After every country we visit, Vikram writes about our overall experiences and highlights. Here’s his take on the Philippines!
Our experience in the Philippines was fantastic but would be difficult for the typical traveler to duplicate, because we were fortunate to be hosted and shown around by Mary’s family. Their warmth, generosity, and commitment to plying us with delicious food would be no surprise to anyone who knows Mary or her parents, and made the Philippines one of the highlights of our trip. We can’t wait to visit again.
Beyond Mary’s family, there were other, more unexpected reasons why the Philippines will be one of the more memorable countries we visited. Swimming with whale sharks and canyoneering instantly became my top two experiences of the trip so far, and our four-day road trip from Manila to Cebu gave us insight into what life is really like in the Philippines. The Philippines isn’t a backpacker hotspot yet, but it should be, and is well worth consideration for anyone traveling through Southeast Asia.
Basics
Number of days: 24
Cities: 8 (Manila, Tagaytay, Los Banos, Legaspi City, Sorsogon, Tacloban, Cebu City, Mactan)
Number of car rides: Many
Number of boat rides: 2
Finances
Daily budget: Not meaningful, because we were hosted and transported by Mary’s family. Thanks everyone!
Exchange rate: $1 USD = 46.7 Pesos
Attractions
Favorite things we did:
- Swimming with whale sharks in Oslob
- Canyoneering in Badian
- Island hopping with Mary’s family
Better than expected: Filipino food. I had no idea what to expect, other than pork, but turns out Filipino food is great! I will be back for more sisig, among many other things.
Worse than expected: We had to alter our plans because of the potential for election day violence (luckily, nothing much happened this time around). A reminder that despite our political issues in America, we actually have it pretty good.
Things you have to eat:
- Sisig
- Chicharon bulaklak
- Lechon (both pig and cow, preferably from Cebu)
Biggest challenges we faced: None, really, but that’s largely because all of our transportation and lodging was sorted out by Mary’s family. If it wasn’t, transportation to Oslob and Badian for whale sharks and canyoneering would likely have been difficult for us to figure out on our own.
What we would have done differently: It would have been nice to see more of Manila, which was in our original plans but was shortened to avoid potential election day unrest.
Read More!
Swimming with Whale Sharks in Oslob, Cebu
Canyoneering in Badian … 3, 2, 1, Jump!
1 Comment
I loved Tagaytay, and we even considered retiring there! Boracay was the best beach, and Palawan is next!!! My daughter-in-law has such a friendly and awesome family that we rate the Philippines high on our list for a revisit. I even wrote a book about Manila called Jeepney Love. If you like one, email me oyoko_vi@yahoo.com.