Boracay

After two days in Manila, it was time to head for the beautiful beaches of Boracay! The LBS crew loaded into our nearly private Cebu Pacific airplane to start the journey from plane to boat to bus to tuc-tuc until we finally reached Sur Boracay, our hotel for the next four days.

The beach in front of our hotel

After a hectic few weeks of traveling around Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong, some R&R was just was I needed. Gemma and I spent the next few days sunbathing, getting massages and reading with a little time interspersed for a few activities. 

Sunset in the Philippines

I met up with some of the guys on the second morning to go diving. The water was unbelievable clear. We saw some eels, a water snake (ew!), lots and lots of fish, a cuttlefish, and loads of blue starfish. I got back to the hotel just in time to catch the others before heading out for a sunset cruise. We ventured out to a gorgeous secluded beach where we watched the sunset. On our way back, they stopped the boat and we all hopped off to swim. I didn't have a bathing suit on, but it didn't matter! I jumped in in my dress. 

Not quite on the board...yet

On the third day, a group of us went to the other side of the island to take kite boarding lessons. I felt a little cheated because I was told we would get to actually ride a board. Apparently, kite boarding is really hard (go figure), so they spent the whole three hours teaching us how to handle the kite. Maybe next time I'll actually get to strap into a board!

Sunset cruise with the LBS gang

If I learned anything about the Philippines during the week, it's this: the islands are really beautiful, the people are extremely friendly, and the food is pretty disgusting. Aside from the fact that I got food poisoning from some bad food on the beach, they eat duck fetus! Not joking. At our final dinner, Rach bought a basket of duck fetus (feti?) and held a competition to see who could eat one the fastest. Three lucky (or were they?) people won a free massage the next day. The fetus is still in the egg which is then boiled. You crack open the top and suck out the "soup" before cracking the rest of the shell and eating the fertilized egg. Needless to say, I did not participate in this competition. Only three people were brave enough to try, so they all got a free massage. One of them also got sick. Poor guy. Hope that massage was worth it! If you're curious about this disgusting custom, read on in the Wikipedia article about balut.

EW!! Duck fetus