Sunday, December 30, 2012

Boracay Part 2 Vacation

Day 0 - December 25, 2012

Our flight was 17:00 going to Kalibo airport. We were picked up by a tricycle at around 18:00 then head to 4A's Hotel which was newly opened located at Pastrana St. Our travel was around 30 minutes from the airport. Our 2N/1D accommodation were free because the wedding couple which we attended paid for it except for a 150.00 cost for pick up. The hotel was in the town proper - near McDonalds, Jollibee, Andok's and Mercury Drugstore and a gasoline station - i think it was petron.

We had our dinner at McDonalds operating 24 hrs. Jollibee was 100 meters away from McDo. It was already raining when we get to Kalibo, it was signal number 1 at the moment, but the rain shower was light only. For those who will arrive at Kalibo in the evening you may check in to the nearby hotels - Marzon Hotel, to 4A's or to RB Hotel. There were also few hotels near Marzon but i sort of
 forgot the name hehe. Anyways, I was there to attend a wedding and not as a traveller.

Day 1 - December 26, 2012

Woke up at 8 in the morning, prepare ourselves. The weather was still bad and signal number was still up.
At 10 am we head towards Marzon's Hotel for my sister's make up. The wedding started at past 15:00 reception followed at Terranova Garden. It was a good function place.

After the wedding, we just go straight to our hotel. The hotel has WIFI so no need to worry if you'll get bored. Just ask the receptionist for the password.

Day 2 - December 27, 2012

Woke up at 6 am as our pick up time in Kalibo airport was 8:00 am. Due to bad weather a lot of people were stranded. Cebu pacific was offering a free shuttle transfer to Caticlan jetty port. We declined the offer because we had an agreement with Tan's guesthouse.

After a few minutes, we called Tan's guest house as we haven't seen anyone with a placard who will pick us up at the airport as agreed. We were told that the driver was in the area and is on it's way already. It would reach the airport approximately in 15 minutes. But 2 hours has passed and only then the the driver reached the airport and surprisingly, it was not us he was scheduled to pick up but their customers at 9:00 AM flight. How would we react?! Of course we were so mad! The person we spoke with lied to us. They could have tell us that there was a lapse on their side, they failed to put our names in their record but they can include us in their 9 am pick up schedule. That way we can still have some time to have breakfast or rest a little more
I said lapse on their side because we mailed them after paying our down payment and we called them on the phone in the evening to confirm the pick up time. And so we reached Caticlan jetty port at around 10 to 10:30 am.

We ride boat which is good for 25 pax, after 30 minutes we were in Boracay. The receptionist apologises again to us for what had happened.We were not able to tell her that we should have received some compensation for the 2 hours delay, we have been practicing for it and polishing our words so we won't say something bad. Well, even though we have not said something, they have given us a room just very near the beach which is good for 4 pax :-). Not bad huh. This is room 1.



This is the queen size bed (maybe)

double

TV is working. Cabinet has hangers unlike other resorts


Faucet in the lavatory is working as well as the refrigerator :)

CR is clean and spacious, there is hot and cold shower working great.
After a few hours of preparing our things, we had our lunch at a nearby restaurant which is also owned by Tan's guest house. The food serving is just right and the food, taste good and very much budget-friendly. Our  lunch "silog" was complete with drink for only Php85.00



Afterwards, roamed around to scout for activities that we would like to do and get the corresponding price. The first thing we decided to do was zorb, we thought we had made a good bargain for it. Surprisingly hindi pala, because we were fooled, hindi pala dun sa zorb area na na-feature featured in sports unlimited or kris tv yung pupuntahan namin but the guy kept saying na yun yung pupuntahan namin. It was in dreamland, the experience was different from the second attempt that we had but at least we tried to know how would it be.


Yung feeling na, para kang bata na binigyan ng candy and then babawiin din pala, the feeling was bitin as it was short and not at par with my expectation. After that experience we just decided to stay near the beach had our picture taking somewhere instead of swimming. The water was not as clean as before because of the recent typhoon. Seaweeds were everywhere. Had our dinner at the same restaurant - 928 Cafe & Grill.







December 28, 2013

Luckily, when we were roaming around the day before, we bumped into agents just near the place we were staying at, offering a Zorb experience which was way better than the one we had. We decided to get the whole activities from him. Rates were cheaper than what others were offering. We did not try other activities such as island hopping, snorkeling and ATV as we had tried them already when we first visit Boracay.


I find parasailing more relaxing than any other activity, though more like a romantic thing to do with your love one. Pwedeng pwede sya sa taong may fear of heights, after that masasabi nya na sisiw lang ang activity na ito. Why? Kasi I have personally heard that from someone who has height-frights and he was a man! Kwento pa nga nya the highest that he ever reached was just second floor of a building, kaya naman he was really nervous doing this. His wife and daughter was more brave and adventurous than him, LOL. Nakasabay namin sila.
You may either agree to pull you down or not at all, it's all up to you. If you would prefer to sink have of your body in the water, it's kinda fun :). Afterwards, you will be pulled up again in the air. REMEMBER, if you have motion sickness do take Bonamin so you wouldn't spoil it and vomit in the air. That happened to me :(, I kept myself from vomiting while I was in the boat, so there.

After parasailing, Zorb activity was next.

This was the booth where we found our tour agent, just near Shenna's resort and our room in Tan's guest house.
Below picture will show kung gaano kahaba yung run nung zorb ball :-).
Eto yung mga paglalagyan sa inyo, you have two choices. The white one is just for those who would like extra adventure. No water inside just you with the harness. While the yellow ones, with water inside and I think na mas masaya or takot lang talaga akong mahilo ulit :-). When I experienced this, nawala yung hilo ko nung nag para sail ako, as in.
 Below was the free shuttle we used going to the zorb area.

 You may also do the Zorb run over. Daraanan ka lang naman ng bola na may lamang tao sa loob nito. We had fun doing that thing. And hindi naman masakit, some would like to do it like yung parang hinahabol ka ng bola and then you would dive. But it's kinda scary because you might get injured if you wouldn't follow the instruction. We didn't do it, I don't wanna be injured.

The last was helmet diving. Do not do this activity if your departure is within the day, it's uncomfortable. Suggest to do it as your first activity. Then you can do Zorb, parasailing and then Zorb again :D. I really had fun doing zorb isn't it obvious? :D.

I got scared doing helmet diving kasi lagi akong nabibingi and the pressure was really just uncomfortable. I literally panicked when the diver left me alone under the water to assist my sister naman. As it was her turn to go down. I frequently felt that my helmet would leave me.. huhuhu. Then while we were under, not much beautiful fishes nor corals to see. Corals were destroyed and we couldn't even go further from our boat kasi parang tinatangay ako ng current ng water. :(. But I am still happy that I did it kasi I wouldn't be wondering how it would feel doing this.

Expenses excluding airfare:
Terminal fee v.v: Php 400.00
Environmental fee: Php 75.00
Dreamland zorb: 300.00
Tricycle fare to dreamland: Php75.00
Helmet diving: Php 700.00 with CD for pictures and video - 30 minutes (JALS service)
Parasailing: 700.00 - 15 minutes (peak hours it could go above 1,000.00)
Zorb - Php 300.00 with free shuttle service (full or not with people)
Food - Php 85.00 per meal
Airport to Resort transfer - Php700 to 1,000