As I write this post I should have already been in the Philippines’ premier beach destination, Boracay, but instead I’m at a Korean fast food, sulking with their hot and spicy fish fillet—all because my much awaited vacation was cancelled!

Early on, this trip had that tendency to fail.  First, my companions backed out at the last minute due to financial restrictions.  Then the crazy weather that’s prevailing in the country leading to a lot of flight cancellations.  Then finally, my burnout from work and the crazy Friday morning traffic (which I’m unaware of because it’s not my “timezone”) which lead me to miss my flight!  Crazy—for so long that I’ve been flying I was always at least an hour early, so yes, this was another unwanted first for me.  Sigh.

I really wanted for this trip to ensue regardless if I have company or not because I really miss Boracay and running barefoot on its beaches.  I even brought along my tripod, various swimming trunks, board shorts, etc. because I was looking forward to having some pictorials, particularly with its amazing sunset.  I thought that since the tickets were already paid for, it’s a waste not to use it.  I also thought that you can’t really call yourself a “traveller” unless you’ve travelled solo and managed all the itineraries involved by yourself so this trip was a chance for me to do it all, 100%.  The closest I got to this was with my Bohol-Cebu trip, but it was an easy way because I had the aid of ROX Tours.

From most of the tips I got online and from friends, Boracay is an excellent place to visit at these months (with the exclusion of the varying weather) because it’s off-peak season, which means that everything is much cheaper!  I was even advised that some rooms go for less than ₱1,000 a night so it was really tempting.  But just to be sure I did book myself a very nice room in a midrange beach-front resort for my first night at around half the normal rate.  My plan was to scout the area where I want to stay and chances are most of these resorts will have vacancy and offer better rates than published online.  That was the plan—that will never be realized. 😦

Being a late night person I naïvely thought that going out early in the morning will spare me from heavy traffic—wrong!  Morning rush hour starts early, and I was caught dead in the middle of it!  I even managed to squeeze me and my 10kg duffel bag inside the crowded rush-hour MRT just to buy back time, but alas when I got to the Taft Ave. station to get a cab to the airport, there was none!  I’ve always easily gotten a cab in the area, but this day was unique—almost something (or some One) telling me to just rest the trip.  Stubborn as I am, I won’t give up my plans so easily so even if I knew I was late for my flight, I still went to the airport, hoping for some lucky delays, but my flight resumed as expected (unlike many flights around it that were cancelled).  I even scoured through all the ticketing offices in the area trying to catch the next flight, but as expected they were giving preposterous rates!  The best quote I got was more than twice the cost of my original round trip fare.  I’d much rather spend all my money in the places I’d visit rather than make the airline companies richer.  And so, with a heavy heart, I just had to let my Boracay trip go…

(I actually stopped writing this post midway as I again attempted to find a good deal to attempt to continue this ill-fated trip, but even as I found some “decent” rates, I found myself lost for motivation to continue!  After all it’s a perfectly good day with a very nice accommodation gone!)

Fortunately, life may not have “undos,” but we do sometimes have “backups.”  In this case, my ultimate fallback was a shoe launching (which I previously declined but was still willing to accommodate me :)) where I’d have a chance to add another pair to my reviews.  It may not be Boracay, but I’d take what I can.  But of course the ultimate heartbreaker with me staying in Manila for the weekend is missing the Manila Eliminations of the MILO Marathon. 😦