Boracay

Do you know this one, Adam?

Boracay is a legendary beach.

It was actually, it became so popular just before COVID that The Philippine government stopped people going there for a couple of years, incredibly.

And now it's fully open again.

And Philippines is actually, it's a really good point.

It's one of those great up and coming destinations that customers love.

So Cebu and Boracay, some of the best snorkeling, diving in the world there.

So it is really an up and coming destination that if you kind of think Bali in the 70s, 80s or Thailand in the 80s, 90s, that's kind of where the Philippines is now.

Steve, what would you nominate as a place that, well, isn't as good now as it was when you first went there?

Yeah, I've been to Boracay Island in the Philippines 21 times over probably the last 30 years.

What? And it's just been bought out now of like Koreans and Chinese have just built these great big hotels.

And it's taken all the native away from it.

It's just not what it was, you know.

Steve, wasn't Boracay where they actually shut it down, the island? They did, yeah.

And to move all the properties back from the beach to protect it?

Oh, no.

And I think I couldn't understand what was happening to me.

I just assumed that maybe it's like, you know, some midlife crisis or something, right? Three years later in 2018, the answer would come in the form of a news article that a friend had shared with me basically telling me that The entire island of Boracay in the Philippines where I was racing had to be shut down for a minimum of six months.

And in fact, it went up to, I think, seven or eight months.

And the president of the Philippines actually called it like, you know, a cesspool of environment violations.

My dad had flown over to the Philippines with me, and this was my first ever trip there.

We were going to be in the country for at least a month, so while we were there, [smacks lips] um, my girlfriend suggested that we see Boracay, and I hadn't heard of it prior.

And she'd been doing some research about cool places to visit in the Philippines.

It sounded beachy and fun, and my dad's friend was going to let us use his timeshare, and, um, we were newly graduated t- um, college students, so it sounded super appealing.

And all we had to do was purchase a flight to, um, Boracay from where we were, um, in Cavite, and my dad stayed behind while us two went to Boracay.

It was a trip getting there.

The plane was a teeny-tiny, like, eight-seater, and once we landed, we had to speedboat out and transfer via a plank to a smaller boat to get to the island, which is, like, another story in itself.

There was a glass door that was lockable that led to the outside, a screen door, also lockable, which I made sure that I locked and gave a small test pull before bed, and then there were the shades.

Beach.

Boracay.

Not

in the Philippines.

They had no idea we were actually getting married on this trip.

We got to Boracay three day before everyone for summer's time.

When friends arrived, we did all the fun island activities.

The night before our wedding, we asked everyone to be up at 7:00 for breakfast and to dress up in tropical beach outfits for cute pics.

Okay, let's unpack this.

Booking a flight to Guimaras expecting the sweeping powder white luxury of Boracay or the towering limestone cliffs of El Nido is like walking into a bar, ordering a craft beer, and being handed a really, really excellent cup of black coffee.

Oh, that's a great comparison.

Right.

Okay.

Lay it out for us.

Well, places like Boracay or Phuket were built and extensively rebuilt over decades specifically to handle human traffic and maintain comfort in all conditions.

They have the money and the development.