Philippines 2012
During our summer vacation we decided to head to El Nido, Palawan, in the Philippines with three other fellow teachers. It was an amazing week. We wish we had more time, but hey that just gives us an excuse to go back! We began our journey in Manila. When we first arrived we were blown away at the poverty that seemed to sweep the city. Our evening walking in the streets led us to more than we ever imagined. Lining the streets were bamboo shacks that housed the many inhabitants of the city. Children we left sleeping on the streets with only a tarp for protection. We saw a mother rubbing insect repellent on her infant as they both got ready for bed on the front stoop of a bank ATM. It was a hard sight to experience first-hand. Our travels through Asia have shown us a lot of hardship and it's experiences like these that humble me and make me extremely grateful for the life that I have.
After one night in Manila, we flew to Puerto Princessa in Palawan, and took a very "relaxing" 6 hour bus ride to El Nido. We should have known that there were other options available to us, but hey we wanted to do as the locals do, so we boarded a jam-packed bus and rolled off into the night. After a very rocky and unforgiving journey, we arrived in paradise. It was in the off-season so we had the town to ourselves. We explored as much as we could in the week that was allotted to us. We decided to take dirt bikes around the countryside and see even more off the unbeaten path. We came to some muddy areas and even had to push the bike out of a mud pit. We came to the most amazing beach I've ever visited and we even paid some locals 200 pesos to carry our bike over a broken bridge. Yup, that happened... The Filipinos are amazing people. Because of their sincere attitude towards tourists and their love of life, we would definitely go back to the Philippines. Although it was only a week, we definitely felt like we absorbed a lot of the local culture. We experienced an amazing country and I would definitely recommend this country to anyone interested in taking the plunge. |