Boracay Day 3 - Island Hopping to Crystal Cove, Puka Beach

The island hopping trip starts at 10am. So we headed to the beach to people watch after our breakfast. 

The colour combination is really great. Blue sky blended with the sea water. Simply amazing to just relax by the beach and doing nothing. This is also another interesting part of travelling. 

Here we went, start of our island hopping day!

White Beach

As mentioned earlier in my post, this island hopping is a 6-hrs program and it costs 800 peso, including lunch and water. Oh, but it excludes snorkeling fee which costs 20 peso. So if you are not in for snorkeling, you need not pay this fee. So, do take note. 

First stop was at the middle of the sea and it's time to snorkelling. Well, I do not have a waterproof camera and thus, not able to capture any underwater pictures. But do it yourself and you will love the sea creatures! The sea was rather choppy but not too bad as the fishes were lured near us as the crew dropped bread crumbs into the sea. 

You will be given life vest. Do wear it for safety precautions though I saw some tour mates not wearing. 

After snorkeling, we stepped onto the first island - Crystal Cove. A nice place to spend the late morning. Okay - 2 choice once we embarked on the island. Pay to visit the crystal cove or just relax at the beach. I think it costs 100 Peso.

So step in and enjoy the view. We did not manage to visit the Cove 2 as it was high tide. What a waste!

View from Crystal Cove

View from Crystal Cove

Lunch was buffet style and the food was okay.

After Lunch, off we went to Puka Beach. The stay there was quite s short one and sorry no photos as I was a little deterred by the hot weather.

So after Puka Beach stay, off we went to the next snorkeling spot. This spot was not as great as the first one.

Alright. that's about it on our third day at Boracay.

Boracay Day 2 - Parasailing, Joanh's Fruit Shake , Sunset

Woke up to a wonderful day. We started off our day with the Hotel breakfast. There are 5 choices to it and is the usual choice of eggs, either bacon or ham. Salads and drinks are available too. Not those buffet style.. So sit back, relax and wait to be served. 

After the breakfast, we stepped out of the hotel to have the first taste of Boracay's daylight. Wonderful feeling. We headed back to the White beach and started our beach retreat. 

We read and did our research about the activities available on the island. First stop was to look for Diamond Water Sports. We read that it provided good service for parasailing. That was something that we wanted to try for the first time. So headed up towards Station 1 of the beach. It was not long that we stumbled upon some beach tentage, one of which happened to be Diamond Water Sports. At first, we thought we were looking for a shop front and did not really trust what the counter people were saying. We just treated it as touting. And yes, a lot of people were at the beach, trying to sell us their service/activities when we walked past them. Not a single moment was spared. 

So after some persuasion by the crew, we took up parasailing and Sunset Paraw Sailing for the day. It costs us 1,500 peso each for the activities. Not a bad deal, I guess, since he quoted us 1,500 peso for Parasailing alone. 

And after the payment, he led us to the beach. Oh god, that's efficient! Without any preparation and we were to embark on our first activity. I just had a heavy breakfast. But well, that's not a bad timing for the Parasailing as the weather would have been hotter if we were to delay the trip. 

So here we waited for the boat to pick us up to the middle of the sea -

Beautiful beach and water!

So the parachute looked great here against the blue sky. The view up there was fantastic too. Oh did I mentioned, for this trip out to the sea, it would take around 15 minutes. That's just us on this boat, so well, I guess, it was considered a 'private' tour. 

There were 3 crew personnel on board with us. One as the driver and the other 2 to take care of us, giving us instructions, helping us with the safety and of course, as a free lance photographer for us. 

Us, high up into the sky

And we went higher and higher up and before we landed back to the boat, we got a dip into the sea. Well, it was not those sudden drop like a freefall.. The wind was too strong for that. Slowly as we came closer to the boat, they asked if we wanted a dip. Yes, it was a choice. So we went for it. What's not getting wet for sea sports. So be in your swim wear for this!

High up, dip in

And so it ended, in a blink of an eye. Since we were at Station 1, we decided to walk further down to catch the Willy's Rock. Oh well, it looked nice from far but we did not make our way up to it. The algae there was not that pleasant after all.

White Beach Station 1, Willy's Rock

Okay, another highlight in Station 1 is Joanh's Fruit Shake & Snack bar. They say, it serves the best fruit on the island. Well, try it and answer that question for yourself. I had the mango shake and on such hot sunny day, it was really great.

They served the takeaway in a normal mineral water bottle but they 'poked' a hole at the cap to put in the straw. A nice way to bring around the bottle as the circumference is not as big as those plastic cup! Yummy!

Joanh's Fruit Shake & Snack bar, fruit shake

After making a trip to Station 1, we decided to head to Station 3 - reason being, we wanted to book our island hopping snorkelling trip for tomorrow. It was mentioned in some websites that ALLAN BOAT provided good service for this activity. It was noted that the counter is located near Villa De Oro Hotel. So we just headed off, trying to find the Hotel . Okay, once you passed Mcdonald's dessert kiosk, you are about to reach the ALLAN BOAT counter. Just keep a lookout. 

So we booked the 6-hrs Island hopping (Puka beach, Crystal Cove visit, 2 snorkelling points, Lunch)....at 800 peso each. Not too bad a deal since it included lunch. So after settling the itinerary for the next day, it was time for Lunch. 

Not knowing what to have, we decided to pop into Smoke Resto that is at an alley in D'mall. It is a local Filipino eatery which serves the local delights. A well hidden small and cozy restaurant and I got an impression that it is somewhere near to Tilapia n’ Chips. This place is really crowded and true enough, it sticks to its shop name. It was rather smoky with an open kitchen concept. 

I ordered the Kao Pad which is actually Chicken, Egg, Mango with rice. The chicken meat was tender and well seasoned. The 'sourness' of the mango added another flavour to this dish. A very nice combination of fruit and meat into a rice bowl. Well, maybe add a little greens will do wonders! Quite a good choice to start off my lunch in Boracay. 

Kao Pad (Chicken, Egg, Mango and Rice) at Smoke Resto

After lunch, we decided to head back to the hotel for a quick wash up. After which, we strolled away the D'mall market. Okay, shops were quite standard - Clothes, souvenirs, food. 

We took the 'free' pass to enjoy the Red Coconut beach front facilities. Sat at the beach chairs and well, I stayed in the shade. Could not bear to let my 'burnt' skin get worst. Yes, I got a burnt and I still can't get over it. Why? I applied the sunblock duly. *cried*

So, waited for the sunset and off we went for the Sunset Paraw Sailing. Was really looking forward to sunset. But well, it was a little disappointing for me. I guessed we went out too early and did not really catch a complete sunset. 

The ride was actually quite fast, say 10 minutes and we were back at shore. Oh god! So if you really wanted to view a sunset on the paraw, do it really near to sunset. But here's my view while on it. Or maybe, try to do a sunset parasailing, it seems nice to be up there!

Parasailing in action

The sun I captured, ready to set in minutes....

Sun about to set

And the sunset we viewed on shore... Enjoy!

Girl chasing the sunset?

Couple admiring the beauty

The coconut trees waving to the sun

The sail against the sun as backdrop

What a wonderful view!

Sail right in

Though the view of the sun setting was great, I found peace and serenity looking at the other end of the sky. Splendid view especially with the fluffy clouds. Crowds at the beach were really enjoying their time. Relaxing and well, I guess a self reflection would be great!

Sky at the other end of the sunset

Okay, last view before we headed to dinner!

Can't get enough of it... Good night!

Alight, sunlight down and everyone seemed hungry. Restaurants, cafes and eatery were full of people. We decided to pop into Andok's.  In search of desserts, we just order the half grilled chicken. Juicy meat at affordable price.

@ Andok's - grilled chicken

Okay, we got crazy crepes for desserts but no pictures. Try it out for yourself. Time to head back to Hotel to wash up and rest. Tomorrow will be a day out at sea! Cheers!

The Refinery Singapore @ Jalan Besar

The Refinery Singapore is at an "Industrial" area at Jalan Besar. I google my way but still felt a bit lost when trying to hunt for the place. Wasn't too bad when their address is hugely displayed on the wall of the building. Okay, cannot really spot the name of the shop as it is printed on the OIl barrel container. 

Enough said of the location and name of shop, the service there is great. The service crew would pop by the table to ask if we need to order more drinks, more food. They are not those pushy kind but I think they just wanted us to enjoy our night out. Take note that they do not have service charge but tipping is appreciated. 

Alright, time for some food review. We ordered:

1. Agedashi Tofu ($10)

A 4-piece tofu which is housemade according to the meu. They were crispy on the outside but smooth on the inside. The accompanying dashi stock complemented the whole dish. It was not too salty and good to have after the grilled skewers as it was light and less oily.

2. Dry Ramen ($6)

Dry Bar Chor Mee -kia as proclaimed by my friend. That is the local delight of minced pork with thin yellow noodle. Okay, just share this small bowl with your friends. A couple of bites was fine but not to the whole bowl to myself. It was too oily in my opinion. The pulled char siew was not too bad. 

3. The Refinery Sampler ($36)

It consists of  4 skewers of  Chicken Thigh, 2 skewers of  “Shiok Bak” (a.k.a roasted pork),  2 of Shishamo and 2 of Shiitake mushrooms. It took quite some time before this plate of sampler reached our table after the order. The Chicken thigh was too salty to my liking. I'm not sure if it was the sauce or the marination. I quite like the "shiok bak' and the Shisahamo. The roasted pork was tender and the shisahamo was great but to my opinion, a little over grilled. The shiitake mushroom was not 'juicy and a little salty. 

4. Seaweed Fries ($12)

What can go wrong with french fries. This reminds me of the seaweed shaker fries that McDonald's's offers from time to time. I guess the special thing to it is the Wasabi Mayo Dip. Not too strong that will choke us but it compliments the fries. 

Agedashi Tofu, Dry Ramen, The Refinery Sampler, Seaweed Fries, Asahi Black Pint

This place serves quite a variety of alcoholic drinks. Non-alcoholic drinks were minimal. For coffee-lovers, sorry, this place does not serve coffee at all. Maybe coffee does not go well with grills? But maybe, who knows, in future, they might offer that. So, just wait and see!

Address:
115 King George’s Ave,
Singapore 208561