Client Blog: Discovering The Philippines

Helen & her partner were looking for somewhere a bit different for their winter escape & I was thrilled to be able to help. A quick chat to learn more about what they were looking for & I got started with exploring options for them. The Philippines was the ideal choice - with gorgeous scenery, wildlife & activities suiting their sense of adventure perfectly. 

I absolutely love hearing all about my clients' holidays on their return & this one certainly didn't disappoint - what an adventure! In this client blog, Helen shares more about her trip. 

Manila

After a 15 hour flight & a 5 hour stop at Istanbul, we finally made it to Manila where we stopped for 2 nights. Had tour of the city & found our about the Japanese invasion during WW2. All the Philippine lives that were lost & all the American soldiers that died & the conditions they had to endure as a Pow. Seeing all the graves of the soldiers and the names of all the missing etched in the columns, like all the lives that were lost during the way, it just gives you a bigger picture. Also had a walk around China town & a house that is a museum.

On the other hand Manila itself is a very entertaining place, I finished off the night by photo bombing an up & coming musician promo shoot

Now let's see what Dumaguete has to offer...

Dumaguete

Dumaguete is the capital city of the island Negros. We only got to see a small bit of it. Unlike Manila, it doesn't have the hustle and bustle or the high rise buildings. We did nearly get run over on a zebra crossing on what is their main highway.  

We went to Apo Island, the crossing was a little choppy on our small boat. Here we went snorkelling & were fortunate enough to see green turtles. They came up so close to you, it was amazing. We also saw a trumpet fish, a sea snake, blue star fish & lots of sea slugs. We had a lovely lunch at a local house. Pearl was our guide & Junior was our snorkelling guide, they both loved taking photos. Pearl mainly getting us to pose (not sharing any of those though!). Next stop Siquijor.

Siquijor

Siguijor is known for its witchcraft & voodoo. Didn't see anyone flying around on a broom stick or sticking needles into a doll. It is a very chilled island & the people are so friendly. We did an island tour, visiting Pitogo cliff where all the local ladies pose for photos for instagram, then a fish pedicure, my feet are now lovely and soft. 

The oldest tree is here at 400 years old, then we visited a church & old convent. This was a lovely building, shame they replaced the original roof with a tin one. After we went to Cambugahay Falls, I'm sure we were the oldest people there!

Had a picnic lunch on the beach & a dip in the sea which was lovely & finished off with a visit to a shell museum. I forgot the most important part I had a lovely birthday, the ladies from reception sang happy birthday to me & bought me cake, had a few birthday drinks too.

Our next island - Bohol...

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Bohol 

Bohol is a very touristy place, with many Korean people visiting the island apparently they are top on the tourist list.

When we arrived in Bohol it was pouring down with rain, at least it was warm rain but very humid. There was a right palaver reclaiming our luggage after the ferry crossing with people getting off and on other ferries, everyone getting in each others way but I eventually got them. The bed in our hotel was massive, handy if you fall out with your partner 🤣

We had a tour around the island, Brian was our guide and OMG he could talk, even I couldn't get a word in edgeways. The first stop was to see the smallest primate, the tarsier in a sanctuary, where they have around 150 living wild. After we went onto the chocolate hills, which are not so brown at present.

Then we went for our lunch, this was on a boat going up a river, sounds nice, it would have been if we didn't have to listen to people singing that were not that good 😬 It was lovely seeing the children having fun swinging from ropes into the river, we stopped and watched some children dancing. We ended the boat trip on a high note with YMCA! After that we made our way back to the hotel, stopping off at a 7/11 for some beer.

Our next stop Cebu which is our final island...

Cebu

On the ferry coming into Cebu, we went under the longest bridge in the Philippines at 8.9 km, it is also the highest.

After we checked into our hotel we decided to go for a walk and met Mario on his trike, he asked us where we were going and we said Manila, so he took us to buy some bananas 😂

The following day we left at 7am to go to Moalboal to see the sardine run, this was a 3 hour drive.  Our boat crew and snorkelling guides were Rj and Arnel they were so good with us, trying to push us under the water so we could get closer to things, this was hard work as we had life jackets on and no way was I taking mine off.  We saw some coral with lots of lovely fish on our first stop then on our second a turtle who happily munched on its food.

Our last stop was the sardines, this was amazing to see so many of them, I also was fascinated by the scuba divers. It was raining heavy while we were there so we got wet. We also hired a Gopro which Aj and Arnel took many videos and some photos for us, Aj dived down for videos while we just floated around watching.

Our final day and more rain, we just walked around the local place bought some cakes, and had a look around, then Mario came out of nowhere when we had just finished lunch and gave us a lift back the hotel to make the most of happy hour cocktails at the hotel.

Helen shared this lovely 5 star review of her holiday: 

We have recently returned from our holiday to the Philippines, Jenny was very helpful in helping us to choose our holiday as we were so indecisive. She asked us what we were looking for and she came up with a 12 night island tour in the Philippines. Jenny was excellent with all information that we required and sent us links for what we needed. She was also available if needed during our stay via WhatsApp. We would definitely recommend Jenny. Thank you for your help and patience.

Complete the enquiry form to plan your holiday in the Philippines