It's been ages since I last blogged about anything! I wish I could say I've been swamped with work and social activities in the past few months but that's just a blatant lie. LOL. I just got really lazy. Last March, I was about to work on my backlogs but it was too damn chilly for a summer month that weekends were best spent sleeping all day long. 

And then this April, the temperatures have abruptly risen to boiling levels that weekends, again, were best spent sleeping in front of the electric fan. Seriously. Because if you damn think about moving even an inch, i.e. lifting your fingers to type, you WILL sweat like a pig. I kid you not.

So! After Boracay, I went on an Amazing Race-ish trip in December. Manila > Bulacan > La Union > Bulacan > Mindoro > Manila > Bulacan in just 2 weeks. It was a rediscovering-your-roots kind of Christmas. It was exhausting to say the least, but it was one of the best holidays I spent with my family - ever!

And then in January, Toto and I celebrated our 10th anniversary as bf-gf in Siquijor, Dumaguete, Apo Island and Cebu city. I love Siquijor. I just. Can't!!! I don't know how to describe it because I frankly think there are no apt words to describe its majesty. Wow. Would ya look at that? I'm getting poetic and shit. Just GO. Visit Siquijor. NOW.

In February, I went to Bohol with my bestest friends. Bohol is...touristy. Not really my cup of tea, but Dumaluan Beach in Panglao is the bomb! It can give White Beach, Boracay a run for its money. Anyhoo, I still enjoyed this trip because I went with my craziest friends!

Last Holy Week, I went home to La Union. San Juan is bustling with tourists so we went to Pugo and tried this family resort. Nothing spectacular or new about this particular visit but I just love coming home to see my parents every time I can.

Okay. Enough with the yapping! I will find time to finish all my backlogs - presumably in about 2 years LOL - but here's a video that summarizes our 2015 trips so far. It's a feel good video with feel good music (I love Michael Franti!) that will hopefully brighten your mood and inspire you to go travel! :)

Cheers,
Tria

This is a rough guide on how to enjoy a family vacation in Boracay – home to one of the world’s best beaches – without having to eat cup noodles and canned meat twice a day while on the island. And yes, there’s a trick to getting your own free beachfront chairs that doesn't involve checking-in at a fancy, beachfront hotel.

To be quite honest there's nothing special about Puka Beach. It would have probably been a perfect spot to beach bum and get away from hordes of people in White Beach if not for its rocky-nakakasakit-ka-na-sa-paa shores. Guess there's a reason why White Beach is much more popular (tons of reasons, actually).

We spent P250 (100 to and 150 from) in transportation alone. And a thousand for eating at Puka Grande. A few hundred bucks for pasalubong. Thank goodness they have souvenir stalls in Puka where we bought cellphone charmers and other trinkets because we didn't have time to go to D'Mall anymore to shop for pasalubong. 

Save for an hour of water activities and a few quick trips to D'Mall to grab some food, we practically glued ourselves to Sur Boracay's beach chairs and cabanas. Why wouldn't we? It was the best way to make the most out of  the P14k we paid them! :)) 

It took me months of reading reviews and browsing travel sites to look for the best hotel in Boracay, and when I said best I meant value for money. I wouldn't mind paying a little more than the usual as long as the area is not too crowded. And I reckon Boracay and "not crowded" can't be used in one sentence so I really had a hard time choosing among the countless of hotels, inns, and guesthouses on the island. I guess it just all came down to personal preferences.

Okay, let's say it all together now..."Awful blog title!!" K, whatever. But I just wanted to write something other than "Boracay Day 2." Hihi. 

So anyway, we didn't exactly find Nemo but we sure did get some water action during our second day in Boracay. We got Kuya Ron's number from PinoyExchange and an urban legend states that he gives the lowest rates for all types of activities in Boracay. Well, I kind of believed that until I heard my gay officemates' story about how they got to experience parasailing (with free helmet diving!!!) for only P700/person by just flirting with the Caticlan Jetty's police officer of the day, who's got some connections and stuff. In their own words, "Kinembutan lang ni (insert sexy gay friend's name here)." Well, I'm not gay (not that there's something wrong about it) and certainly not flirtatious and remotely congenial so we're good with Kuya Ron's rates. Besides, we definitely had a blast rolling off some speedboat-driven airbed, a.k.a the mighty Flying Fish! :D

If there's anything about Boracay that we love more than the hot chicks and tanned dudes, it has got to be the food. Although we weren't able to walk past through station 2 (heck, we barely even made it to station 2!), station 1 has its own food heaven for the tourists to enjoy.

We came to visit Boracay during lean season and I thought we'd have the island to ourselves because, well, it's lean season. This was my first time and I was stupid enough to think that the country's number 1 tourist spot would be crowd-less on the last week of September. But the scene in Caticlan airport showed otherwise. It didn't sink in to me that people from all over the world have heard about Boracay through various media until we reached the jetty port and boy was it pretty crowded. I checked my calendar after asking myself, is it summer yet?