The Philippines travelogue - Boracay: Day 4 to 7.

Day 4 to 7 - Boracay Island

On day 3, we took a flight by Cebu Pacific Air to Kalibo Airport from Manila. We actually missed our Air Asia flight (ticket cost about RM 300/pax) and ended up on Boracay very late at night.

Luckily Cebu Pacific came up much cheaper (less than PHP 2500/pax after deducting airline travel insurance).

During the 1 hour flight, the air stewardesses were promoting the round trip offered by Southwest Tours straight to the doorstep of the hotel at PHP 900 per pax - which we signed up for. This includes door-to-door transfers, environmental fee (PHP 75) and terminal fee (PHP 100).

Upon landing we boarded a bus to the jetty terminal nearby Caticlan. During its 2 hours journey the bus will make a stop at its own rest station that has a mini market and washrooms.

Arriving at the jetty, we had to wait a while to board the ferry, which would take another 10 minutes to reach the island. Here's a heads up, you will be asked to leave your luggage outside the cabin because the seats will be too narrow to accommodate the bigger sized bags.

Make sure your belongings especially bags that weren't locked stay by your side at all times. Our friend left his backpack together with our luggage (locked with password) and his cash got stolen. 

At the island, mini vans were used to transport passengers to their respective guesthouses. This could take another 10 minutes to reach, depending on which station you are staying.

Boracay's white beach has 3 stations:

1) Station 1 is more secluded. This is where most of the 5 star rated hotels are. It is near to the Puka Shell Beach.

2) Station 2 is highly crowded with tourists and bustling with commercial buildings and activities. D-Mall is located here. Lots of food variety, ranging from budget to expensive.

3) Station 3 is mostly occupied by locals. Wet markets and police station are found here.

We stayed at MNL Beach Hostel sharing a 6 person dorm room. You can opt for mixed or female only dorms. (However, washrooms are mixed.) The place is lively especially over the weekends, on the rooftop bar where you can chill and drink with other backpackers or the friendly employees.

Places we went

You can choose from travelling by foot or by tricycles. Tricycles charge a standardized fare over here so don't worry about swindling.

Willy's Rock at Station 1.

Sunset at the White Beach.

1) White Beach
5 minutes from our hostel is the most crowded beach in Boracay, the White Beach. It offers lots of activities ranging from banana boat to parasailing. The waters here are calm and suitable for families. The place is crowded even under the unforgiving sun at 12. For lunch we look for something to eat here at a budget of less than PHP 100 per person. Mango shakes can be found as cheap as PHP 50 here. Take a walk to Jonah's Fruit Shake at Station 1. It offers many types of super-rich fruit shakes at about PHP 100.

2) Puka Shell Beach
A one-way tricycle trip to Puka Beach is PHP 150, regardless from where. The waters here are deeper but cleaner. Water sports activities here are limited. Come here for a serene spot to watch sunset. Avoid coming in the afternoon as there are few shades (but they are usually free). Bring enough water and some snacks since drinks are expensive (PHP 200 for a mango shake) and food are virtually non-existent.

3) Bulabog Beach
Located just some footsteps from MNL Hostels is this quiet Bulabog Beach, where some surfing and diving academies are at. We came here for the sunrise at 5 AM (if you saw my previous post, that the sun rises much earlier in the Philippines).

Inside D'Mall.

4) D'Mall
This open space commercial area is a collection of a few rows of shop lots. Postcards, dried mangoes and trinkets can be bought as souvenirs from D'Mall, apart from some of the variety of food offered. There's a small mart where you can buy most of what you need.

Foods & drinks we tried

Honestly speaking, it was a hard time for us to find budget food here. Although not impossible, the heat often hindered us from going farther for more choices. It's good to know that D'Mall does offer good food at reasonable prices. It remains a regret that we did not try D'Talipapa ... Where you can buy your own food (seafood, especially) and get them cooked at nearby restaurant.

Bulalo from Smoke Resto in D'Mall.

Adobo rice and cheese omelette rice.

1) Smoke Resto
This humble restaurant tucked away in a corner inside D'Mall was run by locals. Come early before 7 to secure a seat. Food was usually cooked by one lady so serving time is pretty slow during peak hours. If you suffer from confidence issues with foreign food, start with Smoke Resto's famous Bulalo (beef shank soup) as a side to a bowl of piping hot rice. My only complaint was it's too salty! (This wasn't my first experience with salty Filipino food as I have also tried fried vermicelli, called pancit in another restaurant, and it was too salty for me to finish.) Other food at the place looked promising. I have ordered its cheese omelette rice which was decent, and my husband tried its adobo served with mango and rice, though the adobo was also too salty for us.

2) Jonah's Fruit Shake & Snack Bar
Jonah's has earned its reputation throughout the Internet and earned a spot on the Boracay map. I believe it has more than 2 outlets. The one that I've tried was on the street to Puka Beach from D-Mall, not located beside the beach. The shakes we had - Avocado Milk Shake and Mango Milk Shake, were outstanding. At PHP 100 each, they cost more than many milkshake stalls, but you would know it's worthwhile from their super dense shake that is jam packed with fresh fruits and milk. The avocado shake left me so bloated and I struggled to finish the whole thing. If you love fruits, don't leave the island without trying Jonah's!

3) E-Mall
There's a less known E-Mall which less resembled a "mall" than the open-spaced D'Mall. Here, there are shops selling the typical souvenirs but with far less tourists. There's a stall selling a coconut shake (Buko shake) that we liked a lot. Too bad the spot is far from our place and we couldn't go back for another bottle. The picture above was taken at the jetty terminal leaving Boracay, which was no match to the one we had at E-Mall.

4) Halowich
If you have yet to try halo-halo, Philippines' must try dessert, but you're skeptical against the version offered by the local fast food chain, visit Halowich at D'Mall. They offer many mango based desserts such as this ice cream that we have ordered, and the shop was nearly always full house. You may have to wait for a seat out in the heat. The desserts served were of appropriate portions and the shop was air-conditioned. Like the ice cream we had was just nice for two person sharing. They also served sizes suitable for family or couple.

5) San Miguel Flavored Beer
Fan of fruit cider flavored beer? Then you should get sipping on this local brew. We bought this at PHP 30 at the pizza shop downstairs (which will be introduced in point 6) but you can get them at any convenience store.

9" Hawaiian Pizza from Lola's. Sorry for the unsightly and high flash exposure photo, it was taken at the roof deck of our hostel with little lighting.

6) Lola's Pizza
Since husband and I were on a constrained budget, Lola's Pizza (Road 1-A) for dinner automatically became an attractive option, though it was considered the least known pizza parlour in Boracay. While the prices were not dirt cheap, they were gentle on our wallet. The pizzas were priced from PHP 100 to 200 for sizes 9" and 12". We would have bought some deep-fried fish balls before Lola's and get two pizzas for actual dinner. It's conveniently located beside MNL so we would place our orders, go get a quick shower and go back to pack our dinner and enjoy them at the rooftop. Lots of the hostel residents did the same.



Our trip was not done on a packed itinerary, and from what you can see, we did not take on any water sport activities (that's because we overspent due to the missed flight). Overall, we have spent less than PHP 2000 (about RM 1800 back then) for a 4D4N two person trip (excluding flight).

Honestly speaking, we haven't explored half the island as many more attractions are secluded, such as the Spiderhouse and Mount Luho. Despite the pushy vendors and thieves, we feel there is so much more potential the island could offer. I'm missing the place.

It's been 3 months, our skins are still tanned from spending a long time under the Philippines sun.

See my travelogue in the Philippines:

Manila Day 1
Manila Day 2

The Philippines travelogue - Manila: Day 2.

Day 2 - Taal Volcano

It was a delayed itinerary.

We were supposed to leave our place at 8.30 AM to Buendia LRT Station but with the crowded platform on a working Monday we could not buy the tickets nor enter the platform! Queue in front of the ticketing machine was long and cashiers would not sell tickets headed to the south (towards Ayala) so we were stuck.

9.30 AM Cab ride to Jam bus station (PHP 100/cab)

So we decided to take the cab in order to board the bus headed to Tanauan, Batangas. After some negotiation, the taxi driver decided to bring us to the nearest Jam's bus station for PHP 100.

10.00 AM Departure from Jam station to Tanauan, Bantagas (PHP 104/pax)

Battling the traffic, we took off on a Jam bus headed down to Tanauan at 10 AM.

11.30 AM Arrival at Tanauan jeepney terminal, lunch 

The bus driver dropped us off near the jeepney terminal, where we had cheap burgers and siew mai (in the Philippines, they call them Sio Mai) for lunch.

12.00 PM Departure from jeepney terminal to Taal Lake, Talisay (PHP 26/pax)

Until the jeepney was filled (which didn't take long) we took off to Talisay. Let the driver know where you are headed to (Taal Lake) so that he would bring you to one of the jetties.

12.30 PM Arrival at Taal Lake, depart from jetty to Taal Volcano (PHP 360/pax)

PHP 360 (non-negotiable) includes a round boat-trip, environmental fee and docking fee. If you hadn't bring along some water, and perhaps a hat, with you, it's better to make your purchase at the jetty first as they charged reasonably. The prices at the volcano are cut-throat and especially at the crater.

1.00 PM Arrival at Taal Volcano, begin hiking

The hike would take about one hour. You could opt for a horse ride (about PHP 400) so to save energy and minimize the volcanic ashes you are about to inhale. If you have dust allergy (like my husband does), please be advised to bring a face mask. You can still buy one here for about PHP 20 to 30.

2.00 PM Arrival at the Crater Lake

Surrounded by the Taal Lake in Talisay, Taal Volcano is  the second most active volcano, and the smallest one too, in the Philippines. It has claimed over 5000 lives. Its last eruption was in 1977 but strong seismic activities have been sensed since 1991. At the crater you could see a lake (the Main Crater Lake) that runs 2km wide. In the middle of the lake is the Vulcan Point Island.

3.00 PM Begin descending, then depart from Taal Volcano

4.30 PM Arrival at the jetty, departure from Talisay to Tanauan (PHP 26/pax)

5.30 PM Take a jeepney ride to Santo Tomas bus stop (PHP 8/pax), flag down a bus headed to Manila (we took a bus to Alabang) (PHP 50/pax)

It's okay if there are no seat, you may need to stand for 10 minutes or so as people will get off a few stops later. Most passengers were not bound for Manila.

7.00 PM Arrival at Starmall, Alabang

Though this didn't mark the end of our journey today (we still had to take the scariest one-hour bus ride to Cubao - I regret, take the cab next time!) but I would stop here.

The trip to Taal Volcano was worth it, although a better planning would do a greater job in elevating the experience. If you could, hire a travel agency to plan the itinerary for you. A private mini-van would make a great transport so you wouldn't have to take several bus and jeepney rides to go back and forth.

Batangas has many places and delicacies to offer and we couldn't explore due to poor time management and knowledge. It's a one-of-a-lifetime experience, and one beautiful volcano to pay a visit to. However, go at your own risk! Taal is still an active volcano and is bound to erupt anytime due to the regular seismic activities, besides its eruption is unpredictable.

See my travelogue in the Philippines:

Manila Day 1
Boracay Day 4 to 7

The Philippines travelogue - Manila: Day 1.

Day 1 - Intramuros (San Agustin Church, Manila Cathedral, Fort Santiago) , Mall of Asia, SM By The Bay

We took the LRT to the Central Terminal Station. Intramuros is about 1 km away from the station, which involves going through the underpass to cross the main road. After the underpass, walk along the road and you will arrive at Intramuros. First shop you would see is a McD restaurant.

It is encouraged to visit the place in the morning, before noontime. Don't be bothered by the pushy tricyclists if you are determined to walk. Every tourist spot in Intramuros is easily accessible on foot and close to one another. However if you wish, a tricycle would help save time (they would stop at the attractions and wait for you) and is cheaper than renting a horse carriage.

From this direction, the nearest attraction to you would be the San Agustin Church, or the Church of Saint Paul, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church, more than 5 centuries old, is the oldest church in the Philippines. Survived from multiple destruction and rebuilt for four times. The last time it took a damage was during the Battle of Manila in 1945, and repaired thereafter.

We were not allowed to enter the church due to the matrimonial ceremonies held back-to-back on that Sunday.

A few blocks down the road is the Manila Cathedral.

Manila Cathedral is one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. Took numerous hits from natural disasters (earthquakes and typhoons) which are common in the Philippines, and was completely destroyed during the Battle of Manila. The cathedral was rebuilt in 1958.

We visited Fort Santiago afterwards. They charge an entrance fee of PHP 70/pax. There is a tourist center where you can watch an introduction video on Intramuros and get free maps of Manila.

José Rizal was imprisoned at Fort Santiago before his execution. You could pay a visit to Rizal Shrine which is in the same area.

Afterwards, we took a cab to Mall of Asia for PHP 300. Quite pricey as it was not charged based on meter but dividing among the 5 of us (yes, 5) the price was still acceptable. The car ride was about 10 minutes. Spotting the mall was effortless. The gigantic globe standing in front of MOA was hard to miss.

The first thing we did was eat. Sizzlin' Steak was located at the side of the Mall of Asia, alongside many other food outlets. You can choose to dine alfresco but the climate was too warm for us to do so. Their menu was ala Pepper Lunch, with steaks and rice served on a sizzling hot plate.

Husband and I ordered the set for two at PHP 499. We got to choose two main courses and soups, and got two iced lemon tea. I had the burger steak. The difference between the set's main course from ala carte's was that no grilled vegetables were provided as the side, just some sad corn off the cob with shallots.

The food was good but the portion was huge. It was one of the best meals I had in the Philippines.

After a short walk about the mall, we proceeded to SM By the Bay, linked to the mall by an overhead pedestrian bridge. As it was a weekend the crowd was overwhelming. Nearing sunset, we took a ride on the MOA Eye, which charged PHP 150/pax (adult). The whole ride lasted around 8 minutes. It was however, not suitable for photographing as the outside of the compartment was not clean, traces of dust were spotted instead.

The place was breezy. The top of the seawall was fully seated by people who wished to enjoy the sunset. Many spectators were standing and we too stood up a few times attempting to take photos. There were policemen guarding the area and we were asked to sit down for our own safety.

Come on a weekday, then the place might not be as crowded. Shopping at the mall may be a breezier experience. Although the sun was obscured, our day ended with this gorgeous view of flame red clouds.

See my travelogue in the Philippines:

Manila Day 2
Boracay Day 4 to 7