Currently Listening to: “Stole the Show” by Kygo
Out of all three beach towns I’ve been to in the Philippines, Boracay was my least favorite. The beach is crowded and it isn’t even high season yet. As you walk along the beach, you are constantly asked if you want your hair braided, a massage, a henna tattoo, a real tattoo (because that’s totally safe and sanitary), or they are trying to get you to book an island hopping tour. There are peddlers everywhere. The wealth disparity on the island is also incredibly apparent. There are people all over the beach and main street begging. Often times, you see mothers with their children begging and at least one of the children will have no clothes on. I will admit the island is beautiful, but as a backpacker, it was on the high end of the budget. We arrived on Friday the 13th late in the afternoon. For most of my trip in Asia, I haven’t booked anything in advance. It’s low season and you can easily get a deal by showing up to somewhere and just requesting a room. We got to Station 2, had some McDonald’s (the first time I’ve had it in the entire time I’ve been away. Judge me all you want, but I was happy to taste something so familiar) and then set off to find a hotel we found on booking.com
One last silly night
Station 2 Boracay
Traffic in Manila
It didn’t go so well. First we couldn’t find the place. While looking for it, people took us to their hotels in an attempt to convince us to stay with them. We eventually found the hotel we were originally hoping to stay at, but the price was almost triple of what was post online and in an area we didn’t want to stay in. Back out to the beach we went and back to the first hotel we had looked at. The whole process took roughly an hour of us walking around carrying all of our stuff. By the end of it I was a bit fussed and willing to admit it.
A shower and some some drinks on our balcony was all I needed to calm down again. We went out for a boogie that night and found Cocomangoes and had a blast. Upon leaving Tom was keen to have both of us get on the back of a motorbike to get back to our hotel. When Tom has a few drinks in him, he is enthusiastic about everything. He also thinks he can haggle things down to the price of nothing. After successfully doing that for a Tuk Tuk in Cambodia, he attempted to convince the guy on the motorbike to give us a ride for free. It didn’t work and so began our walk back.
We woke up the next morning in pretty good shape considering we were up so early the day before and traveled for what felt like ages and then went out drinking. We hung around station 2 and went to the beach. It was a rather lazy day and calm night.
Somewhere in that time, Philippines Airlines changed my flight back to Bangkok again. In total I received 29 emails regarding changes to my flights. I was supposed to leave Boracay in the afternoon of the 17th, have a short layover in Manila and then make it to Bangkok a few hours before checking into my flight home. Well, one of the airports serving Boracay decided to repave their one runway, which requires shutting down the airport. They chose Tuesday the 17th for that day. My flight out of Manila changed as well thanks to the APEC Summit in Manila. I now had to leave Boracay the early morning of the 16th and then spend about 18 hours in Manila before heading back to the airport at 3am on the 17th. I was fussed and spent part of Saturday and Sunday trying to figure out if I should book a room somewhere or not.
After this was all figured out, Tom and I tried to rent a motorbike to ride around on for the day on Sunday. To rent a motorbike on Boracay would cost us 6x what it cost in El Nido. We quickly scratched that off our things to do and decided to walk over to the other side of the island and watch the kite surfers for a bit. We eventually made our way back to station 2 and hung out there for the afternoon.
I eventually packed and we decided to go for one last night dancing together after dinner. Thanks to my odd flight schedule for the following three days, Sunday the 15th was my last true night in Southeast Asia. We drank San Miguel beers and danced until about midnight.
I was up just after 5am to get myself ready and had to say goodbye to Tom. We had never planned to travel together for as long as we did. It started with just two weeks in Burma and as we planned that out it turned into two weeks in Burma and a week together in Cambodia and then we would separate. In the end, we traveled together for just over five weeks. It was great. We would always order two different plates of food and share, so I tried more foods. I always had someone on the buses to keep me company. I also always had a dance partner. Tom is rarely fussed about anything and keen to try just about anything. Thanks to Tom I even became a scuba diver, which is something I was not planning to do when I left home three months ago. In fact, when people asked if I was planning on getting certified, I adamantly said no. In my mind, there was no need to explore and see the animals in the deep blue sea.
We said our goodbyes and I was quickly driven to the jetty to catch the shuttle to the airport. As I was walking onto the speed boat, the girl in front of me slipped while taking a picture and walking down the plank and went straight into the water. It was my fear realized. Everyone just stopped and one crew member was a quick thinker and jumped in after her. She was ok. Definitely shaken up and soaked. She was most concerned about her phone, which likely suffered water damage.
An hour and a half later and I was in Manila. Thanks to APEC, the traffic was worse than usual. Entire lanes on the freeway were closed and only to be used for APEC vehicles. I waited over an hour to get a cab and the it took about 45 minutes to drive the 5km to the hostel I decided to get a bed at. I checked in, napped, and charged my things. I eventually asked the guy that checked me for suggestions on what to see in Manila. He told me it was pointless to try and do any sort of sightseeing since the roads were either closed or full of bumper to bumper cars. He sent me on a 20 minute walk to the mall. I spent the afternoon wandering in and out of stores. It was my first time seeing western brands and being in a western style mall since I was in Australia. It felt weird. They were playing Christmas music and at times it felt like I was already at home. After wandering for the afternoon, I made my way back to the hostel and eventually met an American couple, John and Michelle, who were just starting their travels. We went and had some beers and a light dinner. They were jet lagged and went to bed early. I was torn between going to bed or just staying up all night. The cab was scheduled to pick me up at 3am, which meant I had to be up at 2:30am. By about 11pm my eyes were so heavy that I gave in and took about a 3 hour nap.
So at 3am on the 17th I started my journey home. I’m currently hanging out in Bangkok until late this evening when I head back to the airport for my 2am flight to Guangzhou. I’ll have a 6 hour layover there and then I board my final flight, the 17th flight of this trip, and 12 hours later I’m home.
I’m full of mixed emotions. I miss my family and my friends. I miss my bed, and my little apartment. I miss the simple luxuries of not showering over a toilet, being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet, and most of all I can’t wait to get away from the mosquitos. The mosquitos love me and I have paid dearly for this. Despite all of that, my yearning to explore and meet people is still very much a strong feeling that hasn’t faded while I’ve been gone. I have no idea what is going to happen when I get home, and thanks to this adventure, I can honestly say I’m ok with that. I’ll figure it out when I get home and the pieces will fall in place as they should. After talking to so many people, I realize that things happen for a reason.
Which leads me to all the people I’ve met on this trip. To all the people I had the chance to travel with, from just a day spent together, to those I spent a few days with or even several weeks with; thank you for sharing the experiences. Thank you for telling me your story and thank you for wanting to hear mine. Thank you for pushing me to try new things and for being supportive when I was unsure. I will cherish the memories we made together and look forward to telling everyone at home about our adventures. Most of all, please keep in touch.
And so ends another chapter in my nomadic life, but I can guarantee it isn’t the final chapter.
Strange Trails 