Quasi-Honeymoon

It was 2012. My husband and I had been together for 4 years and we were living in Beijing. We love hiking and traveling, so we had been to most of the places of interest around Beijing. We have also done one domestic trip to Hangzhou and Huangshan, also called the Yellow Mountain. So we decided to stretch a little bit and go a little bit further. “Let’s go overseas. “Let’s make it our honeymoon.” “But we are not married yet.” “Then it’s our Quasi-honeymoon.” We said to each other.

We took out the map, and wondered “Where should we go? Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines? We brainstormed. We planned to go around Christmas time, so we wanted to go somewhere warmer. So not Japan, not South Korea. We wanted to enjoy the tropical beaches, and swimming in the ocean. So all of the three Southeastern Asian countries sounded good: Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Then we started to think.  “It’s going to be our first overseas vacation. So maybe we should be a little bit conservative. Maybe a country that speaks English, so we don’t get lost.” After applying this criterion, the Philippines was the only choice left. OK, Google, what’s the best beach in the Philippine? Boracay. Great. Problem solved. Boracay, the Philippines it is.

The Chinese society and culture towards Gay people were not hostile, but not very welcoming either. It was usually friendlier in big cities, like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. But it was very hard to see any gay couples holding hands strolling down the street. So we won’t do that either. Sometimes I would try to grab his hand when we were walking together, he would quickly take it away. But If we were on a dark street or in a park without many people, he would let me for a while. I had heard that foreign countries were more open to gay people, so we were curious to see how people would react if we were to hold hands publicly.

The beach on Boracay island was gorgeous, clean and clear water, you can see the bottom of the ocean. The smooth white sand, enticing you to lay down on it and just relax while surrounded by large palm trees and enjoy the very typical tropical scene. We brought our camera and tripod, so we took a lot of pictures of us together on the beach, holding hands, hugging him from the back, making a heart over our heads, etc.. Because we love hiking, we walked a lot along the beach, during the days and in the evenings. One day we were walking on the beach after dinner. It was dark, but there was still some light coming from the hotels and bars along the beach. Some performers were playing fireballs, they moved the fireballs to make different patterns, it was very beautiful. As we were walking, holding hands, we passed some kids, they were playing in the sand. Just after we passed them, I heard a girl’s giggling, and then a boy’s voice “Boys?”. He must have never seen two boys holding hands together. Then I heard some voices from the adults, probably their parents, saying something like, come over here, don’t bother other people. It was funny, we still remember the little voice “boys?” till this day.

There were a lot of great restaurants and bars on the beach, also along the main road of the small island. We love Southeast Asian food, especially the coconut and curry flavored dishes. Coconut and curry chicken, coconut and curry beef, coconut and curry mixed vegetables. Emmm. I can never get tired of it. One day we checked out one of the restaurants for dinner. We saw a lot of customers inside. “It must be good!” We said to each other. And it didn’t disappoint us. During the dinner, we asked our waiter to take a picture for us. As you might have guessed, We held our hands. The waiter got excited and asked, “Is it your anniversary?” we said, “No, but this is our first overseas vacation, so we consider it as a honeymoon, no our quasi-honeymoon.” He got more excited, another waiter came over too, and they offered to take a lot of pictures for us, we also asked to have a picture of the four of us. It was lovely. I still have it now.

There were some experiences with mixed feelings during the trip as well. One of them is Parakiting. Has anyone done it? Parakiting is also called parasailing or parascending. As the name suggests, there is a kite involved. It is a big kite, towed behind a high-speed boat. My husband and I were attached to the kite, then the sailor loosened the rope, then the kite, with us attached, flew higher and higher. The boat got smaller and smaller, I could see more and more of the island, then almost all of it. It was very exciting. Then I started to feel dizzy and nauseous. I tried to control myself. Relax, deep breath. More Nauseous. My husband held my hands, but it didn’t help. Eventually, I lost it. Actually, I lost all the lunch I just had. Then I felt better. I was able to enjoy the way coming down. The boat got larger and larger, and everything went back to normal.

We have been to a lot of other places for vacation after that: like St. Petersburg, Florida, Cancun, Mexico, and even a Cruise to the Caribbean Islands. But the trip to Boracay, the Philippines is still the most memorable to us. Not only because it was our first overseas vacation to the beach, but also because it was our first and only Quasi-Honeymoon.