Alex’s mom Luisa is from the province area Bicol and apparently this area is like the San Francisco of the U.S.Alex has 3 uncles here and they all prefer to be called Titas instead of Titos, which are the Tagalog words for Aunts and Uncles.The plane ride was short, but it took 2 and a half hours in a van to get from the airport to the jungle area Luisa is from.Alex’s family here is very nice.This is true of all his family whether they be from San Diego, Manila, or Bicol.I have never met a member of his family that is not overly accommodating.Filipinos are just very nice people I guess.When we got here it was hotter and more humid then Manila so they took us to a local cold, natural spring pool for a swim.The water was great and very refreshing.It was nice to not be itchy from chlorine afterwards.Apparently they don’t get very many tall white tourists here in Bicol though.During our trip to the pool all the kids would stare at me for several seconds as we drove by on the tricycle.We went to a different natural spring pool on our second day and one girl rode by on a motorcycle and I could hear her say, “whoa, Americano.”I can’t help but laugh when this stuff happens.I think I am going to start waving at all the little kids when they stare at me from now on.
Unfortunately we received some bad news when we got back from the pool on our first day.One of Luisa’s best friends past away from a heart attack while we were gone.It was crazy because we had just saw her earlier that morning before we left.She was kind of like a sister to all of Alex’s aunts and uncles here in Bicol.Janine and Bheng had to take care of a lot of the communication from the hospital in Manila because their mom’s are here with us in Bicol.I feel really bad for them because that’s a tough thing for two 17 and 19 year old girls to have to handle.They have done a good job though and we are all flying back to Manila tomorrow, Friday, instead of Monday like we were originally planning.It is going to be sad when we get back to Manila, but we are kind of looking forward to it because we miss hanging out with the cousins already.Even in mourning Alex’s aunts and uncles drink though so like last night I am sure tonight will involve alcohol and Karaoke.For some reason they are dying to hear me sing.I’ve tried telling them that I have a horrible voice, but they don’t care.I think they just want to have fun laughing at the tone deaf white man.I am ok with that though as long as I have a few cocktails first haha.
Boracay is the most beautiful place we have been to so far.Getting on the boat ferry from the airport reminded me of landing in Kona last year when I went to Hawaii for vacation.We spent our first night in Honolulu, but it wasn’t until we flew into Kona that it really felt like Paradise.That’s how I felt when we got to Boracay.It is a big tourist spot with lots of Europeans and Koreans.During the summer and Holy Week (which is equivalent to our Spring Break) it gets crazy like Cancun or Havasu.All shops, restaurants, bars, and discos are right on the beach just steps from the ocean.The beach is separated into 3 sections labeled Boat Station 1, 2, and 3.I am not sure how they differentiate between the boat stations, but I do now that we stayed at the far end of Boat Station 3 and to walk to the far end of Boat Station 1 took about an hour.After our first night there we decided it was best to take tricycles if we were going to the other Boat Stations.
We got into Boracay around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday June 5th.We had a little bit of a hard time finding our hotel, but it was a nice place just 30 steps from the beach and the price was very affordable.Including our hotel, flight, and boat ferry/tricycle fees from the airport the stay was only $300 U.S. for the two of us and we stayed until Tuesday morning.After checking in we decided to check out the night life a little bit.Unfortunately this time of the year isn’t as busy because it is the start of rainy season, but we still managed to find some good times.We found this little outside round bar covered with a large umbrella top.The bartenders here were funny and spoke pretty good English, but had really funny Filipino accents.They kept saying, “more ice tea, more fun” whenever the servers from the restaurant inside when come out to get iced tea for the customers.The owner of this place was also sitting at one of the outdoor tables with some of his friends drinking.He is a German guy and the bartenders make it their goal to get him really drunk every night so he passes out.It didn’t take long after we got there for the owner to be sitting at a table alone passed out in his chair.This is when Victor and Renaldo (our bartenders) started drinking with us.About an hour after we got there a couple of girls showed up and sat across the bar from us and started having some drinks.I found one of them to be very attractive and I kept catching her looking at me so after I took a trip to the CR (a.k.a. the comfort room, a.k.a. the restroom) I decided to sit down next to her and talk a little bit.Her name was Mharvee and it turns out that her and her friend were on vacation to relax before school starts on June 18th.Victor was taking tequila shots and I decided it would be a good idea to have a couple with him.After the second one we took he talked our new friends into taking one as well.Needless to say I drank myself under the table on this night.Eventually we left there and walked about 100 feet to club m2o at the Regency hotel.There was a live band and Alex actually enjoyed the music.There’s nothing like a Filipino rock band to make your night complete.Eventually the band finished and they threw on some Hip Hop so we all danced until m2o closed.Before saying goodnight to our new friends (we ended up making 4 new friends this night) we all went in search for a late night meal because that’s just what Alex likes to do when he’s really drunk.Alex ate way too much and it was pushing 5:00 a.m. so we decided it was time to head back to the hotel and get some sleep.
The next day we slept in because we were pretty hung over.Eventually we got up and walked down the beach a little bit until we found this nice little restaurant along the beach.The bar area was just off the beach so we decided to sit here so we could people watch and enjoy the breeze coming off the clear blue ocean water.Boracay is beautiful like I mentioned before and enjoying a beer by the beach was very relaxing.We ate lunch here and decided to check out the beach during the day.After a long walk it was time to go back to the room for a nap.We went back to the bar from the night before and Renaldo was working again so we chatted it up with him for a bit.Then Mharvee and her friend ended up coming to the bar also so we had a couple drinks there and then went to m2o again.Unfortunately Sunday nights are not as crazy as Saturday nights so that place closed down a little earlier.We left Mharvee around 1:30 and headed back to the room.I wasn’t tired yet so I decided to walk outside our hotel down to the beach and enjoy the night.This turned out to be a bad idea because while I was hanging out there I got hit on by a bakla (I think that’s spelled right, but it is the Tagolog word for gay man).I thought it was fishy when he came up to me at 2:30 on the beach when I was chilling by myself, but I figured I would be nice.We had some small talk for a couple minutes, but when he mentioned he was a massage therapist and asked me if I wanted a massage I got up as fast as I could, ran back to the room, and cried in the cold shower.Ok it wasn’t that extreme, but I definitely was a little buzzed and the encounter freaked me out.
On Monday we thought it would be a good idea to do some shopping and get some souvenirs.Boracay is known for their pearls and the Muslim street vendors walk up and down the beach selling them.Similar to how you can buy fake sunglasses in Mexico, which they also have here.The pearls, however, are real, but they are affordable because they are harvested very close by.So we got some pearls as souvenirs and then found a roof top steak house to eat lunch at.The fries and the meat we’re pretty good.Not like they would be at an American steak house, but it was nice to have a meal without rice haha.Then we walked back to the room to chill before going out to dinner.We had not yet walked around D’Mall in Boat Station 2 yet so we decided to do that and find somewhere for dinner.D’Mall is a very busy place and I wish we would have gone there on Sunday also.We found a restaurant owned by an English fellow that was advertising 100% angus beef and a 2 for 1 cocktail happy hour.The waitresses were also beautiful so we easily decided this was where we were going to eat dinner.We spent a couple hours there enjoying dinner and some cocktails and made friends with a couple of the cute waitresses.Before leaving we made plans with them to meet up at a disco in Boat Station 1 later that evening.After getting ready back at the hotel we still had time before we had to meet up with our new friends from the restaurant so we decided to go to the Tree House bar near our hotel.We had dinner here on Sunday night and the same bartender was working again.His name was J.R. and he was a funny guy.We had a couple beers here and chatted with J.R. and some other people drinking at the bar.After that we met up with our friends in Boat Station 1 and enjoyed some drinks, hookah, and dancing with them.It is always nice to have the company of beautiful girls and for some reason that is easier to come by here in the Philippines.In Las Vegas waitresses will rarely jump at the opportunity to hang out with a customer outside of work like these girls did.It was fun, but at midnight we decided it was time to go since we had to leave our hotel at 5 a.m. to catch our flight back to Manila.While we were waiting for a tricycle our friend J.R. walked out of the disco we had just left and talked us into going to the other disco across the street.We said goodnight to the girls we were with and headed across the street even though we knew it probably wasn’t a good idea.After about an hour of hanging out and dancing J.R. left.The place was still pretty busy, but at 1:30 a.m. it was time to go get some sleep.5:00 a.m. came too fast and we were exhausted the whole next day.When we got back to Manila we spent the day hanging out with K.C., C.J., Janine, and Bheng.We relaxed and watched movies instead of going out since we left for Bicol the next morning.
After our trip to Palawan it was time to relax in Manila with the family for a couple days.We didn’t do much during the day besides go to the mall, but of course we went out at night.This is probably a good time to explain about the family we have been staying with while we’re in Manila.Alex’s mom Louisa owns the house, but her youngest sister Clarissa, her husband Joel, and 3 daughters live there.The three girls are K.C. age 10, C.J. age 13, and Janine age 17.They’re cousin Bheng (her real name is Jiezzele) also hangs out with us a lot.Her mom is also Louisa’s sister and they live down the street from Clarissa in the suburb of Manila called Pacig.These girls have been great with showing us around and hanging out with us.I have so many fun stories about all of them that would just take too long to cover in a blog.
However, one story worth telling here is when I took 3 of the cousins out on a date.Alex has taken a liking to one of Janine’s college classmates and wanted to take her out on a nice date so I decided it would be a good idea to take C.J., Janine, and Bheng on a date the same night.Unfortunately we were going out for drinks afterwards so we could not bring K.C. along.13 year olds apparently can hang out at the discos in Manila, but 10 year olds can’t.Go figure.I decided to take them to the Hard Rock because that’s one of the nicer restaurants in downtown Manila and they serve American style food, which I was craving.The girls didn’t know what anything on the menu was and they wanted me to order for all of us.They told me to get something I like that they probably have not tried before so I decided that we would all share some fajitas and gourmet mac and cheese.
The meal was great, but the girls didn’t eat much.I guess the tortillas and pasta noodles filled them up fast because Janine said it felt like she just ate 4 cups of rice after one fajita and a scoop of mac and cheese.Of course I should mention that none of the girls weigh over 100 pounds so it doesn’t take them much to get full or tipsy for that matter.I also ordered Bheng and Janine mojitos because I knew they never had them before.Of course Janine got buzzed after just a few sips of hers, which was pretty funny.After dinner the Baja Girls were performing so we had some drinks and watched them perform a couple of sets.They are like a want to be version of the Pussy Cat Dolls, but they’re skills are probably equivalent to Tila Tequila haha.It was pretty funny.
Alex and his date Carmela met up with us at the Hard Rock after their dinner and watched the second set with us and then we decided to go somewhere else where we could dance and have more fun.The night ended a couple hours later after a lot of dancing and a little bit of drinking.We got home around 2:30 a.m. and everyone fell asleep watching a movie.We spent the entire next day just hanging out and sleeping.That was fine with me and Alex because we needed a day off before we left for Boracay the next day.
