BORACAYYYYY!!!

We are now in Boracay and have had 3 days relaxing at the beach, drinking in the evening and exploring the strip of shops along the beach. We are staying in a very fun hostel recommended to us by Robyn and met some of her Filipino friends who are, as always, really friendly.

We have had a very intense 8 days consisting of mainly eating and drinking with a spot of beach time in there somewhere! We met some great people during our time here and if we get the chance we'll definitely come back to stay at Frendz hostel. Not only did we get along with the staff we also got friendly with a young chap called Joe from Brighton who seemed to bumble through life with usually amusing consequences. He was on a short trip from a year working and training in China and could speak Mandarin which impressed us greatly!

Another lovely guest was an ex-marine from New York called Bart. He looked like action man in human form but is one of the sweetest guys we have ever met. We spent most evenings with Joe or Bart and a big group of us went to Puka beach for the day where we explored some secret caves, thanks to a tip from a naked man-don't ask, with Alyson, Jeff and Bart. We also spent a few nights with a group from England and Scotland and visited the Hobbit House, a bar with midget waiters. We met Mario another of Robyn's friends. We took a few pictures with the midgets and one of them looked at one of the Scottish girls and said 'almost'. She was only a few inches taller than him!

During one of the conversations with the guys from England James had mentioned he was from Darlington. The guys said they had met a guy from Darlington somewhere else in the Philippines and his name was Pascal. James couldn't believe it, it must be his childhood friend. There was no way of knowing for sure as he isn't on facebook and the guys didn't know his last name. We spent a few hours the next day wandering up and down the beach on the look-out, well James was I didn't have a clue what he looks like! We thought it was hopeless and then at about 1 in the morning we were making our way back to the hostel and bumped straight into the arms of Pascal and his girlfriend Lyndsey! We decided to extend the night out and went back to the bar for a few more drinks and more dancing. The next day we took them to Puka beach and it was really nice for Pascal and James to catch up. They came to Frendz the next night and we all went out in a big group!

Then to top off some more random coincidences a girl with an American accent spoke to me whilst dancing (complementing my awesome moves no doubt!) She heard my English accent she asked where I was from I told her near London, a place called Essex she asked whereabouts I asked if she had heard of Colchester. She said oh yes I lived in a place for over a year near there called Frinton-on-sea! I couldn't believe it! It turned out she was dating a guy a few years younger than me and who also went to Loughborough and is best friends with Faye Tanners brother-so random!

I can't leave the blog without mentioning the lovely Chilean girls we met. They were all stunning, so friendly and thought our Spanish language mishaps hilarious! Catalina helped me with some of my verbs and notes I had made in Ecuador and they were all a lot of fun. Although, I may have to delete them from my facebook account as they are all too gorgeous!

It was a fun fuelled week that nearly ended in disaster. James and I went out for our last night and knowing we had to leave at 6:00am we had every intention of stopping the drinks at about 11 and then getting to bed by at least 2am. This did not happen. Bart was sad to see us go and thought the best present was a large amount of tequila! I am not sure what time we made it back to the room, we think it was around 5! We obviously passed out and were rudely awaken by someone banging on our door and telling us the bus was ready. We woke up quickly and realised we hadn't packed. Frantically we threw everything (well nearly) into our bags and staggered out, still a bit tipsy from the night before. We got the ferry across and then waited for our next bus transfer when James couldn't locate all of our bank cards. We started to panic but fortunately the staff in Frendz are so amazing they sent someone across and we met them at the airport with our bankcards, lucky break for us!

We would love to come back to the Philippines, hopefully to see the wrecks at Coron and the whale sharks in Donsal, and if our livers can handle it some more Boracay time!