Boracay, Philippines

I’m not sure what I expected prior to our visit to the Philippines, but our short visit here has certainly been interesting. This is our first trip to an East Asian country that is primarily Catholic/Christian, a feature that likely has a role in some of the cultural features that set the Philippines apart a bit from it’s neighbors. Geographically, it does make sense that there would be some sectarian conflict in the southern islands that border Malaysia. In the northern region where we’re visiting, everything seems uniformly Christian. As an aside, we stumbled upon a Filipino Christian TV channel that had a guy speaking with the title of “Appointed Son of God” underneath his name. This guy…. wow… he even had on dark sunglasses to complete the Filipino Jim Jones look. Check him out. Television here seems to be either that kind of craziness, weird variety shows, or any of five different channels of 24/7 YouTube clips of people injuring themselves grievously.

We only stayed in Manila for a day upon arrival and I had a nice first impression of the place. We stayed in the Makati district, which was clean and had good security. There are some pockets of similarities to Japanese minimalist design and a focus on cleanliness. I can’t speak for spending extended time in Manila, but it was comfortable for a stopover for us. We’ll try to tour it a bit more on our last day here.

The next day we took an hour-long domestic flight to Caticlan, a decidedly more rustic stop. We transitioned to muddy pitted roads and rows of motorcycle-powered tuk-tuks with sidecars that carried 5-6 people at a time. The ferry terminal was a short drive through a few run down streets. It was a walkable distance, but possibly ill-advised on foot alone. The terminal was pretty packed and confusing, and they run a similar racket to the one in Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar. Merchants will sell tickets for a considerable markup and then escort you completely through the transit process. Their profit margin is only a few dollars, but the headache saved for someone who hasn’t made the transit is likely well worth it.

Most of the visitors on Boracay island flock to “White Beach,” which is dotted throughout the length of the different stations with numerous touristy hotels and shops. The main shopping center “D Mall” empties out to White Beach. As a side note, White Beach at this time is, and likely will remain, more of a yellow grey color as a result of heavy construction and disruption of the balance of algae normal to the island. Frankly, White Beach is a bit of a tourist freak show that is well beyond capacity. It’s like a Filipino Cancun. We ultimately ended up staying further up the island at the Shangri-La resort. We’ve never been disappointed with Shangri-La or Traders, and this was no exception. They have a couple of private beaches on beautiful sprawling grounds. We’ve spent the last couple days lounging around here doing a bunch of nothing…. snorkeling, swimming, etc. Tomorrow we’re heading back to Manila.