Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Boracay: Part Deux

I woke up early (like 5:30) Saturday morning. Kurt was still sleeping so I decided to take a walk on the beach. I was feeling creative. I love being near the sea. It's where I am most relaxed. It still looked stormy from the night before. The beach was littered with driftwood, seaweed, and trash. The resorts already had guys out cleaning it up.


The waves were a lot rougher than they had been the day before. I hoped it would clear up later in the day, but it really didn't get a lot better.

Kurt didn't expect that I would be gone long so he was up and dressed when I got back. I was gone for over an hour though!

After we had breakfast I splashed around in the pool for a while. It was kind of chilly! The part that I thought was a hot tub was just another part of the pool. Since Kurt was still feeling under the weather he had a nap while I went shopping. I bought some pearls, a box covered with shells, postcards and some t-shirts.


We did spend some time at the beach in the afternoon. Kurt tried to nap while I waded and "body surfed" in the water. The body surfing mainly consisted of me getting knocked over by the waves. Man, it was fun!

Our hotel had a spa. So we made a couple's massage appointment for 9 pm that evening. It ended up being quite the experience. The robes were too small, the flip flops were too small for Kurt's size 14's, the couple's bath was freezing! And outside! And it the rain!

The massages ended up being great. Very relaxing and sort of romantic. We were there fro 2 1/2 hours! We both slept well, but had very vivid dreams all night.

Sunday we woke up late and headed for breakfast. As we left the room we heard a clap of thunder so Kurt went back after the umbrellas. It was a good thing he did. The sky opened up half way to the cafe. It was a monsoon! We noticed that the resort has the exact same ceiling fans from Lowe's that we just put up in all our bedrooms.

We had to be checked out to get on the shuttle to begin the journey back to Manila by noon. I had seen on Tripadvisor that checking out of the Regency is a bit of an ordeal. They send someone up to your room to check for damage and if you've had anything out of the minibar before they'll clear you. We made sure to get down there in plenty of time.

The trip back to the boat launch was harrowing. We were stuffed in the back of what looked like a paddy wagon. We didn't get very close to the launch at all before we had to get out. Trying not to slip in the mud and keep track of the porter that took off with our luggage was quite the challenge.

Then we got to the boats. They weren't anywhere close to shore. We had to wade out to it. I'm trying to hold up my pant legs, hold onto my shoes and my purse while walking up a very skinny, very slippery, very steep gangplank. It was fantastic. I had seen on the website that rubber shoes were recommended for getting to the island, but we hadn't had any problems on the way TO Boracay.


Here's a picture of one of the luxury launches we rode. There are men in the water acting as tug boats and trying to keep the boat from smashing into each other.

It took a much longer time to get back to Aklan than the trip over had been. Once we "docked" much like McArthur we had to wade to shore!

I managed to sleep on the bus back to Kalibo. Our flight was fine. Once we arrived in Manila the wait for taxi was awful. We had to stand in this long line right next to the road while all these cars were belching pollution. I really thought I was going to be sick.

When we finally did get a taxi it was the worst one ever. He was like the Mario Andretti of the Philippines. It was race, slam to a halt, repeat. I knew we were in trouble when I saw the guy stroking the rosary hanging from the rear view mirror.

We were very glad to get back to the Regalia. We ordered up some dinner. Kurt started working and I finished packing. I had to leave for home in the morning.

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