The Philippines: A Backpackers Paradise

I know it's been a while since I last blogged but I think with all the craziness going on in the world right now, it's a good time to get back on it.

I'm going all the way back to the time when I was in the Philippines, which was in April of 2018. Going to take it a day at a time from what I remember and describe my time and experience, enjoy!

Day 0- Before arriving in the Philippines, I spent my last day in Chiang Mia, Thailand. Truly fell in love with Chiang Mia and I would not mind visiting again in the future. However, going from Chiang Mia to Cebu was anything but short. My brother & I had a long layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where we slept in the swampy, hot, & smelly airport all night. We ended up arriving in Cebu around 11 pm after an hour delay. As we were walking down the escalator towards the exit, my brother spotted his name on a sign and we thought, "wow, that's so cool." We were then greeted by four beautiful Filipino women who gave us a cool little Cebu necklace and hugged us like family. At that point, I had a pretty good feeling that the Philippines was going to be awesome.

Day 1- Since we got in super late, we decided to stay at the cheapest hostel in Cebu City. It was $5 for the night but it was not in a good area of town. The next day, we woke up at 4 am and headed straight to the bus station. It was a rough morning as we didn't get much sleep but considering we were headed to Oslob, which is about 4 hours away from Cebu City, we had plenty of time to sleep on the bus ride. Oslob, as you may or may not know, is known for swimming with whale sharks. And that is exactly what we were planning on doing! What we didn't realize was how overly crowded and packed it would be. By 8:00 am, it was flooded with tourists! Our plan was to swim with sharks that day but considering how crowded & busy it was, we decided to book a tour at 6 am the next day. Which actually worked out, because my brothers girlfriend and her friend Kristi were going to be arriving later in the day. They ended up arriving in Oslob around 5 pm, jet lagged and hungry. So we decided to go to dinner at Cocina En Acantilado. It was a nice little restaurant with a beautiful view overlooking the ocean. I decided to try something different and unique for dinner because, why not? I stumbled upon this crocodile dish and thought, "yup, that's what I'm getting". To my surprise, it was actually pretty delicious. The rest of the day was spent relaxing at our hotel enjoying each other's company & not worrying about social media or connecting to wifi.

Day 2- It was another early morning for us, as we crawled out of bed at 5:30 am. Today we were swimming with sharks, whale sharks that is! We booked our tour super early because we had other plans today in a different city and also because it gets so packed super quick, so the earlier the better. Let me start by saying that this was the most terrifying, exciting, adrenaline filled experience that I may have ever done in my life. We did not know what to expect at all. I just know as soon as we got into the boat and made our way to the whale sharks, my heart was racing, I was so nervous that I was shaking. As soon as we got into the water and I saw the first whale shark swim by, I was extremely anxious. These animals were not even adult whale sharks yet they were ginormous! I could only imagine seeing how big an adult whale shark in the wild would be like. I was panicking swimming with these baby whale sharks. After a few minutes of panicking, I started to relax a bit and enjoy the moment. It was such a surreal and cool experience that I will remember it forever. My brother & I got as close as we can to these giant creatures because we were trying to get that epic photo. I think we did just that. WARNING: Just beware of the water and do not swallow it because the whale sharks spew a ton of sperm and the water was disgusting and smelt terrible (something they don't tell you before swimming with these gentle giants). Highly recommend for anyone looking for some adventure, Oslob is your spot.

Afterwards, we had breakfast at a local spot up on shore before taking a private van to our next stop, Samboan!

I guess I should've mentioned that my brother got in contact with the Cebu Board of Tourism before this trip and they hooked us up with hotels, food, transportation, and private tour guides to show us their beautiful home of Cebu. Crazy, I know!

Anyways, Erwin (from the Board of Tourism) came and picked us up at our hotel in Oslob and took us on a waterfall exploration. He took us to Aguinid falls where we visited every level of the falls, even the ones that were blocked off for tourists. We had a little photo shoot session before making our way to Binalayan Hidden waterfalls where we got to cliff jump off a 50+ foot waterfall! Scary, yes, but totally worth it and something I won't forget. The local kids showed us up and jumped from the very, very top, which was about 70 feet high! A little too high for my liking but the kids did a great job. Their energy and happiness radiated with me. Our next stop was to Ginatilan, where we were going to meet the Major and Riza (tourism worker). It was pretty cool meeting the Major of the city and I got to say that it was the first mayor that I've ever met. He was so happy that we were here and working with the people at Cebu to provide them with pictures and photos to showcase to the city and other tourists alike. When it was time, Riza took us to Inambakan waterfall, which was a massive waterfall with some awesome cliff jumping and picturesque spots. We came away with some awesome photos and met some local kids who were so happy to see us foreigners. We then hopped back into another van and made our way to Badian, this is where we would be staying for the night. And to answer your question, yes, we did all this in one day! Let's just say it was a super long and tiring day. When we finally reached our hotel, World Big 4 Resort, we were greeted with dinner that had been prepared for us by the hotel staff. All courtesy of the Board of Tourism. That's right. They paid for our stay and food for the night, it was super nice of them and one of the reasons why I fell in love with the Philippines, the people are simply amazing! After dinner, we all crashed pretty hard as it was a super long and exhausting day but one of the best days I've ever had traveling.

Day 3- Today was another early morning, like every morning it seems like. We were picked up from our hotel around 8 am by a canyoneering company who was taking us on a private canyoning tour to the beautiful Kawasan Falls. I had no idea what canyoneering was at the time and if you don't either, google it. But I was excited and pumped for yet another adventure in the Philippines. Before the tour began we had to properly "suit up" in gear. We were geared up with a life jacket, a helmet, gloves, and of course, our waterproof camera bags as we set off on the trek to Kawasan Falls. I will say that if you have never been canyoneering before, I would definitely think about doing it at least once. It was an amazing day filled with cliff jumping, hiking, swimming, chatting with the locals, and of course taking photos. It was an epic day that ended in the most breathtaking view that Cebu has to offer, Kawasan Falls. This is probably the most popular tourist attraction in all of the Philippines and if you have never heard of this place before, look it up on google or Instagram and you will be in awe of it's beauty. It did not disappoint and was the cherry on top of our travel adventure.

Afterwards, we hopped back in the van and made our way back to Cebu City where we were staying for the night. Parkplace International Hotel was the name of the fancy place, all courtesy of the Department of Tourism. Essentially, we circled around the entire island of Cebu stopping at the major tourist and underground hot spots of Cebu. It was a blast and I really fell in love with everything about Cebu. If you've ever thought about going to the Philippines, make sure Cebu is on your list of places to go, you won't regret it.

Day 4- Next stop, Palawan! We had an afternoon flight today which meant we were able to sleep in a bit, finally! We arrived in Puerto Princesa, Palawan mid-afternoon and hopped on yet another bus that would take us to El Nido, which is on the north side of the island. The bus took us 5 in a half hours! By this time we had been in a bus pretty much the whole trip as this is the easiest and quickest way to get around in the Philippines. It was a miserable bus ride and I couldn't wait to get off. We arrived in El Nido around 8:30 pm and checked into our cheap and totally not free hotel. Bummer. It was a super small room that barely had a fan and just enough room to walk around without stumbling over everything. Now I failed to mention previously that throughout this time there was absolutely zero wifi anywhere. So don;t expect to talk to anyone while you are here. Which is sometimes a blessing in disguise for some people (not Kristie).

Day 5- Today our plan was to do a day trip to the island of Coron. Now if you've been to Coron then you know what I just said is impossible. Well our original plan was to wake up super early take a ferry to Coron, spend all day, and then head back to El Nido. Well....You can't really do that, because the ferry takes about 6 hours to go from El Nido to Coron. However, if you take the fast ferry then it'll be about 3-4 hours, which is what we did. However, once we arrived in Coron we quickly found out that they only have ferries in the morning/afternoons and no ferries in the later afternoon/early evening to go back to El Nido. So essentially we were stranded with nothing but our day bags because we thought we'd be back in El Nido that night. So we had to buy all new clothes & toiletries for the two days we were now going to spend in Coron. Which also meant we had no hotel or place to stay and apparently things get booked pretty quickly because every hotel we tried to make a reservation for was sold out. It looked as if we would be sleeping on the streets of Coron until one nice fellow told us of a place to go that might have a room available for us. And he was right. It was the last room they had available for that weekend! Talk about a stressful situation. Once everything settled down, we decided to start on our first adventure. We decided to go Kayaking, so we rented a kayak and got straight to it. We decided to kayak to the lagoons, which sounded like a great idea at first but we soon realized that this was a mistake. Kayaking was anything but fun. In fact it was miserable, probably the worst thing that I've done on the trip & possibly in my life. I'll explain...#1- My kayak would not go straight to save my life, and yes I know how to kayak. I had a busted kayak, i know that for sure. #2- I haven't mentioned her at all throughout this blog and for good reason. It would've been an angry rant had I done so and I also wanted to block her from my memory forever. Anyways, here goes my rant. My brother was kayaking with his girlfriend and I was kayaking with the devil, I mean Kristie, which was my brother's girlfriends friend. She is the worst. The most negative person I have ever met in my life!!! I am not exaggerating at all. She was complaining non-stop about anything & everything and just say how terrible it was in the Philippines. "This sucks." "Don't you know how to kayak?" "Make it go straight". "Does this palce have wifi?". "You are the worst kayaker ever". "I want to go home". "There's no wifi!" "This is the worst idea ever." "Let me do it, you don't know what you're doing". "I wish I was with someone who knew how to kayak". "Is there wifi?"

It went on and on and on i tell you the ENTIRE trip but this kayak experience was the straw that broke the camels back. I would consider myself a very mentally strong person but I was at my breaking point and was about to crack and lose it. But I tried to stay positive through it all. The funny thing is, that wasn't even the worst part about kayaking! As I was saying before, we wanted to go kayaking because we wanted to visit the famous lagoons that Coron is known for. Well little did we know that the kayak trip to the lagoons is quite far. I think it may have taken us 2 or 3 hours to get there! Think about negative Nancy nagging you for 5-6 hours! That'll make anyone go insane! As I was saying, when we finally reached the lagoons, it was amazing but my arms were exhausted from paddling for that long. We explored the twin lagoons, relaxed for a bit and just took in all the beauty that the lagoon offered. I've seen videos of the lagoon and how amazing it looks on film and I can say that it is equally as impressive in person. We spent a few hours exploring and taking pictures and I think we got some pretty amazing shots. However, the day was getting late and all the other tourists had left, but we were still taking pictures. We literally were the last people to leave the lagoon, which was pretty cool but also kinda scary as well because it was getting late and it was getting dark, fast! As soon as we took our last picture, we hopped back into the kayak and began the miserable trek back to the mainland. It was a struggle to say the least. I had negative Nancy in the back, the sun was almost gone, and my arms were essentially dead tired. We were about halfway back when the sun was completely gone! I kid you not, it was complete darkness and here we are kayaking in the dark looking like a bunch of idiots. It was at this point where we (me in particular) started panicking. One of my biggest fears in life is being stranded in the middle of the ocean! Then to make matters worse, it was pitch black! Even more scary. I don't necessarily like the ocean as it is because I do not like not knowing what is underneath me. Scares the crap out of me. Anyways, as I was nervously paddling, I tried to stay positive even though the only thing we could see was this one light coming from the island. That was our guide we used to make it back to the mainland. I think it took us a good 3+ hours to finally make it back and as soon as we reached land, I couldn't have been happier. The locals who we rented the kayaks from thought we died considering we did not return their kayaks on time. They did, however, catch my brother being one paddle short. On the journey to the lagoons, my brother & his girlfriend lost one of their paddles and we couldn't find it. Spent a good 30 minutes trying to find it but it was gone with the wind. I don't remember how much they had to pay to replace it but it was not cheap.

We went back to the hotel to shower & clean ourselves up before heading out to dinner at this nice little restaurant on the beach. I don't recall the name of it but I remember ordering the fish filet wrapped in a banana leaf. I also had a banana milkshake and let me tell you, both were amazing! I ended up paying around 700 pesos, or roughly $15 USD, which is quite expensive for the Philippines. The other interesting aspect of the Philippines is the nightlife. It is pretty non-existent. You have to think that the Philippines is a super poor country and even the littlest of things to us could be something significant for them. It puts things into perspective about what is really important to you in life because there are people who have absolutely nothing and are happy and yet there are Americans who have everything but are empty inside.

Day 6- Today we set up a private tour with a couple of guys who said they would take us out to see all the famous landmarks of Coron. We woke up around 6:45 am and headed out to the small lagoon, big lagoon, snake island, and another island where we went snorkeling. Our "captain" and his first mate were pretty hilarious and we hit it off with them from the start. I wish I remembered their names but I can't recall. By the end of the journey the guys were shotgunning beers with my brother, taking hits off my brothers pen, and just loving life. We kind of spoiled them a bit but we had a great time. It was a pretty fun and relaxing day and one that was much needed after the day before.

I'm pretty sure we did more stuff but I didn't write it down and since I have a terrible memory, I don't remember. This is the reason why I write things down so I can remember and then blog about it later. So later in life, I can look back at this and remember what I did on my epic traventures. The Philippines is a place that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone who isn't "high maintenance". Expect little to no wifi, hot water is scarce, and be prepared for a culture shock. The people of the Philippines are some of the nicest and sweetest people that I've ever met. The food is surprisingly good and the views are breathtaking. I wanted to donate the clothes off my back to these people for showing us such a great time. The Philippines will always hold a special place in my heart and I hope one day I will able to go back.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed.