Our holiday at Boracay has come to an end. Today we had to leave. We got a ride by the hotel open minivan to the harbor. Someone came and picked up our bags before the car even came to a stop. Then, when we got onto the boat they wanted money for it, of course.

One of the people working at the hotel joined us all the way with the boat and the short trip from where we stranded with the boat to the airport. We gave him and the guy helping him carrying the bags some tip. Then we entered the airport.

Although the airport was small it was still kind of unorganized. First we had to pass a security check to get into the airport. Then check in. Then pay the airport fee. Then show the tickets and payed airport fee recites to get into the waiting hall. A hall for about 60-100 people for all gates (maybe 3 gates totally). Then the two different airline companies had their own loud speakers where they announced the flights. Usually at the same time so it was impossible to hear what they said.

Our flight was never called. And our departure time came and went. Finally I had enough of waiting and asked someone and they told me it was delayed. Eventually, about an hour late, we could board. First, out of the waiting hall and across the area where the planes are parked. Then up into the airplane, a small Fokker twin turbo prop.

After taxiing out on the runway the pilots set full throttle and waited to build up the turbine pressure I guess. Then they released the breaks and we were shot forward. I guess they have to do it like that because the runway was kind of short.

35 minutes later we landed in Manila. Took a coupon taxi to the Pan Pacific hotel. And got ready to go to a department store that Chie wanted to visit. We told the hotel limousine (its called like that even though it was an ordinary Toyota) driver where to go and off we went. To the wrong place. We found that out after we could not find the store Chie wanted to check. Unfortunately we had not enough time to go to the right department store so instead we went back to the hotel.

Almost at once we went to a Japanese restaurant in the same building as the hotel. It was great food, but of course not as great as in Japan. Still we enjoyed to eat it.

After dinner we went back to our room to repack our things and get ready for the departure the next day.

At 10 am we got picked up outside the hotel. Renz (or Lorenzo) at the hotel had arranged for his brother in law to take us on a boat trip around the island. His brother in law brought us down to boat station 1 at the beach. From there his brother took us out on his boat.

First stop was on Crystal island. Here we had a short walk from the beach to a cave were we could swim. After a cooling swim we continued our walk to another cave. The second cave could be entered by first wading through chest deep water and then crawl through a 10 meters long tunnel. We had another swim.

Then we had a walk back to the beach to get on the boat again. Then off to Crocodile island. Sounds scary, huh? But it is just the shape of it. It looks like a giant crocodile head in the water. We passed the island and anchored so that we could snorkel for a while. It was hard getting into the water since it was full of fishes everywhere. Some of them mistook me for fish food.

After we got tired from all the snorkeling we continued our boat trip to Puka-Shell beach. It was quite a long ride along the east side of the island. It was fun to watch.

We arrived at the Puka-Shell beach but entered the beach at the end. Far away from where we stayed earlier. We had something o drink and relaxed in the sand. Occasionally we went into the water to cool off. All along our boat crew stayed on the boat in the shadow. I believe that most Philippines think that we tourists are crazy. Because we stay in the hot sun when there is shadow available.

After spending an hour or so in the hot sun we entered the boat again and went back to White Sand beach. We thanked our boat crew and had a short walk from the boat station back to the Paradise Garden beach. It’s actually not our hotels beach, they just have a few sun chairs there and parasols. We relaxed and enjoyed our last day in Boracay.

Then we decided to go back to the pool at the hotel. I guess we wanted to enjoy all the things we have done in Boracay on our last day.

After spending time at the poolside we went back to our room and got ready for dinner. This last night we wanted to relive our first night so we went back to Aria again. We really like their food. We also wanted to say goodbye to all the friendly people there.

We spent another wonderful day at the Puka-Shell beach today. It was sunny as usual, the sand was warm and nice as usual, and the water was clear and cooling in the hot sun. It is strange how you really cannot get enough of this… Laying on a beach doing nothing but relaxing, reading, talking, swimming.

In difference from our first time we went to the Puka-Shell beach this time we took a tricycle. Fun and cheap. At around 2pm we took a tricycle back to the hotel. My stomach was not complete back to normal yet so I wanted to take it easy with the sun and relax at the hotel before going out for dinner.

Tonight we went back to the Mexican restaurant Manana. We really wanted to have the Manana salad again. It was such a great salad. When we were having our dinner a dirty woman with a kid in her arms came up to us and begged for money. We did not know how to react. We did not know how this was treated in Philippines and did not want to do anything wrong. We were saved by one of the waitresses that gave her some money and we paid the waitress back when we got the bill.

But it got me thinking. I have no idea really of how to solve the situation for all the poor people over the world. I really don’t just want to give them money without knowing that they will really use it for food and shelter and not for alcohol or drugs. Anyway, I thought that one way could be to start a foundation in a place like Boracay and families without money and shelter could get that from the foundation with the condition that their children would go to school (also financed by the foundation).

The idea would be to not just give something without requiring some kind of payback. That’s the condition. The payback in this case would be for the kids to go to school, which is actually not a payback to the foundation itself but to the society and to them selfs. But of course for this to work at all there needs to be a foundation and a plan on where to start and how to expand in order to help as much as possible. But I truly believe that just giving money will not help at all.

I felt much better today although my stomach was still upset. We stayed at the poolside for an hour or so before we went to get a massage at the Mandala Spa. The massage was nice and the room where we had our massage was beautiful. We found out that it was not only a spa but also a resort. The rooms were $240 per night including breakfast and yoga classes in the morning. A find!

The afternoon we spent at the poolside before we got ready to watch the sunset and to have dinner. We went to Aria again, because they have great food and service there.