Where are you from? United States.
What do you do for a living and your current location? BSN-RN student.
How did you find about the Philippines?
I saw various pictures of my friends who have traveled to the Philippines on social media.
What Philippine locations have you visited?
El Nido, Coron, Culion, Buscalan and one day in Manilla.
What are your opinions on the following things about the Philippines?
Places
El Nido was beautiful! We kayaked the gorgeous blue beaches and island hopped. Restaurants were lovely and they have many cocktails to choose from. It was quite touristy but we really enjoyed it. Coron was similar to El Nido but smaller. We went to an open safari to see giraffes and zebras across the island. Culion is a former leper colony that is a 2-hour boat ride from Coron. We learned the history of the people on that island and came to really appreciate their struggle and resilience.
Food
I really enjoyed the garlic rice and pancit with prawn. The chicken adobo was also wonderful.
Culture
It seemed that much of the places we went to in The Philippines was westernized in El Nido and Coron however, Buscalan was where you could get a peak of culture. We traveled there to get a tattoo from Apo Whang Od, one of the last women who can do traditional Fillipino tattoos. I felt we saw culture there in the village. We slept in a hut and enjoyed the tastiest coffee I’ve ever had.
People
We stumbled upon an experience at the airport but other than that, the people are lovely. We met three wonderful friends from Manilla who took us under their wing as we traveled to Buscalan. They set up accommodation, transportation and even a tour guide for us. They looked out for us and we are forever grateful for them.
What do you dislike about the Philippines?
Some taxi drivers hike up the price for tourists quite a bit.
What do you like about the Philippines?
The country is beautiful, the people are lovely.