Boracay

The eagle-eyed among you may have already spotted the photos I've been uploading to the Flickr site over the past few days and I apologize that I'm only just getting round to writing about the weekend trip to Boracay now. What with work commitments and getting sick for the past 36 hours - M has all the details - I've been a bit busy and haven't had the chance to provide my usual journalistic update on my activities. I have a few minutes here at the Manila airport before I get on my flight to Sydney via Bangkok so I'll see if I can remedy that.

I arrived here in Manila at close to midnight on Thursday last week and once we'd gotten to the hotel and checked in we only had about 4 hours before we had to get up and head to the airport to catch our flight to Boracay island. And, with my jetlag from the trip to Tokyo still in full-flight I was ready to wake up anyway. So, Kamlesh (my UK-based employee) decided to use the time constructively and experience the Martinis they prepare in the, um, Martini bar at the hotel instead of going to bed.

The journey down to Boracay was smooth - we met up with the local development team (a great bunch of people) at the airport, flew down to Caticlan, transferred over to Boracay island on a boat that played live Journey and Eagles songs over the tannoy en route (they played the same ones on the way back, too), journeyed to the hotel in a Jeep-ney and then promptly went to bed for a couple of hours. The rest of the day was very relaxed and involved lunch, a meeting in Starbucks, a massage and pedicure on the beach (sorry Christina!) and a quick shower before heading out to dinner. By then I was exhausted and went to bed at around 9:30.

It was just as well as Saturday was a full day - after breakfast we rented a boat and headed out to do some snorkelling around the island (they provide you with bread rolls to feed the fish with) and drinking fresh Buko juice (baby coconut) before stopping off at a beach at the northern end of the island where they barbeque fresh fish, crab and other local delicacies to order. From there we jumped back on the boat and headed south to get a different boat over to the Helmet Diving location. This was my favorite part of the entire day - theye give you a large helmet that is connected to the surface via an air hose and you climb down into the water and hang out there checking out the local scene and feeding the fish. One of the team didn't want to do it so I was able to go down twice. I would have happily spent all day down there getting to know the local piscine population better, but by then the sea was getting a bit rough and so we had to head back to the mainland.

Late afternoon meant a short nap before heading out for Indian food and then on to a local club for dancing on the internal dry sand dance floor our out on the beach with the tide lapping over your feet. It really was quite an amazing experience and, yes, the local team convinced me to show them my 'moves' - of which, just as in most other places around the world in which they get unveiled, they were in awe.

Sunday saw us heading back to a different airport for our flight back to Manila which meant we had a couple of hours bus ride across the island and a chance to check out the local scenery in a more rural part of the Philippines. That in itself was quite incredible too - it certainly humbles you to see how people live and work in these parts of the world.