Boracay in August – Day 1

It was summer in 2005 when Mark and I last went to Boracay. Our budget was only P10k each wherein P6k went to the Asian Spirit (now Zest Air) plane ticket. Airline promos were not yet an “in” thing those days. So that left us P4k each for our 3D/2N accomodation and food. We stayed in a budget resort Orchids Resort in Station 3 which was recommended by The Lonely Planet for backpackers (we brought only one big camping backpack we borrowed from my SIL). We chose to stay in a fan room (haha kuripots!) for only P800/night. Well, all I can say is the location at that time was very far from the life of Boracay. In the morning, I would already prepare our beach bag complete with swimming wear and other stuff which we would bring with us when going to Stations 1 and 2. We were out all day and come back to the resort at night. Very tiring! But we enjoyed trying out different kinds of food (cheap and expensive ones). The cheapest food we had was a 1-pc chicken with rice worth P50. The most expensive restaurant we went to was Aria and Pier 1. We weren’t able to do extreme sports but we went island hopping with a newlywed couple. It was a great adventure for us and really hoped that we would come back again soon.

Our family vacation to Boracay was already planned since February 2011. As soon as Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced a seat sale, I immediately booked 11 plane tickets to Kalibo for our August 27-29 trip. I googled for the long weekends of the year and chose those dates. We were all so excited since we’ll be traveling with family and relatives. It will be a second time for me and Mark and my parents, but it will the first time for Kelsea, my sister Mabel, my nephew Charles and our relatives, the Salvio family. The two-way plane ticket to Boracay via Kalibo was P2,593 each. Too bad the seat sale does not include Caticlan. That would leave us six (6) months to plan our itinerary and choose which resort or hotel to stay.

I searched for hotels and resorts where we could stay and asked for lots of quotations from them. We were decided to stay in Station 2 to be in the middle and near Boracay’s night life. I was having a difficult time to choose which hotel/resort to book. I even did an Excel file comparing rates. Good thing, deal sites are the “in” thing nowadays. Last April, I stumbled upon Ensogo’s discount vouchers for La Carmela de Boracay. The deal was:

I immediately bought 6 vouchers good for 3 rooms for the 3 families in this beachfront resort hotel located in Station 2. I have already heard reviews about this hotel from friends and also it is being endorsed by Boy Abunda (friend of the owner). How I wish we could stay in a 5-star resort hotel (think Discovery Shores and Shangri-La) but we’re always on a budget 🙂 

So we’re all set for this upcoming trip. Plane ticket…check! Hotel…check! All we need to plan is our itinerary.

But due to unexpected events/circumstances there were a number of changes:

1. August 30 was declared a holiday. Yipee! We all decided to extend our stay. Mark, Kelsea, me and my sis Mabes will stay ’til the 30th while my parents, Charles and Salvio family will be ’til the 31st. That means booking another ticket going home to Manila which we bought from Zest Air.

2. My sister, who’s currently taking up Nursing as a second course, suddenly had a scheduled case presentation on Aug 27. Meaning, she cannot join the whole entourage going to Bora on that day. being absent for one day is equivalent to 4 days and needs to pay a penalty. So no choice for her but to leave on Aug 28 which is a Sunday to be able to join all of us. I booked another PAL ticket for her to leave Manila on the 28th.

3. A week before our trip, Kelsea was confined due to Pneumonia. Mark and I were already psyched that we will not be able to join the family on this trip because we’re still in the hospital on Aug 26 🙁 My mom was really sad. She has long been wishing for our whole family to go on a trip. (Last time we went on a far trip as a family – my parents, my sister and I – was way back 2002 in Hong Kong). And my sister will be going home from Bora all alone. We were hoping we’ll be discharged on that day but wasn’t given clearance. We were given discharge notice the next day Aug 27. The family (except for us and my sis) were already able to take the flight early morning. As we were leaving the hospital on a rainy Saturday, we were happy that Kelsea was cleared of Pneumonia already but at the same time sad that we weren’t able to join the trip. Suddenly, I received a text message from my mom that the weather in Bora is perfect. Wow! Is that a sign? It’s rainy in Manila and in Northern Luzon but the weather is very good in the Southern part of the country. That made us decide to push through with our trip. We rebooked our ticket (expensive huhu!) and decided to join my sister going to Kalibo the next day. We will suprise my parents and Charles 🙂

Our flight was 1:30 pm. We fetched my sister around 10 am then went straight to the airport. We will be leaving the van in the airport overnight parking in Terminal 1 & 2. Overnight parking costs P50/night. We informed our parents not to worry about Mabel traveling alone since she met an old friend in the airport with the same flight. This will not spoil our surprise. Since Kelsea was given prescription for take home medicines, we brought the  nebulizer with us. I even had her use it in the airport. Fortunately, I was allowed to use the electric plug in the laptop station.

It was Kelsea’s 3rd plane ride and it was not good this time. It is the aircraft’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to keep the window shades up for take-off. It was Kelsea’s tantrums day. She chose to seat by the window and insists that the window shade be closed because of the sun rays. We talked to her calmly that she can open it again once the airplane is already beside the clouds. But she wouldn’t listen. She kept on crying and insisted on what she wanted. We ignored her. Unfortunately, this technique didn’t work. Her cry is really disturbing to other passengers. My sister can clearly hear it a few rows away from us. Then, she wanted to be carried. But we weren’t allowed to remove the seatbelts since the plane is not yet in the stable mode. The terrible two syndrome persisted. And she started saying, “Daaaaaddddddddyyyyyyyy! Daaaaaaaadddddddyyyyyyyy!” A true cry of a daddy’s girl. After a few minutes of crying, I told Mark to carry Kelsea so that she’ll stop despite of the seatbelt sign still turned on. The crying stopped. Whew! I bet other passengers are talking about us. When the snacks arrived, Kelsea already agreed sitting between us. She ate some peanuts and enjoyed the food tray in front her her. By the way, the brand of the food tray is Recaro.

We arrived in Kalibo around 3pm. Can you see our luggages below? We packed light. One baby bag for Kelsea’s stuff and one baby bag for Mark and I. Haha! Sorry Kelsea for using your baby bag.