First Day in the Philippines

Breakfast at Jony’s Beach Club

John entering Jony's Beach Club Restaurant The weather is so much better than forecasted. It is partly cloudy, perfect temperature (25°) and not raining.

Tired from our long day yesterday, we both sleep in and don’t get to Jony’s beachfront restaurant at 9:30am. It’s lovely. Unfortunately half the things on the breakfast menu are finished for the day. I have a traditional Filipino breakfast; local sausage, garlic rice and some pickled vegetable thing. The atmosphere is great.

White Beach

Willy's Rock We are on White Beach. It is a beautiful, over 4km long beach with soft, slightly moist, light coloured sand. The sand feels like talcum powder. The beach is lined with palm trees and the water in John in front of Willy's Rock places is a beautiful shade of aqua. White Beach is often ranked as one of the top beaches in the world. The beach is divided into sections called stations…our hotel is in station 1.

John in the water at White Beach We first walk to the right side, passing a pretty small rock island with a figure of Mother Mary. The Philippines are a Catholic country. The island had the non-religous name of Willy’s Rock.

Dolphin Sand Castle We walk to the end of the beach, turn around and start walking back continuing to the much longer left end of the beach.

The weatherman lied, the sun shines brightly. John and I go for a swim. The water is a comfortable temperature and the bottom is sandy.

Back on the beach, we speak with a Filipino family. I find Filipinos to be very friendly people.

D’Mall and Balabag Park

Kimberly and John at Balabag Park
Boracay Sign We check out the central shopping area at station 2 called D’Mall. There are a few blocks of stalls, navigated by alleys. Inland is Balabag Park, a small lagoon with one lone egret.

Secret Beach

John at the entrance to the Secret Beach We return to the beach and commence our walk to the far end. It is very quiet close to the end. Passing through a rocky tunnel we enter Secret Beach which is a good snorkel spot. We return walking back along the beach to where we started. We walked over 9 km on the beach.

Supper and Evening

John at Supper at Percys For dinner we find a beachfront seafood restaurant.

After a quick shower, we went to a recommended massage spa. Massages are a bit more in the Philippines ($17.50 CAD). But these massages were wonderful. I was disappointed with our massages in Laos but these more than make up for it. I highly recommend Vi Spa. We are definitely going back.