After over 100 days on the road, we were finally somewhere that I consider home—in the Philippines, and more importantly, with my mom and dad. The biggest challenge I’ve faced on the road to date has been homesickness (more on that in a future blog post), so it was welcome relief to be with my family and familiar faces in a country I already knew.

That all being said, our first 10 days in the Philippines offered me new experiences that I never did in many previous trips, all culminating in a four-day road trip through the island nation.

Manila

We started in Manila, the capital city that I actually have barely been to. My Aunt Tessie graciously hosted us in her brand new condo in Makati, an area full of restaurants, coffee shops, and fancy malls.

During our brief stay in Manila, we visited some of the important historical sites located in Intramuros—which literally means “inside the walls”, as this area lies within the walls built during the early Spanish colonial period. We also toured a museum about Jose Rizal, one of the Philippines’ national heroes who the Spanish martyred in 1896 for inciting rebellion, though he wasn’t really guilty of the crimes. (But his death did spur the revolution that eventually led to the Philippines declaring independence from Spain in 1898.)

Los Banos 

From Manila, we went to Los Banos, a university town about 90 minutes away and home to my Aunt Mila’s family. We did some day trips from here, including a kayak tour down a nearby river and a visit to a rice museum.

We also sampled several traditional Filipino dishes, from sisig (grilled pig’s head) to laing (dried taro leaves prepared in coconut milk), and of course, chicharon (fried pork rinds). Any weight we lost in South America is quickly coming back now…

Luzon-Leyte-Cebu Road Trip

Soon enough, the time came to head south towards Cebu, the island and city where most of my family lives. Vikram, my parents, and I opted to do a four-day road trip—which may sound strange at first, when you consider that the Philippines is composed of 7,000 islands. However, a road trip is doable. Most of the road is actually on the large island of Luzon, and we only needed to take two ferry rides to get to the island of Leyte and then finally Cebu.

Road trip highlights include:

• Discovering the decadent peach mango pies at Jollibee’s (a Filipino fast food institution)
• Our night at Fritz Homestay in Sorsogon, where the charming owner thought that Vikram looked like Denzel Washington and called him “her love”
• Leaving said homestay at 5 am (Von Trapp style) to catch an early ferry, but then having to wait 6+ hours at the dock to actually get on a boat 
• Realizing that many drivers have no sense of what a blind curve is
• Sipping mango smoothies by the beach
• A pirouetting pedestrian who gracefully skipped and courtseyed her way across the street through tons of traffic
• Lunch with my mom’s cousin and his family in Baybay, before getting on the second ferry to Cebu