Probably one of my favourite travel experiences also turned out to be the most bittersweet if only for the ending. Nevertheless let's start at the beginning of the tale of how I magically grew a tail for a day.
When I was still the tiniest tot I remember watching the Little Mermaid for the first time and instantly falling in love with her underwater swag.
That bra, that hair, the tail! I had to have them.
This sequined sequence was my everything.
My mom eventually bought me a mermaid doll that I used to play with as I watched the movie on permanent repeat every afternoon. I about burnt out the VHS tape and when I discovered Splash (if you haven't seen it, please do!), I became insatiable.
For my 5th birthday I knew what I was wishing for and when the day came I sat in a bathtub of salt water for hours. There was a whole party of family and friends waiting for me outside the door but I refused to come out and spent most of the day crying upon my Mom finally revealing to me that I would never be able to grow a tail, that it was physically impossible. As a little kid I couldn't have cared one hoot about science yet.
She managed to finally coax me out of the bathroom but I just about burst back into tears when I saw that she'd gotten me a birthday cake covered in coconut shavings, the texture of which I'd never encountered before that day and had found to be entirely unappealing.
I was a brat, I know (sorry, Mom).
It wasn't a pleasant memory to say the least and for years and years I just tried to live my life accepting that I'd never be able to make the first dream I’d ever had come true.
That was until I discovered the secret of Boracay's mermaid academy in the Philippines. The year was 2016 and my tenure in South Korea was coming to an end as I prepared to move to Spain once and for all.
A friend of a friend had shown me pics of her recent travel there over group dinner and I couldn't believe my eyes. A photo of her set as her mobile's background, sprawling on a white-sanded beach backed by the clearest of waters with a glorious violet-hued fin that stretched at least a meter. It was to die for and I knew I had to get there as soon as my bank account could allow.
It was fortunate that I had already been planning an 80-day backpacking trip upon exiting the country, figuring I might as well explore the Asian continent before moving back to Europe, a continent I'd conquered the previous year. The Philippines had already been high on my list of places to visit, one of eight in total during my almost 3-month voyage.
A close friend just happened to have vacation time free as well and was keen for a beach holiday so the rich, island nation officially became the first stop on my tour. The Philippines boasted 7,641 islands at the time of this writing (there seemed to be new one cropping up every other day, the second highest number of any country in the world) and Boracay was an island located somewhere in the middle of them all. It was a tropical paradise famed for its snowy-white beaches surrounded by crystal waters and a heap of watersports and other aquatic activities to take part in, one of which included the famed Philippine Mermaid Swimming Academy . There are actually several of them throughout the country and the world so for anyone interested I suggest you check them out as they even had “mermaid lessons” for children as young as 7 years old.
For 2,300 PHP (~42€/$45USD) their services include:
A boat ride out to open water (depending on location)
A 90-minute swimming lesson with tail (optional scuba and snorkeling gear)
A 30-minute beach photo shoot with tail (la pièce de résistance)
There’s also the option of just having the photo shoot without the swim lesson for nearly half the price at 1,200 PHP (~22€/$24USD).
I chose the former as it was everything I've been waiting for my entire life and I wasn't going to skimp on the full experience. Nevertheless, man, was the tail heavy out of water, cumbersome in the water and the swimming instructions difficult to follow at first.
Mermaids theoretically swam by rippling their bodies like most marine animals but it required a bit of abdominal strength and stamina to really get it down pat so I would only recommend the activity to decent swimmers and those who have no fear of the open sea (though some academies offer the experience in a pool setting). I got the hang of the tail with practice but no wonder Ariel’s waist was so tiny; swimming with such a heavy appendage was definitely a workout. The academy’s boat was always close by, however, with the academy staff at the ready but for those who panic easily yet still want the thrill of having a tail, then I’d suggest sticking to the second option.
Turning into a mermaid wasn't what I'd first expected (sadly I didn't grow gills) but the reality ended up something all the more special. I had already loved swimming but swimming as a mermaid was divine. I'd never felt so ethereal, so light.
Little did I know what struggle waitied me until we got back to Boracay’s well-renowned White Beach, because it was one thing to have the buoyancy of the water to help me get around; it was another to try to maneuver on land with no feet. It was literally being like a fish-woman out of water, with no legs to support me and only my arms to pull me out of the sea and across the sand. I'd taken for granted how useful a pair of gams could be!
Still after I got my bearings, the photo shoot went spectacularly with the professional, personal photographer capturing over 1000 shots of me and my gorgeous, vibrant, majestic tail and kilometres of pearly coast. It was the dream.
Unfortunately this is where the dream starts to turn into a bit of a nightmare.
After spending an incomparable holiday in the Philippines and having parted ways with my travel companion a few days before it was time to venture to Thailand solo. My experience in the next country is a whole story of its own (oh, the horror) but suffice it to say that during day 10 of my 25-day stint in the land of Pad Thai, a thief cut my bag open and stole my phone and basically every trace of evidence of the experience. It had happened in the middle of a massive jungle party in Koh Phangan, a party paradise to the south and had been before online memory banks such as Google Drive and the Cloud had really taken off. I had planned to back everything up to my travel tablet as soon as I'd gotten better wifi connection (hello, Vietnam) but never got the chance. This had also been before I'd thought to share much of my adventures on social media or blog about them so the only photos I had left were the ones I'd sent to my boyfriend at the time or the one I posted to Facebook. Just four.
But at least I made that little girl's dream come true. I still have the memories.
May you get lost in the wonder,
M