Bora Escapade – Day 1 (050909)

Well, well, well… the long wait is over. Here’s my first entry (take note: first pa lang… meaning, there will be more to come, LOL!) on my Mother’s Day getaway to the beautiful island of Boracay.

As always, I start my travel slash escapade entries with the cast of characters. So, here are my Bora co-stars:

• Mommy (I guess you know her by now 🙂 )
• Gemma (my colleague)
• Judith (my colleague)
• Janice (my former colleague)
• Joie (pronounced as Joey, Janice’s daughter)

So, now you know the whole cast, I’ll start off with my kwento.

We were scheduled for the 11:20 a.m. flight of Zest Air. It was my first time with that aircraft so I had mixed emotions. I was both excited and nervous… eh kasi naman may bumagsak kaya na Zest Air early this year. But what the heck, I’m already booked!

My mom and I met with Gemma and Judith at the domestic airport. Yep, that old small airport in Pasay. Checking in our bags went on smoothly as we were still within the 45 minutes check-in time allowance. Plus, we had some spare time for a short snack.

Around 11 a.m., there was announcement that our flight will be delayed with a new ETD of 12:10 p.m. There’s nothing much to do so we just chatted, had more snacks and took some pics. It was a bit past 12nn, we heard another announcement that our flight is further delayed. Geez, that’s what we get from our cheap priced fare. So, to cut the long story short, we got boarded at 1:30 pm. Bottomline, Zest Air was 2 hours delayed. Well, I thought I’d just charge that to experience.

And here are our first few shots:

At the Domestic Airport... 2 hours delayed ang flight!!!

Just landed Kalibo airport... pictorial agad!

A classic Kalibo Airport pic 🙂

Since we got the Kalibo route, we had to travel via land to Caticlan for about an hour and a half.

A 20-seater nice looking coaster was already waiting for us. I was a bit amazed that the vehicle was exclusive just for the 4 of us (not like the transport service slash private van that fetched us 2 years ago).

There’s really nothing much to see in Kalibo… just the usual province sceneries. But hey, I did take some shots while inside the coaster. And here’s one of my shots:

On our way to Caticlan Jetty Port

It was a bit of a smooth slash short trip. We arrived at the Caticlan Jetty Port at around 5p.m.  Got boarded in a ferry boat which took us to the Boracay Island dock station in 5 minutes.

Boarding the ferry...

Boracay Island Dock Port (not the right term, pauso ko lang yan!)

Oh, before you can reach here, you need to pay a total of P100 per head to cover for the entrance and environmental fees, priced at P50 each.

Another van was waiting for us to take us to the resort. And in less than 10 minutes, we found ourselves checking in at La Carmela de Boracay.

La Carmela de Boracay

We opted for this resort as it was the cheapest beachfront resort in Station 2. I was able to get a 4D3N package for P4,900 per pax inclusive of breakfast, dinner and all those tranfers I mentioned. Quite a cheap package as we travelled during peak season. 😉

While checking in, I texted my friend Janice and informed her of our arrival. She and her duaghter is about to leave the island the day after (Sunday) so I need to go bar hopping with her later that night. I also SMS-ed my former boss, Ma’am Deck, who now owns a resort in Bora. Good thing, she was manning her resort that week. So I tagged Mommy, Gemma and Judith along as Ma’am Deck offered us free snacks. Talk about resourcefulness! LOL.

So, off we went to Serendipity Resort. It’s located at Station 2, at the back of the famous D’ Mall. As soon as I saw Ma’am Deck, I received some nagging. She was kinda sad that I didn’t opt to stay in her resort. Well, my 3 other companions were Bora first-timers so I thought it would be best to book them in a beachfront resort. But hey, Serendipity Resort offers a quiet atmosphere and homey feeling with their nipa hut-inspired cottages. Plus, their lumpia is really something to die for… uber sarap! If you want to book your stay there, just look for Ms. Deck Ramirez. She’d definitely give you great value for your money. Wag nyo na ako i-mention baka di pa kayo bigyan ng discount. LOL. Seriously, feel free to say you were referred by me or just read about her resort here in my blog. 😉

Oh, here’s our group shot at Serendipity Resort’s gazebo: 

At the gazebo with Gemma, Mudra and Judith

We left the resort at 7pm as we needed to do our first agenda… get henna tattoo! I’ll show it off in my next entries ;).

The night was spent with some short rounds at the shore, quick dinner, sand castle photo op.  Gemma, Judith and Mudra felt a bit tired so they all opted to rest early while I went out to meet with Janice and Joie for some drinks… fruit shake, that is! Janice’s daughter, Joie, is only 12 years old so alcholic beverage is a no-no. *sad face*

Here are the pics of the rest of the night:

Gemma, Mudra, moi and Judith

with Janice

With Janice in front of La Carmela

 To be continued…