Boracay
7th November 2005
Boracay is a tiny resort island (about 9km by 1km), located just to
the north of Panay Island. It has beautiful
white beaches and crystal-clear water and is truly one of the most beautiful
places in the world.
Some new volunteers had arrived and
we decided to head to Boracay for the long weekend. Friday was a
public holiday due to it being the end of the Muslim
Ramadan.
We caught a minivan* (500 pesos each ($NZ 12.50)) from Ilo Ilo to Caticlan,
and then a boat (40 pesos each ($NZ 1)) from Caticlan to Boracay itself.
We stayed at the Frendz
holiday resort, which cost us 1,000 pesos ($NZ 25) each for two
nights. The rooms were simple, clean and had
an attached bathroom and shower. We ate all our
meals at local restaurants, where main courses averaged around 200 pesos
($NZ 5) each.
Phew! What I am trying to say is that, despite Boracay being
one of the premier tourist destinations in the world, it is still a very
cheap place to stay by New Zealand standards. A key phrase there
is "New Zealand Standards". Most Filipinos can't afford
to travel within their own country. I was showing some of
the photos I took to the local teachers at Pulao
Elementary School, none of whom had ever gone to
Boracay.
Street hawkers constantly roam the beach trying to sell you
junk. This got to be annoying. I was constantly pestered by
people trying to sell me:
- Sunglasses
Despite the fact that I was wearing some.
- A Watch
I had a watch, but that didn't seem to deter them.
"Maybe tomorrow sir?"
"Sure. By tomorrow I would of convinced myself that a
watch on each hand is both useful and trendy" *stare*
- A Belt
You'd be surprised how useful a belt can be on the beach. When
those big waves come and your togs end up around your ankles, you
can't help but wish you were wearing a belt.
- A Night Of Infinite Pleasure
I'm not entirely sure what this young lady was offering, but I think
it involved high speed internet access, a bowl of fruit and a 24
hour sports channel.
I joke about the prostitution, but it is a huge problem in the
Philippines. There are an estimated 400,000 sex workers in The
Philippines, 25% of whom are minors. The number of sex
workers in The Philippines is greater than the number employed in the
manufacturing sector.
Many young girls (and boys) are lured to the big cities with the
promise of a steady job and income, but end up in brothels or on the
street. There is a lot of shame in being a prostitute, so the
parents of the prostitutes are often ignorant of their children's'
circumstances. There
is plenty of money to be made from foreign tourists, a small percentage
of which goes to the sex-workers themselves.
If you're interested in learning more about this problem, check out the
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women's site,
or End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism's site.
I think the best thing about being in a foreign land is the
interesting people that you meet. One night, in Tabucan, I ended
up in a small bar in an isolated farming village. The bar was
filled with about 5 farmers (one of whom was passed out) who were either
drinking or singing karaoke tunes. The bar was run by this very
butch Queen (i.e. a guy dressed up as a girl), who took great
delight in my version of "Another One Bites the Dust".
Another such character was Steve, who is
the owner of the Frendz resort on
Boracay. Steve is from Australia and lives with his Filipino wife
and his Australian daughter.
When I was first introduced to Steve, I started pushing around his
ash-tray and said: "What's this? I don't understand.
These shouldn't be here"
A puzzled expression crossed Steve's face.
"These ashes," I said. "I didn't think you
Australians had any ashes**...".
Steve looked grumpy. "Look mate," he said. "Don't you
start".
Apparently there was an Englishman on the island who had a little
wager on the Ashes series with Steve and had been getting digs in ever
since England won.
As the evening progressed we drank the local brews and sang Karaoke
songs. Steve soon realized that I didn't drink any alcohol and
obviously couldn't sing. I'm not sure if he was still burnt from
my Ashes comment, but he came up with the line: "So he doesn't
drink and can't sing. What a loser.", which, quite frankly,
pissed me off.
I can think of several witty replies that I could of retorted with,
but none were forthcoming. The more I thought about it though, the more
pissed off I became. Later on in the evening, we started talking
about religion. Steve professed to being a Born Again
Christian. Motivated by revenge (I guess) and the hypocrisies I
saw, I began to systematically dismantle his
beliefs.
Was this fair? Probably not. Do I care?
Nope. There was probably some of my own anger at the church
and God coming out as well. Terry Pratchett, a great British
writer, once said that he was the type of Atheist who was angry at God
for not existing. While I classify myself as Agnostic, I can still
understand where he is coming from.
Anyway (says Malcolm, trying to get back to Boracay...), I really
enjoyed my trip to Boracay. It was a great chance to get to know
the new volunteers. I suspect I'll be heading there again when
another new batch of volunteers arrive.
*Why are they called Minivans? If anything they are
usually bigger than normal vans. I guess I'll file this as one of
life's little mysteries.
** Australia beat England at cricket for this first time
in about 1900. The cricket stumps were burnt to signify the
death of English cricket. Some diligent individual collected
the ashes and put them into a tiny little urn. Australia and
England compete for these ashes every two years.
Australia has dominated the series for the last 20 years or so.
In the 2005 series however, England beat Australia against all odds,
much to the disgust of the Australians.
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