Kite 2012

Today was spent in true philippine style! Japs was going to a “festival” in a small place called Sebaste and I thought it could be interesting to see what the whole thing was all about.

We left early in the morning. Tricycle to the the hardbour in Boracay. Boat to Caticlan and Jeep and bus to Sebaste. At a glance, the public transport in the Philippines seems to be quite unorganized. No time tabels are seen, at least not any visible. There are no bus stops. And no one seems to follow any traffic rules. But somehow you always get transported where you want and it´s amazing how smooth everything goes, it´s like someone already has planned your travel.

Another major difference when it comes public transportation is the absence of security. It´s for example totally ok to climb up on the roof of a jeep and sit there while it’s running through the countryside. Just make sure that you have something to hold on to when there is a sharp turn, a fast acceleration or a sudden stop =)

Anyway, we arrived safely to Sebaste where Japs apperantly have tons of cousins, nephews, brothers etc… One of his relatives is running a business there which I think is doing pretty good. He had arranged a great buffet with philippine dishes. Didn’t dare to try the gastric stew or anything from the bowl that was filled with pig snouts and other strange things. But the other dishes I tried was very tasty! Especially the whole grilled pig, I think it was the most delicious pig I ever tasted!

The festival itself was more or less just rows of stalls where the vendors where selling their stuff, but still nice to walk around and just enjoy the friendly atmosphere.

Also had time to walk up in the mountains to watch the beautiful scenery before we headed back to Boracay. Arrived back in Boracay in time for a nice afternoon kite session =)

Didn’t really do anything worth mentioning today. Been spending more or less the whole day studying and I don´t wanna bore you with going into details on that . There was no wind today so it was a perfect day for studies anyway =)

Took some photos of the wildlife here on Boracay on my way to one of the resorts where they have WiFi. It´s not that exciting as you can see…

Japs has been eagerly talking about some Philippine dish that you make out of the so called banana heart, you know the red big heart shaped thing that hangs at the bottom of a bunch of bananas, so I bought a banana heart today. I thought you were suppose to eat the thing like a banana, but it turned out that you had to add some ingredients to make the final result, a banana heart salad!

Fortunately a lady, Trinidad (or something like that) that works at Frency likes to cook, so I just had to buy the remanining ingredients for the salad, chili, ginger, red onion, coconut milk and “magic sarap”, handy for me! Besides Trinidad actually worked as a cook for 10 years, so when it comes to cooking philippine food I´m probably better of leaving it to her!

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Trinidad in action!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You might wonder what all the dried small fishes are doing there on a plate. Japs served me a quite disgusting ensure yesterday that you make of those fishes but when they are in fresh condition. The fishes are put in some kind of sour liquid to rotten for some months then you eat it with chili and philippine lime and green mango. Japs says that it’s delicious, I say it’s barely eatable… Btw, it´s called Ginamo.

The banana heart salad was not to bad though! A bit similar to the spicy papaya salad that you get in Thailand. Was a nice meal and now I´m full! Japs tough me what to say when the barkers will try to invite me to their restaurants tonight, “mosog ako salamat!” It means “no thanks, I´m full”. I´m actually suppose to join a dinner with some other guys in 40 minutes, but I guess that I can stick to beer, or perhaps just ask for Ginamo, I´m pretty sure they don’t serve it in the restaurants =)

 

 

 

 

My dear sister requested more photos, here are a bunch from the viewpoint on Boracay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come! =)

Related External Links

• Fun In The Sun Using Boracay Resorts | A Reasonable Doubt
• Boracay 2012 – 67 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
• Boracay 2012 – 56 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
• Boracay 2012 – 68 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
• Boracay 2012 – 66 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

It seems like the bad stomach is gone! First thing I did this morning was to go to Starbucks to have a cup of real coffee. The price for a cup of coffee at Starbucks is about 4 times more expensive than the cups you can buy at the local cafés, but you also get what you pay for… Besides Starbucks has WiFi and air condition which weigh up their shameless coffee prices =)

After lunch, Japs, the guy that works at Frency Hotels brought me to a place on Boracay were they have monkeys, moreover the highest mountain on Boracay. Was expecting to see some wild monkeys that you could feed and play with, but all there was were some poor monkeys in cages. They had some birds, also in cages. There were supposed to be some lizards also, but they were apperantly all dead by the time we went there. On the whole a joke if you go there to see some “wild” animals, but the view from top of the mountain was great, so this itself was worth the entrance fee on about $1,4.

The wind started picking up in the afternoon so I had kite session with my Royal Solo 12.5m kite. The philippino guy had fixed the bar that I broke the other day, what he did was just to replace the Royal bar with a Naish bar, works fine =)

 

Related External Links

• Mike The Knife in Brazil | Kite 2012
• Fun Under The Sun And Underwater |
• Season is coming to the End! Hope to see you all in 2012/13 season …
• april, good wind and empty bay | Kitesurfing at Boracay
• Yanninks Tattoo Studio in Boracay Island … – Boracay Kite Surfing

Yesterday was a pretty good day wind terms. I had a nice kite session in the afternoon until I managed to brake the control bar in two pieces, not good… luckily some friendly philippine guys helped me to sort out the mess with the lines and they will also replace the broken bar with another one =)

Later I went to a local market to buy some ingredients for a dinner. Cooked the dinner in the kitchen at Frency Hotels, the place where I stay at. Rice, with egg, garlic and chili. Got some help in the kitchen from a philippine guy named Japs.

So I ate my dinner and drank some philippine beer with Japs, it was nice!

After the dinner I went to the internet café where I´m at now. Thought I should write a new post here for day 2, but suddenly I started to feel not very good… Went back home to Frency and straight to bed. Didn’t take long before I felt even worse and I ended up vomiting and of course got diarrhea on top of that. Went a few turns back and forth the bed and toilet until I finally fell asleep, probably with some fever. Got up at 14 pm today, feeling a bit weak, but things are much better now!

I talked with two other swedish girls that told me that many kitesurfers get sick on Boracay and the reason is apperantly the water in the ocean, not the food that I first suspected. They say it´s so common that you more or less have to count on getting sick at least once here on Boracay. Let’s hope this was the first and last time for me.

The wind forecast is bad for the coming days, so I might not be able to kitesurf for some days. But there are more things to do on this Island, so I´m pretty sure that I´ll get along anyway =)

Related External Links

• Fun In The Sun Using Boracay Resorts | A Reasonable Doubt
• Boracay 2012 – 67 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
• Boracay 2012 – 56 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
• Boracay 2012 – 68 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
• Boracay 2012 – 66 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

After I like 48 hours of travelling by air, bus and boat I finally arrived to Boracay in the Philippines. I´ll be spending 4-7 weeks here depending on if I feel for going somewhere else or not. I booked a room for one month, so I´m more or less forced to stay at least one month. So you can expect to get daily news about my life here and things that goes on here on this island, that´s at least my intention =)

So what is my first impression about Boracay?  First of all, this island seems great for kitesurfing, it´s been very windy since I got here yesterday (so this actually day 2, but I was to tired to do anything yesterday, so I start count from today) and it´s not particularly gusty. The island has two beaches, the most famous one is called White Beach. Google on Boracay and like 99% of all the images you´ll see is from this beach. The other beach is located on the other side, it´s called Bulabog. Anyway, the wind is offshore on one side and onshore on the other, so all the kitesurfers are crowding on one side, at the moment on Bulabog beach, but they say that the wind will change direction in about 6 weeks.

Accomodation

Boracay is super expensive when it comes to accomodation. The high season is during this time of the year, so there are lots of people on the island right now. The Chinese New Year makes things even worse, but luckily the chinese people will go back home on sunday, so the Island will get somewhat less busy soon.

Average prices for a “cheap” room is about 1200-1500 php. 1500 php equals $35. However, the experienced back packer can of course find cheaper deals, especially if you´re ready to stay on the island for a month. When I arrived yesterday, I just took the first place that was vacant, it costs 1500 php per night. Tomorrow I´ll be moving to another place where I pay 530 php per night, the deal is that stay one month though. Still, this is much much better! The new place is near the beach, it has a kitchen and the room is as good as the one where I stay now.

Food

The food in the tourist resturants are quite crappy in my opinion, but not to expensive. You´ll get a plate with rice and some pieces of a slaughtered chicken for about $3. Way better is to get to the local restaurants where it´s three times cheaper and more tasty!

Mosquitos!

I´m currently being eaten alive, but I´m sitting outside, it´s evening and the place where I´m at now is protected from the wind. Other than that it´s been surprisingly empty with mosquitos, another + for Boracay!

I think that´s enough for today, stay tuned!

 

 

Related External Links

• Ifugao solon supports Boracay Ati tribe : Philippine History
• Boracay. Summer 2011 – Spot Philippine Islands |
• #4932: Boracay Beach in the Philippines – 5000 Snapshots
• Boracay, 4th best island in the world | The Blog of Innocence …
• Fairways & Bluewater, Boracay Island, Philippines – Cebu Beaches …