Boracay

I've been going to Boracay since I arrived in the Philippines back in 2004. I averaged about 3 times a year. I lost count truly how many times I've actually been in Boracay. So, how do I start with blogging about this beautiful beach. For a start, it's in the top tens worlds most beautiful beach. It's on my top 5 personally.

It has transformed throughout the years that I've been coming here. I've notice less vegetation. The islands itself is being rape by irresponsible individuals. Mainly the government for not regulating almost eveything going on in the island. Over development, noise pollution and sewage. I hate coming in and definitely leaving. But let me tell you this, when you are on the beach and its waters. You transform to a trance that is un-explainable and forget everything else.

This is what I love to do when I'm at the beach. Just loungin and chillaxin.

4 kilometers of white powdery sand. I call it "The Green Mile

Beats any movie theater out there. 

Less vegetation are in Boracay since I've been coming here. A great spot to just pull out a chair and a cooler full of beers. 

The view in our room.

There's two seasons here. Just freakin hot and hella hot.

4 kilometers of white sand. That translates to kilometers kilometers of bars as well.

The sand is so powdery and soft that you don't need to wear footwear.

Fellas: If you check their feet first. Something is wrong with you.

1 kilo roughly $10

1.5 kg roughly $30. Chilly Lobster.

1 kg roughly $10. Curry Crab

The water is crystal clear and gradually gets deep. You could be a hundred yards and it's only waist deep.

Please don't liter on the beach. Just common sense. Like what they say "Leave nothing but footprints, Kill nothing but time and take nothing but memories/pictures"

Sunset massage: Roughly $10

Watching the sunset in any beach is so peaceful.

Side Notes:

Rooms: Ranges from $10 - $2000 depends on your preference and season
flights: Ranges from $20 - $150 depends on airlines promo, season and your planning.
Food: Ranges from $1 - $100 per plate depends on your appetite.
Beer: Ranges from $1 - $5.00 there's kilometers of kilometers of bars by the beach so your choices are large.

Bellarocca "The Rock"

Bellaroca Island Resort is built on Elefante Is. or Elephant island just off Marinduque. It's said that from a distance the island looks like an elephant submerge under the water because of it's hump. I thought it looked like more of a womans butt laying out but that's just me.

                                 Aerial shot of Elephant Island (Bellaroca). It's said that it is heart shape.

Marinduque is the center of the Philippines. A quick 35 minute flight from Manila. For now, only Zestair is the only local airlines that flies in & out. Another 45 minute scenic province van drive provided by the resort. Some roads are gravel. I'm sure if the government helped out. It could cut the land travel time by another 10-15 minutes. 5 minute fast boat & then they take you to your room via golf karts. 

This is what we walked in our room. It definitely beats any LED TV out in the market today.

The views are so good, so so crazy good. Everywhere you look. The windows turns to frames.

Bellarocca's coffee shop. It's also where you can snorkel.

Fellas; look at the picture below. Which one will you looked at more. Mt. Malindig thats about 1000 meters from sea level. It's also an active volcano. It looks like your in Hawaii or some prehistoric time just waiting for a dinosaur to pop out on the side. Would you stare at the beach and just listen to the waves. Or would you day dream how you gonna bag these three ladies on this isolated island and wish that everybody out there turns to a zombie so you will be the only man left and have to re-populate the world. That probably just gave away which one out of the three I was doing most.

It's hard not to take it all in. One of the best shots I took in the trip. Kinda sums it all up.

A closer look what is on the other side of Bellaroca.

Bellaroca is the best place to learn photography. I woke up early and take a stroll. This path definitely my favorite path of them all. Being a beach bum that I am. The palm tree is my Eiffel Tower. This specific palm tree is a spoiled one. It has the best vantage point of them all. Again, the volcano is a sight to see in all direction and time of the day. The Santorini structure on the side and everything is perfectly landscape.

The perfect path. 

What a beauty. This is their Terrazas. All has overlooking views and their own infinity pools.

Kayaking the whole island is a must. It probably took us a good half hour from start to finish. The girls didn't know what they were getting into. They are not the sports type in the first place so I don't think they enjoyed it. It was funny watching them go in circles. They finally gave up and was tug along by one of the staff. Going around the island just shows what the island is really made off. It's literally just a really big rock. The picture below is the only portion that has a beach. Everything else are cliffs. The beach itself is rocky and lots of shells. The water also has a bunch of rocks so they provide wet shoes so it don't hurt your feet. The sand color is borderline beige or fine cream color. The water was very clean and clear. I didn't spend that much time swimming in it. The infinity pool with sunken bar was calling my name.

Kayak & Hobie Cat. Kayaking is complimentary while the hobie cat is roughly $50.

One of my favorite activities at the beach or any resort is to just lounge and get my liquor on. There are few spots were you can relax and just do nothing. Bellaroca is no different. I did bring my own liquor so I can mix it on my own and also to save some moola. While the girls lay out and took power naps. I just chilled and drink away. One of the caveats when you are with girls that don't drink. You get faded quick and feel like you got alcohol problem but there is always a flip side in any situation. Simply "More for me".

This is one of the more iconic spots where guest lounge and take pictures.

Sunken bar is every beach bums office. 

The weather is so perfect this time of the year. So, I occasionally jump in the pool to cool off.

Lounging around in the afternoon. We literally had this spot to ourselves. While the ladies take naps. I drank
and just took it all in. This is what I was looking at.

Caught this early in the morning while everyone still as sleep. Water was so still

My kid seems to get it.

The food is aight. I'm a man so I eat anything you put in front of me. The menu has a short list. It's probably because the island is isolated. It average about $10-$12 per meal. They do have dinner buffet roughly $20 and that hit the spot when we ate. 

 I always gotta have me a fat burger

 Filipino dish called Tanigue. My wife's favorite here. Kwissy always has to have pizza

                         Squid something something. I can never remember the name of this dish

An island resort wouldn't be complete with out the Spa. When you roll with the ladies. This is a must have. They absolutely want/need it. Bellarocca's spa is strategically located at the other end of the rock. Roughly $30/$50 for a massage. Isolated from it all and it's almost hanging on the cliff for better vantage of the Sibuan sea, far off islands and the sunsets.

Note to self: Go to a massage school. It would be very handy on your future travels. 

Viewing deck at Bellarocca's spa plus infinity jacuzzi pool

For the fellas. If you noticed the sunset, the never-ending sea,
and tres Reyes island. There's something wrong with you.

It is what it is!

God can only do so much for you. Set the sun down, bring the night lights out and let the birds sing on the back ground. You have to do the rest son!

I remember singing:

                   "Can we pretend that airplanes

                     in the night sky are like shooting stars

                     I could REALLY REALLY use a wish right now"

Would you know what wish that is? Leave me a comment! 

Amanpulo

Amanpulo stands for "peaceful island". It is a private island off Palawan. A luxury beach resort that is known around the world. 

Here's the goal: Corona Life...but you have to get here first.

There's only ONE way to get to Amanpulo. Is through their own chartered airplane. It never comes as a package also. It's around $300 - $400 per person. It's cool coz they got their own lounge too. You go in this narrow street by the NAIA, parked, get out and fly. Real convenient. Then they also have their own landing strip right on the island. They give you your own golf cart to drive to your casitas. Some first class $***.

Perfect place to have a wine and watch the sunset go down.

We got the hillside Casitas. Roughly $800 -$1,000 per night. The view is stunning. Lush green all around w/ panoramic view of the whole island.

King size bed and couple of day beds plus another couple of daybed/couch outside.

Here's our view from the veranda/balcony. Here's a tip: buy a very good camera. It will help a little bit to get your point across. My digicam just not doing a great job.

You can scream Amanpulo all you want and no one can hear you...She knows what I'm talking about.

I wish I got into photography long time ago. There are a ton of spots where you can just go crazy because the island is yours.

I've never seen a Gecko in my life. It's always the small lizard hanging on the walls or the one that sells insurance. They make this sound that's loud and scary at first but soothing after you get used to it.

I remember ordering their Php800 Adobo. There were a lot of choices but just the idea of eating Adobo for that ridiculous price. I had to do it. There was nothing special about it. It was served on a wine glass but that was it. 

My Ex-Girlfriend. Best time to see the sharks by the shore. We saw baby sharks. Not sure what kind of sharks but that they were fast. It might be reef sharks.

Long powdery white sand. The Beach Casistas are on the other side.

I really wish I had a better camera. Garden of Eden.

Sand bar pops up out of nowhere. You can swim yards away and still waist deep.

They have this secret lounge around the island. What's really stands out in Amanpulo is the service. They are like ninja. You hardly see them. They just pop out of nowhere. You could be in one of this hidden lounge and still expect service. All the lounge has sunblock and towel readily available.

Here's the Beach Casitas. Roughly $500-$600. I would prefer to have stayed here but I really like our panoramic view. There are about 40 Casitas on the island. From we were told they could have 80-100 guest at a time and have 300 staff. Nice ratio.

Hammock was just kick ass. We didn't have this on our Hillside Casistas.

You can literally walk around the whole island in minutes. There's not one bad beach in the whole island. The water was crystal clear and very private. It feels like you are the only one in the whole island.

We went deep fishing. The only way to go island hopping. I didn't asked how much it was. We just did it.

We were pretty far off the island and the water still greenish. That tells me that the water is that clear and the sand is that white.

I'm not sure if you can see it but when we island hop to this island. There's only one man there. He's right there in the middle fishing. I'm not so sure what's the name of this island but they called it "The Sand Bar" but it is as good if not better than the Boracay sands and water. It is that nice.

The staff set us up a private picnic. We were the only one there plus that one man fishing.

Until now I wonder why we even went island hopping to think Amanpulo itself was private. The sand is unbelievable. The water was pure. 

I was thirsty so, they gave me two. How did they know that? What a service...

The staff set our dinner at the beach. The night sky for lights.

Can't have a beach dinner without the bonfire.

Tiny lobster for starters.

Iconic spot where everybody that comes here takes pictures.

My first time really feeling royalty. I've never been in such a paradise that I got hooked.

They received 10 straight years of excellence service/best small hotel and other stuff. I can really see why Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Mel Gibson to name a few comes here. It's heaven on earth. Pure luxury and the best island resort in the Philippines. My bill came at a little over Php 620,000 or $13,000...