Boracay: Second to None
Apart from it's unbeatable beaches, Boracay offers top-class dining and recreation
By Teddy Y. Montelibano
The introduction in the mid-1990s of frequent regular flights by various airlines to Caticlan, which is just 20 minutes away by motorized banca from Boracay, has tremendously improved Boracay's accessibility. Today, commercial shipping lines also ply the Manila-Caticlan route (RBS Virgin Mary, for instance, leaves Manila at 5 p.m. and arrives in Caticlan at 7 a.m. the next day).
If you're adventurous and would like to save on travel fare, an alternative way to Boracay is by the RORO (roll-on, roll-off) system of buses and ferries that will take you from Manila to Caticlan through Batangas City and Mindoro.
Sometimes, I get a kick out of hopping on board an air-conditioned bus in Manila at 3:00 p.m. one day, and then finding myself by 8:00 a.m. the following day barefoot and half naked on the sand, having either a cup of barako in Nadine Rosia's Real Coffee on Station 1 or gorging on the best cholesterol overload of a breakfast in Jun and Maricar Sacapano's Barracuda Café in Station 2. One moment, you're in polluted, traffic-snarled Manila; the next, you're in paradise in Boracay, even if it is no longer the virgin piece of unblemished sand and beach that it once was in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Modern times may have caught up with Boracay, but some things about the island remain unchanged: the fine texture of the sand on Long Beach and that dazzling aquamarine seawater. If you know where to look, there are still coves and intimate spots around Long Beach and Bulabog-on the side that has become a haven for windsurfers and kiteboarders-where one can contemplate life's goodness undisturbed.
These essential things about Boracay are mainly why I remain compulsively attracted to this island. Lately, there have been even more reasons for taking off for the island at the drop of a hat. First on the list of such reasons is the quality of people who have gone to Boracay to reinvent themselves and, in the process, given the island some added class.
Take Binggoy Remedios, for instance. After traveling the globe as catering officer for PAL International Catering in San Francisco, the UK, and the Middle East, as well as with Ogden Food Service in Honolulu, he came to Boracay in 2000 and opened the Spanish-Filipino restaurant, Dos Mestizos. After his partner died recently, Binggoy closed Dos Mestizos to take over Travesia, the restaurant in Choy Cojuangco's Asya-the most tastefully designed new resort hotel to open in Boracay's lowlands.
Asya's counterpart on higher ground is Karen Villarica Reina's Mandala luxury villas and multiawarded spa built on 2.5 hectares of elevated lush grounds on the south side of the island, overlooking Long Beach. Prana, Reina's architectural landmark of a restaurant, serves some of the best gourmet spa and vegetarian cuisine in this part of the country.
At the northernmost tip of Long Beach lies Nami (from the Ilonggo word manami , which means "nice"), owned by Cheese Ledesma (of the Big Chill juice bar chain) and her family. Nami has only a dozen suites built on a hillside featuring balconies with a jacuzzi and a view of the ocean.
Ledesma's fiancé, Joel Ong, owns Sasha Sailing Club, which has brought paraw sailing-a popular activity in Boracay-to a luxurious, upscale level. His fleet of paraws (swift sailboats) are equipped with sound systems that play a variety of music (chill, latin, standards) and coolers filled with chilled drinks, which could include champagne if a client so wishes. One of the coolest ways to tan in Boracay is to rent one of Joel's paraws and sail all day, soaking up the sun even as brisk winds sweep over one's entire body.
Towards sunset, people on the island congregate in various places to chill out with friends and have cocktails before dinner. Some of the best spots for predinner drinks can be found along the beach: Club Paraw, Boracay Beach Club, Aria's satellite bar, and my perennial favorite, Hey Jude!, which plays the coolest down-tempo music at sunset while people guzzle chilled happy-hour beer with the best non-Italian, thin-crust pizzas in Boracay (try the Margarita or the Pepperoni).
When it comes to real dining, a plethora of restaurants has sprouted in Boracay and one will never lack for choices. Farthest north in Long Beach is Friday's, with its always-adequate hotel-food offerings. Then there's Aria in D'Mall of Juan Elizalde and business partner Paolo Occhionero, with its authentic Italian pizzas, pastas, and the house's fabulous lettuce, arugula, and Parma ham salad with parmegiano reggiano shavings. Espressos, lattes, and cappuccinos are available at the adjacent Café del Sol.
Also in D'Mall are the newly opened Lemon Café, which offers delicious and healthy gourmet cuisine and the best concocted desserts on the island; Portuguese Antonio Sanchez's (ultra-pricey) seafood restaurant Portugalia; and recently opened Cyma, owned by Nino Zulueta and partners featuring Greek-inspired food by Robbie Goco. For simpler but nonetheless delicious fare, you can go to Elizalde's Mongkok for dim sum, Hong Kong noodles, and other Chinese dishes, or to Nina Bustamante's Island Chicken for authentic Bacolod chicken inasal, kansi (Negros-style beef stew with vegetables), pan-fried boneless bangus, recado chorizo from Bacolod, and the deadliest leche flan and buko pandan on the planet!
Newly opened in the Bulabog area is Palo Maria, owned by architects and émigrés from Manila, Leah and Ian Bautista, with its cozy, laid-back ambiance and scrumptious home-cooked comfort food. The Bautistas restaurant is on the same grounds as their nice, clean minimalist four-room bed-and-breakfast, The Lazy Dog, which is popular with windsurfers.
Two more dining venues are on my list of favorites in Boracay. Jinky Reyes's Bamboo Lounge, also in the Bulabog area, has superb Chinese cuisine by chef Bong Velasco, also an import from Manila. After a delectable feast in the restaurant downstairs, go up to the second floor, order a drink, and sink into outsized cushions while listening to cool music.
No trip to Boracay is complete without dining on the food of Binggoy Remedios. His specialties include paella, cochinillo , leg of lamb, and duck estofado. My personal favorites are his tapas, such as his fresh sardines in olive oil, a savoury dish he calls sepia (baby cuttlefish cooked al ajillo ), homemade chorizos Español, and his to-die-for calamares relleno (bite-sized fresh baby squid stuffed with its own finely chopped head and fins mixed with chili, parsley, garlic, and onions). Taking all these after a day of sweltering heat on the beach and washed down with ice-cold beer is absolutely the life!
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