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chopstix
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 55
Location: tokyo
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 Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:58 am Post subject: Bali Borokay or Cebu for Chinese New Year???? |
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| I have three weeks coming up in February and need to get some reservations. My three destination choices are the Borokay or Cebu in the Philipines or Bali. Anyone been to these places? Single guy who likes to be in the mix of things.........and I don't surf. |
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Toe Save
Joined: 04 Oct 2004
Posts: 202
Location: 'tween the pipes.........
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:26 am Post subject: Re: Bali Borokay or Cebu for Chinese New Year???? |
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| chopstix wrote: |
| I have three weeks coming up in February and need to get some reservations. My three destination choices are the Borokay or Cebu in the Philipines or Bali. Anyone been to these places? Single guy who likes to be in the mix of things.........and I don't surf. |
The final destination ended up being Boracay. Thanks MaoTraveller. Good pick. Had a great time. Here are some of the highlights:
The Mangoes are Blue?
I did 7.5 dives total. 4.5 with White Beach Divers and 3 with Blue Mango. I chose White Beach Divers as they were right next to Blue Mango and BM was slightly overrun with new students. As a result, BM couldn't get me out on my dives straight away, but I really liked their style, so we opted to give them our business regardless. My buddy Howard needed to take his Open Water and he had a good rapport with his instructor Dustin Pratt. As I observed Dustin working with Howard, I too came to respect his passion for the adventure of scuba. I'm sure I wasn't much help always crackin' wise as is my wont, but he took my well-intentioned interruptions in the spirit of the surroundings, laaaaid waaaay baaaack. Good on ya Dustin. And thanks so much for my penultimate diving experience.
I have nothing but rave reviews of Dustin and his entire family. Vaughn Pratt is the patriarch owner of the resort, while Dustin runs the dive shop. Their family hastens back to the original settlers, something like 4 ships after The Mayflower. Naturally Jake, you should love this guy. 3 generations of Red Sox loyalty and a staunch Pats fan, Vaughn is a caring and gracious host, especially early Monday morning.  If you want to do Boracay in style Vaughn and his lovely wife Deliles are the way to go. Here they are with Dustin's absolutely charming girlfriend Kay.
A special mention to Kay. She was the first person we talked to on Boracay. Imagine our luck running into the very best Boracay has to offer on the first shot. Thanks for everything Kay. Any traveler would be wise to seek her out and befriend her or any of the Pratts. Caring, lovely people. At the risk of gushing, thanks again.
The Descent Begins:
As I said, Dustin couldn't accomodate me on the first couple of days, so I went next door to White Beach Divers. My guide was a woman named Lanie and she was a real sweetie. Regardless of the outcome of my story below, I would dive with her again. She really loves scuba and is good at her job. I would caution her to rely on her training and instincts rather than what her greedy employers insist upon. But that all comes later. Let's enjoy the main reason I came to write about this trip in the first place. The diving. Our first two dives were out by Crocodile Island,
On our second dive
we saw a 5' long seasnake.
She confided in me later that she dreams of one day actually handling a seasnake. This was my first clue as to how erm.....adventurous this lady is. Our 3rd dive was to the Camia 2,
a wreck about 1/2 a kilometer offshore of White Beach. It's a pseudo deep dive, taking you to about 30 meters to start. What made it most interesting for me was that I popped my cherry on The Camia 2 in that it was my first penetration. We dropped down and thru the cargo hold and then went around to the engine room for a wee swim thru as well. Very very cool. After a little SI, we dove Friday Rock. The first thing we saw was a Trigger Fish the size of a serving tray.
This thing was huge. But it isn't mating season now, so we were able to hang about without really risking an attack.
We then came across this little guy
A dragon fish. Ours was musch more flourishing, almost like feathers instead of fins.
Next was the Leopard Shark.
Now ours wasn't anywhere near the size of my googled Leopard Shark, maybe a foot long, too hard to tell as we could only see a bit of it. It seemed stuck under the reef, so Fearless Lanie reached in and gave it a tug. That was the last we saw of it as it shot even deeper into the coral. 
A couple of minutes later, we come across a Giant Moray Eel.
I was very content to hang out about a meter above and behind it, but Ol Lanie wants more. She tries to coax it out even more (it was already out about 2 feet worth, plenty imho) which only made it too disappear. Damn. Starting to lose that loving feeling. When she grabbed the Frog Fish
I knew she wasn't my kinda buddy. I try to never touch a thing down there. I had commited to a night dive on the wreck, so I didn't think too much about her busy hands....yet.
This criticism is all in retrospect, as the night dive turned out to be a complete disaster. We set out too late, so they couldn't find the buoy. When she started suggesting that fishermen had made off with he buoy, I was all "erm"....
Her alternate site was a silly little 6 meter reef that is used for training newbies and I wasn't that into it, but relented to her suggestion. However, once in the water, I discover that my flashlight didn't work. I wasn't given a backup (another major miscalculation as all night dives should include 2 flashlights and a strobe) or a strobe. So her solution was to give me hers and take mine down. We dropped to 6 meters and spent the next 5 minutes trying to get her light to work. Finally I'd had enough and gave her the old thumbs up.
Of course, everyone played the blame game as to who's fault it was, but imo, it was a very poorly planned dive to begin with. A night dive is the ultimate experience but also represents the most risk a recreational diver can undergo. Due diligence is most important and it was sorely lacking in this instance.
The owner of White Beach Divers tried to actually charge me full price for this dive. When I balked at that, she tried for 1/2 the price. I said I would pay it, but I wouldn't be very happy about it. The she suggested 100 pesos. I gave her that and went next door to Blue Mango.
Then the real diving began. First dive was a drift dive in the channel between Boracay and Caticlan. In what was supposed to take us 23 minutes, we shot thru the dive in 13. We ripped it up so fast, the cops gave us speeding tickets. Man was that exhilerating. Not sure if we saw any sea creatures as we literally flew thru the dive at Mach 3.
Later that night Dustin and I did the wreck. Again. We dropped in and descended down into the inky nothingness. No, not nothingness...everythingness...
I've experienced many things lo these 45 years on this earth. I've shuffled my mortal coil up the steepest of mountains and down the roiliest of rivers. I've had a pretty exciting life both outdoors and in. But nothing at all can compare to the eerily calming yet entirely exhilerating experience of dropping 30 meters to ocean floor at night.
Touring the wreck was so much cooler at night as well.
We again penetrated the hold. Made even more dificult now due to a large presence of Lion Fish.
Really glad I took that Peak Performance Buoyancy course way back when, as it got pretty tight in the hold. Also was treated to a sizable school of batfish.
Wild looking things.
I was so chill by the time we surfaced, I couldn't even muster a grunt of satisfaction. We just floated there, reminiscing inwardly on the wondrous time we had. No words were neccessary. I was simply sated. Even the calm that washes over a climber peaking out, or a skier reflecting on face shots on a chair whizzing thru the alpine cannot compare to this. Absolute ease of awe.
I had just had the best dive of my life. But it was also the best overall experience in adventure tourism as well. Hell, it was even better than most sex I've had. Nothing would ever top that, of that I was sure.
Until the next day.
It's called YaPak. Located on the Northwest side of Boracay, this is the must -do-dive. It can get kinda deepish so you should have some level of comfort with the sport before attempting it. I got to 40 meters at one point.
No sooner had we gathered and began our exploration when Dustin shook his rattle and signalled "Shark". And there is was.
A 5 foot white tipped reef shark some 10 meters away. Truly an amazing moment. I have long been imagining my first encounter, somewhat apprehensively, truth be known. But none of that fear was realized. He wanted nothing to do with us. He kept his distance and we kept ours. Perfect.
Next up was a school of SweetLips.
A wonderfully colorful array, turning the water even brighter with their canary hue. Another seasnake, this time at least 8' long and two giant tuna were the other highlights of the dive. But it was the sheer numbers of fish that was most impressive for me. My fav fish is the Clown Fish.
I love the little nemoid buggers. Love em to bits. I love their aggressive little posturing when you get close. They are completely fearless in defending their homes. But I've only ever seen them in pairs. At YaPak there are whole families living in a single anenome. From grandparents to weird old uncles, the dive was rife with The Clowns. I said "send 'em in".
YaPak is by far the best site on Boracay. If you ever get the chance to dive there, do not miss this underwater garden paradise.
Truly memorable.
Lets Eat:
As for dining, Boracay has it all. There are an abundance of restaurants serving standard tourist fare, all quite adequate. My buddy had a less than palatable Liguini Alfredo at Mario's, but I did enjoy his pizza, so you decide. But one thing you can't miss on Boracay is Banza. This Portuguese restaurant is run by Antonio, chef and host extraordinaire. Be prepared for one of the finest dining experiences of your life. Delicious food, rollicking ambiance and enough booze to drown an expat Canadian Teacher. It's pricey, so consider yourself warned. But it's worth it. Put yourself in Antonio's hands and let him determine your fate. It'll be well worth the cost.
We did it twice.
The first night we had Mussels Marinara that kept all the vampires away. I love my garlic and these moules did not disappoint. Giant Prawns (their names were John Holmes and Dirk Diggler, if you get my drift) and Meat Kebobs followed with enough drawn butter to pull a milk cart drowning every morsel. All served with a garlic long grain rice as dry as a Bondian martini which forced my buds to suck out every last drop of garlic juice present in the grains. All washed down with a jug of Sangria del Toro which outlasted all the courses, including the cigars and port.
The second night we didn't mess around. After another round of Mussells, we went straight for the grilled lobster. Being idiots, we were unsure how to proceed with this delicious crustacean, so Antonio sat down and gave us the lowdown on getting that lobster down low, where he belonged. To round off the "turf" portion of the evening, we sampled a portion of the Tornado Steak. Only one adjective comes to mind when describing this cut of meat. Beefy. Plain and simple it was hands down the finest cut of steak I've ever had, Drowning in Antonio's own white pepper sauce, I found myself cutting the meat into smaller and smaller and ever smaller portions, not wanting it to end.
Again, washed down with the lipsmackingly sweet Sangria and double flaming B52s, we settled back and talked about island living, the curse of women on men and dogs over port and cigars. Sure, we could have had 3 dives for the price of the meal, but who can resist dropping the cash when the repast is so fine. Antonio...obrigado my friend...obrigado.
Getting There:
Stunningly simple to get to: From the International airport in Manila, you take a 5-10 minute taxi ride (100 pesos) to the domestic terminal. From there you hop at 35 minute flight to Caticlan on the northern tip of Panay Island. A 3 minute scooter taxi takes you to the pier where you are whisked across the channel to beautiful Boracay. If you decide to stay with Blue Mango, they will arrange all your ground transfers from Caticlan or Kalibo (an hour's drive, better to just fly into Caticlan).
If you are a little more budget concious, try La Villa Camilla, owned by the most congenial Taiwanese man you'll ever meet, Wang Da. La Villa Camilla is just a frisbee's toss north of Blue Mango. Both these fine establishments are down at the south end of White Beach. Much quieter down that way, it's only a 10 minute walk up the beach to all the hot night spots like SummerPlace, Charles Bar and Juice Bar.
It was pretty quiet as the high season is still a couple of weeks away, and Mr. Wang loved the fact that we were long term residents of Taiwan (that old "Wo(4) men(4) shr(4) Hsin(4) Tai(4) Wan(4) Ren(4)" line works every time) so he gave us very comfortable fan rooms for 500 pesos each. I can't wait to go back and enjoy the pool with the swim up bar.
Boracay is the perfect quick getaway. The people are lovely, truly lovely and the diving is exquisite. In fact, Dustin has a wee surprise in store for me next time. We are going to take a 2 hour boat ride to a place called MahNing Ning (or something to that effect) and do some luxury camping on an island of 25 residents (1 toilet, quite clean) and do 6 dives in what he describes as the best sites in all The Philippines. For the same cost as 6 fun dives alone.
Sorry for writing so superlatively in this post. But that is truly how I feel. A perfect holiday where the only flaw was my escape. I left way too early for Manila and spent a crappy 5 hours in its airport that could have been much better spent licking up some final rays of Boracay's gentle shores. |
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stirge2210
Joined: 30 Aug 2004
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:11 pm Post subject: |
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| I went to Cebu last year and it was unbelievable. Go to Boracay if you want the "touristy" stuff, go to Cebu and there's a little island called Panglao. The place I stayed is called Alona Kew Beach Resort. It's far from a resort, but dirt cheap and right on the beautiful white sand beach. This place is unbelievable and very close to so many great sights. One of the best sights I've ever seen, The Chocolate Hills. PM me for much more detailed information and I can give you the contact information for some of this stuff. I think my whole trip (flight, place to stay, food, beer, travel) cost around $300 US. Can't beat it!!! |
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