uberchic

A place very much unlike this (see picture, focus on person in the far left). A kingdom where imps with azure fairy wings gather pink fairy dust from twenty-foot, affable, expletives-bearing trees and sprinkle said pink dust to whoever is wearing a Brazilian shirt. Dust makes person think he can play like Ronaldinho and makes him scurry back to wherever he came from. Then i can put on my feather-weight, rainbow glass wings and play with imps in this wonderland. I am Alice for a week.

I stayed in Panglao Island Nature Resort which isn’t actually in Panglao Island (an info supplied by our friendly local tour guide Mang Edward). Bohol is the alternative to Bora (that’s Boracay for most people), as some people would like me to believe… and for a moment I almost believed it. Alona Beach tends not to be as crowded as white beach in bora and the diving sites in Bohol are great (so Mang Edward told me). Bohol is full of history – I have a great pic of me and my friend joining the blood compact brothers (statues, unfortunately) during the Spanish colonisation of Philippines.

When you are sick of Bora, experience Bohol and you may also think it’s the next bora (hope not!).

The cliche about Bora for all its glorified bashing backwards and forwards is pretty much justified and true – the squeaky white sand that doesnt burn your feet, the blue-green water, the breathtaking sunset, etc etc (algae in march). Amazingly it’s still above sea level even if the beach has cornucopia of shops, restaurants and sun-worshipping people! I was there a couple of weeks ago for 3 extremely short days. Longer than that would be a disaster (for me, anyway).