Lunar New Years in the Philippines!

We had a 5 day weekend at the end of February for Lunar New Years and we went to the Philippines to celebrate!   We knew we wanted to get away together and Ben really wanted to go somewhere beachy so we chose Boracay on the recommendation of several friends who described it as paradise.  It was the picture perfect vacation!  Absolutely stunning and action packed.  We took advantage of every day and really really did a lot.

We flew about 5 hours from Seoul to Manilla. Then another hour flight from Manila to Kalibo.  At this point we met up with Southwest tours who took us the 2 hour bus ride to the Jetty Port where we hopped on a boat for about half hour to Boracay!  Southwest tours took us from the Jetty port to our hotel.  We stayed at Hill Top Resort which was in Station 3.  It was about a 10 minute walk to the beach which was really cool because we got to walk through the town or we'd hop on a tricycle which were motorcycle pulled carts.  These trikes were eveywhere and would take you anywhere for about $3...hold on tight.

This was the road to our Hotel, a little off the beaten path.  We got free breakfast and the hotel was everything we needed.

 

 

 The first day we rented a private boat and we went island hopping and snorkelling! 

 

 

We signed up for a bar crawl the first night in hopes we'd meet some friends and we did! It was so so fun and just hilarious.  We visited 5 bars along the beach.  There was A LOT of dancing, karaoke, games, more dancing and a silent disco to end it all.  Head phones for everyone...so silence to anyone not included.  It was pretty funny to watch without the head phones on.

 

 

The rest of the trip we hung with our new buds, Tanner, Tom and James!  This included beach hangs, frisbee, volleyball, parasailing, cliff jumping more snorkelling and island hopping!

 

 

 

 

 

 
The whole trip was perfect and we had such a blast!  The people of Philippines despite being poor were so kind and hospitable.  We met a group of children who worked all night trying to sell souvenirs to foreigners. Even though we never bought anything from them they found us every night just to talk and hang out.  They were also very talented with sand art.  Sad that they have to work to provide for their families but they were so happy and fun to be around.  Great salespeople too...

 

 

Dinner Show! 

Ten dollar hour massages on the beach.

Didn't catch it myself but got to choose it...

We would go back in a second!

The trip ended with catching a couple hours of sleep on the floor at the airport in Manilla then flying back just in time to teach our classes monday Afternoon.