The kids had one week off for the Chinese New Year in February. We were talked into going to Boracay, Philippines with 3 other families here in our church. It didn't take much convincing - we had heard a lot about how nice the beach is and about how much there is to do there.
We left on Friday, the 13th, taking the kids out of school one day early. Instead of just driving to the airport, we took the Maglev -- the station is about a 10 minute drive from our house. The Maglev is a high speed train (it reached a top speed of 431 km/hour / 330 mph on our trip), and takes about 7 minutes, compared with a 45 minute drive. It was a really smooth ride, especially considering how fast we were going.
We flew to Manila and went in a van to the hotel, though we wish we could have taken one of the Jeepneys, which are all over the streets of Manila.
We checked in to the hotel, changed, and then went to the temple.
We were finished at about 7:30 PM, and tried to get a taxi from the temple back to the hotel, but it was impossible - we couldn't get any taxi to stop, and nobody was able to call a taxi for us. We even tried to flag down a Jeepney, to talk other bus and Jeepney drivers at the temple to take us. We finally got some help from a local guy (named Lehi) who had just come out of the temple. He told us the temple has a shuttle bus that takes people back and forth between a bus station. So all 19 of us crammed inside the back of a rather small shuttle bus for the 15 minute ride to the hotel.
On the way we got pulled over by a policeman. We thought the problem was that we had too many people in the bus, but it turned out that one of the headlights on the shuttle bus was out. Safety first!
We were all grateful to crawl out of the back of that bus - it was claustrophobic.
Dinner at TGI Friday's, near the hotel, with Lehi, our guide from the temple to the hotel. We don't know if we would have made it without his help.
The shopping mall near our hotel in Manila had a Krispy Kreme store, so Heidi bought some doughnuts for breakfast on Valentine's Day, including some heart-shaped doughnuts.
Did I mention we liked the Jeepneys?
On arrival at the small airport in Boracay (one landing strip), we were taken in a van to a waiting area by the dock.
And then we went by boat to Boracay island.
We spent the first 4 nights on the island at a resort called Nigi Nigi Too.
It was great to be on vacation with these families - each of the kids had friends to hang out with for the week.
Tuk tuks were the main mode of transportation for getting around the island - between the hotel and restaurants, etc.
One of our favorite things we did that week was a sailboat ride at sunset. All the teenagers went on one boat.
And all the adults and younger kids went on the other boat.
Mallory did Zumba on the beach a couple of mornings.
Grant, Luke, and I did a Scuba diving course one morning. We all liked it, a lot, but the whole breathing underwater didn't exactly agree with my body, so Grant and Luke continued on with the others and got their Open Water Scuba certification.
Grant and Andreas on one of their first dives.
The view from our hotel balcony was absolutely beautiful, especially at sunset.
Gearing up for day 2 of the Scuba certification course.
Every meal together seemed like a good opportunity to take a photo - especially on Laurel's birthday.
Dinner on the beach most nights -- and sometimes fireworks.
This is the view from the water back towards our hotel on the beach -- quite a small place, no more than 2 dozen rooms.
At low tide it was possible to walk right out to Willy's Rock, which had a shrine on it.
One day we chartered a boat for a few hours and took it to a couple of places to snorkel.
The first place we stopped to snorkel had some waves and strong currents.
Mallory loved it, though.
Above - Mallory and Cara, with our boat in the background.
We stopped at this other beach on the north side of the island.
The kids had fun skipping rocks across the water.
Luke, at sunset on the beach, holding a fruit shake -- we had fruit shakes several times a day. They call them shakes there, but they are really more like fruit smoothies. My personal favorite was the mango shake. I probably had two per day while we were there.
Wednesday night was New Year's Eve, and the hotel had a big banquet with all sorts of Chinese food, so we felt right "at home".
On Thursday, a few of us went with a big group trip to a place called Ariel's Point - about a 30 minute boat ride to another island. The big draw for going there was the cliff jumping - they had about 5 platforms for jumping into the water. Grant was the first one out of the whole group to try it, at one of the lower heights (about 3 meters?).
Grant, Luke, and James (and I) took turns trying out the various heights.
Grant, Luke, and James - climbing the ladder and the stairs after their jumps to get back up to the platforms.
Luke, James, Grant, and I on the ~10 meter platform.
Luke and Grant (above) went off the highest platform - 15 meters.
It was a nice view from the highest platform (I only managed the platform from about 10 meters). In addition to cliff jumping, we also had lunch, went sea kayaking, and did some snorkeling.
The "He" toilet.
It was a good day, except for the fact that on Grant's last jump he bit his lip. So on the boat ride on the way back, he sucked on ice to keep the swelling down.
For the last nights we stayed at the Boracay Regency hotel, which was in a busier area of the beach, but it had some great swimming pools.
Our last day was a bit overcast most of the day, and it rained on and off. We went out to the beach to take some photos, and a group of 5 little kids (ages 7 ~10) came up to us and started talking with us.
At first they tried to get us to buy some bracelets they were selling, then they just asked us to take them to McDonalds (which was just a short walk away). We kept telling them that we didn't have any money with us, which was true - it was all in the hotel room. They kept talking with us and joking around with us and wanted to get in our photos.
Our last dinner on the beach - it was raining outside, so we were glad we were under a tent. However, the tent leaked a bit and some of us got wet.
Our departure by boat from Boracay back to the island with the airport.
It was low tide, so the porters gave us a lift from the boat to the shore.
