Philippines November 23, 2016

We flew out of Asheville to Atlanta to Tokyo to Manila. This was the longest travel leg to date….19 hours. We had Thanksgiving dumplings in Tokyo, which were AMAZING! There was an incredible Irogami exhibit throughout the airport and really cool desserts in the gift shops. I made a mental note that I would stock up on the way home. We wish we had a longer lay over so we could have ventured out to see the city…next time.

As much as I try to walk around on the plane and do yoga stretches in the back with flight attendants, this flight nearly took me down. My ankles were SO swollen! I was nervous about getting a blood clot. If you didn’t know about this, it’s a thing. Russ thought I was making it up and while we were over seas, one of the travel magazines on AirAsia had a whole article about it with exercises to do while you’re on the plane. I”m still doing these exercises. My other tip for a long flight is DO NOT wear skinny jeans. This was a BIG mistake.

We literally flew into tomorrow. The Philippines is 13 hours ahead of us. We tried to book a pod at the Manila airport because we had an early flight out in the morning to Cagban. Unfortunately, they were sold out. We jumped on Travelocity to find a nearby (which we thought) hotel, grabbed a cab and headed over. Manila traffic is CRAZY and an hour later we arrived at the Malaki Palace Hotel in Makati City. The hotel was nice but the area was pretty dicey. Little did we know that we were in the red light district. Russ got his phone stolen immediately after exiting the cab. Of course, it’s Thanksgiving in the US so we were unable to get a hold of Verizon. This was pretty challenging for us because we didn’t set up my phone for the International plan (eye roll AND note for next trip). We gave up and decided to grab something to eat and check out the area. We made it back safely to our hotel and slept for a few hours. We had a lovely complimentary breakfast and headed back to the Manila airport. The airport pod would have been ideal.

We were beyond excited to get to our first beach destination, Boracay! What we didn’t realize was that we would be flying into a class 2 typhoon. Thankfully we landed safely, jumped onto a shuttle and headed to the port of Cagban. The waters were rough and the typhoon seemed to be sticking around. We made it to the port which was PACKED because all of the boats were on hold until the storm settled down to a class 1. That was not happening anytime soon. It was POURING down rain and the winds were 30mph. BTW, while we were at the port figuring out what the heck we should do, I found a first aid closet and inquired about my blood clot paranoia. Thankfully I was fine and it was just paranoia.

Somehow we stumbled upon a filipino angel who guided us to her rickshaw, loaded our luggage and drove us to her B&B, The Hangout in Malay. This honestly was miraculous. I think my Dad had something to do with it. We would have been stuck at that port overnight with over 500 people.

The Hangout was the perfect place for an overnight during a typhoon. Yoli, her huband, Marco, and their family went above and beyond to make our stay safe and sweet. We had our own little bungalow, they grilled us a delicious dinner and finished the night off with karaoke with a few locals.

The storm passed and we woke up to a beautiful clear blue sky. Yoli made us a yummy breakfast. We said our goodbyes while Marco loaded our luggage onto his boat and then took us over to Boracay! Did I mention how miraculous this was?

We took a tricycle from Station 1 to Station 3 and landed at our hotel, Villa Caemilla on White Beach. It was a swanky and chill.boutique hotel..just our style. There is a beach walk way from one end of the island to the other. You can just walk and check out shops, restaurants, clubs, hotels. You’re basically on the beach. This island’s beauty is beyond…and the sunsets, forget it. I’ve never experienced sunsets full of so much color; orange, purple, teal, blue…SO beautiful!

We cruised the island and ended up eating at a late night pizza joint, NY Pizza. It was pretty good AND they had a local musician playing music outside.

The next morning Marco came over on his. boat to take us on a private tour around the island…I mean. It was amazing! We cruised around this lush and gorgeous island and went by the world famous boxer, Manny Pacquiao’s mansion. We did a bunch of snorkeling seeing tropical fish and rich coral reef. We made a stop at the northern end, Puca Beach. It was a touristy spot with alot of local flavor, many selfie sticks and lots of unicorn floats. 😉

We finished our 3 hour tour and got dropped off back at Station 3. We had a cocktail at The Tree House and a delicious lunch at 357. Marco and his buddy came back to the island on their moped to pick Russ up to take him to a local cock fight. The 3 of them on the moped…unreal. I opted for beach time at our hotel. SO nice!

Our hotel recommended Sobu for dinner, which was authentic and delicious. After dinner we jumped on a trike and headed over to the D Mall to check out Station 1. It was happening! Lots of things to see and do. We ended up at a very cool club, Epic, and kicked it for a bit. David Geutta spins here…of course he does.

The next morning we packed up and headed out. We got a ride to the port and boated back to Catlclan to jump on a shuttle to take us to the Kalibu airport. Next stop: Puerto Princesa.

Thankfully the sky was clear and the ocean was calm. When we arrived in Puerto Princesa we jumped in JoJo’s cab and he took us to our hotel, La Panja, which means higher ground. We pulled up to this amazing hotel way up in the hills. Side note: the filipinos are beyond kind and their country is beautiful. Our hotel was very new, modern with views all around. This is an area that has lots of adventures BUT you have to plan ahead and get things on the books. This round we were pretty last minute and missed the boat, literally. ;). The next morning we decided to jump on a shuttle and head over to the island of El Nido.

This was a 5 hour shuttle ride which was not bad because the views…SO gorgeous! It’s easy for me to travel that way, especially when I’m in paradise. We arrived to this incredible island which is at the northern tip of the Palawan Islands…it’s breathtaking. We jumped on a trike and headed to Villa Libertad. This resort was tucked away north of town. We had our own little villa with a pool and chickens! Once we dropped our bags off we jumped back on our trike and headed down to watch the sunset at Corong Corong. I thought Boracay was something…El Nido took it to the next level.

We grabbed drinks and lite bites at Sava Bar then headed back to our hotel for a good night’s rest. The next morning we went down to the beach and jumped on a boat to experience the hidden treasures of the Palawan Islands. It was breathtaking. Something about being on a boat changes the perspective of where you are. We snorkeled and kayaked into caves to really get the full experience. The crew served us the most delicious lunch; grilled fish, fresh fruit and veggies. Locals kayaked up to our boat selling fresh coconut water and cervesas. Before heading back we landed at Buena Suerte Poblacion for cocktails at sunset…unreal! When we landed back at El Nido, we decided to grab a bite before heading back to our hotel. 

Christmas is highly celebrated in the Philippines. There are Christmas lights everywhere! The only problem is that there isn’t enough power for the extra lights. So, we experienced a “brown out”…this is when most of the town’s power goes out. What we didn’t realize is that the hotels have generators but most restaurants do not. This is where we should have headed back to our hotel to eat but instead we ate in town. End result- both Russ and I got food poisoning. It was ROUGH! Our hotel let us check out later so we could sleep it off. We finally ralllied to move to the our final destination in El Nido the Cadlao El Nido Resort. We love to go big at least one night when we’re traveling. This resort is GORGEOUS! It’s right on the water and the grounds are beautiful. We made it to our beautiful room and continued to sleep off our food poisoning.  Not the best way to spend your last days..but it happens. We woke up the next morning and got massages and chilled at this gorgeous resort. We hired a private shuttle to get us back to Manila for our flight back home. We LOVE the Philippines!