Sunset on White Beach, Boracay

If you search for the best beaches in the world, on every list is Boracay White Beach. For over three miles the beautiful white sand is a paradise for beachcombers. The warm waters of the Sulu Sea offer reprieve from the hot sun and hours of fun. This is truly the best beach that we have ever been on. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy!


Sunset


Sunset


The sand here is unbelievable it is softer and finer than any sand we've see previously, but yet after the tide goes out, you can ride your bike on the beach!






I guess it is the worlds most trusted brand........




From beautiful sand you can make some beautiful sand castles!


Can you spot us?


A golf resort that offered a fantastic happy hour around their beautiful pool


This photo was not edited in Photoshop, it is that beautiful there! I didn't have have a tripod at the time, but they still turned out pretty good.






We can't wait to go back to the Philippines!

Boracay Scuba Diving

One of the highlights of our trip was scuba diving. Near the end of the week Krista and I went to Boracay Scuba for an amazing adventure under the sea. Boracay Scuba is located near Boat Station 1, you can view their website here. Our instructor for the first dive was Guillier. He took us through the Discover Scuba Program- the basics and important safety information.

Krista and I at the dive shop.





Inside the dive shop. This was a really cool place to hang out. After the tide has gone they pull out the wicker style chairs you can lounge on. When the tide is high all the chairs are moved and everything you see in the picture is under water. During the day, the water is about 50ft away.



Krista and Jon before we did our training lesson.



Jon, Krista and Gullier.



During our training lesson.





We took a picture of the marine life card in the shop - these were some of the fish we saw during our dives.





The first dive was awesome so we decided to go for round two. Rey was our dive instructor for next dive. Since we already had the basic training, the second dive was a little cheaper and we were able to get right in to the water.

We found Nemo.. he got big!



Krista and Jon.





More marine life.



Krista and Rey.





We saw a blue starfish.



Krista



This picture was taken while we were snorkeling on a different afternoon.



If you're not afraid of water and you're not claustrophobic, you should definitely try scuba diving sometime! If you're ever in Boracay check out Boracay Scuba and tell Rey and Gullier Jon and Krista from Korea say hi!

Boracay, Philippines

During our summer break, July 26th – August 3rd, a group of us took a trip to Boracay Island, Philippines. You might be thinking, why would you want to go to a tropical paradise during the rainy season? Well, a friend put forth the idea and tickets were available (and cheaper than the tickets to go to New Zealand). The weather forecast for the 8 nights we were going to spend on the island called for rain, rain and more rain.

We left the Incheon Airport in Seoul at around 8:30am Saturday morning. (We had to leave Sanbon at 6am!) We were in a bit of a rush so we did not have a chance to change our Korean Won in to American $ or Philippine Pesos. We figured we could exchange Korean Won easily on the island as it is a very popular destination for Korean tourists (we could change it easily in Thailand and China for a good rate). As it turns out, we were wrong. The exchange rate was terrible! Here’s a tip: never leave your home airport without changing money to American Dollars or the local currency you’re going to use.


We had a group of 5: Jon, Krista, James, Stephanie and Cherith. You may remember James from our posts of Thailand click here – we met him on the plane to Bangkok!

We had a three hour layover in Manila before our next flight to Kalibo. It just so happened that the Mall of Asia was only a 20 minute drive away! First we went in to a store that looked similar to Wal-Mart or Target. We were so excited because there were MANY things there that you just can’t get in Korea very easily like deodorant and toothpaste!

We flew to Manila International Airport and from there took a short flight to Kalibo. From Kalibo we had an insane journey in a van with 10 other people to Caticlan where we would then take a 15 minute ferry ride to Boracay Island. By insane we mean driving at breakneck speeds on a single lane highway crossing over into oncoming traffic to pass the 3 people on a small dirt bike / motorbike, or a truck loaded with logs and people sitting on top to make sure they didn't fall off... Given that we’re all from North America where there are fairly strict rules on driving like a ‘maniac’ we were a little terrified. However, we did get there faster than usual.. and alive! We recommend flying from Manila direct to Caticlan, so much faster and less stress.

Manila International Airport



Overlooking Manila









Manila has some very cool buses called Jeepneys



The Mall of Asia!



Philippines license plates



A Thai Airways jet taking off from Manila. Have we mentioned Thai Airways is amazing??



As we were taxing to fly to Kalibo, the pilot announced that outside to the right you could see the plane that had to do an emergency landing because of a hole in front of the wing. What a nice thing to say as we are about to take off! It is said an oxygen tank may have exploded causing the damage. Click here for the story and a better picture.



There's Boracay Island!



Overlooking Kalibo Airport



Kalibo Airport



Apparently the conveyor belt was broken so we all had to get our own luggage from the carts outside the plane.



This is what took us from Caticlan to Boracay Island.



We made it to the jetty port on the island, in order to get from the boat on to land you have to step in at least three inches of water – make sure you wear sandals. Sunny, our driver picked us up and brought us all to the hotel. Janes was waiting to give us a welcome drink and an introduction. By this time we had been traveling for about 12 long hours, thank goodness for the amazing hotel Krista had found for us because it was worth every second of the journey!

Our next post will have the pics from the hotel / resort we stayed at!