Chirky

We chose to stay at Mandala Spa on Boracay Island, which was an EXCELLENT choice because it was private and luxurious and it had hibiscus flowers floating in the bathtub. YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH A HOTEL THAT FLOATS HIBISCUS FLOWERS IN THE BATHTUB. Motel 6 should take note.

Outside the gates of Mandala, life bustled and little boys clung to their mama's legs. Tricycles (a motorcycle with a passenger cart attached) buzzed up and down the main road, and flocked toward anyone with white-ish skin because of these two assumptions: A) we have money or B) we had no idea how to get where we were going. Without sounding pompous, both were true.

However, once we stepped INSIDE the gates of Mandala, it was as if we had stepped into another world. A world where poverty didn't exist, where entire families didn't live in a home the size of my cubicle, where there was no crime and evil in the world. That's right, Mandala was a replica of how I imagine heaven. With designer water faucets and excellent homemade granola.

Our cottage ("hut" sounds so primitive) was everything it should have been: warm, inviting and soothing. Enya was playing low when we first arrived, incense was burning, drinks were set on our side table, hibiscus flowers were scattered throughout the room: on the bed, the chair, the balcony, in the bathtub, on the shelves, on the desk, next to the sink. The sun filtered in through the sheer curtains, and from any where in the cottage I had a 180° panoramic view (mostly of trees and the horizon, but since we were up high, we also had a beach view). I knew the moment we arrived that we wouldn't want to leave. And that was before we rented our own sailboat and crew for $10 an hour. That was before we circumnavigated the land, island-hopping and giggling as the boat dipped through the waves.

We watched sunsets, and stood in the surf, and hunted for shells. We sailed and we snorkeled. I pretended that I was a celebrity, and Roger gave me odd looks. He carried my shopping bags. I wanted him to dress in black and wear an earpiece, but we had no earpieces, and if he had, I'm quite sure he would have been using it to listen to music instead of pretending to be my bodyguard. But, whatever.

It's been three months, and I think I left my heart on the shore when we left.

Condensed album here.