Next stop was Boracay, which I see now regularly tops Worlds Best Islands lists in a lot of the worlds best known travel magazines. I wanted to include it on the itinerary for our Philippines honeymoon back in 1989, but was dissuaded by our travel agent. It was virtually unknown in those days; I think only backpackers went there. I was told that the trip there would have involved a two hour drive in a jeep along an almost road, followed by a hairy ride in a small rickety boat. ...and if wed managed to survive that, wed arrive to find there was no electricity anywhere on the island. The agent said that I might think this was alright, but suggested I spare a thought for my new bride, and whether she could cope with five days without a hair dryer. Probably best not to risk matrimonial harmony a week into the marriage I thought, so I chose somewhere else (the whole honeymoon destination was a surprise for Issy, so she had no say in the matter). The somewhere else was a tiny island called Isla Naburot about 100 kms south of Boracay. As it turned out we had to
endure a hairy ride in a rickety fishing boat to get to it as well - and a very long one at that, and most of it in the middle of the night .... and we arrived to find that that island too had no electricity. No problems there at all however. It was possibly the most idyllic place weve ever been to, enhanced by the fact that we were its only guests. Anyway, I digress. Boracay a along way in the tourist stakes in the intervening 25 years - there was now an airport just across the water, and the crossing was via a largish modern ferry.
We stayed at the rather (well for us at least) glitzy Boracay Resort and Spa near the islands secluded northern tip. Our room had a large with a spa, with great views over the beach. It even with its own butler. Im fairly sure we shared her with some of our fellow guests, at least I hope we did. She wouldnt have had much to do otherwise. I wasnt quite sure how to cope with having what was effectively our own personal valet
for the first time in our lives. Shed knock on our door every morning and ask us what we needed and I could never think of anything. I thought the least I could do was try to make conversation, so when she asked us how we slept I thought the polite thing to do was to tell her that wed slept very well thank you very much, and to then enquire in turn how shed slept. My offspring told me that I was being embarrassing - in their eyes at least asking the butler about her sleeping habits was not at all appropriate. I hope all teenagers think their parents are a permanent embarrassment and it wasnt just me. I sometimes wondered whether they hoped other people would think I was someone elses father. They all tried to hide under the table at the restaurant one night after I waved my arms perhaps just a bit too vigorously at the waiter in attempt to get hold of the bill.
We made a few forays down to the famous and very spectacular White Beach. Its certainly white. I think your eyeballs would need replacing if you tried to wander onto
it on a sunny day without a good pair of sunglasses. The small town next to the beach was a hive of tourist activity, and every European nationality seemed to be well represented. The outskirts away from the beach didnt however look all that prosperous, and we couldnt help but feel that the locals didnt seem to benefiting all that much from the tourist invasion of their tiny island home. It seems that infrastructure development has never quite kept up with tourist demand. I wasnt then all that surprised to read later that they had to close the whole island to tourists in 2018 so they could update the sewerage system to prevent it from regularly overflowing onto the iconic beach.
It was very windy for the whole week we were there, so much so that the regular round island boat cruises were cancelled every day. It seems that wind isnt all that unusual an occurrence on Boracay.
