Boracay Wedding

One of the very special benefits of living overseas is making new friends and then having special adventures with them. Like being invited to the wedding of one of their children. In the Philippines. On a remote island.

Raye has 3 gal pals that she loves to spend time with. They call themselves "the Divas". Karen and Faye are from Vancouver. Faye was born in Kampala, Uganda and has family tracing back to Goa, India. Pam is from North Carolina, but hasn't lived in the US for over 20 years. Pam and Rich's son, Jonathan (the groom), was born in South Africa, grew up in the Philippines and Puerto Rico, went to college in Australia, and has since lived in the UK, Malaysia, and Singapore. His bride Anya, has a Filipino mother and an English father, grew up in the Philippines and went to college in the UK. And she and Jon knew each other in high school.

Interesting folks - so of course we knew this would be an interesting adventure. And we got a bit more than what we bargained for.

Boracay Island is not easy to get to. It's a 3 1/2 hour flight from S'pore to Manila. It's then an hour flight from Manila to Kalibo, followed by a 2-hour bus trip to Caticlan, a 15-minute ferry ride to the island, and capped off with a 15 minute ride in a van to the hotel.

The flight timings and airport logistics were such that it made sense to spend a night in Manila on the way in and out of the Philippines. Since Pam & Rich lived in Manila for 10 years, it was a great opportunity to get a feel for the city.

Like most cities in Asia (Singapore being an exception), there are nice parts and some awful squalor, and not much distance between them. It's easy to understand why so many of the domestic helpers and construction workers in other parts of Asia and the middle east come from the Philippines -- and why remittances (money sent back home from overseas) are such an important part of the economy. (Outside the USA, Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Overseas Filipino Workers OFW; Singapore is #9.)

The modes of transportation are interesting: not as many motorcycles as Hanoi or Bangkok. And there are two novel types of public transportation, the Jeepney and the Trike. The Jeepney is a "Mad Max" looking vehicle that serves as privately run public transportation. Think of it as the local version of a bus. Each owner/drive customizes their vehicle, so take a look at the variety through the link and our photos.

The trike is a motorcycle with a welded on sidecar, and serves the same purpose as a "tuk-tuk" in Bangkok or autorickshaw in Bangalore. Of course there are also regular taxis, but they cost a lot more. On Boracay, the trip into "town" cost PHP 10 per person (if you bargained for the "locals" rate and shared the trike with up to 4 others, i.e. total of 6 people including the driver), or PHP 50 for the "tourist" rate, which meant a private ride. Raye always got us the "local" rate, i.e. US$0.44 for both of us.

The Philippines is also the land of cheap beer. In Singapore, a bottle of the local Tiger beer costs about US$7; in the Philippines, a bottle of San Miguel is about US$0.74, i.e 10 time cheaper. (Singapore is reported to be the 8th most expensive, the Philippines the 9th least expensive.) Local food is good and inexpensive, we paid PHP 99 for a grilled chicken lunch with unlimited rice. That's US$2.15. And this is a place for inexpensive massages, notably on Boracay along the beach. An hour costs less than US$8, although you certainly can find places that will charge more. Pricing is a matter of negotiation on just about everything.

Everything about the wedding was spectacular. The rehearsal dinner was on the beach and the ceremony and reception were at the Shangri La resort as the sun was setting. Without a doubt it was the most thoroughly photographed wedding I'd been to, with the army of paparazzi choreographed by Amanda the Wedding Planner. (I'd never seen a steadicam used during a wedding before.) They were literally everywhere, but - remarkably - never in their photographs or video. The result was an incredible music-video-quality movie of the wedding day preparations and ceremony that was quickly produced and shown during the reception.

The international lives of the bride and groom was apparent during the reception. The cast of speech and toast makers (and accents) ranged from the southern drawl of the best man (and groom's father), to the patrician British accent of the bride's father, to the Norwegian college buddy, the Filipino-British blend of the maid-of-honor, and the Irish-Filipino blend of one of the groomsmen.

What an experience, and one that we are grateful to have shared with our friends. And New Years was the next day and there were more interesting adventures ahead.