Sailing or Fasting...

Neil met up with Rob and Andries in Cebu to sail Small Cat Fun, Rob's catamaran from Cebu, Philippines to Singapore, via Palawan PH, Brunei, Kotakinabalu ML and Indonesia. It was a 20 day journey, with two long sea crossings of 5 or 6 days each. The weather was generally good with lots of wind, which made sailing a lot of fun. At one stage they had the spinnaker up for 36 hours. They swam with whale sharks and saw plenty of sea life like turtles and dolphins. They caught fish to eat and had the freshest sashimi ever. Rob's a good cook, so they even had fresh bread and pizza en route. The 3 hours on and  6 hours off routine was pretty tiring for everyone but the consensus was    " best sailing trip ever."
Gail decided on a trip to Orion, a health retreat on Koh Phangan , Thailand for 11 days of Yoga , massage, raw vegan food and 7 days of fasting. I had a relaxing time, met some great people and did without coffee or wine! Orion was a bit too hippy and hey-shoo-wah , so it was good to pop up to Utopia Resort every few days to visit David and Lisa, sipping on nothing but coconut water.

Boracay

This was our first trip to the Philippines. We met Tracey at Changi Airport to fly on Tigerair to Kalibo. This is the most direct route to Boracay, but still involves a 90 minute bus trip, a short ferry crossing and a mini bus drop off around Boracay. I wouldn't suggest this for a long weekend out of Singapore but I would definitely recommend Boracay as a great island destination. White beach is a long, beautiful beach with the whitest sand and bluest water I have ever seen! It's wonderfully clean and the water is a little cooler than in Thailand. The hotels and restaurants line the beach, with only a sandy footpath between them and the palm fringed beach.  Our hotel was called Alice in Wonderland! Sunsets are awesome. At night all the beach beds are replaced by tables for beachside dining with your feet in the sand. Philippino cuisine seemed rather limited but we did find good seafood as well as Thai, Indian, Greek, Spanish and Western. Nightlife is very low key compared to Patong but there are plenty of cover bands and outdoor bars. Beware too many heart breaking pop ballads though, and bad Karaoke.
Massages are cheap but not quite as good as in Thailand. Ditto happy hour cocktails. Most of the tourists are from Japan, Korea and China, trooping around in groups and creating amazing people-watching opportunities with their crazy fashions; taking selfies everywhere and rushing around ticking all the must-do boxes as quickly as possible. Then there's The Hobbit House, a bar that only employs dwarves as waiters! Creating job- opportunities (Neil's view)or just plain weird(Gail's view)?
Neil left on the 7th March for his sailing trip and Tracey and I stayed on an extra week. We enjoyed the beach, did a boat trip, enjoyed our evenings without any late nights and got picked up by a San Diego fireman. There is such a thing as a free lunch, at the Talipapa Seafood Market with lots of Margaritas thrown in!