Just Got Back From Boracay In The Phillippines
06-03-2004, 03:36 PM
#13
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Originally Posted by 93 R1' date='Jun 3 2004, 12:18 PM
Damn I thought Cancun had nice water/scenery. That place is great.
Whats airfare cost? How long is the trip? Is everything wicked cheap like mexico?
Whats airfare cost? How long is the trip? Is everything wicked cheap like mexico?
If you have the money (or miles in my case) I can definitely recommend flying business or 1st class)... I paid for my fiancee and I using miles from Northwest and we flew 1st/business the whole way... sure makes the trip feel alot shorter than the 18-22 hours that it takes... those fares are typically $3000-5000 though, not really in my range unless I use miles or are actually going there on business
Pretty much everything is much cheaper than just about anywhere and probably on par or better for somet hings than Mexico... it kind of depends on how you do it... when I was in the Air Force I was going there from Korea for 2 weeks at a time and I never went over $100 a day including airfare, hotel and everything... that might sound like a lot, but I was renting a dirt bike (250cc Yamaha) every day, drinking about 20-40 beers a day, eating stuff like steak, blue marlin, etc.... basically NEVER worrying about how much money I was spending and living like a king every day I was there.
This trip (7 days) only cost me about $1000 total including my hotel, food and drinks for me and the woman... a dinner and drinks for about 20 people one night, renting out a sailboat for the day, all other transportation and all the stuff we bought... The only reason it was that high was because we were staying in 3-4 star hotels and that was the majority of our expenses
You can easily have a great time for under $50 a day (excluding airfare) if you just want a clean air-con room
It's cheap enough that depending on where you live, you can live in a nice house, with a maid and stuff for under $20K
As far as the threat level for the ordinary traveler... of course, you have some Muslim extremests in the far southern parts (Mindanao, etc.), New People's Army (NPA) in some remote parts around the north and huslters/scam artists trying to take advantage of you pretty much anywhere there are foriegners... I personally don't feel it's any more dangerous than anywhere else as long as you have some common sense, don't pull stupid **** and remember that you are a GUEST there... in my opinion, the Filipino people as a whole are probably the friendliest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting...
The messages from the US State Department haven't changed too much from when I first started going there in the early 90's... they add a new twist every now and then, but the message has stayed the same... USE COMMON SENSE
and I didn't see any rotary powered cars there... not this trip anyway... I tried to stay away from roads as much as possible
defeintely somewhere to check out if you are adventurous.... If not, somewhere like Jamaica would make a good substitute with much shorter flight times
06-03-2004, 03:39 PM
#14
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Join Date: Aug 2002
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Originally Posted by 93 R1' date='Jun 3 2004, 01:31 PM
Nah Drew aint no pinoy, he's white as they come 
Sounds like a possible vacation destination in the not too distant future.
Sounds like a possible vacation destination in the not too distant future.
funny thing was that my fiancee is Korean/Black, but everyone thought she was from the Philippines... everyone was speaking Tagalog to her!!!
You'd think that her height (5'10") would tip them off that she wasn't... I should have had a shirt made up for her that said she wasn't a filipina and to please use english...
