Things that Are

Summer’s just around the corner! and I find myself wishing to be at the beach, or wanting to go swimming under the sun.

If it were up to me, I would make it so that every single person on earth gets to experience the beautiful beaches of the Philippines. Given that I may have bias, of all the beaches I’ve visited, Philippine beaches remain on the top of my list when it comes to beauty. No arguments there.

Over the past 6 years, I’ve been able to go to a number of beaches in the Philippines. Last 2007, I visited Boracay.

Now, while it’s no “Garden of Eden” or the “Last Frontier” or even the “Virgin Beach”, I still think it’s one of the best beaches I’ve ever been to. Not the Main Beach Front, but what used to be the private cove we had to ourselves somewhere at the tip of the island. 

We stayed what they call Station 1, at the Club Panoly Resort.

It was just the sort of place I liked for relaxing, somewhere few people stayed, and the beach was all to ourselves. 

I loved it because the sand was SUPER white and the water was SUPER clear! I absolutely loved the colors. 

This one’s taken from the boat as we were arriving (I think).

Here’s another picture of our little haven:

I just absolutely loooooove the beautiful sea green color of the water and the perfect white sand! Because of this, I was tempted to just spend the week at this quiet beach. But of course, to make the most of the trip, we had to go out to the main beach front and go island hopping.

We even went snorkeling. It was my first time!

I’m sure it’s not the most beautiful reef (as I know there are more beautiful reefs such as the Apo Reef and others) but I think it was still pretty with all the colors. Though, to be honest, I still got a little terrified of the big corals. Plus the muffled noise I experience when underwater, it makes me think of weird giant sea creatures that could come at me any second. -_-;

This is part of the actual Boracay Beach Front, where the Night Life happens:

See, it’s full of people. Though I’m not the kind of person to shy away that much from people (sometimes I like being in a room full of people), I like having the option of staying away. So I’m really glad we didn’t stay in Station 3, where this beach front was. 

The mountains in the distance are part of Caticlan, Antique, if I’m not mistaken. I remember having to ride a boat from there because that’s where the airport is. 

The beach here was ok. The sand was soooooo fine and powdery, I loved walking barefoot. Only, we were unfortunate because it just so happened that the water was kind of mossy and there were a lot of seaweed floating around. The water still looked beautiful though, and we went sailing which was really fun because I got splashed around a bit.

My aunt took a picture of my cousin, Deni, brother, Earl, and I back at the Panoly. I dunno if she meant to make her flipflops the star of the picture and us the background, but there you go. I think we were trying to “catch the waves” here, which is actually just trying to force ourselves through the waves. 

I remember thinking the weather was PERFECT. We went there, worried that our mini vacation would be spoiled by rainy weather, but we were very lucky it wasn’t like that at all!

We also got Henna Tattoos for the first time. That’s my dad showing off his. The tattoo protected his skin from being sunburnt so that it took more than a year for the skin on his back to become even again, which means he had a white version of the tattoo that long.

This last picture is what the beach looked like at dusk during low tide. It was very serene, and I remember falling asleep from the sound of the waves and the smell of the salty sea air.

Going to beaches are one of my favorite, favorite things to do in the world!

Maybe I’ll post some of the pictures of the other islands we visited. I’m sure you could see that none of us were photographers, but even so, I think anyone could see that the place is pretty cool. Of course, it’s been 5 years since so I’m not really sure if I can say the same. For one, I think the beach is already being shared with Shangri La Hotel so I can’t say if it’s still the same “private” beach. But I think it’ll still be worth a visit for one who likes beautiful sea green water and white sandy beaches.