Feb 14, 2023

A short guide to the Philippines. Part 2. Boracay Island

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!

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