Hi my name is Kristian LeBlanc, and in 2018. I had the extreme pleasure of travelling to nine Asian countries, and spending almost seven, and a half months abroad every country has unique things to offer. But the Philippines was by far my favorite.
I’ve never met a kinder group of people, and a more beautiful landscape the bluest of waters the most exaggerated landscapes there’s so much to see in so much to do the Philippines is comprised of over 7,000 islands of which.
I saw a handful during our time in the Philippines we stayed in three main areas Manila palawan, and Cebu when you land in the Philippines you’ll be landing in Manila however we don’t recommend spending any longer than you need to simply get on the next flight from Manila, and head to either palawan or Cebu for our trip we went straight to Cebu once we left the airport we went 15 minutes away got a hotel, and stayed there for about two days Mactan is beautiful. But we don’t recommend spending too long there after that we caught a cab going into Cebu City where we would go to the local bus station to catch a jeepney heading south jeepneys are the buses used by the locals they’re highly affordable highly safe. And I highly recommend using them once the jeepney took us to the southern tip of Cebu we took a ferry going to dumaguete once we arrived in Dumaguete we got on the Filipino tricycles you’ll see them everywhere we took one of them into dumaguete, and spent the rest of the night drinking, and singing karaoke with our newfound friends the next morning without any sleep we got on the ferry, and headed to see Key whore island once we got on the island we rented this crappy little car it broke down like five times.
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But there’s not really any other options you have to rent some sort of a vehicle. Because there’s no other means of transportation siki whore island is known as a mystic island or for its voodoo magic however we didn’t see anything too weird siki whore is also not very well known to the public. I barely saw any other tourists, and it was mainly the locals that knew of it one of the most beautiful places.
I saw while travelling for seven, and a half months was here salad dong Beach. I think. I probably sang it wrong.
But it was stunning. I remember looking over this diving platform, and thinking there’s no way anyone jumps here the tide must be out or something, and next thing. I know these three dudes literally lunge themselves off into the ocean it may as well be called peer-pressure Beach.
Because everyone ends up jumping at the end of the day this was one of my favorite beaches in all of my travels we spent our last day in Seiki whore spending time with the local strays, and enjoying traditional Filipino meal known as a poodle fight the reason it’s called that is. Because once people start eating it’s a free-for-all the food consisted of fish sea urchin seaweed, and a bunch of spices it was surprisingly good after Sikhi horror we went back to dumaguete, and then straight to oslo oslo is known for one thing, and that is the whale sharks the whale sharks are some of the most amazing creatures you’ll ever see for $30 you get 45 minutes to swim next to these whale sharks, and there’s generally going to be five to 15 of them the truth is they’re being fed. So it’s not quite as impressive as seeing them their natural surroundings.
But it’s still very impressive. I recommend you go at 6 a.m.
By noon they’ve eaten their fair share of tourists, and go back into the ocean no they don’t eat people. But you do want to be there early if you have extra time in Oslo. I highly recommend checking out to Malaga Falls it’s only about a 15 to 20 minute motorbike ride away, and it’s definitely worth the site now this is a bit of an untraditional route.
But when I highly recommend after Oslo we went straight to Bohol Bohol is a large island. Because it’s a bit unusual you won’t see this advertised online what we did is we simply went to the pier in Oslo, and asked around until we found someone who was driving their boat across.
I think we paid about twenty to thirty dollars per passenger if you don’t do this you’ll have to drive all the way back up to Cebu City, and catch a plane or a boat from Cebu City after spending a day hanging out on alona beach one of the most beautiful beaches we rented a scooter, and headed up north to the chocolate hills this is a full day trip in itself there’s a lot to do you can see the beautiful cathedrals the creepy little monkeys with big eyes known as tarsiers, and of course the chocolate hills. I love boho. I don’t recommend saying that out loud too often to get back to cebu we went to the big pier in Bohol, and took a boat going back to Cebu City once in Cebu City we took a jeepney going down to body on this is about a three, and a half hour bus ride body on is incredible this is where we went canyoneering one of the most memorable experiences of my entire trip although.
I’ve probably said that a few times now if. I were to imagine where Gatorade came from. I would was here the water is one of the most unique blues you’ll ever see in your life, and one of the best parts of the whole experience is when you get to the very end of the canyoneering you’re led to this beautiful waterfall known as cow asan Falls the company we use is called body on Cebu canyoneering.
I recommend them after body on we went all the way back to dumaguete, and from dumaguete paid about $50 to get a boat to take us to a po island we split that cost among the four of us, and paid another $10 to rent snorkel gear for the day the reason it’s called a po island is. Because a pole means sea turtle or at least the Filipinos told me that, and it makes total sense we saw about seven to eight sea turtles that day, and it’s just an absolutely beautiful Island hundred percent worth of visit after April Island we made our way all the way back to Mactan the airport where we originally landed in cebu from the cebu airport we had a one-way flight to Puerto Princesa palawan there’s an incredible cave you can explore in Port de Princesa. But we didn’t spend any time, and headed straight to el nido we paid about fifteen dollars to have a passenger van drive us north to El Nido now you’re probably asking why do.
I go all the way to el nido the answer is that it’s probably one of the most beautiful places in the entire world in fact it’s been consistently voted the most beautiful islands in the world, and according to my mom Kanye West has an island there the footage you see here is from Abby. And I on tour a there’s tours a B C, and D the only one we did was tour a. But we absolutely loved it from what.
I’ve heard the island tours a, and C are the best however talked to people around you, and you can get some feedback from them on the mainland of El Nido there’s an amazing cliffside overlooking all of El Nido it’s called Terra cliff, and it’s actually pretty dangerous you’ll need a guide to bring you up we asked around the town until we found a guide for about $30 generally dive shops will be the most in place to go, and they can organize you with anything from accommodations to tours just make sure they’re not taking advantage of you do your research. I don’t think. I’ve ever sweat.
So much in my life my shirt could be ringed out, and you would open look there’s water coming over in El Nido we rented a bike, and did a day trip to knock pon beach my all-time favorite Beach it was. So unbelievably beautiful that we made another trip back to actually spend the night there. I’m freaking dying.
I don’t understand why the power keeps dying every single leg bring in two hours one note that should be made is that El Nido often loses electricity which leads to excruciating ly hot days, and nights where the air-conditioning does not work to avoid this simply stay at a place that has generators el nido has a great reputation for scuba diving Abby. And I did two dives we saw sea turtles massive schools of fish, and we even went scuba diving into a cave with super poisonous snakes. I didn’t like that part if you’re really big into scuba diving you’ll want to go further north to Quran Quran is widely known as the best place to scuba dive in all of the Philippines there’s sunken warships that you can actually dive through, and it’s very beautiful the next day we went back to knock pon beach we use the locals way of transportation, and sat on the top of this truck we paid probably about two dollars each, and it was an amazing way to meet the locals.
I highly recommend you go out of your way to not only save money. But try these unique, and authentic experiences nook Pond Beach is my favorite beach in all of my seven, and a half months of traveling it’s truly a hidden gem if you don’t go to knock pond Beach you’re missing out on a huge part of what made the Philippines. So special to me.
I absolutely loved knock on knock pond was essentially our last night in the Philippines after knock pond we went all the way back to Porto Princesa took a flight all the way to Manila the capital of the Philippines, and then left the Philippines from Manila my time in the Philippines was unforgettable. And I loved it so much that, I’ll actually be going back in 2018 to finish this post.
I thought I’d answer a few questions that. I know will be commonly asked the first being is the Philippines safe the Philippines is very safe like any country there will be bad places, and places you should avoid in this case. I recommend you avoid the South of the Philippines also known as Mindanao the best resource will always be your national embassy see what they have to say on every country you plan to visit.
But to conclude this question the Philippines was one of the safest countries. I in my entire time in Asia the second question is do. I need a visa to visit for the Philippines you actually don’t need to buy a visa in advance.
But what you do need is you need to buy a two-way ticket, and this is crucial this almost affected Abby. And I, and almost had us turned around when you go into the Philippines you’ll of course have bought a one-way ticket into the Philippines. But you also need to have purchase a return ticket your tickets cannot be more than 21 days apart.
Because 21 days is the most the country allows you to stay without special permission. I highly recommend you always do your own research. Because terms can change.
But to conclude make sure you have your return ticket bought in advance the third question is where should. I go if. I don’t have time to see both palawan, and Cebu well this will totally depend on you in my opinion Cebu has more to do you’ve options between the whale sharks cliff jumping going canyoneering, and even island hopping palawan on the other hand has a bit less election you’re either going to Puerto Princesa or you’re going to el nido, and el nido is absolutely stunning.
So I would highly recommend you make your way there. But if you don’t want to spend 10 days laying around the beach, and doing Island tours. I recommend you do Cebu both Cebu, and palawan have incredible islands to offer, and if you can’t make them both work in this trip maybe consider doing one now, and doing the next in the future it’s definitely worth returning to see the other, and the last question is is the Philippines expensive now.
I’m not going to go into any detail. But a very vague answer is no it is not expensive it’s very comparable to traveling through Thailand a meal will cost you anywhere from two to five American dollars, and accommodations is a little bit more expensive going anywhere from seven dollars all the way up to fifteen dollars for a reasonable accommodation overall traveling the Philippines is very affordable. And I highly recommend it this post just gives you a small glimpse of each place.
But if you want to see a bit more in detail check the description box. Because I was blogging every day. I’ve created blogs for every single experience we had in the Philippines from having a layover in the Manila Airport to scuba diving in El Nido.
So if you want more information on a particular event or simply want to see our adventures from start to finish make sure to check out the blogs in my description hope you guys found this post insightful, and if you have any questions that. I didn’t answer feel free to leave them in the comment box, and, I’ll do my best to get back to every single one of you, and as always, I’ll be posting daily blogs as. I travel through Southeast Asia, and North America over the next year.
So make sure to subscribe. Because there’s a ton more to come.
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