"Traveling- it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a story teller." -Ibn Battuta

12 airplane rides, 11 bus rides, a barge  and lots of adventure. That is what my 2015 is made of.

1. Cagayan De Oro (January)

January 14, 2015, my first plane ride of 2015 to the City of Golden Friendship for a month of work and wandering. Because work doesn't have to be just work. Here in CGY, work for me is synonymous to fun and adventure. From meeting new people to work with for a month, to getting penalized for jaywalking on our first day in the city, to sneaking out of work to go to Iligan, to non-stop pig out, to late night drinking sessions straight to work (without sleep), cheap movie nights, shopping, and the list goes on. This kind of opportunity the company has given me is really one for the books.

2. Iligan City (February)

You read sneaking out of work to go to Iligan. Because my new found friends/ colleagues doesn't have the same off, and we don't think we'll have enough time to go here when our 1 month official business is over, we decided to go here after shift. and no, we really didn't sneak out, of course we asked permission from the Supervisor if the other one could go out early, its just that we didn't tell them we'll go to Iligan.

3. Camiguin Island (February)

The only thing I knew in this island is the Sunken Cemetery. This has been on my travel bucket list but since this is in Mindanao, I never knew I could set foot in this island this soon. As soon as we finished our 1 month deployment, we were given days off together so we could explore, and this is our first destination.

4. Bukidnon (February)

After a day in Camiguin which we all know is never enough, the next day is our trip to Bukidnon for Dahilayan Adventure Park. An adventure I'm always happy to share to everyone. 120ft Drop Zone and the longest zip line in Asia, another one for the books.

5. Clark, Pampanga (February)

After a month in Cagayan de Oro, its time to finally go home. But adventure's not yet over. My friends and I scheduled a trip to Clark for the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta which I am looking forward to every year. We might not have the money to ride in the hot air balloon, seeing a lot of them up close, flying in the air is already enough.

6. Subic (February)

Since we don't plan to stay the whole day in the hot air balloon event, we also purchased tickets for Ocean Adventure. 

7. Surigao Del Sur (May)

Hearing stories from my colleagues made us so excited when she invited me and my other colleague to join her on her vacation in their province, Surigao. Free stay plus a trip to Enchanted River, AAAAHHHH! places I really never imaged of going to.

8. Basco, Batanes (May)

Since I had perks in the company which includes my dependents, I already planned a trip with them in my dream destination here in the Philippines. And for me, the best time to go here is on my birthday month. I was able to celebrate my birthday in my dream destination with my family. Talk about hard work pays off.

9. Lipa, Batangas (June)

After a lot of out of town trip (not really a lot) with friends and family, I decided to make it up to the boyfie to again celebrate my birthday and our 56th month of relationship. I bought a deal in Deal Grocer for an overnight stay in a Balinese- inspired resort in Lipa, Cintai Coritos Garden. Since we still can't afford to go out of the country (plus it quite scary nowadays), a trip anywhere around the Philippines plus this kind of themed resort would suffice.

10. Antique (June)

My colleagues decided to take a little break from work without breaking the bank account (kahit wala naman talaga. HAHA) So when an angel-in-disguise offered us a free stay in her resort, we decided why not. Plane ticket perks plus free accommodation, what breaking the bank am I talking about here?

11. Davao City (September)

I bought the boyfie a promo fare for our advance anniversary celebration. We flew with different airlines and just met in Davao Airport. We didn't get any tour package and just explore the city the DIY style ala Joyce.

12. Samal Island (September)

The 4 days 3 nights in Davao includes an overnight stay in Samal Island at the very famed Pearl Farm Beach Resort. After 3 days of exploring the city on our own, its time for us to just relax and make cheesy moments together. HAHAH

13. Boracay Island (October)

We still wanted to celebrate our anniversary on the exact day. So I booked the boyfie again a promo fare to Kalibo. We originally wanted to just chill and relax in Alta Vista Resort, but it never won over adventure.

As much as I wanted to make this 15 travels of 2015, time and budget didn't permit. HAHAHA. But 13 is not that bad though, because I still feel blessed to visit 13 places here in the Philippines. Our country has so much to offer, its just that I think we feel more in or cool if we were able to go out of the country first, which I also wanna do soon. Heheheh! But of course, I still plan to visit more of the Philippines first and I wanna encourage fellow Filipinos to visit the Philippines first too.

So I think my 2015 travels is already over, but, I already had plans for 2016, especially for the first quarter which I'm too excited about. And I hope this helps you in planning your future travels.

xx, Joyce

I knooooow, most of you have been to Boracay and knows what to do, what to expect or what to see. But for those first timers like me in one of the Philippine's pride, here's what you can do and what we did in Boracay.

It is not new to everyone that Boracay has one of the best sunsets. Although not shown in these photos as the sun already set, (Hehehe) I'm a witness to the beauty of Boracay sunset which you shouldn't miss.

2. Visit Puka Beach

In our case, a side trip to Puka Beach is included in our stay at Alta Vista and they also have a cottage/ cabana that their guests can use for free. But for the others, this is included if you avail the island hopping or if not, you can hire a tricycle from D'Mall to take you there.

A visit in Puka Beach is a must when in Boracay as this beach is far away from where the action is and less crowded. Though the sand is not as powdery as the main beach, it still has the same charm and beauty. The sand is so white and the water so blue. I was so mesmerized! Too bad we had to stay for an hour only as we still have activities to do before we check-out the hotel for our flight.

For our activities, right after our not-so-enough 1 hour stay in Puka Beach, we went straight to the main beach to look for the cheapest Parasailing and Helmet Diving. Other activities are Fly Fish, Banana Boat, Island Hopping, ATV, Zorb Ball, Zipline and a lot more, but those two are my choices. These two activities are quite pricey compare to the others but I think this is one of what Boracay is known  for. After minutes of walking, the cheapest we got is PHP1,700 each for the two activities at Sting Ray Watersports. 

Parasailing is the best, if not, one of the best activities in Boracay.If I remember it right, there are 3 crews on the speed boat ready to assist us. They put us in a harness and explained the do's and don'ts. We were up for about 15 minutes which at first I think is very short. When we were released in the air, the speed boat slowly getting smaller, we saw the island up there and it is so beautiful. We were the kite and we are flying. We saw different hues of blue and green, we felt the air and I felt dizzy. HAHAHAH! But really, I felt so blessed I was able to experience this kind of adventure even for once in my life.

Helmet Diving is walking on the ocean floor wearing a very heavy helmet about 20++kgs, carrying a bread for the fish so they would go near you for a picture taking.

Before we go down to the water, we had a short briefing of the hand signals underwater. But don't worry, you'll get it easily as it is just okay sign, picture, video, feeding the fish or if you wanna go up already.I got scared because there's a woman before us who's been trying to go down a few times and in the end still didn't make it. I was just thinking that I have seen lots of my friends did this so there's no way I can't. So they put the helmet on my head and boy, it was so heavy even underwater, the diver gave us a pinch of bread for the fish and had pictorial underwater. At first you'll feel the pain on your ears as you will be submerged for about 13++ feet but you'll get used to it in a few seconds. You will just stand there for about 15 minutes feeding the fish while the diver take your photos and after that, its done. Just like that! The experience was just okay but I don't know how to swim anyway so I'm thankful for this experience that I got to see the underwater minus the beautiful and colorful corals.

We availed our activities at Sting Ray Watersports in Station 1 which I highly recommend. They are organized and fast, they have radios for communication in case they have to pick up guests, they have their own speed boat which looks brand new and their equipments for the parasailing and helmet diving is still in its good, if not best condition, still better than the others I saw on the internet.

There are lotsssss of restaurants in Boracay. The whole stretch of white beach is filled with restaurants and bars, different cuisine, different ambiance, you'll never run out of options. Too bad, we weren't able to try those highly recommended food/ restaurants in this island due lack of time. I really blame myself for staying just a night here, its so hard to squeeze in everything. But that only means I have lot of reasons to go baaacckkk!

Its almost past lunch when we arrived in the island from the airport so we were too hungry since we haven't had breakfast because of our early flight. While we are looking for place to dine, most of the highly recommended restaurants I read in the internet are all full since its lunch time. And then we saw Big Mouth with only a couple diners. We gave it a try since we are too hungry and we only wanna eat so we could lay down ourselves in our room.

We tried their Sinigang and Lechon Bagnet and man, I didn't...... I don't wanna say something bad about this restaurant but, I'm never eating here again if ever I come back in Boracay.

For dinner, we had a buffet dinner courtesy of Astoria Boracay. When we were in Caticlan Jetty Port about to board the banca, a guy from Astoria offered a free buffet for the two of us. Its Astoria and its free so why not. The guy just told us to bring our cellphone or cameras because they are promoting their newest branch in Station 3, he even told us they can tour us if there's still time so we can see and maybe consider Astoria the next time we come to Boracay. So I thought that we'll just have to take a few shots and if we liked what we see ate and saw, we can promote this to our friends.

We walked the long stretch of White Beach to Station 1 and looked for Astoria. I got excited, its front beach and I like the idea of dining on the beach. But I'm wrong! Someone assisted us waaaay at the back of Astoria crossing the street, up to their office pantry-like where they set up a buffet. I was so disappointed, but we were there anyway and its free. Before we start, their manager talked to us and asked few questions like where we came from, our job and where we're staying in the Island and told us they will just promote their membership for about an hour or so I think.

We had our dinner. To be honest, I don't know if its the same buffet they are serving for regular paying guests or is it just the buffet they served for us during that time because its free, but I don't like it. I'm not that those food critic but I know what is good food from not. I hate their pesto pasta, it has no taste and very oily. The viand is..... I don't wanna talk about this anymore.

The thing is Astoria Boracay wasted more that 3 hours of our time promoting everything, every single branch they have all over the Philippines and even their sister companies around the world.

The only satisfying thing we had in Boracay is this fruit shake. It save our nightmare in Big Mouth and the buffet in Astoria. True indeed that it is the best fruit shake in Boracay. To be honest, I haven't tried any shake in the island aside from the Mango Shake in Big Mouth which I didn't like anyway, but when I had the first sip of Jonah's Milk shake, I already knew why it is the best in the island.

So there, those are the things we were able to squeeze in our little time in Boracay. This island has a lot to offer you'll never run out of things to do and our overnight stay is definitely never enough. But it only means that I have a lot of reasons to go back here, on 2016 maybe?

P.S This could probably be my last adventure for 2015 since December is a peak season which means... no leave at work allowed. But I already had plans for 2016 and I'm excited already. 2015 has been a great year for me in terms of travel and adventure but I'm looking forward for more travels for 2016. We'll never know! :)

xx, Joyce

Its been 2 years since our first attempt to go to Boracay and stay at Alta Vista de Boracay resort (our failed Boracay 2013 trip here) and our second attempt last November 2014 never became successful too (see story here). I must say that this two years in the making Boracay trip is really worth the wait because we were able to stay in this resort I've been eyeing for so long, Alta Vista de Boracay. The boyfie and I already had our advance 5th anniversary celebration in Davao for 4 days (see it here) but we still wanted to have a celebration on the exact day, October 8. We just wanted to have an overnight stay somewhere near Manila but then I thought we will still be spending more than a thousand peso bus fare for the two of us and since I have free tickets, #perks why not just book him the cheapest plane ticket that would cost just the same. Lucky me, I saw a promo fare going to Kalibo via Air Asia Zest for PHP1,644.81 and at the same time, Alta Vista also has a promo discount of PHP1,000 off per night. So right away, I booked him a plane ticket and reserve an overnight stay in the resort. The catch is, its my first time in Boracay and we'll just be staying overnight so we have to make the most of it.

Treats on board

When I reached Kalibo Airport, I still have to wait for the boyfie for an hour. I waited outside the airport because its not allowed to stay in the arrival area. It is so hot but a good sign that we'll be having lots of fun at the beach.

When he arrived, we immediately hop the van going to Caticlan Jetty Port. Fare cost PHP250.00 including the boat fare to the island. But it'll be cheaper if you will just pay for the van to the jetty port for PHP200.00 and just pay the boat fare there that only cost PHP25.00. You save PHP25.00!
Before entering the Jetty Port Terminal, you still have to pay for the Terminal Fee- 100.00, Environmental and Admission Fee- 75.00 and the Boat fare- 25.00. After that, you're set to see the famous Boracay Island.
From the port in Boracay, we rode the tricycle going to D'Mall. Special ride cost PHP100.00 but if you will wait for other passengers its only PHP20.00 each, but the driver charge us PHP50.00 for the two of us.I don't wanna argue, we saved PHP50.00 anyway. From D'Mall, we look for a place to have our lunch since we haven't had our breakfast because of our early flight and excitement.
From D'Mall, Alta Vista de Boracay has an hourly free shuttle ride to the resort,but we weren't able to catch it so we had to take the tricycle going there for PHP150.00. Checking in was a breeze, I just fill up some forms, paid for the remaining balance and someone assisted us with our luggage to our room.

Main Lobby

way to our room

Our room is a studio/ deluxe room which has two queen-sized beds, television, kitchen, mini bar, coffee/ tea maker, own bathroom with bathtub, hair dryer, refrigerator, safe, telephone and balcony with a view.

Queen-sized beds

Refrigerator, Kitchen, Cabinet

Cable Television

Bathtub

Toiletries

Balcony

Balcony with a view

Modernization has its price! :(

Restaurant

Morning view from the restaurant

BORACAY2015: WHAT TO DO IN BORACAY?