Boracay (Day 4): Team Building Activities

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Call time is around 9:30AM. I woke up late from partying last night (wow, party girl?), but just right in time to get ready for our team building activities.

We rode a multicab to take us to a bay and then we hopped into a speed boat towards our destination: A hut on a raft in the middle of the bay, maybe 5 kilometers from the beach.

I think the budget only covers the Jetski and the Banana Boat rental. But we can cough out the cash from our wallet to try the FlyFish and Parasailing (yaman)!

I was so excited to try the Banana Boat! Though they no longer allow to throw the passengers off the Banana Boat on purpose. Which I think lessens the thrill? Hehe. Oh well, I guess for safety reasons.

It's my first time to drive the Jetski! We're allowed to have a partner to ride with us. Mam Sue get to ride with me. I was surprised that when I happen to drive faster, she gets more excited. She's fun! Haha!

I think the FlyFish is more exciting than the Banana Boat ride. Both have similar concepts though. But with the FlyFish, which is also pulled by a speedboat, the inflatable ride has a tendency to -well... almost fly. The front part goes up, almost slipping most of it's passengers off! Don and Ross fell off from it. I just don't like the thought of left alone in a huge body of water.

We ran out of budget to try Parasailing. Oh maybe next time. Only sir Jun and Yana got the time to try it (coughed out cash from their wallets too) Haha! Looks a lot of fun!!!

In the evening, we headed to Astoria for dinner. It was about a kilometer from our hotel and we're so hungry! Good thing we spotted this barbeque place and I saw isaw! If you don't know what isaw is... it's the (ok, this might sound gross) chicken's intestines. But hey! It tastes great if dipped in white vinegar. It's seldom for me to eat isaw, so this is a huge treat for myself.
Our BUGM treated us for dinner in Astoria for his birthday celebration! Thank you sir Elli! You're the coolest!

Boracay (Day 3): The Great Escape

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While the managers are back in the function room for the Strategic Planning. Our group are out for some fun activities!

The island of Boracay is just a small place but there are a lot of things to do here even if you didn't prepare any itineraries.

First up, apply the sunblock!

We can see you now Addrian. ^_^

I guess the whole Boracay trip wouldn't be complete without getting a henna tattoo! There are Henna/tattoo artists around the island, it's not hard to spot one. We got this done just right in front of our hotel.

I got this tribal-like winged heart design for my back.

April got a butterfly design for the back of her shoulder.

11 of us hopped on a boat ride for a snorkeling activity.

Unfortunately, it's a red holiday for me and April. But it's alright, we just took pictures!

Snorkeling time! - Ross

Gearing up.

Fun fun fun!

RJ

All done with snorkeling! Now it's time to eat!

Hmmm... what is he doing?

Ross playing with the water on our boat ride to Ilig-Iligan Beach

Mayette, RJ and April

Time to eat! We ordered a huge fish (sorry, I forgot what it's called), but we asked them to cook half of the fish for Sinigang and then grill the other half of it. The food is great!

After the boat ride back to the Boracay's main. We just walked going to the hotel. Although it's quite far!

April and I took a short rest and out we go again. We went to Jonah's Fruit Shake.

April had a Mango Avocado Shake...

while I had their popular Banana Choco Peanut shake. It tastes so good!

To complete our merienda, we ordered "Army Navy" Sandwich. It is basically a ham and egg sandwich topped with cheese sauce. You must try it!

That night, we had dinner in this Mongolian restaurant. The food is great but I didn't get to finish what I'm eating. My tummy was still full from our merienda in Jonah's.

Much later that night, we went out again partying in Guilly's Island (for the 2nd night in a row)! This time, our BUGM and most of the managers partied with us. We even spotted Piolo Pascual in one corner but he refused to take a picture with us, I guess he just don't want to get too much attention.

We left the party at around 2AM already, most of us decided to just walk home instead of taking a tricycle ride. Ayan tuloy, inabutan kami ng ulan! Probably one reason why most of us got coughs and colds. :D

Boracay (Day 2): Sales Alignment

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Bev's alarm clock woke us up (she's my room mate in the hotel also with miss Gigi). I feel like dancing to her "Party Rock Anthem" alarm tone. But I fell asleep again for another 30 minutes. It was a bit early in the morning but no pressure since the function room is just downstairs from our hotel room. Breakfast muna!


It's sir Elli's birthday! And we all went to the function room earlier to prepare a surprise for him.

We started our Sales Alignment at 9AM.

RJ presenting for Central Luzon

April presenting for GMA

Yup! We're still listening!
Angry Birds muna.

Waiting for their turn to present.Serious!

Ross invited our group to have a night out after the stressful presentations. We strolled from our hotel (La Carmella de Boracay) all the way to Guilly's Island Restobar where we had a few drinks.

Boracay (Day 1): The Long Travel

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Our shuttle service from office to the airport will leave at 6AM. And since April and I were just near the office, we woke up at around 5AM and we still manage to get in the office early to ride the shuttle service. Our group arrived in the airport at 6:30AM, had our breakfast and checked in.


Here was our flight details:

Manila to Boracay (Caticlan) Departure: 0825 / Arrival: 0935

Traveling with a huge group was a lot of fun. We didn’t even care if we were the noisiest in the airport while waiting for our flight, which was DELAYED due to bad weather in Caticlan. We packed non-stop talks and laughter so we didn’t get bored.

Standing: Camille, Ross, JP and Jo

Sitting: Jun, April, Patty, Glo and Karen

JP, Ross and RJ

After a long wait, they finally announced to board our plane. It was already around 9AM. The plane was small with huge propellers on the sides. It was my first time to ride a small plane, fortunately I didn’t panicked.

On flight, the pilot later announced that we cannot fly directly to Caticlan due to bad weather so our flight was diverted to Kalibo.

Funny moment:

RJ to Heather(Flight Attendant): Masama ba panahon sa Caticlan?

Heather: Yes, kaya we might experience some turbulence.

RJ: Ok. Pwede bababa nalang ako ng Iloilo?

After a while, I already got cold sweats and started to get nauseous during the flight and felt like I’m going to pass out! The flight attendant handed me a little bottle of White Flower to serve as inhaler.

We landed in Kalibo at around 10AM and had to ride a bus going to Caticlan. I eventually felt better after drinking a very cold water and fell asleep in the bus.

It was about an hour and a half bus ride from Kalibo to Caticlan and it was raining! Then we transferred to a boat which only took us 5 minutes from Caticlan port to the island of Boracay. We arrived in the hotel at almost 2PM (expected is 10AM). We were all exhausted and hungry from that very long travel! Fortunately the food was ready!

The managers arrived late too. So they decided to start the Strategic Planning the next day so we also have time to finish our reports and rest.

Stolen shot of Addrian. hehe

Everyone's busy working on their reports. :)