Boracay

August 23-26, 2012

 

Finally I made myself to Baracay Island it was my first time to go there.  I took Cebu Pacific Air from NAIA to Caticlan.   Cebu Pacific and AirPhil are the only two airlines offer a direct flight to Caticlan and not via Kalibu.   When I arrived in the Caticlan Airport, the hotel service van took me to the port area for a boat transfer to Boracay.

The time travel from Manila is about an hour and fifteen minutes.  Land travel from the Caticlan Airport to Caticlan port is about five minutes or little more but not more than ten.  When I got to the port area, somebody from my hotel in Boracay guided me where do I go and which boat I should be riding on.   Once I was all situated and boat starts moving, it took fifteen minutes only to reach to Boracay.

From the Boracay port I waited about five minutes until somebody from the transportation company who is contact of my hotel will picked me up.   The drive from Boracay port is about ten to fifteen minutes.  My package was well organized by the hotel from the airport.

Starting from the airport when I arrived they have a placard with name on it so as in the port area and the land transfer.   I was surprised everything works out well.  When I arrived in Willys Resort Boracay they were very helpful attentive and offered me a fresh shake of welcome drinks.

Willys Resort is very nice.  I am very close to the famous rock of the island of Bocaray.  The food is good but the thing I like the most is there famous “Peanut banana choco shake”.   I don’t what it is in this shake but is just delicious.   

For entertainment my friend Leana and her husband will picked me up in the evening for dinner and some drinks.

I jogged early in the morning for two days when I was in Boracay.  I absolutely love the sands and the fresh breeze.   The sands are so fined and don’t get hot even in a sunny day.  The water is beautiful and clear but the only problem is there are too many people.   It won’t be long Boracay will get over populated.

Willy's Beach Club Hotel

Boracay Island

Tel No. 6336 288-37794 t0 97

Link: www.willysbeachclubhotel.com

Be Resort

 August 14, 2012

Be at home

Be in Cebu

Be Resorts

BE Resorts
Punta Engaño Road,
Mactan Cebu
Tel No.: 032-236-8888
Web: www.besorts.com

My next adventure in Cebu was swimming again at the newly opened resort next to old Hilton hotel - Movenpick. This time I was with my two friends, Leana and Tintin. We three decided to visit this place before Leana and I permanently leave the Philippines. Be Resort (what do you think of this name?) is very nice. The place was so beautiful and had a quite relaxing environment. Be Resort had a long shore line. I also noticed when we were there that there were more foreign guests - particularly Koreans. The pool there was quite small. What was kind of interesting was the way the swimming pool aligned with the ocean so it seemed the pool was an extension of the ocean.

The Be Resort had a very tropical feeling – more so than any other resort in Cebu. They also offered free Wi-Fi access at the lobby area. It is cool place to be when you are planning to visit one of the resorts in the Mactan area. The price is affordable compare to the Movenpick Hotel next door and also Shangri-La. Be Resorts also offered day use of their pool and beach for a very affordable price.

Hilutungan Island

August 13, 2012

My friends and I agreed to do island hopping once again in the Mactan area before I leave for U.S. at the end of this year. We contacted a boat operator about a boat we could rent for a day. Our first island stop from Punta Engano, where all the charter boats dock, was the island called Hiluntungan Island. Next we planned to visit Olango and then Nalusuan Island. The ride going there was so rough – there were many big waves. I heard so much about Hiluntungan Island in particular. I read from many websites that this island is just awesome. There are lots of fish to see, pretty corals to view and many unusual vistas.

When we got to Hiluntungan we saw many of docked boats. Up to 60 boats were unloading people while others were just waiting for their guests to t finish snorkeling and scuba diving. Once our boat captain had our boat situated, I became very excited to see what was underwater.
But before I jumped in, there were three men riding on a very small paddle boat asking for an entrance fee. I found out that every rental boat that brings guests to this island requires a payment of 100 pesos per person. I was wondering why they didn’t also try to charge us for breathing the air around the island. The fish are so small and the corals are broken. For a hundred pesos per person and the boat has maximum of 50 guests every day, that makes a good business in this island.

I had been snorkeling in Bantayan Island, Batangas and Bohol before, but only in Cebu have I been asked to pay the fee like this. It is embarrassing to let the world see this find this kind of silly avarice since I’m a Cebuana too.

Our next stop was near Olango Island. This area was not good for snorkeling at all, plus there was nothing to see. The last stop on our itinerary was Nalusuan Island but we decided not to go through because of the strong currents and waves. Two of my friends suffered from sea sickness already. We finished a bit earlier than we planned. Lucky for the boat owner we paid the full amount considering we only used the boat for half a day, though we paid for the whole day.

Penang, Malaysia

Last 2011 Christmas we decided to make a trip to Penang Island, Malaysia. Penang, often referred to as the Pearl of the Orient, is one of the most picturesque and romantic cities in all of Asia. This tropical island lies in the Indian Ocean, just off the north-west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Penang received its name from the Pinang, or Betel Nut tree, once commonly found on the island. Established as the first British trading post in the Far East in 1776, Penang today is a bustling metropolis reflecting a uniquely exotic blend of East and West. It is a mash-up of cultures, religions, foods, and architectures.

There is a wide range of different styles and types of architecture to be found in Penang. The British Museum was built in 1986 and has been restored to pristine condition. The Queen Victoria Clock Tower is another example of the British influence on the local architecture. Another architectural theme is expressed in the many mosques that can be found in Penang – perhaps most famous of which is the Floating Mosque. There are also many Hindu temples. Perhaps the most pervasive architectural statement is made by the hundreds of store shops with second floor residences that can be found in Chinatown.

Getting Around Penang:

Getting around Penang we found two basic transportation options for getting around Penang – taxi and bus (Rapid Penang). Each taxi had a notice to potential customers painted on the side of each taxi indicating it was against the law to “haggle” over taxi fares. This gave us hope that the taxi drivers would only use their meters to charge us – wrong!

We quickly learned that very few taxi drivers would use their meters to charge tourists to Penang. This is a big problem because how can you haggle over the cost to your destination if your not sure how far it is? We tried haggling twice and wound up paying three or four times what we thought was a fare price.

The buses in Penang are clean, comfortable and very cost-effective. The buses travel just about everywhere we needed to go and cost about a tenth as much as a taxi. The only problem we had with the bus drivers was getting them to let us when we had arrived at our destination. You need to carefully investigate the route your bus will take and figure out for yourself when to get off.

The Beaches:

We found the beaches in Penang to be as beautiful as any in Asia. They were clean and rarely crowded. We found a nice combination of fine sand and large rock formations.

There were several signs warning about jellyfish and we read a story in the local paper about some packs of dogs running on the beaches. We did notice some stray dogs on the beaches, but they seemed friendly enough.

Shopping:

Gurney Plaza is a modern, beautiful and clean shopping mall at which we found a wide variety of goods and reasonable prices. In addition to shopping, Gurney has a wide range of dining and snack options.

Penang has a number of open-air markets or “sidewalk bazaars” where one can find a little bit of everything that could generally be described as “souvenirs.” Some of the items on offer are of reasonable quality, but most are close to “junk” status. Be prepared to haggle a reasonable price at these markets. We would always start by offering no more than 50% of the merchant’s “asking price” and then go from there.

We were so lucky to find the Copthorne Hotel. It was quite a bit less expensive than the other hotels in the immediate area, but it several ways was much better. The hotel itself was beautiful and the staff was extremely helpful and courteous.

The hotel had a nice pool that was particularly enticing in the evenings and several different beach options. There is a grassy, landscaped area with umbrellas as well as a large beach with clean sand for taking long walks.