Boracay - New Year's eve on one of the world most beautiful island

On December 30th and after my wounds cleaning ritual, we headed to the domestic terminal of Manila's airport. The place is "funny", looks like a bus station at best and is a little chaos. Local airlines are still suffering from cancellations around Christmas due to a typhoon that hit the archipelago. We have been VERY lucky with Jeroen that our flight had no impact because of this, well that flight at least.

We arrived in Kalibo just 30 minutes after schedule. Thanks to our smart move during the flight to buy a transfer from the airport to Boracay directly, we had nothing to worry about from Kalibo to the Hostel.

After a 2 hours bus ride (for only 40km ...), a small ferry crossing crossing the 1.5km sea between Caticlan and the island and a final 30 minutes mini van transfer we made it to the hostel for diner! 

Since Philippines is not really known for its food (nothing wrong about it, but you can be disappointed at times), we asked the receptionist - a local girl - for suggestions. Her answer came in a blink: "Go to Smoke". Smoke is a very small eatery located in a side street of D-Mall, the shopping center of the islands where a lot of bars / restaurants / handcrafts & souvenirs boutiques can be found. This mall is located in the very center of the island and leads to the main beach: White Beach. We would spend the large majority of our 4 days stays around that area... and NEVER too far away from Smoke.

This local restaurant is hands down the best food experience we have had in the Philippines (so far :D). Creamy oriental chicken, Tofu Salad, Fish soup, Curry chicken... you name it, it is amazingly tasty... and dirt cheap compare to the restaurant located directly on the beach. We would go to have a meal at Smoke at least once a day! 

The "street leading to our favorite restaurant: Smoke.

We made it back to the hostel and had a chat with a few travellers including this 52 years old Canadian (from Québec) that had just decided to change his entire life, sold everything he had to start travelling... and learning English. Very nice and wise person that was.

Soon enough we were already the 31st and it was time to get ready for the party and New Year's eve celebration. On that day, the beach was absolutely packed all day long. Locals preparing the fireworks and tourists making plans for the evening. After diner at Smoke, we went back to the hostel to meet up with Delphine (a swiss girl) and Tim (a Dutch guy) to spend the evening with them. We had decided to have a few cocktails at BomBom while the atmosphere on the island was getting really pumped! By 11, we had agreed to leave the bar, go to the 7/11 (a supermarket chain that can be found all over South East Asia), buy some drinks and find a spot on the beach that was already packed.

Drinks at BomBom to celebrate the end of 2016.

The night was very fun, between drunk tourists and happy locals. It ended around 4am for me after speaking to many people celebrating the first moments of 2017, being happy to be there and say goodbye to 2016.

Boracay has 2 main characteristics:

- there is a massive party scene (NYE was absolutely insane in that sense!!!)

- it is selected years after years among the most beautiful islands in the world (depending who runs the polls) and rightfully so. Check that ranking out for example (not to brag but we are spending holidays on the 3 Philippines islands making the top 5 :D :D :D keep following for more informations about these locations)

January 1st was a lazy day as for most of us I guess. Woke up for breakfast at 9am and went back to bed until 2pm :) It was then just the usual: Smoke for lunch and chilling on the beach. For diner we spiced things up going to a local burger venue for a very tasty double cheese / double beef burger.

We would get back into our adventurous spirit on the 2nd of January where we would go for a boat tour around Boracay. I have been a bit anxious about that one from the beginning. Since I cannot really go in the water (I do not want to have water on my dressings which would just add a bit to my recovering time) it took Jeroen and Brendon (an Aussie) to carry me onto the boat lying 50 meters from the beach in the water (my heroes <3, otherwise I would just have stayed on the beach and the boat would have left without me). The ride was bumpy and the other side of the island turned out to be very windy... and a paradise for kite surfers. We made a 4 stops: 1 snorkeling stop I would not take part on, a second stop on Laurel island, a third stop in a big rock right in front of Laurel island with couple of houses and plate forms to jump from (including a 10m high diving place I would I Love to try out) and finally a 4th stop back on Boracay (but the other side on the Southeast tip of the island for lunch).

That was it for me. It was way too tricky to go on and off the boat... I fell on my back on the ramp from the boat to the island on one of the stop trying no to wet my left leg. No harm thankfully.

Impossible not to speak about my wounds cleaning experience on the island... Pain is the most accurate word for this.The nurses would ever day rub a piece of cotton counting until 10. Not pleasant to be scrached on an open would. Thankfully the number of dressing I am having is quickly reducing and by the time we left Boracay, I just had a small one on the left ankle and another small one on the left elbow.

When waking up on the 3rd, it was already time to leave the little paradise.

Sunset from White Beach.

Ko Pha-Ngan - Opening day tradition

December 21st.

Solid tradition now !!

New place, early morning run.

This time again, tropical rain.

Since it is 6 days before the race I took it easy. 40 minutes easy run.

I then went on to change accommodation.

The bungalow I had was ok, but there were cheaper and better option.

I decided to head to the North East part of the Island, on the opposite corner to the party area in a much quieter place to the Shiralea resort.

The resort is a perfect place with swimming pool, close to beautiful beaches.

After lunch (pad thai ... what else) and check in, I headed to Ko Ma, an island / peninsula you can walk on to... you have max 50 cm shallow cristal clear deep water for 100m to get there. The place is perfect for snorkeling. Beaches are full of corals of any color you can imagine. It feels like a giant fish tank.

Coral beach of Ko Ma

Happy dog chillin' in front of Ko Ma

My snorkeling spot on Ko Ma

It was soon time for diner. For this I was looking for a perfect spot to record a timelapse and enjoy a nice pad thai (sorry for this obsession of mine - if you don't know what a pad thai is, go to a Thai restaurant. Please.).

We stopped at the Flying Dutchman... One of the nicest place I have been to so far. It is quiet, peaceful heartwarming and the food is de-li-cious.

View from the Flying Dutchman

Tomorrow will be an important day... The day of THE CHALLENGE. My expectations have been building up so high. The place looks like a Wipeout playground for whoever is up for the "Challenge". Can't wait.

Krabi - Life is THE Beach

Oddly enough, I had to change the time when I arrived in Thailand. We are in the time zone UTC +7 hours. It does make a difference regarding my running. I am still going running every second day as early as possible which basically means when the sun rise. In Malaysia it was between 7 and 7:15 in the morning. In Krabi, I went for my morning run before 6:30.

The mini marathon next week will start at 5:45 in the morning... better getting use to it!!!

So I did run a little on the bank of the river... Quite a few runners out there. Interval trainings it was, trying to get some speed. It is a training that makes me very inconfortable. I am out of breath most of the time, at a pace I can't handle... but it helps apparently. My brother suggested that I do intervals of 30 seconds for 10 minutes which means 30 sec very quick and 30 sec recovery for 10 minutes... then slow pace for 10 minutes just to have your heart rate going down... and do it again.

Impossible for me today. I went to bed very late the day before as I was speaking with a couple of English and an Australia at my hotel (the first persons I have met that did not enjoy their stay in Thailand at all). I completed only half of the training set by Simon... 5 minutes intervals of 30 seconds twice with a 5 minutes recovery run in between. I did not feel the sleep was missing, I should maybe just do this more often and increase slowly the reps. We will see in the coming weeks how I can squeeze this kind of specific trainings in the travelling plans.

I had booked a last minute tour to visit some islands located in the "bay" of Krabi (which, as I learnt, is called the Andaman sea... Thank you google...). Many many many (and many more) tour options... James Bond Islands, Monkey Island, Phi Phi Islands, etc etc etc.

I went full on Leo style and choose the Phi Phi Islands tour package. Phi Phi Islands are a group of 2 main islands known for the movie the Beach starring Leonardo Dicaprio... and Virginie Ledoyen. I really though she was forgotten by international audience by now, but seeing 95% of the girl getting recorded out of the water like this I understood how wrong I was.

The tour was taking out the group to places absolutely incredible. Again, it is hard to put words on the landscapes, the color of the water, the islands, the feeling of that perfect sand on your feet... You have to see it for yourself and make yourself an opinion about these places. I am not going to lie, it was amazing and as you probably guess, incredibly busy everywhere we went. 

Here is a small summary of the day and the visits.

Departure by boat from Ao Nang, a nice little beach resort 20 km away from Krabi town.

40 minutes wandering on Bamboo Island - an island without bamboo... but a LOT of corals.

We went for short picture stop where we stayed on the boat to see the Viking Cave. This is a place known for its bird nest. Apparently a bird nest found there can be sold up to 100.000 Bahts according to our guide (2600 euros approximately)... A delicatessen in Asia were we told.

We had a swim in Pileh lagoon together with doyens of other groups from alternative tour companies.

We spent 45min on Ko Phi Phi Lee. We were dropped off Maya Bay - the Beach of "The Beach".

We spent 5 minutes off shore of Monkeys Beach snapping a few pictures... and feeding the monkeys.

We then headed to Ko Phi Phi Don for lunch. A buffet for hungry tourists with local food.

Our final stop was for snorkeling close to Nui Beach, a little creek breathtaking.

We return to Ao Nang, all absolutely exhausted. I slept most of the 30 minutes return to my hotel... and therefore was ready for yet another my egg wrapped pad thai :D

Coming back from this and since I have been wondering how such a landscape was formed I did a little research. I learnt that these seascape elements are called karst and are (surprise, surprise!!) NOT the results of millions of years of erosion but of a chemical process acting over thousands and thousands of year. More info here and here.

There are worst ways to spend a day really.

Post Scriptum: It is hard to pick a few pictures from all these places. There are 2 that I really like: one from "the back of The Beach" on Ko Phi Phi Lee (everybody stays on the Beach while 2 minutes of walking takes you to a no man's land with that view) and one from the snorkeling. What do you think?

Island in the back of Maya Bay.

Fishes photo-bombing my selfie.

Langkawi - Life is a Beach

2 buses, 1 ferry, 1 taxi... 10 hours...

We - 2 german girls making the same trip and I - left Cameron Highlands at 8am, and for to Cenang Beach at 6pm. The first bus took us to Butterworth in Penang, the second to Kuala Perlis where the ferry was making the short trip to the island of Langkawi.

10 hours... this is what it takes to reach this paradisiac place. The first island on the trip :)

First things first on arrival: find an accommodation for the night. On the way there, I received good word for couple of options: the Cottage and the Gecko. I went first to the Cottage but it was fully booked. Gecko it was! 100m away from the beach. Very close to the main street with all the restaurants and souvenirs shops. Very nice place it turned out to be. Full of cats, roosters, chicken and guess what... geckos. Very happy as well to be able to buy fresh fruits from the nearby night market... Maaaaaan these mangos and bananas :)

I started the day after a nice sleep the same way I did in the previous stops: going out for a sunrise run. That 3rd run of the trip was so different from the ones in Kuala Lumpur (big city) and Cameron Highlands (mountains) not only because of the nearby beach but specifically for the wild life...

I got uber-scared seeing 3 buffalos peacefully drinking from a ditch right next to the road and a family of a dozen monkeys looking for food in the garbage of one of the hotels. My last encounter with a monkey had been epic some months ago in Cambodia and I didn't want to have the same experience again. The weather was punishing. 27 degrees and 85% humidity at 7am. Standing still in the shade is enough to start sweating... Running was hell of challenge. I am starting to hope for rain in the races of Bangkok and Cebu... 

End of the road for my morning run.

I went for a typical breakfast - food here has a big Chinese and Indian influence - and eventually headed to the beach for a swim and in order to finish the book I had started in the bus the day before.

It was only a few minutes... an hour max... but enough to get sunburn. Unfortunately there were not so much shade on the beach so I went walking around instead. It seems like there are quite some things to do on the island, however none of it will be for me for now.

I want to get to Thailand fast as I must be in Bangkok on the 24th. So tomorrow morning, I will get a ferry to Thailand and a bus to Krabi. I will be in for another long day of transportation.

That also means there will be more island in the coming days and more pieces of paradise :)

Selfie in Cenang Beach.