Phillipines

My husband and I decided to be a little (ok a LOT) un-traditional and jet around SouthEast Asia for our wedding and honeymoon... we started off with the gauntlet flight to Manila. But that was just where our adventure started. :) 

 

Manila is a crazy city. We stayed in a nice hotel that was in the middle of somewhat of a ghetto. Dirt, chaos, and lets face it, a bit of a slum. And getting from A to B was like being on the 405 freeway only worse...  what should have taken ten minutes, inevitably turned into a 2 hour ordeal. It was seriously easier to just walk it, if you were brave enough to face the game of frogger!!!

We were glad to get out of the city that we came to somewhat dread. The Banaue Rice Terraces was one of the highlights of our trip -- and a blessed respite from the yuckiness of Manila, and well worth the 8-hour bus ride to get there. We stayed at The Native Inn that had replicas of the indigenous household hillside cabins.We hiked around the terraces, sampled the food, and learned the local legends including that of Bulul, the god of rice who created this "stairway to heaven". It was beautiful and I loved every moment of the experience. 

Then we headed to Palawan. The flight was absolutely beautiful, and we got treated like queens and kings since that airline is for the hoity toity people. They served us juice and coconut sticky rice while we waited for our flight. Our boarding passes were made out of wood. It was that swanky -- is this what it's like to be a billionaire all the time???, I thought.

Our hotel in El Nido was a little beach cottage, it was super cute but near the town so loud so it wasn't quite the quaint on the beach experience I had predicted. But we had a great time there. We had a nice dinner at the Artcafe and chatted with a couple sitting next to us, swapping travel stories and eating delicious pizza on the beach. Then we came back to the room and had some wine and relaxed, we were so tired. 

We did an island hopping tour from El Nido the next day, seeing some of the most beautiful places on Earth... the environment looked like the cover of the old Myst games. Each day was full of sunshine, Nemo fish, coral, BBQs made fresh on private beaches, and sailing. Each night we ate fresh seafood on the beach underneath stars and lanterns, amidst other tourists -- it was crazy time in El Nido that week!

The best part of our trip I will write about elsewhere, but we rented a private island! (Another check off the life list!)

After getting home we were so tired so we basically got food and hit the sack. I was quite burned, ugh. I tried to stay sun screened but when you are in the sun all day for three days straight, its inevitable. That last night we had elected ahead of time for a more rustic cabin, man, I regretted that decision. We were roasting to death. And with the sunburn, I was basically in misery. I took sleep meds and passed out. 

The next morning we were up bright and early and hopped in an air conditioned van after enjoying a quite amazing view from our room (the reason I picked it) and headed to Puerto Princesa. On the way we stopped on a river running subterranean cave tour, called the 8th natural wonder of the world. It was beautiful but I was scared of the bats the whole time lol -- diseases!!! So I huddled and didn’t look around that much.

In Puerto Princesa, we stayed at a family-run cabin hotel, with a large mango tree and a bird named Spartan that mimicked you if you talked to him. 

Some of my favorite memories of the Phillipines are the roosters everywhere waking you up in the morning, the fresh mangoes, the coconut water, and obviously the amazing landscapes. It was truly paradise.