SEPTEMBER 2012: BORACAY FUN!

Hey ya! September has been officially spelled as B-O-R-A-C-A-Y already! Yey! Twas my first time riding a plane, and a first at the famous Bora! September 20-22, me, my cousin Beah and three more friends went there and experienced a bit of everything it has in store for its vacationers.

Bora is lurve! The beach is superb! Actually reminded me of starch in water haha! Beah, my ever organized cous, did her homework in researching the places that are must-visits and stuff that are must-try's.

First time riding a plane for me! The first ride was okay, better compared to our ride home ;( anyways, me and my cous striking poses before we took off:

Funny: tumerno ang nail polish ko sa curtains ng bus at welcome drinks ng La Carmela! haha

terno!

Landed from AirPhil Express on Thursday lunch time, we hit the beach for a pose:

Ren, Mela, me, Beah and Cha. (photo credits to Mela Viray)

We stayed at La Carmela Hotel, Station 2. We paid for P2000 for a Semi-Deluxe room, 3 days 2 nights. The room was nice and clean. ;) Good service kasi maraming crew, they're always ready to help you bring your things, or for anything you need them for. Konting kaway lang, nandiyan na sila. :)

Our first meal: I <3 BACKYART BBQ in D'Mall. D'Mall is the central pasalubong and resto place located in Station 2. We had Pepper Steak and Baked Potato which was very yummy! Lunch budget:  P285+P80.

Pepper Steak @ P280

Herbed Baked Potato @ P80

A cute artsy wall inside I <3 Backyard BBQ

Food were served fast but we had to ask them to cook our meat more, parts were still a bit raw.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON-NIGHT PASYAL.

The whole Bora strip is filled with stores, restos, souvenir shops, hotels/inns and people! Thursday was an introduction of the place to first timers such as us. We had fun looking at what the street has for us, not knowing that the whole stretch is really looong. Nevertheless we enjoyed the sights of Bora by day, and the night life after!

 By the way, we tried the famous Jonah's fruit shake in Station1 near the Grotto! We had Banana vanilla and Avocado. Sarap! We had it after jogging from Station 3 to Station 1! Twas worth the long walk. Price ranges from P90-P110. Jonah's shakes are put in small blue PET bottles with straw poked on the cover. Cool. I remember buko shakes in Manila now are getting famous and are packaged the same way.

Regency is one of the nicest hotels we found there. At night, they also offer buffet for P700 pesos. Very sosyal so worth trying I guess. Will do next time! On Thursday night, we enjoyed the band they had for their customers. Sobrang galing. ;)

Thursday dinner @ Andoks: Super Half @P125, Chopsuey (btw, not recommended!) @ P69 

LEMON I CAFE- BORACAY

A cute cafe we found in the heart of D'Mall Station 2. You know how breads and pastries capture my attention, especially housed in a cute cafe like Lemon I Cafe! Beah said that according to bloggers, this cafe is famous for it's Lemon Bar priced @ P95. She'd been telling me about it, and I had been all the more excited to try it out. 

The Cafe also serves meals aside from pasties and coffee. 

Not pricey! Price ranges for pastries from P30 to P150 for cheesecakes and cake slices!

The famous Lemon Bar! Over sa lemon! haha.

 Verdict for the Lemon Bar: uber sa Lemon! haha. It's sour talaga! It took us almost an hour to finish the whole slice haha recommended to be eaten with long talks and much water! But I liked it though, I craved for it the next dy, though it has become a joke na for us cousins! ;) Will try this again when we come back! :)

love it!

FRIDAY PASYAL DAY

Friday was meant for activities: we just decided on going on island hopping, snorkeling, and cave visit together. There were a  lot of, as we called them, "marketing staff" by the beach, offering everyone activity packages such as island hopping, para sailing, helmet diving, helicopter ride even, diving, banana boat, jet skiing, etc. Well, they're pricey! But some will bargain you with cheaper options. I remember there was a guy who talked to Ren for I think 30 minutes haha while we were walking. The deal can end up with an exchange of numbers, or business cards. Like a pro! haha. Unluckily, some end up just wanting to be your textmate uh-oh! beware...

Meme contacted the Manong we first talked to coz he looked trustworthy haha. So we paid P1300 for 5 people. Thought twas cheap na, but we ended up paying for more: goggles and snorkle for P100 each, bread for fish feeding for P10 each, another fee for snorkeling for P60, fee for island hopping for P20 each, cave fee for P100 each (ridiculous! we thought the cave was really nice with fresh water inside and all but for me the fee was too high!).

We had lunch at Puca Beach, our last stop. Bought buko juice, 3 for P100 sold by a manong on a boat in the middle of the sea haha.

crystals on rocks inside the cave ;)

After the activities, Beah and I went to the TALIPAPA where we bought pasalubong. Talipapa is not as nice as D'mall because it's just a small strip of pasalubong stores but sold in cheaper prices.

Banig Wallets are 5 for P100 and 3 for P100 here. Souvenir Shirts are P170 for 2 pieces.

We found a small house selling these for cheaps. Bangles here are P50 only!

These 'organic' soaps are P50 each. 

Welcome to my crib! haha. kidding. This is Sands. Nice hotel!

Behind Sands, it's a chinese hotel haha but it's fancy ;)

Dinner time! Friday Dinner was supposed to be for pigging out but we chose to eat Seafood instead. Beah is a sucker for prawns! We stopped by a small Seafood-paluto resto and checked out what they had. They were offering a per-100 gram seafood meals, price ranging from P100 to P300. So we had a small snapper fish grilled with olive oil, prawns buttered and sinigang na maya-maya. Rice was P10 lang! We paid less than P600 pesos for dinner! Not bad cos twas superb and sumptous! Sarap talaga! :)

1 palayok of Maya-maya sinigang with a lot of veggies! It was like good for three na eh!

great sauces for the grilled stuff!

loved the prawns! Yummy!

Eh ito yung table number eh :P

On our way, we met with the ladies who were about to enjoy their Pinoy dinner at Mesa!

The rest of the night was for Beah and I to witness the night life there together with fire dances! To end the night, we hit Cafe del Sol and tried their Cappuccino and Oatmeal Cookies. Sarap ng kape doon!

Yummy coffee! Nice blend! ;)

sleepy na! haha. cafe del sol was about to close already, it was 12 na!

lurve!

We swam in the beach, Saturday morning, when we got super tan! haha. Okay lang, we just couldn't resist Station 1's stunning clear waters. We swam with the fishes. Lunch was at Andok's again. haha. Then a few moments to linger on the beach and everything else in Bora. I designed Beah's henna tat:

After all the pagod in Manila, we can still get away somewhere to relax.Thank You Lord!

My tipid-mode Bora trip will be memorable. Glory to God. Til next year! ;)

PS Thanks cousin Beah for posting our Photos. All credit goes to your kuya's DSLR. Lol. :))