Landed in Manila, which felt like a really poor and rundown place to be. Not much to see and do here so we quickly moved to the famous Palawan island headed to El Nido.

We had seen so many amazing pictures of this place that our expectations where really high. And as it always happens when you have your hopes up, it kinda really deceived us. The place looks like it hasn’t been able to handle the tourism boom in a sustainable way and the boat to the islands felt like being in an amusement park. Like Thailand, we felt the place is so incredibly beautiful, but not as enjoyable when it’s crowded with boats and people hoping to get that amazing insta pic. But still a breathtaking place on earth.

Gladly, we decided to go directly to Siargao, in the south east of the country to catch some waves. Even though this place is growing fast, we loved the chill island feel and explored some of the breaks. Cloud 9, the famous world class wave, was out of our league with the shallow reef but it was great to watch from the platform setting right in front.

My favorite spot was secret beach, so many secret spots to surf around the world which are not so secret anymore. The beach was beautifully lined up with palmtrees and the wave was long and mellow.

We met a great group of people here and hanged out playing poker and checking out beaches and surf breaks up north in the Salvation area. We took boats out to the outer breaks, like Stimpy’s and Rock island where I sat and enjoyed the massive swell roll in as better surfers took the crazy drops in front of me. Too scared to get in and get smashed by the waves and the reef, but still cool to check out and watch.

We stayed here for about a month and it really felt like a place we would come back to. In general, the Philippines felt a bit rough though, not to mention their political situation and seeing young girls with older westerners really disturbed me. But the simple life in this island really felt good, freshly baked coconut breads for 10 cents, hammock readings while torrential downpours and playing any game with good people made it all worth it.

There are so many islands to discover in this country, you can see the coral reefs from the plane and tiny islands with turquoise blue waters. I really wanted to swim with whale sharks while we were here but heard it’s also not done in a very sustainable way so we passed.

Hope to see you again, Philippines.