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Analysts have translated pollution levels into the number of cigarettes that metropolitan residents are forced to consume as passive smokers.

May be useful when choosing a direction to move to.

If you live in a place with relatively clean air, such as Minsk or Riga, and you are going to go to a place where the situation is much worse, say, Tbilisi or Athens, you are likely to “feel the difference”.

Source

Part 1 here.

Food
Purchases at the store, the best supermarket - Robinsons): carrots - 220 pesos/1 kg, eggs 12 pcs - 114 pesos, feta cheese - 417 pesos. The prices of oranges were surprising (1 pc - 50 pesos), carrots - 281 rubles per kg, and onions are even more expensive than meat!

An example of a basket of 1626 pesos: bread, mandarins 8 pcs, mint, shampoo, apples 6 pcs, ground beef 300 gr, cream, 1 kg potatoes, 10 eggs, Gouda cheese, small watermelon, sauce for pasta bolognese, 2 yogurts.

Shopping at the fish market Talipapa: 2 large tuna steaks - 350 pesos, 0.75 kg of medium shrimp - 350 pesos (by the way, you can also ask to cook it all there for 150 pesos).

Tasteful places
The Pig Out,
MOMO,
Cyma,
Lemoni Café,
The Sunny Side, Nagisa,
Tita Magz.

I ordered Cacao oatmeal - they brought some soup with cheese floating in it and next to it they brought fish (!) and condensed milk in plates separately to the “porridge”😱.

Lodging
There are different promotional offers from hotels for 1700 pesos/night, but mostly the cost of a hotel night starts at $60-80. My husband and I rented a one-bedroom apartment on Airbnb with a washer and kitchen for a month in a condo, roomtur here for $38/night. Wi-fi is great, the view is of the golf course and the sea, it’s quiet and peaceful.

If you can’t work at home, there’s even one for the whole island co-working.

Sports and Massage
Private kite or windsurfing lesson 2500 pesos/1 hour, 5 hour course from 14000 pesos. Yoga from 600 pesos at [EatPlayHeal] (https://maps.app.goo.gl/mQGiN1NH6AJmLdG48?g_st=ic).
Golf - at Fairways and Bluewater Resort, for example, game - 8000 pesos 9 holes for two.
Massages - from 350 pesos at so-so places, from 900 at good ones like Hello Spa, Kabayan Spa.

Communication
A SIM card with 5G unlimited Internet for a month costs 799 pesos.

Money
They accept payments in a bunch of different ways - from ApplePay to exotic GrabPay or AliPay. The local GCash app is in use. I was able to transfer rubles into pesos in 10 minutes via crypto at p2p.

Beaches
A small and cozy beach on the territory of the most expensive hotel on the island Shangri-La, you can just come to the bar or restaurant there and hang out quietly on territory.
Puka beach is the most deserted and cleanest beach on the island, it is just perfect for reconnecting with nature, there are no stores or cafes.
A nearby attraction is the Cujo’s Keyhole.
White sand beach at Station 1.
I recommend Sea Wind Boracay - here you can lie on a beach chair, ordering something from the bar.
Another deserted beach Ilig-Iligan, I haven’t even met such a beach in Hawaii!

Hospitals (may not be useful, but just in case)
Scandi Medical Clinic - very decent clinic, there are both pediatric and adult doctors (cost of consultation without tests, etc. - 300 pesos).
Boracay Alert Medical Clinic - a consultation here costs about 600-700 pesos, the list of services is even wider than in Scandi, there is a 24-hour ambulance.
Ciriaco S. Tirol Hospital - normal municipal hospital without super service, but good doctors and cheap.

Transportation
Everyone takes local tricycles or electric coaches, it costs 400 pesos to get from one end of the island to the other. You can buy a “tourist card” for Hop on-Hop off buses for 300 pesos. Rent a motorcycle from 6500 pesos a week if you rent it for a month, 2500 pesos if you rent it for a day (you can pay with crypto, by the way!).

Community
All speak English, many foreigners, there are super friendly Russian chat rooms where they answer the questions of newcomers. By the way, this is the first country all year where no one I know hangs out at the moment, even in Albania I managed to meet a subscriber, and here - the silence, so beep if you are here too!

Pics do not fit into the post, see the live atmosphere of Boracay and how here outside the “paradise” beaches including here!

The guide is based on monitoring a bunch of information and personal experience of being in the country right now (and until mid-February). Resource
.

How to get to
There are cheap tickets to the Philippine capital, Manila from Kuala Lumpur ($80), and many people race here for a vizaran from Bali ($125), Vietnam and Thailand ($136). The way to Boracay, for example, looks like this: Manila-Caticlan plane ticket (from $25), tuk-tuk from airport to pier ($1), payment of taxes on stay + boat ticket ($10) to Boracay, tuk-tuk from pier to hotel ($5).

At entry, you need to fill out a form (scan the QR code at the airport), where you enter the details of your vaccination certificate, no one else checks anything, masks are canceled. It is important to have a return or ticket to a third country.
General rules of entry here.

Local vibe
A sedate life, chickens, dogs and kids running around, roosters howling at all hours of the day and night - in short, a village, with fancy “barber shop” signs at the entrance to the dilapidated garage. Locals live pretty poor, lottery tickets are sold everywhere as a chance to win a better life, main religion is Catholicism (Philippines is the only Christian country in Asia).

Security
Unfortunately, various disasters are not uncommon for this region - typhoons, tsunamis and earthquakes. Literally every year, the Philippines finds itself almost underwater as a result of hurricanes. Last year, a storm hit Boracay, and many buildings are still in ruins, the owners clearly have no intention to rebuild them, and their appearance is often “decorated” by many coastal areas, whole complexes of buildings are in complete disrepair. About the robberies and other horrors - everything is very quiet here, at least on Boracay. No one is trying to cheat you, and the thefts are very rare on the island, which is only 7 km long.

Entertainment
My husband is into windsurfing (by the way, that’s the real reason we flew to Boracay!), so catch the bonus track: how the wind, surf stations and instructors are here. The main windy spot is Bulabog beach, there are kite schools right next to the beach that rent all the necessary gear and dudes who give private kite and windsurfing lessons. The wind can be pretty brutal (up to 20 m/sec!), so it’s hard for beginners. Surfers hang out from all over the world, mostly kiteboarders who, when they hear they’re here to do windsurfing, reply with a smile: “Nobody is perfect.” This place is considered as one of the most beautiful in the world - the water is clear, the sand is white and the wind is stable.

For those who do not skate - do not worry, when one side of it all flies, on the other - the calm and smooth, quietly, you can swim and sunbathe without sand in the face. And they say that the love of the Philippines starts with diving, I really want to try it here!

The island from a helicopter flight - Boracay Helicopter Adventures(11 thousand pesos or 14000 rub for two for 15 min)

The most accessible of the neighboring islands for excursions are Panay,
Tablas, Carabao.
As far as Coron and El Nido you can get there from Caticlan, tickets must be bought in advance, they sell out fast, best in the port, online tickets are rare, but you can check on 12goasia or rome2rio. The rest of the beauty is only available by plane from Caticlan or Manila.

My noted spots in the Philippines that I will definitely get to one day are
Taal Volcano,
Puerto Princesa,
Palawan,
Balabac,
Mayon Volcano,
Mount Canlaon,
Oslob,
Panglao,
Siargao,
Mount Apo,
Miniloc.

More about the places on Boracay itself in the next episode!

Set inside the world-renowned Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, Lake Louise is a year-round resort destination. No matter what time of year you visit, it really is truly remarkable. On a sunny day, the impossibly blue lake reflects the surrounding snow-capped mountains and in winter it transforms into a winter wonderland. Even if you aren’t particularly an outdoorsy type, you will find Lake Louise truly breathtaking, no matter when you choose to visit.

Ha Long Bay was chosen as one of the new 7 Wonders of Nature, and was designated in 1994 as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Loosely translated, the name means, ‘descending dragon’, and it is outlined by over 1,600 islets and islands. These islands and islets are made of limestone, with a lot of them given names by the locals, depending on their shape. There’s so much natural beauty here, and it’s a must for those who love traveling by water.

Yes, one of the greatest wonders of the world and loved by tourists from all over the world but it still has to be seen to be believed. It’s over 21,000 km long, thousands of years old, and can be seen from space—no wonder it is loved by all.

Tulips are often the first things that come to mind when you think of Holland and the Netherlands, and for good reason! You’ll be blown away by seeing the vast tulip fields in person nothing can compare than seeing the fields in person.

Have you ever dreamed of walking across a canopy in one of the most beautiful rainforests? In Monteverde you can. This Costa Rican mountain town, suspension bridges span thick cloud forests, coffee plantations and volcano peaks. This is loved by travelers of all ages. A truly memorable experience and something you really can’t just do anywhere else.