S01-E14
The Philippines - Natural Beauty and A LOT of Jollibee
When we first started looking into the Philippines we immediately were having second thoughts about it. This was for a couple of reasons - of course, the Philippines are all over Instagram, but if we have learned anything (not that we did not already know this) it is that Instagram LIES. You can make an entrance to a golf course look like a temple floating on water, you can make a TP tube look like an airplane window - you get the idea. We surround ourselves with people who travel and personally know one couple that has been, so we started to question if this place was worth it. And I say worth it because the second thing that made us think twice about going was the price. The accommodations were so expensive and not worth what you were getting. Again, keep in mind, we are middle age, so we are not staying in hostels or huts on the beach, because of course there are those types of lodgings which are surely much more affordable. After some deliberation, we decided we were so close we had to go. We settled on going for about a month and picked our locations.
We flew into Manila from Singapore and went directly to our hotel in Makatio - Citadines Salcedo Makatio. If you are staying in Manila you only need a night, two max. Because we had been jumping around recently, we are not in a huge rush, we wanted a sort of home base of a number of days so we booked four nights. Manila is a big city, with not much to do in a traditional tourist sense. There is a red light-ish/trendy neighborhood called Poblacion with a lot of bars and restaurants. We did have one good meal at Lampara and great cocktails at The Spirits Library.
We then flew to Cebu City. This was a big miss that was entirely our fault. The entire reason we went to Cebu was to swim with the whale sharks - a dream of mine - only to learn that Cebu is a horrible place to do this because of how they treat the whales. They chum the waters to bring the whales in and many people touching the whales - just a bad situation. The next closest place was over an eight-hour journey, so we did not do much in Cebu. There are beautiful beaches on Cebu Island, but the weather did not hold out for us while we were there. We did eat at one local restaurant which we enjoyed - Raul’s Fillipino Restaurant. We do not like Filipino food but this place had live music and the crowd was fun to watch.
From there we flew to Busuanga and stayed in Coron. This was probably our favorite place on the trip because of all the activities that are available. We went diving with Reggae Dive Center. They were very organized and professional. There are a lot of shipwreck dives in the area from WWII which was a cool experience. There were not a ton of fish but some really good corals and giant clams. We also did a private lagoon, island hopping, and snorkeling tour via Viator which was excellent. The boat captain cooked us probably the best meal of the trip right on the boat. We spent a little extra to also rent a kayak for the day. Worth it! The town of Coron is super fun with several good bars. It is cheap, fun, and easy to get around via trike.
Our next destination was El Nido and rather than risk a long-haul, scary 5-hour fast ferry there we booked a flight. It was not super cheap but I did not want a repeat of our near-death boat ride in Indonesia. El Nido is very touristy with two main beach areas that also offer several restaurants and bars. We booked a Tour B (there are 3 tours on offer in El Nido that all the providers follow), which is an island, caves, and sandbar tour. We went with a local operator that was much cheaper than Viator or Get Your Guide. The beaches were perfect and we did some great snorkeling as well. In Bacuit several more lively bars, clubs, and restaurants are open into the morning hours. On Corong Corong Beach there is a great restaurant that we ate at twice - Lions Sunset Lounge. There is another bar and restaurant on the same beach called La Plage. It is pricey and the food is OK, but the vibe and drinks are on point.
After El Nido, we headed south to Puerto Princesa, and the only way to get there was by 6-hour minibus. Puerto Princesa is a bigger city but lacks a swimmable beach. We ate one great meal at Badjao Seafront Restaurant. It sits over the mangroves and is the perfect place to watch the sunset over the bay.
On our final night in the Philippines, we flew back to Manila and stayed at a hotel near the airport as we had to fly out early the next morning. We went to the mall and of course, had to try Jollibee. It was disgusting. Never again. That evening we took in some live music at the casino. It was cheesy and hysterical, and the perfect outro to our trip. In our opinion, we did not love the Philippines. Yes, there are incredible beaches and fun activities, but the food leaves little to be desired, and the cost of the accommodations is very off-putting. Saying that there are SO many places in the Philippines that we did not get to explore, and many people love it, so maybe it was just not for us. BYYYYEEEEEEEE!
