Boracay redux, how ka-nami

Ever had a massage with a view? A superlative one, too, of the lesser known Diniwid Beach north of Boracay’s fabled White Beach, past the rocky end leading to a steep promontory.

Right up there on the craggy hillside is where you can lie prone on a massage bed in a roofed but open-sided cabana, and gaze down, precipitously, at the blinding, sunstruck shore, with boats beached and yet beaching, tiny figures romping around, azure sea and clear horizon beyond.

It’s an excellent rubdown applied on you, too, of spa quality – at Nami Private Villas, the only resort on that verdant cliff where some equally ritzy residences are perched.

Nami welcomes visitors where Diniwid Beach with its modest grouping of seaside lodges and bar-restos ends. A cement walkway leads to a sundeck over the water. Another nipa-roofed cabana projects farther out; here, too, one can have a well-trained masseuse conduct an hour’s privilege in utter serenity.

Guests have to walk up a couple of short flights of cast-iron stairs to get to a tropical-wood landing that features the distinctive resort’s gift shop, and the only access to its main features – an open lift that takes four people at a time in scenic ascent to luxury.

Thirty feet up, the lift deposits guests by the check-in desk and the entrance to a fine restaurant of minimalist, elegantly spartan design, but for the flaming red backdrop to the bar.

Just as in the rest of Nami, the resto is multi-leveled. One can sit right by the guard rail and indulge in a vertiginous Mediterranean lunch, picking at a pesto-ed dish while burping over the lofty view. Ka-nami, one says to oneself in appreciative Ilonggo. Savory. Delicious. Delectable. Good, as life is for the nonce.

Or prime up for a spectacularly romantic dinner soon after another gorgeous sunset, perchance sigh and swoon over moonlit panorama while aperitifs spell foreplay.

There’s a raised level where diners can scan the entire resto and the sights beyond, while preserving eyes beguiled by too much of beauty, too much of sun wash. Either way, the gustatory offering is on the altitudinous side of excellent. And there are private corners and decks beyond the main dining hall for a garden-blessed attitude to go with this or that pasta.

Seclusion and intimacy amidst expansive views seem to be the operating principles at Nami Private Villas. Guests have a choice of superior and deluxe beach view rooms, ocean view suites, or family rooms. Bedrooms are enhanced with wall-length glass windows beyond which sprawl private view decks. Most of the splendid accommodations have a Jacuzzi on a sundeck overlooking that expanse of turquoise waters turning into deep blue before they merge with distant green islands.

It’s all a far cry from the cheek-by-jowl quality of lodging and entertaining usually experienced between Boat Stations 2 and 3 on White Beach. Northwards and past Boat Station 1, of course the resorts get grander, less peopled, just as the beach gets wider, and apparently less fringed with leis of algae.

Far from the madding crowd is certainly how one feels at Nami Private Villas, for a full weekend and then some. When the quaint Boracay charm of relative isolation begins to pale, one can always walk towards White Beach to check out the body boom in constant influx and turnover.

It’s a superb walk towards sundown, first passing through that rocky headland where, as you file through the manmade walkway, of course you discover a recessed grotto with a resplendently robed Virgin Mary acquiring more of a suntan at magic hour.

Past the outcropping is the widest portion of White Beach, where a rivulet – natural or manmade we don’t know – allows skimboarders fine play.

Dusk descends, ever so magically as it always does on Boracay, as you traipse on the cool sand nearly all the way to the southern end. Constellations start to appear in the night sky, while you have your pick of a "slumming" resto for a change of pace. Then a tricycle ride or shuttle takes you back to the pricey privacy of Nami, where the stars seem closer to the fanciful touch.

This high summer, or what’s left of it, other attractions a family can try out should include the Butterfly Garden by the entrance to Fairways & Bluewater; the Boracay Horse-Riding Stable, across the road back of Friday’s; and Neo at Pearl of the Pacific, billed as the Island Spa, that is, if Mandala Spa at the other end seems too remote in a fast overgrown island.

At Fairways, non-members and non-golfers are now allowed access, and for a small fee can actually frolic in the infinity pool perched high up between views of a couple of deserted beaches on the island’s eastern side.

Redoing Boracay time and again is like doing time on paradise evolving. Less space is available, and the algae seem to be winning the battle at shoreline. But at the less frequented coves like Diniwid and Punta-Banga Beach, the great good life is still discoverable and pleasurable, hour by private hour, so ka-nami.

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For reservations at Nami Private Villas, call the Nami head office in Manila at 812-1489 or 812-1689, fax at 812-0668, or e-mail at namiboracay@yahoo.ca. Visit its website at www.namiboracay.com.