Boracay

From Thailand I went via Malaysia to the Philippines and made it to one of the places on my list of things to see in the Philippines that I did not get to on the first visit. This is the island of Boracay that is famous for it long white sand beach.

I have been traveling so long and have been to so many spectacular places. This presents a problem for me. Now I seem to always compare one place to other similar places I have been to instead of just enjoying the place for itself. Boracay is a beautiful beach but for most of the length of the beach there are bars, restaurants and hotels. I seem to enjoy the places I feel like I have the beach to myself and also the surf was not large at all so was not as much fun to play in the water. Boracay reminded me of Kuta beach on Bali Indonesia without the surf.

Most of the things I did find interesting about Boracay came from walking away from the main beach. There is a huge contrast in just a few 100 meters. You have a feeling of money being everywhere on the beach and then after walking a 100 meters away from the beach I felt like I was in a 3rd world country again. For what I think is the top tourist spot in the Philippines the roads on the island are in really bad shape. There are also all kinds of shacks away from the beach.

I think the thing I found the most interesting on Boracay were the tricycles. I had experienced the tricycles when I had been to the Philippines before but the ones on Boracay where different. The sidecar was a lot bigger than in North Luzon. I don’t think the bikes they were attached to were any larger just the sidecar. They also seemed to use them as public transport like a bus. They would just weigh one down and if there was a way possible to be carried by the tricycle they would get on. On my ride from the pier to the beach the tricycle seemed to struggle to get up the hill with me, the driver and 2 other people. I don’t know how the bikes would make it when there are 7 to 8 people on a tricycle.