We are home – back after more than ten weeks wandering around the Philippines. Adjusting slowly to the dramatic change in temperature, wearing jumpers and jackets in a cool, breezy Irish May but loving the soft light and the long evenings, enjoying the bluebells and the golden fields of rapeseed.

The Philippines is a country of islands – more than seven thousand, six hundred of them. It is a country blessed by beauty (our photos only give a pale imitation of the reality).  It is also blessed by soil fertility, capable of several rice crops a year and a  myriad of exotic fruits and vegetables.  The human population is as fertile as the soil – rapidly growing with babies everywhere and overflowing schools. (The population is over one hundred and thirty million in an area about four and a half times bigger than Ireland). It is blessed by rain and heat but cursed by wind with the very real threat of typhoons every year from June to December. We didn’t witness any typhoons but we saw the devastation wrought by the super-typhoon of December 2021. Then there are the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which can happen at any time……but through it all, the Filipinos keep smiling.

Favourite Island –Palawan

Palawan was our favourite island, with breath-taking bays along the west coast,  spectacular limestone cliffs in El Nido,  evergreen jungle, thundering waterfalls and island-hopping tours to smaller islands off the coast with great snorkelling and diving.  It is on the most westerly edge of the Philippines.

Favorite Village – Port Barton in Palawan

Port Barton is a small ramshackle village with fishing boats moored on a white-sand beach, a backdrop of jungle and a scattering of islands in the distance. We loved the laid-back charm of it– eating dinner (fresh fish usually) at tables set up on the sand every evening, watching glorious sunsets and snorkelling on an island hopping tour, mesmerised by turtles and giant starfish.

Favourite Place to Stay – Coconut Garden Island Resort

During this trip, we stayed in beach shacks, bamboo huts, homestays, hotels, hostels and apartments usually booked online the day before. But one place stands out – Coconut Garden on a private island.  We were lulled to sleep in our bungalow by the gentle lapping of  turquoise waters on white, silky sand. We swayed in hammocks under coconut palms and swam in water so clear, the ripples on the sand of the seabed shimmered. Nothing to do except watch the shadows of the palm fronds creep across the sand. The highlight was waiting for the boat each day to see what visitors it might bring. Pure escapism. Total relaxation. ( Comfort affordability rather than luxurious approx. €35 a night)

Best Low Budget Place – Felys Homestay, Bohol Island

This was a homestay in a small village near the Chocolate Hills run by three widows – Fely, her sister Maria and their eighty two year old mother.  Our small room was a riot of pink,  pink walls, pink mosquito net.  The rain hammered on the roof while a little stream flowed almost under the floor so we had water above and below. What made this special was the friendliness of the women. (A bargain at €7 a night)

Best Hike – Two Day Hike in the  Rice Terraces, North Luzon

 We hiked along irrigation channels and ancient paths that hugged the contours of misty mountains going from village to village (Banaue – Pula – Cambulo – Batad).  A head for heights and a sense of balance were certainly an advantage. There were deep valleys, waterfalls, rivers traversed by swaying rope bridges, and of course the rice terraces. Along the way, we were entertained and educated on the customs and traditions of the Ifugao people by our wonderful guide.  Feeny was a mix of the traditional and the modern – a Ifugao woman who worked in a man’s world (very few female guides), who chewed moma (betel nut) which stained her teeth and lips but who also dyed her hair gold and painted her nails red, a woman who was raising two children without a husband and definitely the best guide we had on the trip.

Best Way to get Around – riding a scooter/motorbike

 The best way to get around on land was scooter/ motorbike which is how the locals travel in a country with low private car ownership. The number of people and the amount of luggage that can fit on a motorbike is astonishing.  We hired motorbikes quite often (about €7 a day)  and loved the freedom of cruising around on a bike dressed in shorts and T shirts and the challenge of some of the roads😁  For longer journeys, buses and mini-vans go everywhere – we got a kick of standing on the side of the road and flagging them down.

Best Meal – Difficult to say

In a meat-eating, chicken loving culture, vegetarian food was not easy to come by. Even vegetarian noodles on the menu often came with pork and chicken bits! (When I queried it, the waitress said that it was mainly vegetable) Luckily I eat fish and the fresh seafood was delicious. The best meal was probably on one of the island hopping tours  Three cooks toiled away at the back of at the boat all morning cooking  lunch on charcoal coals, sweat and heat but increasingly delicious smells. Platters of food were brought ashore to a small island and set up on a table on the sand – prawns, crabs, barbecued fish, mounds of rice, noodles, fried chicken, chicken stew, pork in sticky sauce and platters of fruit.

The most unexpectedly delicious meal was in a bus station in Puerta Princesa where we  enjoyed a bowl of sweet potato and beans stewed in coconut milk (ginataang gulay)…an especially delicious breakfast after thirty nine hours onboard a rust bucket of a ferry.

Best Massage ….on the Beach in Port Barton

Massage is really popular in the Philippines and every village will have some masseuses. A hour long massage cost less than €10- great value for the pleasure of being pulled apart and put together again. One of the best was by the beach in Port Barton.

Most Unusual Sight – Hanging Coffins of Sagada, North Luzon

The ultimate goal in Sagada was to be buried in a coffin suspended from the steep mountain-side so that the spirit could roam and become one with nature.

Fond Memory…..Politeness

Filipinos are very polite to each other and to visitors. Every morning, we were greeted with a chorus of Good morning, Mam, Good Morning, Sir or even Good Morning, Mam-Sir (which gave us a good laugh) Followed by Good Afternoon and Good Evening as the day wore on. This wasn’t just because we were tourists, white-skinned and old. Everyone over the age of 20 was called Mam or Sir by shop assistants, bus drivers or anyone working in a service industry.

Best Animal Encounter – Tarsiers, Bohol

There were buffalos in the rice fields like a biblical scene,  often with white egrets on their backs picking off ticks and insects in a wonderful symbiotic relationship. There were colourful fish in the sea but the little animal that stole our hearts and made us go Aaaah was the tiny tarsier with their huge eyes and human-like hands.

Worse Moments (Oh no…….)

1. When we laid eyes on the ferry that would take us across the Sula Sea from Panay to Palawan. The ferry had  a pretty name- the Marta Rebecca (or maybe the Maria Rebecca)….the rusting made it difficult to decipher😮.  It had the tired, worn-out look of a vessel that needed some TLC or preferably retirement.  We were appalled and that was before we saw all the boxes and crates of cargo going on, clogging up bunks and corridors. But we survived the thirty nine hours aboard this rust bucket (including two nights)

• When we realised that both phones were water-damaged beyond repair. Hope works in a strange way – we clung onto it despite all the evidence to the contrary. Even when our phones were dead, we kept hoping for a resurrection….maybe one more day in a bag of rice would perform a miracle. One phone would have been bad enough….but two, at the same time, was unbelievable.(So we refused to believe it).

Biggest Challenge – Patience Required

When you pack your bags, make sure to bring lots of patience to deal with the inefficiency of bureaucracy. Time moves differently in the Tropics. Extending our visas required multiple visits to the Immigration Office and an incomprehensible amount of form filling and delay. There was a large sign on the glass panel cautioning against using profane language😮. I swear no profane language was used in our transactions😇🤣.

Buying ferry tickets also involved lots of queueing to pay ferry terminal taxes, environmental taxes, local taxes (maybe) and finally your actual ticket. Each step required a separate queue and more form-filling, This was required even for a ferry journey of an hour or two. The only explanation was that it provided people with employment. Goodness knows what happens to the mountains of paper but WiFi was poor in many places, and even electricity could be intermittent. (we even had an electricity outage at the airport in Manila, queueing in 37C with aircon not operational)

 Shopping, the Filipino Way

 This is a country where you can buy a single teabag from a box and everything is sold in small quantities. Every second house in a village is a shop, all selling the same things, sachets of oil and ketchup, sweets and crisps, sachets of noodles, shampoo and detergent. Most things are bought on a daily basis as needed. So if I want to wash my hair, I will go to the shop and buy a sachet of shampoo, bottles of shampoo are not readily available. This is understandable because of poverty(little disposable cash),  the houses are small, often without fridges and with little storage capacity and no protection from insects and vermin but it leads to an incredible amount of plastic waste.

Least Favourite Place….Manila

We are not great fans of cities and Manilla is ENORMOUS – crowded, noisy and polluted. It is really made up of a conglomerate of several cities with no real centre and is officially the most crowded city on the planet since 2022.  As the birth-rate is alarmingly high, it is likely to get even more squashed.

Philippines of the Senses

The sound of the Philippines …..roosters crowing even on the ferries, a close second is the sound of dogs barking, so many stray dogs roaming around. And the music of the seventies and eighties …. a time warp….with young guys singing along to Neil Diamond, the Bee Gees

The smell of the Philippines … smoke, constantly burning rubbish and vegetation, smoke spiralling upwards, making a haze amongst the trees, the smell of barbecuing pork and chickens over charcoal outside basic shacks at dusk..

The colour of the Philippines – turquoise of the sea and  vivid luminous green of rice stalks

The taste of the Philippines – juicy mangoes (probably the best in the world), tart calamansi juice, rice and scrambled egg for breakfast, ice-cold Pilsen beer at sunset.

The feel of the Philippines – sunshine on your eyelids, fine sand between your toes

Thanks for reading….we have to go now and do some research for our next trip. Columbia has been on our radar for a long time but Japan has a certain appeal or perhaps India? So many places, such a beautiful world…..