Globetrotting

After completing the final exams for P1 last week, almost all INSEAD students headed off to different destinations for the four-day period break before our classes started again at the beginning of this week. I know of at least seven different group trips that were organized, plus more individual travel arrangements. As one student put it: “the only ones staying in Singapore are married couples, Singaporeans or those who are receive visitors over the period break”. Whereas others travelled to Sri Lanka, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Cambodia, or Lao, I joined a group of people going to Boracay island in the Philippines.

The island is renowned as one of South East Asia’s best beach spots, and is the major tourist destination in the Philippines. As such, I was initially a bit worried that it would have a package tourist feel to it like for example Phuket, but it turned out that this was  not the case. In fact, Boracay has a very relaxed atmosphere, and the beaches are really stunning. The island is shaped like a bone, with a narrow part in the middle, and wider ends in the north and south. The middle part has two beaches on either side: In the west, White Beach is the amazingly beautiful and stretches over some three kilometers. Along the beach, there are numerous restaurants and bars, and the beach is in fact more busy after sunset than during the day. On the east side, Bulabog Beach is above all populated by kitesurfers. The beach itself is not very beautiful, but shallow water, steady on-shore wind and a reef off the coast which breaks the waves before they can reach the shore make the spot perfect to kitesurf.

Initially I had not made up my mind what to do during my time on the island, but once I got there on Thursday morning (after a seven-hour journey with a transfer in Cebu), I decided to give kitesurfing a shot… and I loved it! I did a three-day course, and by the end of the third day, I managed to ride a few meters on the board. It really takes some time to learn all the necessary skills: maintaining control over the kite, steering the kite in a way so that it exerts force on you in the right direction, getting up on the board, and balancing your weight on the board in the right way. Despite the fact that it took so long to even ride a few meters (and even that far from consistently!) I did not get frustrated at all, because I could feel that I was constantly improving in my efforts. Of course I was far from what some of the more experienced kitesurfers where practicing on the water just next to me, including some really amazing, long jumps (my instructor told me that he had won a contest recently with a 9.7 second jump!).

Apart from kitesurfing, I enjoyed the beaches of the island and the truly amazing scenery. In addition, we went out for dinner or drinks to some really nice restaurants and bars.

When we had to leave on Sunday, I really didn’t want to leave yet… I could have stayed there easily for a few more weeks, going kitesurfing everyday and living the good life…

Some pictures from the trip: