Spring Break in The Philippines

Going to the Philippines for my junior year spring break was unreal. It was the perfect 10-day mixture of adventure and just chilling on beautiful white-sand beaches. Over the course of the trip, we stayed in Manila, Puerto Princesa, and El Nido [both in the island of Palawan].

We arrived at Clark Airport in the Philippines, near the old US Clark Airbase and took a van down to Manila, where we would be spending the next two days waiting for our flight to Puerto Princesa, Palawan. We walked around the city, met some locals, and visited Old Manila/Chinatown.

A Jeepney: the mode of transportation in Manila

Gigantic Jackfruit [look like durian the size of my torso]

Old Manila

Old Manila

It’s crazy how far a US dollar can go in the Philippines. Food and drinks cost less than $3 for a huge meal, and any type of souvenir you could ever want is less than $5. Unfortunately, every single taxi driver tried to rip me off in Manila, but thankfully I was able to haggle to get some pretty cheap rates.

After visiting Manila for a full day, we took a flight to Puerto Princesa and stayed at Mercedes Bed & Breakfast. On the site, it said that it was less than a 100m walk from the airport. When we got out of the terminal, the usual rush of taxi drivers screaming “Taxi! Taxi! Where are you going?” greeted us. When we said we were going to Mercedes, they immediately stopped, which was great. Apparently, it wasn’t worth their time to take us to the place, which was a great excuse for us. Whenever someone asked if we needed a taxi, we would just tell them we were going to Mercedes and the driver would just walk away. After a 2 minute walk, we made it to the hostel, which was a really nice nook with air conditioned rooms, hot water, and hammocks. We had not planned any accommodations for El Nido, the beach town where we would be staying. Christine, who is Mercedes’ daughter, called almost all of the hostels in El Nido, and all of them were booked for Monday night. So, we decided to stay in Puerto Princesa and extra day and went island hopping. The islands were great; white sands with green oceans with mountains in the background. We had some cheap food too on the islands which was always nice. Of course, I got back to the hostel with a little bit [a lot] of sunburn, but it was definitely worth it.

delicious crab

small diving board; still fun though

Courie Island: one of the islands on our tour in PP

So Monday night, we took the night “Roro” bus to El Nido, where all of the other NUS students were so we could meet up with them. The bus station was especially sketchy, and we couldn’t sleep on the bumpy bus ride. We finally made it to El Nido at around 3:30 am with nowhere to stay, because we did not feel like paying for a hostel. So, what did we do? We decided just to sleep on the beach! It was a beautiful night and it was only a couple of hours until sunrise where we could check into our hostel. So, we found a nice spot and put down our bags. What we didn’t realize though, is that where we were was a bit of a road for motorbikes. So, after a few times of almost getting run over, we decided to move.

Our 5-star resort

We woke up in the morning, actually kind of refreshed, and went to our hostel, the Marina Gardens Hotel. It was one of the cheaper options compared to the other NUS students, and it was right on the beach! It was in such a great location and we had a bungalow all to ourselves. It didn’t have warm water or anything, but who needed that anyway? We were so tired that day, though, that we just hung out at a restaurant on the beach and played some cards, as usual.

Marina Gardens Hotel

The next few days were filled with chilling on the beach, more island hopping, and going on motorbikes to travel around the town. Although it was very dangerous, we all got out alive, only with a few cuts and bruises. Compared to other students [who broke their arm, got concussions, and had to get stitches], we counted ourselves very lucky. On the motorbike trip we went to these hot springs that were so hot that even putting your feet in the water for a second hurt badly. It was cool though; I had never been to a hot spring. Then, after getting all sweaty and muddy, we went to another huge and beautiful beach.

Looking out from El Nido

Looking into El Nido from the boat

The very hot spring

That night [at midnight], it was my friend, Cassandra’s, birthday so all 30 of the NUS students who were there all chilled on the beach at night; it was a ton of fun.

Additionally, we saw the sunset from Las Cabanas, another beautiful beach right next to El Nido.

Now here’s the food part. The food in the Philippines is amazing, every day was a treat to eat the food and try new things. One night we actually ate the street food and had fish and squid. Probably some of the best seafood I’ve had [I don’t eat a lot of seafood, but still].

Fish

Squid

After our amazing trip at El Nido, we went back to Puerto Princesa for a day, walked around the town, and then flew back to Manila for one last day in the Philippines. Unfortunately, we had to drive all the way back to Clark airport to wait for our flight at 6am. It would have been a waste to rent a hostel in Clark and then have to leave so early to get to the airport, so we just went straight to the airport and slept on the [not so] comfortable chairs. We finally boarded the plane and got back to Singapore, very dirty and ready for a real shower.

We did so much in the Philippines in such little time; it is an amazing country and I definitely want to go back there to see more.

It’s great to be back in Singapore, but unfortunately its midterm week, so I really won’t be doing anything fun until after all my tests and group projects are done. I don’t have any more plans to travel yet, but I still really want to go to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Hopefully I can fit that in into some weekends before the semester is over! I’ll actually be going to Tokyo May 8-12 with a friend from Chapel Hill who is currently studying in India, and I can’t wait. Until next time!