Last year I decided to take a break from Manila by flying to Boracay during Halloween, expecting the quiet beach and the sun to bring some sort of tan to my pale skin.

Little did I know that the island had a tradition of celebrating Halloween seriously, and was greeted instead by ghosts and zombies that accompanied my Mojitos. Well, needless to say, I was surprised and disturbed! Had I known that they took Halloween seriously here, I would have brought my Wonder Woman costume!

Fast-forward to Oct. 28 and the long weekend. Obviously I was hooked. I needed to be in Boracay that Hallow’s Eve to join in the fray of monstrosities and ghouls that patrolled the night. This time, the Wonder Woman costume didn’t fit anymore, and I had to be creative, I needed my inner ghoul to emerge.

That night before Hallow’s Eve, I was quietly drinking my vodka in an inconspicuous bar called Epic, when a beautiful maiden named Christine San Diego approached me. Christine owns a restaurant called Tibraz and runs another bar in the island, Juice Bar. As fate would have it, Christine and I were sharing horror stories when Mark from Epic asked us to judge this year’s costume competition. My eyes widened with delight. I finally have the excuse to be judgmental! So I said yes.

According to Christine, the whole island prepares for Halloween. Locals and tourists who come back to the island just to compete for the costume parade always bring something different every year. It starts off with a simple dinner and get-together at Dos Mestizos, where the serious costumes assemble.

Thirsty

After an hour or two, they start to walk towards Station 1, gathering a crowd as they approach their first stop, Juice bar. Here the thirsty denizens are treated to an intoxicating drink to distract them from spreading evil. From Juice Bar the next stop is Summer Place, then off to Epic where the competition is held.

We did all that, but what I didn’t expect was that the crowd was not a crowd at all—it was a mob. Hordes of tourist and photographers gathered around all the costumed characters to have their pictures taken with them or just have a picture of them.

Even I was a subject of interest for the mob. My assistants, who dressed up as my zombie yaya and murderous butchers, were not spared the attention of the crowd. Truth be told, I was even jealous of the number of fans they had during the night (not that I was counting).

That night, I got my costume pulled by more than one tourist. I smooched with an evil queen. My zombie assistants got to molest an Arabian princess. A female Harry Potter put me under her spell. And to add insult to injury, someone came in my Wonder Woman costume, and she looked better in it! All in all, it seemed like a normal night to me.

When the moment of truth arrived, we needed to be judgmental; Tim Yap and Alex Escat took to the stage to announce the winners we thought we chose. Apparently, the choices we made didn’t make it to the list Tim was holding. But at this point, who cares? We were all intoxicated and too happy to notice anything. The night went on with more drinks flowing, thanks to Absolut vodka, and the music just whipped everyone into a zombie-like frenzy as we all danced like there was no tomorrow. Well, tomorrow brought the hangover.