a l’hôtel sont assez effrayants quand vous y ajoutez le décalage horaire et le manque de sommeil.
L’hostel est parfait, a 100m de la longue plage de sable blanc, géré par un Australien, Steve (un ancien policier a la retraite), et sa femme (une Philippine) et le reste de la famille philippine compose le staff. Ils sont tout simplement adorable et le bungalow traditionnel très confortable.
Nous adorons les journées passées à Boracay, remplies de farniente, plage, cocktails, massages sur la plage… vous imaginez un peu.
Les Philippines font partie des meilleurs endroits du monde pour la plongée, nous décidons donc de faire le pas et dépasser une de nos plus grosses peurs. Nous prenons un cours pour débutants et pendant que nous regardons les vidéos, discutons avec le moniteur et nous exerçons aux gestes de base dans une eau peu profonde, nous pouvons sentir la pression monter. Une fois dans l’eau cependant, la beauté qui s’offre à nous nous procure une sensation de calme et sérénité immédiate. Des centaines de poissons nous entourent et viennent gouter le bout de nos doigts pour voir de quoi il s’agit. Les couleurs des poissons et coraux sont magnifiques. A part notre propre respiration et les bulles qui remontent à la surface tout est parfaitement silencieux.
Le soir nous passons la soirée a l’hôtel car le matin nous sommes allés au marche acheter des crevettes, de la seiche, des légumes et des épices que le cuisiner des lieux nous a préparés de manière divine.
Le surlendemain nous retournons plonger a cote d’une petite ile nommée Crocodile Island. Nous voyons moins de poissons cette fois. Renu avait du mal à régler sa descente et sa montée dans l’eau et donc à nager et s’orienter. Le moniteur la tiendra donc par la poignée de son gilet pendant toute la plongée. Nous somme descendus a environ 10m à chaque fois et sommes restes à environ 45 minutes. La seconde fois, Nico a légèrement stressé car il n’expirait pas assez fort mais finalement nous avons adore plonger et sommes fiers d’avoir enfin surpassé notre peur. On a même un certificat pour vous le prouver !
Comme nous avions passé un agréable moment a l’hôtel la veille, nous décidons d’y rester une nouvelle fois ce soir la afin que Nico fasse disparaitre le stress de la plongée a l’aide de quelques San Miguel (excuse bidon). Ce soir, trois nouveaux clients arrivent, des Slovènes. Les tournées de bière s’enchainent au bar, le patron met les siennes et sa femme est obligée de le coucher 15 minutes plus tard. A minuit, Renu décide qu’il est temps pour elle de s’éclipser et Nico enchaine avec les trois en direction des bars de plage. Quelques heures et de nombreuses bières plus tard, Renu voit débarquer Nico dans la chambre, sans ces vêtements (restes sur la terrasse), sortant d’un bain de nuit habille. Il allume toutes les lumières pensant évidemment que Renu est encore totalement réveillée et lui répète au moins 20 fois avec des yeux de chien battu qu’on lui a vole ses claquettes (pendant qu’il se baignait habille). Bourré n'est pas assez fort pour décrire l'état de Nico cette nuit la. Il a été tellement malade qu’il a même réussi à réveiller nos voisines de chambre. Le lendemain fut rude….
Dimanche, il est temps de repartir en direction de Manille. Nous ne nous attendions pas à apprécier autant Boracay. Nous arrivons même à prendre un vol plus tôt que prévu car l’avion n’est pas plein. Bien que tristes de quitter Boracay, nous sommes excites de retrouver Celine qui nous rejoint plus tard dans la journée a Manille et qui va passer un peu moins d’un mois avec nous.
