Off to to Boracay Island - Boracay, Philippines
Boracay, Philippines
Welcome to day 4 ,Sunday 31st July 2016.
Wakey wakey, it’s 3am already! I hate those short nights of about 3 hours don't you. lol
OK bags all packed, no time to lose, let’s hope this new Taxi phone app I have been told about works. It’s called Uber, have you heard of it? I opened the app, entered my pick up point and my destination, Changi Airport, Singapore, terminal 1, pressed order a taxi. With anticipation I waited while the app searched for a taxi.
Come on come on, wow, your taxi will be with you in 4 minutes, a Toyota reg no, colour etc. How impressive!
With no time to lose I grabbed my belongings and headed down to the entrance passing my 50m pool on the way saying my last goodbyes. Amazing, 30 seconds after getting to the main gate there is my taxi! Now that’s service.
The taxi driver insisted he pick my case up and put it in his boot. I told him it was heavy but he insisted and struggled on. Good conversation broke out between the taxi driver and myself. He asked if I was from Manchester? His favourite team is Manchester United (glory chaser hey lol). Then he told me that he has had a couple of vents fitted following a heart attack and mustn’t lift too much. “So why did you insist on lifting my case?” I asked. It’s my job sir!” came the reply. I politely told him off and said he has to look after himself, job or no job.
Within no time at all we were arriving at Singapore Airport. Time to go on a mission to check in and print my boarding pass for my onwards flight from Manila. First stop the self check in machines for my JetAir flight to Manila. No joy, computer says NO! Well it looked like that must have been a standard response given by the size of the JetStar desk queue.
Oh well I fell in line and waited and waited.Anxiety levels on the rise as the queue didn’t seem to get any smaller and I knew I still had to find the business centre in the airport to print out my next boarding pass. Breathe Paul, breathe! Soon I reached the desk but by now I was even more stressed as my rucksack that I had perched on top of my case had fallen off onto the floor. (I later found out that the view screen of my SLR camera was cracked as a result – oh dear, nevermind at least the camera still works). I handed over my flight details, received my boarding pass.
Right let’s find this business centre. Having asked several people with blank face replies “where is the business centre please?” I finally found it. But this wasn’t as simple as I thought. The lady could only print my boarding pass if I could email it to her. I explained more times than I can remember that I have to log into the flight website and print from there. The lady behind the desk said no she can’t do that. Now at this point as you can imagine I just wanted to take over the keyboard and mouse from her and do it myself but I refrained.
Then the penny dropped and guess what, she logged in and VOILA, she printed my boarding pass! Geez some people really make hard work for everyone don’t they.
Time for a well earned coffee and croissant with an hour to spare! Relax. I briefly had a chat with a passing airline pilot. “Where are you flying to?” I asked. “Tokyo Japan Sir” “Where are you going?” “Boracay in the Philippines” I replied. He laughed and then said “ aha you’re going to the tropical storm area then” Not knowing if he was being serious or not I laughed it off too!
So while having my coffee I decided to call my good friend Yvonne for a chat with someone normal. (Well normalish, if that’s a word, ha ha). My stress levels subsided and I began to tell her of my blog writing. She agreed it was a great idea but said I needed a title. “Why not call it “Travelling Stacey Style””? she said. So there we are, I have my blog title. "TRAVELLING STACEY STYLE" Thanks Yvonne!
Ooh look at the time, it was time to go to my gate, time to fly to Manila. I grabbed my rucksack and headed off to my gate. Now this is strange, the scanner machine was at the boarding gate. Through I go feeling all confident. "Stop" shouts one of the security guards, my heart missed a beat! “You have airsol?” Now I must admit that having a bad accent it did sound like something else I care not to repeat that may involve rubber gloves. Not wanting to cause trouble I said yes, then he pointed to my wash bag, oh an aerosol, phew ! It was duly confiscated. I joked that oh well I will have to smell but yet again the humour schooling was not in his training.
Minutes later I was boarding my JetStar plane destined for Manila. Hmmm this plane was nowhere near as nice as Emirates, very small and cheap looking, the RyanAir of the East I guess. Still I had no alternative so quickly found my seat. A window seat this time so that wasgood. Loaded my rucksack in the overhead locker and squeezed myself onto my seat that was to be my home for the next 3 and a half hours.
I guess you’re all wondering who I was sat next to this time hey, well he didn’t have a checked shirt on, good start. But omg I wish I had one of those stylish Singapore face masks: cough cough splutter, my god this lad was really sick ! Great so I am gonna catch some deadly disease before I even reach Boracay I thought!
Before I knew it we were landing at Manila. Now the rush began, I had less than 1 hour to reclaim my luggage and get to terminal 4 for my next flight!
OK here’s my bag, now where to go? Having asked for directions I was escorted into a shuttle bus for terminal 4. It sounded like a rave bus, loud music playing. I sat next to this guy who was on his way to Japan, we managed to communicate, just! The bus was just about holding together, beaten up panels inside it and graffiti on it plus everytime the driver went over a speed hump it sounded like the suspension could do with a good squirt of WD40! Still we go there in one piece.I was now at terminal 4 with 40 minutes to spare and there in front of me was my check in desk with Cebu Pacific to Caticlan.
I stood behind 2 youngs girls who were English so got talking to them. Rosie and Jessica. Wow they had been to Japan before here and travelled on the Bullet Train. It seemed that everyone had either been to or was going to Japan except me.
Having dropped my case off I went through to the departure lounge and grabbed a coffee. Sat waiting patiently with my new English friends we soon learned that there was a 3 hour delay. Typhoon Carina was blowing over Boracay and the pilot didn’t fancy his chances, fortunately!
Now here’s a bit of info I found out while in Manila. They have a new president who is trying to clean up the drugs culture there. He has told all drug pushers to hand themselves
in or he will order his army to shoot on sight. So far they have shot 1200! Hmmmm, maybe I’ll just stay in the airport. I heard that one guy was wearing his brothers T-shirt so they shot the
wrong guy, oops, my bad !
OK our flight to Caticlan was called. What on earth?! The plane had 2 propellers! Well this will be interesting I thought. My seat was over one of the wings. Where are my goggles I thought. Still it was only a 1 hour flight, I can do this ! lol.Oh lord the props began to spin, here we go ! Up up and away! Paradise here we come.
A little over an hour later we touched down on the runway at Caticlan airport, now just a ferry trip and I would be in Boracay Island.Now on the plane they were selling us tickets for a bus to the ferry port, the boat crossing and then a bus to our accomodations so I thought it wise to buy one.
Once out of the airport we were escorted to a bus where a mean looking guard stood with a huge automatic rifle in his grasp ! what a lovely welcome sight that was! Ha ha.I got on the bus and drove to the ferry. Well I say ferry, it was just a speed boat lol. A local guy grabbed mycase and slung it on his shoulder and proceeded down the wooden gang plank onto the boat oh and then held his hand out for a tip! Cheeky bugga lol.So now I was sat on a speed boat rushing across the water to Boracay Island.
The journey took less than 5 minutes.We left the boat and were now in a busy ferry port where loads of motorbikes and mini buses were. Congestion and mayhem. I had never seen anything like it.
Now I had booked to stay at this Villa through Air BNB. A villa on the quiet side of the island but unbeknown to me it was also the poorer side of the island. I was greeted at Villa Tayamo by the housekeeper called Dedding. A 54 year old Filipino lady. The villa was not as I had expected, was in a bad state of repair, an unfinished project I soon found out.
She cooked me dinner when I arrived: squid in garlic sauce with rice! Mmmmm yummy, NOT! Have you ever tried to eat a rubber ball? Still I persisted as was hungry.Soon after I went up to my room and crashed out with exhaustion. I had made it to Boracay Island.