"Discovering Boracay, Philippines"

We were already starving at 2:00 p.m. when we reached D’ Mall. I asked the first person I met where the restaurants are. The first resto that I saw was Bacolod Manok Inasal. I ordered for grilled chicken leg and breast for me and my wife. Later the waitress told me they run out of chicken breast. So instead, we ordered grilled liempo and added a stick of barbecue, a bottle of San Mig Light and Coke in can. My God, the grilled chicken leg costs 128 pesos and the grilled liempo was 135 pesos. Our bill for our first lunch in the Island including the San Mig light and coke was 460 pesos!

After the most expensive simple lunch we had on earth, we went around D Mall. Only 10 meters away, we saw Andok’s Litson and discovered that same size of chicken leg is only 45 pesos! I really felt robbed! Value for my money, I told myself how expensive our lunch was simply because the Bacolod Manok Inasal was located near the entrance of D Mall!

My wife went around the shops where malongs, souvenir boracay shirts, hats are displayed. I reminded her of the shopping tip that my officemates told me: shop during night time, it is cheaper! As we moved around D Mall, several foreigners were also milling around in their beach wears: Asian – Japanese, Koreans, Chinese; Europeans – germans, dutch, Britons; Americans and even latin Americans.

We reached Station 2 where the majority of the beach resorts are located: Boracay Regency, Boracay Peninsula, Tirol and Tirol to name a few. Several shops offering services like henna skin tattoo printing, hair braiding, and SPA massage to name a few. There are also various stores selling beer in cans, wines, liquors and softdrinks. Various restaurants/bars offer a wide range of kinds of food from native dishes, to European and American food, to Indian food, to Japanese and Korean Food are also lined up along with the Resorts. There are specialty shops offering services like scuba diving equipment rentals, parachute skiing and sailing. There are already bank ATM kiosks (Bank of P.I.; Metrobank, and Allied Bank) where one can withdraw cash. As we walked along the pure white sand beach, local men were following us offering island hopping boat rides, sailing and all sorts of water rides. To describe the entire stretch of Station 2, I will call it as the Central Business District of Boracay! Name it, you will find it in Station 2! I remembered a friend who is a frequent Boracay guest describing Station 2 as Manila’s Ermita district! Maybe because all sorts of foreign nationalities are represented in such a small place, or maybe because of the bars that are full of drunken foreigners!

My wife decided to have her hail braided. She told me it was very cheap at 200 pesos only while she had it at 800 pesos in Bali, Indonesia. While the braiding of my wife was on-going, I walked along the shops, rest/bars that are lined up to Station 3 where I discovered several restos that offer cheaper food and shops that have lower prices of their items! After almost an hour, I returned to where my wife was.

As Always,

Edgar Sandalo