Alta Vista de Boracay

... to see if there's more pubs along the way than our usual haunt! Just sat down and watched the sunset here for the first time too. We've always seemed to miss it so far. Very beautiful. Off to Oz on the 18th. Feels so weird to be leaving Asia!!! Still have quite a few more lazy days to go here though. Will update with more news when it happens.<br><br>Love to all!!<br><br>Adele and Lucy<br>

... chat. The owner is married to an English woman so he was all stories about how they met. <br><br>Out in the beach bars later, we met two more people who we had been chatting to at the Halloween party in Hong Kong! Small world or what. <br><br>Covered in Mosquito bites, have counted nearly forty on my legs alone. Not so pretty!<br><br>Miss you all,<br>Stories?<br>Lucy and Adele xxxx

... where we were staying. We showed her and she said that was her niece's place. We took a quick tricycle ride (tuk-tuks here) to the hostel and checked in. She introduced herself as Betty (bless!) and we've already seen her once again. Might become a bit of a fixture since we're here a while!<br><br>Our room is really big with big beds each. Such a nice change form Hong Kong. Full of mozzies though!! We went out for a walk on the ...

... here but we found a regular place that did big, cheap breakys and dinners as well as a good Indian restaurant. The beach was packed with vendors and stalls always offering sunnies and watches to us even when we were wearing our own and hounding us to do go sailing, snorkling, jet-skiing, etc. It got so boring to begin with us being polite but by the end we had to just ignore them. We had a great time on the ...

... og fikk dermed to gratis ol, for de stengte og vi bevegde oss til stedet ved siden av hvor vi sang ennaa mer! Da vi vaaknet paa morgenen i gaar, var det like graatt som dagene for, og vi bestemte oss for aa bare dra videre. Ingen vits i aa vaere et sted det ikke er noe annet enn strand, naar det holjer ned, saa vi ville bruke dagen paa reising, og haapte paa fint vaer senere. Det ble mange timers reising, forst med Tricycle, saa med en Jeepney (en type liten ...

... That was that. We were left without any form of assistance. It took us another 30 minutes or so before we could get the taxi that finally got us back to the resort-- a drive that takes maximum 15 minutes. I'm not usually the type of person who writes bitter things. But in this case, can anyone blame me? We paid good money for this trip here, so naturally we expected quality services and facilities. To say that we are disappointed is an understatement.

EVERY MORNING my stomach hates me. What is up with my intestines?! 7:30AM Internet cafe and email. We were out early today! 8:30AM Continental breakfast again with Caroline. 10AM Channel drift dive to measure the current of the southern end of the island. I GPS-ed beginning and end points of the channel, then laid out 2m underwater and timed how long it took for a neutrally buoyant piece of rope to travel from one end to the other. It took about 3 ...

... We were just rocketing along with the current, and I quickly realized that the purpose of this dive was to ride the channel current, instead of to take in the local sea life, as the visibility wasn't so good (on account of the current). Anyway, I was sucking down my tank of air sounding like Darth Vader (which I do when I get a bit panicked), when Todd accidentally (he claims :-)) bumped into my face and knocked off my mask. Just before the mask left my face, I ...

... coz there's NO ONE there...). Ok, so we were lucky to find this little cave-like spot where we saw a set of bamboo benches with a matching long table for our gourmet picnic buffet. No complaints at all! After a lovely afternoon of frolicking in the clear, algae-free, divine blue water; flying a kite; practicing spinning and just enjoying the beauty of the place, we gathered all of our ...

... the next day. Things I Learned * Birthdays by yourself are really rewarding, you are responsible for making your day great and there is no expectation of anyone (except an email from your parents!) * People come to Boracay in couples or groups and there aren't as many Westerners as I would have expected. * Not to assign blame without proper investigation. I found my discman and CDs in my backpack zipped away in a packing cube, right where I'd put them a few days before. Sorry Mr Conductor.