9 to 5 in Paradise

I've come to a realization that I don't think I'd want to live in Boracay.

[Identity-protected] and I once had this conversation in which I asked her if she would want to live there. She said she wouldn't mind trying it out but added that she would probably get bored.

Well, this point was emphasized our last trip out wherein I had to cover that Funboard cup two weeks ago.

Two reasons:

1. If you're not rich, you have to work. It's simple, really. You go to an island paradise like Boracay to relax. But if you live there and your surname isn't Elizalde or Ayala or Yuchengco or any of those belonging to rich families, then you have to earn a living.

This point was reinforced for me since I had to walk all the way from the Boracay main beach to where the windsailing competition was being held at wind-swept Kite Beach. The beach was across their main road (main being an exaggeration) and just 10-minutes away. But-- for one who's used to walking-- the travel was tiresome, done under the hot island sun. Can you believe I got my recent tan just by walking around? Eh.

Likewise, since you're working all day, you only have time to relax by early-to-late afternoon, which would preclude most of the fun-in-the-sun type of activities.

A lot of people living there do so via sports: beach volleyball, beach pingpong/ tennis (a combination of both), beach frisbee. Some pull out their skimboards (?) or their windsailing boards while others take the last few banana boards or jetski trips out. A lot just dip in the water a bit.

(Unfortunately, while we were there, the seasonal winds-- the hangin habagat-- was still around so it was quite nippy during the late afternoons. Double unfortunate was that due to the season, the waters were always cold. Brrr!)

Anyway, because of this, late afternoons the beach can get pretty crowded.

So: you're not the active type. What else can you do in Boracay?

Why drink, of course.

Boracay is also loaded with bars and restaurant, some of them like the world-famous Cocomangas bar and their "15 (shots) and still standing" drinking bouts. Some people from Imperial Manila actually go to Boracay not for the beaches but to party all night.

Unfortunately, Boracay as a vacation place also gets you into this mindset that it's okay to start drinking around 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the beach. This is such that by 7 o'clock, you've actually recovered from your first binge of drunkenness and ready to start your second.

And this brings me to the second reason:

2. It's boring there. If you're in Boracay and you've been working all day, chances are you want to relax. Now, in Manila, you go out on gimmicks: hit the bars to drink or go watch a movie. But in Boracay, there are no moviehouses. So you go and drink.

On the first night, after dinner, we went out to get a drink. On the second night, we went out to get a drink. On the third night, we went out to get a drink. On the fourth night... well, you get my point?

And it's all one place: there is really nothing new to try once you're gone around the Boracay bar circuit from station 1 (at one end of the island) to station 3 (the other end). After all, drinking with your feet in the sand can get ordinary after the first three times.

You know the saying, that it's all the same faces in the same places? In Boracay moreso: it's such a small place almost everyone knows each other there. (And some of the vacationers also.) And one thing I discovered is that despite Boracay's rather large population of expatriates, it still has the same small-town views and hierarchies of the locals.

It got so bad that after our fifth night, I was craving for a traffic jam on their main road. (Of course that's because the largest vehicle allowed around were tricycles or hybrid small jeepney/ trucks.) I was that bored.

I'm not slamming Boracay, mind. It's a beautiful island paradise, there's no denying it. It's just that after seven days and six nights in such a small place, paradise can get really tiring.

That and there were no bookshops around. Now that was unforgiveable.