Beach with my fellow beaches

When the project stalls! When they don't confirm! 
When I'm feeling sad! 
I simply remember my favorite things... 
and then I don't feeeeeel... SOOOO BAAAAD!

Nase-stress ako sa month-long marshmallow test. So I shall think about my favorite things! Like... the beach!

Nge! Beach FAIL.

This was the supposed beach of my supposed beachfront resort in Panglao, Bohol. I was upset for the better part of an hour until I accepted it -- if I really wanted a good beach with a wider variety of dining options (how Boracay has spoiled us!), it was a Php 200 trike ride away.

Or, as it turned out, a five minute walk away. Our gracious hostess (whose warmth and kindness alone  salvaged the entire beach situation) pointed us to a small, secluded cove with blinding white sand, turquoise waters and zero tourists, a short walk from our resort.

Now that's more like it!

Eventually, Marlon and I ended up making the trike ride to Alona Beach, Panglao's main and most happening strip of white said, almost daily. 

O ha. Ang macho ng asawa ko.

The beach is gorgeous, so it was worth it. 

Besides being the white sand-spoiled brat that I am, I didn't have much of a choice!

My only beef about the beach? The "grass" that starts a few meters from the shoreline. It's really just seaweed and I saw a lot of people walking on it, but it gave me the itchies all the same. 

The grass's only redeeming quality was the number of starfish hidden within its itchy knolls. It gave Marlon plenty of opportunities to play with our multipurpose/ underwater ziplock camera bag and take pictures of the starfish, even if he detests them.

The beach at Virgin Island, a wide, crescent-shaped sandbar off Panglao, was also of note.

At some point though the powdery whiteness segues into a swathe of coral fragments and pebbles, which can hurt to walk on. The fishermen told us it was a cure for arthritis -- kind of like those reflexology slippers that my grandmother used to wear, with the gradiated rubber studs rising up out of the sole to poke your foot in supposedly strategic points.

Nevertheless, Virgin Island is the only beach I've been to where you can buy freshly caught sea urchin (uni) and crack them open to eat on the spot! Only two uni vendors walk around on Virgin Island, and they sell the urchins for Php 30 apiece, Php 50 for two (unless you're obviously a foreigner). 

While I declined this delicacy, Marlon was happy to have my share.

But I digress... sea urchins are most certainly not high on my list of favorite things. Especially when they sting you and make your knee puffy.

Okay, that was not a happy memory. Time to go think of other favorite things.