20th Neil Pryde Funboard Cup Day 1 (Jan. 6, 2008) Part II

Exhausted from all the hard work of meeting all sorts of beautiful and gorgeous beings from all over the world (read: wind & kite surfers), Jana and I were finally asked to check-in at our hotel. You see, we went to the competition site straight from the airport. And we thought we were checking in at Laguna de Boracay Resort (LDB) just like the rest of the other organizers and participants which I posted on my previous entry. Apparently, due to limited bookings and resources, they had booked all the marshals at separate resorts near the Bulabog beach area and we were asked to contact Belle  (09194766558 / 09228180733) of SUN VILLAGE RESORT. It’s still all expenses paid at $120.00 per night for 6 nights so I guess we really can’t complain. I continued to recite my mantra in my head ("All good things are coming to me…") over and over despite my nagging fear that they might have booked us at a not-so-nice looking place because after all, they spent for us  to work our asses off and not to laze around looking pretty and all. But still, I called Club Panoly to be ready with a room for us in case I wouldn’t be able to stomach the resort they reserved for us (ang taray ng lolah mo!). Anyway I still have a lot of points to burn in my membership at Panoly and since it’s not peak season, it’ll be easy to get rooms on a short notice.

So there we were, hailing a tricycle (P75.00 for a special trip) from LDB all the way to Sun Village. I couldn’t help but feel a bit wary. Then, the tricyle stopped just across D’Talipapa only to find out that we needed to walk all the way uphill to reach our resort. Oh no…. (think positive, think positive…). My fears started to fade when we were greeted by the resort’s usherettes, each given a nice glass of iced tea and a lei made of little cowry shells. Oooohhh, soooo cute and sweet! We stayed at their lobby/restaurant a while just to enjoy the view of the main house and the little swimming pool. It’s a cozy little resort which is sooo perfect for us! Honestly, it kind of looks like our little townhouse in Alabang "aura-wise", if you know what I mean… I mean, if Peter and I were to own a resort, it will look exactly like this!!! OH MY GOD! I was so happy that Mike got us this place! It’s so much cozier than Laguna de Boracay and I felt like I didn’t wanna get out of that place anymore. Plus, our room itself looks so "honeymoony", the bathroom is sooo huge! And the sheets smell soooo nice… They must use Downy all the time. Hehehe. All good things are definitely coming to me…

We rested a bit then it was time to glam up and party the night away!!! The opening night for the 20th International Boracay Funboard Cup awaits us! 

Off to Club Paraw we went. And boy, what a nice party place it turned out to be! With all those summery and colorful decors hanging everywhere, a buffet table set up for everyone to feast on, overflowing booze (thanks to San Miguel Beer)  to get everyone and their brother sloshed, a tribal performance, a couple of fire dances, a huge stage to mark the night’s program and of course, the beautiful people milling  about (that includes us), Club Paraw was definitely THE party place to be that night!

The first few people I made friends with, aside from Jana and the organizers were Rob and Don. I think Rob is in his 20’s and a graduate of an environmental science course since he shared with us his musings on the environmental state of the places he’s been at; and Don is in his 40’s and has his own real estate business in Colorado. Both travel around the world, looking for waves to surf. Pretty exciting, isn’t it? What a way to live one’s life! This, I discovered later on, is how everyone in that event is pretty much living their life too. Wow!!! I want that kind of life too! Then I got to meet Ho from Thailand who has such a gracious character I want to emulate and is a good kite surfer as well.

 
(L-R) Mike Palacios, Jana Estrevillo, Art Palacios, George, Freddie Palacios, me

 Me, Jana and Ho

(L-R) Don, Mike, Me, Jana, Rob 

We would’ve loved to party the night away til the wee hours of the morning. But there’s still a lot of work to be done the next couple of days and the boys wanted to be ready and able to bring their A-game in the competition. So by 10pm, we headed to our respective resorts and dreamed about the great things that still await us in this beautiful piece of paradise.

To be continued…