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What we ordered at SMOKE that was good.
-Chicken Toppings
-Chicken Curry
-Garlic Shirmps
-Squid Toppings
-Tuyo and Red Eggs

Not good at SMOKE
-Kangkong with Garlic
-Sinigang (w/c is really nilaga?)

Eat to SMOKE during lunch time- there’s free ICED TEA.

What we ordered at Zuzuni that as good
-Greek Pita Pizza
-Pinoy Breakfast - Tapa (very tender!)

What we ordered at FIC ICe Cream that was good
-RaspBerry
-Avocado
-Chocolate

What we ordered at Noodle House
-Chicken Curry
-Can’t remember the 2nd one but it was GOOD!

Noodle House at Dmall has nice 2nd floor for small groups. They have free WIFI.

You don’t need to imagine. Just watch this video and feel yourself lying on the cool powder white sand of boracay

We love getting massages. But for some reason the 3 massages on the beach we had — 1 blind, 2 regular leaves you wanting
some more…is there anybody on the Bora beach reputed to give good hard massages?

Check out Kat’s new blog to see the places she’s been in Australia while working there. Oh

and check out her Donsol posts. Yeah, Whale Sharks.

Boracay Sand: Taken in Station 3, during a sitting break from walking the 1.5 km stretch that’s half the length of the white beach. I don’t know why the call Puerto Galera “White Beach” when the sand ISN’T! In Boracay, it’s truly coolly white!

This is a personal post in thanks to the person who would always lend her camera to us when we go on trips!

I haven’t seen anybody do this before in Youtube or in any personal video, vlog etc. We made more than 40 of these. So you’re in for a treat to see Boracay’s white sand beach in a different way!

We’ll be in the Bora this coming April during summertime (our first time!). We’ll be reviewing 2 top resorts in the area and taking a ton of pictures and comparing Boracay during off season and on-season. This will be interesting.

 If you’re a photo blogger or just a blogger and want to meet up in Boracay April 23-27 (let’s share pizza at Aria)-just leave a comment below.

Correction to my previous post on putting Stingrays in the starfish petting pool:

“Stingrays grow to only about 140 pounds and measure 6 feet across. It’s the mantas that get really big, weighing up to 3,000 pounds and measuring 24 feet across.

This mix-up of ray names is still a common one because to some people a ray is a ray. But there’s a big difference between stingrays and manta rays besides size: Stingrays can sting you; manta rays can’t. They have no stingers.” from OceanWatch

So I was wrong to say that the Manila Ocean Park put stingrays in the petting pool in my Manila Ocean Park Soft Opening Picture Gallery post

Thank you to the commenter who pointed this out. Unfortunately, I came to this conclusion because the obviously mistaken attendant told me that those rays were “stingrays” so we shouldn’t try to touch them in the petting pool because they sting.

To be fair, the signs that identify the rays by the petting pool still wasn’t up so I had no recourse to correct her or my perception.

This is a preview post prior to a full post of our Holy Week Trip to Puerto Galera.

The good:

1. Boracay has Aria Pizza Place, Puerto Galera has 2 good pizza places (average price of a gigantic Italian style pizza is P350-450). We are partial to the delicious Pizzeria called Papera Rock found on the rocky end of White Beach. Tucked away on the other end–The Italian Place -it’s much more expensive but the pizza’s good too.

But the Papera has superior service (ask for May) and we ate there 3 TIMES! So that’s gotta be a good sign. We tried the Garlic and Chili Pizza (make sure you have ICE COLD COKE beside you)-it’s really hot and 2 of their best seller pizzas. Really worth it that I no longer miss Boracay’s Aria.

Their music is traditional Italian (as well as the owner) and the view is one of the best on White Beach.

2. Our place to stay/ hotel: Francesca Apartelle’s deal is good. They have free included breakfast and a swimming pool with jacuzzi so our stay there was very good! It’s 5-7 min walk from the beach -but it’s so peaceful there -the walk is worth it -if you want some privacy of a small swimming party. The water in the jacuzzi is replaced / cleaned every day and the pool is open 24/7 –and there are small misty sprays that surround the pool during hot days-so people can still cool off -even if they’re just standing on the water.

What else? There are 3 other kiddie pools –w/c along with the jacuzzi and the main pool form a large “foot print” design-when seen from google earth (once they update it).

The rooms are big, there’s cable TV with AXN and stuff (though we didn’t find any good shows to watch during the time we were in our room) - and there’s an extra room for toothbrushing and dressing -apart from the toilet. Towels and soaps and tissues are included as well as the TV remote and a large mirrored-cabinet with lots of compartments. There are also generous electric plugs for our devices (we brought the macbook with speakers along).
We had breakfast served in 4 places:
1. In the room
2. At the 2nd floor porch/corridor
3. On top of the bar (across the building, at the 2nd floor)
4. Beside the pool, under a large starbucks - like umbrella.

The garden surrounding the pool is full of different flowers! It was the first time we’ve ever seen a FLOR DE LUNA –looked like the JADE VINE we saw at DAVAO. There’s a bird of paradise, orchids, poinsettias,large gumamelas (?), aryus (a Batanes plant), dragon plants and more.

The only misgiving was the aircon pail outside the room kept getting filled up and at times the water would seep into our room. We seldom notice it because of the tile colour and the room was big enough - we hardly step into that area. It’s just a risky thing because of slips and if it gets in contact with electrical wires.

Our room had a view of the majestic mountains above Puerto Galera. I bet the 3rd and Penthouses can see the beach from their extra room.

3. Rose and Rowena are one of the best Masseusses on the beach. Really hard massage and very generous with time. We had them every 5pm daily.

The bad:

1. Some stores don’t accept 25 centavos as MONEY! When I asked why –the person just disintegrated into a mass of unintelligible babble. They don’t know why, they just DON’T! Will the government or the treasury department so something about this!?

2. We ordered the RAGU pizza at the Italian Place –it was ..strange tasting but they used REAL TOMATOES and not just sauce. Their tuna/seafood salad was gigantic but really just contained CENTURY TUNA and one SHRIMP.

3. Most stalls in White Beach serve the SAME GRILLED stuff –though they’re delicious - the lack of variety makes eating there a bit boring. That’s why we went for the Italian Restos.

4. But water on the beach will set you back around P 10 extra. But it behind the beachfront stalls –near the little pathways behind the WHITE BEACH LODGE –and it’s P 10 less.

5. Some barkers at the Batangas Pier will attempt to sell you Bottled Water for P 180 pesos, don’t bite it because it’s probably just P 35 in stores or P 100 in the beach.

6. Upon landing on the shore people will crowd at the boat’s teeny gangplank–really bad for your balance and a nice place for pickpocketers. This is the same situation when alighting the BUS by the pier–the boat barkers are already CROWDING THE DESCENDING PASSENGERS-again pickpocket happy. BTW, this is the same ugly buzzard behavior of taxi drivers at the Megamall Philtranco Station behind Mega A–for buses from Clark Intl Field (Tiger and Air Asia flights). These places need to be fenced off!

7. Always check prices elsewhere before buying anything. Some seller tried to sell us pearls at Long Beach (during the so -called Island Hopping -where you aren’t really allowed to go down on all the beaches w/o paying extra) –for P 900. This same set probably fetched P 400 at white beach.

8. The Boats DO NOT LEAVE on TIME. The schedules posted in flyers and posters are only for peak season.

9. Our exit ride from Puerto took around 2 hours because of wild waves. We should have left earlier –when the waves were less wild. Ask when the sea is calmer -leave at that time. You don’t want to get stuck 2 hours slowly moving, on and off on the ocean. The other side of the boat- some passengers got wet because the water was coming in through the small holes on top of the boat and under the seats. Just a splash though-so they normally ignore it and go to sleep –this is a BRIAN boat –and it’s unfortunate that the facilities are a bit lacking.

10. The public and restaurant toilets on Puerto Galera are pathetic. It’s as if –they’re put there as an after thought. Maybe they want you to use the beach! Hey, people –do something about this! Considering they’re supposed to charge MONEY to “maintain” it - and some even have locks. Though during our time-they didn’t ask for money, yet.

11 . There’s some restaurants who had servers who answered our standard questions like:

Q: What’s your bestseller? A: Lahat po!

Q: No, what’s your specialty? A: Grilled!

Q: Which one?A: Lahat po!

Q: Are the pizza’s thin or thick crusted? A: Hindi naman po thin hindi rin thick, tama lang! (Note: this is NOT at the 2 pizza places I mentioned)

NYEK!!!

Restaurant owners: Train your people to answer correctly to questions like these!

Manila Ocean Park Kids and Adults Admission Rules:

Infants who are 24inches below are free.
Kids who are above 24 inches to 4.5 feet is PhP350
Above 4.5 feet is already considered adult and the fee is PhP400.

Manila Ocean Park will be open on holy week!!!

Operating hours will be:
Holy Monday to Holy Wednesday - regular hours (10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.)
Holy Thursday and Good Friday - 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Black Saturday and Easter Sunday - regular hours ((9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m)