Paradise

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Paradise
Sunday, 11 23, 2003

We digrees today, to write about something beautiful, not political like the long wait for FPJ to say “I’m running!”

A one-and-a-half hour land travel from Kalibo, Aklan, to the coastal town of Caticlan, via Ibajay, preceded his first glance of the island. I could almost feel his impatience and anticipation during the 20-minute boat ride we took across the tranquil waters of the Sibuyan Sea. As our boat touched the shore, I watched him, with mock nonchalance lest I betray my paternal solicitude, plant his feet on the beach, like a conquering hero appropriating for himself the entire stretch of paradisical beauty that lay before him. Kenneth Marius Raval had finally landed on Boracay.

Ever since his mother showed him, when he was yet a strapping seven year-old, a travel magazine extolling the pristine beaches and the seemingly non-stop revelry that abound in every corner of the island, Boracay had always been on Kenneth’s mind. Yesterday, at 16, he realized that dream. So after checking in at the Paradise Garden Resort Hotel, Kenneth with his buddies Kevin Michael, Roy and Emir – all first-timers – lost no time in exploring the attractions of the land. They gawked at the scantily clad bathers at the beach, haggled with hawkers displaying their wares and, later on during the night, watched an adventurous man named Dan Pinto down 15 shots of various liquors in 20 minutes at Cocomangas and still manage to stay on his feet afterwards.

And soon enough he found out that the travel magazine has not been exaggerating when it equated paradise with Boracay. Indeed, within its seven-kilometer length the island is a haven to many a jaded city dweller whose idea of getting away from it all is a trip to the mall or a night at the movies. A stay at Boracay effectively banishes these urban notions of relaxation. many visitors – Filipinos and foreigners alike – have gone back to the island year after year, forever enchanted by its beach, where the color of the sea blends with that of the sky during the day and the white sands glimmer at night.

There is a certain charm to the island that makes me wonder why it is not found anywhere else. Perhaps it is the people who inhabit it, who after 30 years from its “discovery” by the Elizaldes in the early 1970s as a tourist destination, have acquired a distinct savoir faire – friendly without being annoyingly obsequious – towards its visitors. According to Roy Palma and Reggie Pastrana, who manage the Paradise Garden Resort Hotel, the presence of many foreigners on the island, sometimes staying for months to escape the long European winter, has transformed everyone on the island to be extra careful in giving the best of themselves.

The island typifies one’s idea of a true tropical paradise – crystal clear blue waters, powder-fine white sand, tropical palm trees and flowering plants. Not to mention the vast and colorful marine life that it is famous for throughout the world.

But Boracay has a lot more to offer. A wide range of activities to suit every visitor’s interest can be found her. The beachfront is lined with varied international restaurants, open-air bars, karaoke joints and discos. In addition to relaxing and lazing by the beach, Boracay also offers countless activities for water sports lovers, e.g., scuba diving (diving lessons taught in German, French, English and other languages), snorkeling, wind surfing, parasailing, water skiing, banana boat riding, jet skiing and many others. For golf lovers, Boracay also offers an 18-hole golf course.

Dick Gordon’s WOW Philippines touts Boracay as its crown jewel. The attractions of the island do not stop as its natural beauty. A wide range of accommodations serving every visitor’s lifestyle is available on the island. Gordon’s efforts at selling the Philippines is one shining example of success in an otherwise bland and unachieving government. Nowhere is the success most apparent than on Boracay island.

Kenneth had reported to me the best efforts of Paradise Garden’s Jun Cantones and Junie Ver to make his stay in Boracay most memorable, from the personalized attention to details (like changing towels every six hours) to the ever-watchful lifesavers on the beach. The hotel itself, a premier resort located in a one-hectare property with 64 rooms in 10 bungalows, a palace and two villas, has been hailed as the best resort on the island by newspapers and catalogues of tour operators in Europe. The hotel staff, professionally trained before they were hired according to Roy Palma, are the pride of the Hotel. Roy says this is true for all resorts on the island.

My son Kenneth will probably go back soon again to Boracay, and the next time around, he will probably be bringing a bigger group, which I, the prospective bankroller of his jaunts, do not exactly relish. But if it is to sell Boracay, I will probably not mind.

Tomorrow, with great reluctance and pain, Kenneth and his group shall leave this paradise. The very thought of having to return to the city, back to “the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd” fill them with dread. But meantime, sufficient unto the day is the beauty that they see on this island, that they cannot help declaiming to themselves the 12th quatrain of Omar Khayam’s Ruhaiyat:

A book of verse underneath the bough, A jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou Beside me singing in the wilderness Ah, wilderness were paradise now.



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