Boracay

This trip was my first trip to Boracay – believe it or not!  I like going to the beach but somehow I’ve never been to Boracay.  So I’m going to give you a perspective from a Boracay first-timer. 

Boracay is so popular that I think I’m the only one I know who’s never been there.  And a lot of people keep telling me that Boracay is not that nice anymore and all other reasons why I shouldn’t go there. 

But based on my trip, I would say, of all the beaches I’ve been too - (Palawan, Ilocos, Batangas, Puerto Galera, Bantayan, Cebu, Sentosa, Sabah, etc… )  I still think Boracay is the best I’ve been to yet.  Hubby’s been to Phuket and still prefers Boracay. 

The white sand in Boracay is something I don’t think  I’ve ever encountered in a beach before.  It’s like polvoron or even powder!  And I love that you can go out far into the water and still have the water come only up to your knees.  That’s important for me because hubby and son can’t swim and I don’t want to have to constantly worry about them being washed away by the undercurrent.   What’s more there are not much stones to hurt your feet when walking on the sand. 

I’d understand why westerners would love to stay there.  It’s like a secret paradise hideout. 

We stayed at True Home hotel in Station 1.  For me, a person not so fond of crowds – especially at the beach, staying at station 1 was probably the key to my having a blast. 
The hotel had a beach front and our room – the Junior Suite -  was facing the beach and had its own private balcony.  As soon as you open your eyes in the morning, you are greeted by the view of the beach!  (without having to see the people and them seeing you)

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Shangri-La Mactan, Cebu

Since it's summer and there's no day that I haven't been thinking about the beach, I thought why not reminisce about my best beach vacations.

The white building is Shangri-La, the pink ones, I think, is Hilton

The first one I'm gonna write about is our trip to Mactan, Cebu last November 2006. This was a memorable one because Jorey and I went there for our engagement pictures. During this time, I still wasn't allowed to go with Jorey to anywhere where it was just the two of us because we weren't married yet. (My family's what I would call selective conservative - conservative only when it comes to girls.) So mom came with us for the trip. :)

I took this shot of myself while tinkering with my timer and tripod.

The weather was perfect!

We stayed at Shangri-La, Mactan and it's probably one of the best hotels I've ever stayed at. The white sand beach was very clean and beautiful. The breakfast buffet was superb. The best thing about it was there were a lot of places that made good engagement pictures - coz that's what we came for aside from some fun in the sun.

I didn't take my own pictures at Plantation Bay but this one from our engagement pics is my favorite.

We also took a few pictures at the Plantation Bay, which was not far away from Shangri-La. I suppose some people would find it nice but it wasn't really appealing to me. The resort had a hollywood studio/theme park vibe going, it looks good in pictures but up close and personal... not really my type. It looked too man-made for my taste.

One thing I like about Cebu is that a lot of the 1st class Philippine exports come from here. So before we went back we just had to pass by Avatar's building to score some cute accessories.

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