For the first time during the vacation, the morning dawned like one! We’d slept listening to live music and woke up after 9! Though Coco Huts gave a 20% off on breakfast at their Army-Navy restaurant in the premises, we decided to explore a bit. Beach facing options were the focus, and we found Cafe del Mar a hundred metres down. D, as usual, managed to pick up an awesome Chef’s special omelette while I got more standard fare! Couldn’t complain though, especially given the awesome view and a bill of 540 pesos. The table number was 21. #youremember We’d been told that since the heater in the room hadn’t been fixed, they’d be shifting us to the family room. They did that soon as we got back from breakfast. This one was spread across 2 levels (and a mezzanine one in between) and could accommodate about 6 people! We were requested to use only the lower floor and the balcony. Fair request. Like all rooms, this one too was all wood, and had a verandah facing the beach.
We hadn’t made any specific plans for Boracay in terms of what are called ‘activities’. The only planning we did was figuring out the places to eat at! D Mall featured a lot in our research, and on our way the previous night we’d seen it on the road and thought it was a bit away. But on the beach, it seemed much nearer. It’s just off the beach and the first horizontally spread out mall I’d seen. 🙂 As if the eating options on the beach weren’t enough, this one had many as well, along with shopping options! But D had one destination in mind – Jonah’s Milkshakes, and she claimed to have seen it on the road the previous night. After getting on to the road we ambled a bit before realising that we should probably ask someone. Turned out that it was right after the spot where we’d been dropped the previous night! My turn to look at D accusingly! Our mango and mango-pineapple shakes were delivered in bottles, and proved to be a task to finish, though it was good! We shopped a bit, seeing Gandhi in the strangest of places, and a restaurant called The Hobbit House (turned out that they had one in Manila as well) where they employed midgets as servers, before dropping the stuff at the room and heading out for lunch.
A Thai option was available in the form of Saneh Thai, where we planned a light lunch of Tom Kha soup and a Chicken Satay (because nothing else was available) I also asked for a ‘Rhum Coke’, (not a spelling error) perfect for a balmy afternoon. Cost us 850 pesos. After another round of trinket shopping, we thought we’d explore the area a bit more. We went further along the beachfront (to the left of our hotel) and marked options for future meals. One of the places that did give that was the Coco Cafe, where we had some nice coffee and great WiFi for 305 pesos. 😉
Once we got back to the hotel, I also found spots that gave me access to their internet, which had proved elusive the day before. After a brief rest, we got out to catch the sunset. Turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever seen. There were boys doing sand art, and when we clicked pics, they politely asked for money. 🙂
After some more sunset clicking, we walked to the ‘right side’ of our hotel and were almost deceived that we were at one end. But we could proceed along the beach and discovered there was a quieter area with restaurants beyond. Again, we mistakenly thought this would be Station 2 or 3. Boracay has 3 Stations – 1,2,3 in descending order of ‘happening’ quotient. 🙂 Our hotel was at Station 1 and it turned out that this quieter area was actually an extension of 1. Tito’s, a stone’s throw away from our hotel, where we hadn’t been able to get a table the previous night, was kinder at 7.30 and Absinthe, and Sisig were consumed, along with some great music. Some tummy space had been reserved because we wanted to try out the Mati Chocolate Sin at Zuzuni, right next to our hotel, a dish recommended across the web! The day before we had reached the place pretty late and they had claimed they were about to shut shop. The dish turned out to be quite good (chocolate usually is!) and together, the dinner cost us 980 pesos. I quite cheaply hung around just outside Coco Cafe, and browsed the web even as D browsed fish stalls!
Back in the room, live music could still be heard, and I slept in the comfort that the next day could be another late start! Thus ended Day 4.