I finally did it, I quit my job. But there’s no point being a boss if you can’t make executive decisions and my first one was to give myself a holiday.
So I bought a return ticket and jumped on a plane headed for the Philippines — Manila to be precise.
Manila is big and noisy — and like most big cities in Asia, you want to leave as soon as possible. So, the next morning I boarded a tiny plane to a town called Caticlan, then hopped a short ferry to the tropical paradise that is Boracay Island.
I had no hotel, so I asked a driver and ended up at Holiday Homes de Boracay — a paradise for pennies.
The normal going rate was 1500 pesos ($25) per night — but I was staying for three weeks and negotiated a 600 pesos ($10) per night deal for a suite in a beach hotel with en suite bathroom, one huge double bed and 60-channel TV.
There was a delicious all-you-can-eat buffet for about $5 and it was served at candle-lit tables on the beach.
And in Boracay the beaches are everything.
On the seven-kilometre long, one-kilometre wide island, there are 12 of them. The longest and most famous is White Sand beach — porcelain sands framed by swaying palm trees, at the edge of crystal clear blue water — the kind of place it is impossible to take a bad picture here.
The nightlife is busy too. I could often hear a ballad playing in my left ear.
But what stands out most is the contrast between most mainstream resorts and Boracay — there are almost no tourists here. It makes the sea seems bluer, the sands whiter and your mind calmer.
As I stepped into the waves I experienced that calm and at that moment, I knew I’d made the right decision.
