Trouble at Boracay during Holy Week
A friend who was in Boracay for Holy Week called me up this morning to tell me that his trip was quite exciting in an exasperating way. Following were his observations:
1. Too many people. He was worried about the capability of the island to accommodate tens of thousands of people at one given time. My personal take on this is that Boracay is a tragedy in the making. The island is overexploited. The question is: What is the government going to do about it?
2. Too many paparazzi. He said that privacy in the island was almost nonexistent because the press, particularly movie press, was all over the island. Of course this was to be expected given that most movie celebrities flock to the island on Holy Week.
3. Too many brawls, most of them involving celebrities. He gave me a sampling of the tiffs and and scandals that occurred during the weekend. Horrible. It's bad enough that people party like there's no tomorrow during Holy Week. But to get into catfights and brawls?
A friend, Joshua Formentera, figured in one of the fights. What happened was that he and his friends were relaxing at the beachfront of their hotel when a group that included the Sexbombs swooped into the area with liquor and sounds in tow. They were playing loud music and they had high-powered speakers. Joshua is into meditation and reflection. He first complained to the front desk. When the group refused to lower the volume of their music, Joshua himself approached the group to tell them pointedly to respect the needs of others.
What happened next is now a classic case of "he said - they said."
But here's the really sad thing: Someone among the sexbombs threw a big glass at Joshua's face which caused two gashes on his face.
Now, I think that there's really no way that violence can be justified. There is no way that the Sexbombs can ever defend the fact that they caused physical harm to someone else.
There's another angle to this story that I hope will not become an issue in this whole fracas. It is irrelevant. Joshua's background is not material to the whole case so please, people, let's not bring it up.
Comments
1. too many people - Ironic, lots of people make the same complaint but they're the cause of it; travelers dont like it but are the reason. As for gov't intervention - not gonna happen. They're going full tilt marketing Boracay and trying to increase visitors and development.
2. Media? I havent seen a single news operator, only Filipinos with cameras taking pics of everything. Certainly nothing looking like paparazzi.(after 4 years here, I still dont understand why people take pics of themselves standing infront of hotels and restos they're not using)
3. I'm glad you shed some details on that event, because no-one here has a clue about any of these celebrity incidents, including the staff at Hey Jude who were there when that other incident 'happened'.
Personally, I'm glad its over. Dont get me wrong, I love the better hoppin' night life, but your friend is right about there being primma donnas all trying to be the center of attention, not caring about those around them.
on the flipside, tons of visitors saved up all year for this trip, only to act lowclass, trying to negotiate down the menu price of food in restaurants. Thats just knuckle-dragging retarded.
Then again, when you can meet most of your friends online via MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or Exteel, who's to say you can't enjoy the holiday? We don't even have to spend extra (real) money to visit out favorite "vacation spots" (i.e. dungeons, PvP maps, boss hunts, battle arenas etc.)
Besides, with virtually no people in Manila, I enjoyed a surprising amount of peace and quiet just walking around. A bit creepy though - the area near my office looked like something out of I am Legend :3
You're absolutely right. With all these people in one little island...I hope they got a good solid waste management program in place.
I was in Guam last week since I knew Boracay's gonna be crowded ;). But I still think that the beaches of Boracay is still better than those of Guam and Hawaii combined.
Then again, Im still happy I didnt go to "Bora" to witness stupid celebrities trying to act like they own the island.
Guess what. When I was in Guam, there was this certain artista na we saw in a certain boutique. She avoided us at all cost, and in a very obvious manner too (the fact na namimili lang naman kami and yes, we came first sa store na yun than she did so its impossible to say that we're following her).
Then when she realized na nobody seemed to recognize who she is or wala sa amin na-star struck because she's there (although we knew who she was and made the best effort not to react because she was acting like a b****), aba she did all things papansin. Like she started talking loudly, she made parinig na she was from this and that show, ewan ko ba. She was expecting us talaga to recognize who she is.
If there is one word to describe how she was back then it was --"nakakairita."
I was so relieved when I got out of the boutique sa totoo lang.
Plus buti nalang hindi ko siya kasama sa airplane going back to Manila.