This post is a tad late; we've been in Malaysia for nearly two weeks now (writing about and eating lots of food is weirdly time consuming). However, that doesn't mean the memories I made in Philippines have gone out the door. By contrast, my time spent there has left me with profound impressions from southeast Asia's outlier and as hard as it is to sum it all up, I'm going to give it the old college try. Here goes...
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| Sunset in Moalboal |
Unexpected Stop
First and foremost, when we were planning our trip last year, we never once considered the Philippines as a target destination. Our goal, at least when we started, was to stay around Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar, then slowly roll down through Malaysia and onward to Indonesia for the big finish.
Well, after spending a fun but exhausting month in Vietnam, we needed a recharge. We needed sun. We needed sea. We needed surf. Myanmar was supposed to have been next on our list but the more we started reading about it, the more we realized that visiting this newly-opened country was going to take a tremendous push. It was energy that we simply didn't have.
We researched our various options. We had already ruled out Cambodia for the same reason as Myanmar. We wanted to save Indonesia for last as the weather there would only become better towards the summer months. This left us with the Philippines.
Looking deeper, we realized it had everything we were looking for: sun, sea, diving, amazing wildlife, tropical weather and more. Additionally, the Philippines is an English-speaking country meaning that we would be able to get around much easier than we would've in Myanmar. We were sold, and after spending an afternoon booking our flights, we eagerly awaited the next stop on our tour.
(If you haven't read about our time in the Philippines, check out all of my posts on the country; you'll be glad you did!)
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| Camiguin from Montigue Island |
Looks towards America rather than China and it's ASEAN neighbors for inspiration
One the starkest differences between the Philippines and every other country that we've been to so far was the overt American influence teeming at every corner of Philippine society. From the food products in the stores, to the worship of basketball to the American music being played everywhere by radio DJs whose programs sound exactly like what you'd hear in the States, to the chain-style restaurants, to the shopping malls littered with big-name US retailers, I felt oddly at home in the Philippines.
This unsurprisingly has a lot to do with America's 'colonization' of the Philippines last century and the subsequent economic and cultural influences left by not only years of American occupation but also from decades of close military ties.
People seemed much more relaxed and much less socially conservative than their regional neighbors. Maybe this has to do with the Catholicism that permeates Filipino society (as apposed to the Buddhism and Islam that dominate the region) or maybe it's just a by-product of being a nation of islands. Either way, it made for a marked change from what we've experienced so far.
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| Armed security next to an ATM in Dumaguete |
Amazingly Beautiful
The Philippines are by far the most beautiful country we've been to on this trip (prove us wrong, Indonesia!). As a country located in the tropics and made up of volcanic islands on the western edge of the Pacific rim, there's possibly no place quite like it on the planet.
Each day we were in the Philippines, we were treated to the natural wonders the country has to offer. Whether it was the deep blue sea, the crystal clear reefs, the lush, rich vegetation, the steep rising mountains and volcanic peaks, the sunsets saturated in the low colors of the spectrum, or the most incredible night skies I've witnessed in my life, every day was an ocular delight.
As an added bonus, we got to see the wonders under the water and in the span of four weeks, did a total of 22 dives. It could very well be that I'm getting spoiled but Moalboal and Apo have the reputation as some of the most unbelievable dive sites in the world and deservedly-so. We count ourselves lucky as the Philippines hasn't yet hit diving mainstream so in many ways, we were fortunate enough to see the next frontier of scuba-tourism before it takes off.
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| Filipino Countryside |
Exceptionally Friendly
Filipinos have been some of the nicest people we've met. Almost always smiling and almost always very polite, we had a great time interacting with the local population. I think a big part of this had to do with the close ties to US culture and with most people speaking English, but it was easy to communicate and even easier to joke.
The more remote we went into the Philippines, the friendlier people became. When we were in Butuan, on our way to Camiguin, we were the only two gringos in town. Instead of looking to exploit us for cash, as we'd experienced during other parts of our trip, people would go out of their way to help us find where we were going.
On Camiguin, the people in the guest houses and restaurants and even the guide from our climb seemed to have a genuine interest in our well-being. Never shying away from small talk and in no rush, it was easy to have a chat with anyone willing to listen. If the Philippines wants to keep growing its tourism sector, this is the way to do it.
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| Somewhere under the sea |
Food...Not So Much
The country is stunningly beautiful. The people are fantastically friendly. The food, well, it doesn't live up to the rest. Ethnic Filipino cuisine never really caught our stomachs' desires (think lots of tripe cooked in grease). The American influence also carried over to the cuisine and unfortunately that meant that highly processed foods loaded with sugar and poly-saturated fats polluted most menus. I would joke that the national dish involved some sort of hot dog served with a side of spam. Sadly, that wasn't too far off.
Additionally, the country has a major sugar addiction. Sugary drinks are everywhere. The Philippines, being smack in the middle of the tropics, are in a perfect location to grow all sorts of exotic fruits. If you're in the United States and you buy a mango, chances are, that mango came from the Philippines. With that much fruit, you'd think that it would be easy to get a fresh fruit juice. This wasn't the case.
When we would have breakfast, we'd be served with juice. Only it wasn't straight from the tree, it was straight from the can. And on the can, it wouldn't say "fresh mango juice," it would say "chilled mango drink," meaning the juice was made from concentrate. The closest we could get to a smoothie was a fruit shake, which was a piece of fruit (usually a banana or mango) blended with ice, condensed milk and regular milk, and additional sugar.
It was all too easy to get chips, candy and ice cream. Almost every time we'd travel, we would see parents feeding their small kids chips or hot dogs or hamburgers or donuts or ice cream or giving them a soda.
Many adults had a sugar belly. Oddly enough, the Philippines is the only country where we've seen a 'light beer,' but otherwise, the diet is unhealthy. We fear that as the country grows, they're going to enter into a health crisis stemming from malnutrition. And it's not for a lack of food, but due to poor dietary choices. I hope for their sake, that they stave off the diabetes crisis looming on their horizon.
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| Coconut trees |
The Party Islands...AKA Neverland, The Island Nation
Moving in from the topic on food choices, we began to see the Philippines as a nation of adult-kids. Never really fully growing up and always looking for a good time. We heard party music most places we went. Karaoke is the leisure activity in the Philippines and there were days that they'd start singing at ten in the morning and wouldn't stop until eight at night. This was on a Wednesday. It was not a public holiday.
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| A man free-climbing a coconut tree |
They love guns. From way over armed security at inappropriate places (think about one guy in the middle of a small, sleepy town, packing an AK-47), to small militias guarding ATMs, to an abundance of personal firearms, the Filipinos loved their guns. We never really saw any danger there or any reason to use them, but they certainly enjoyed walking around with them.
There were street parties, fiestas as they called them (in a throwback to the Spanish influence of days past), every week where the town would get together and blast music as loud as they could. As far as I can tell, that awful "Thinking Out Loud" song is the new Filipino national anthem seeing as we'd hear it being played at first light in the morning, then again at lunch and then once more at sunset (plus many more in between).
Looking at the diet again, we were hard pressed to find vegetables. Most dishes were some sort of protein with a side of either rice or fries. It's almost like they were never forced to eat them growing up and collectively decided not to as adults.
We'd see funny stuff like electricity workers just scaling a pole, no helmet, no ladder, and just hang out next to the high-voltage cables. A tractor trailer towing a flat bed trailer behind it would barrel down the road at 50+ Km/h. On the back of the trailer were two guys sitting on the flat bed, completely unrestrained, just hanging out. We watched a man climb up a tall coconut tree, unharnessed, knock down some coconuts and then slowly slide down the branch. Once misstep, and he was dead.
And this was kind of the Philippine culture. No one seemed to be particularly bothered by it. I think the best way to sum up the attitude is this:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Honestly though, once you got into it, it was fine. The key is to relax. For sure, this type of behavior would cause uproar back home, but just to be clear: the Philippines aren't back home. It is, after all, the island nation, and island life is markedly different than mainland life. It's all about keeping things easy. When you stop fighting it, and instead go with the flow, life in the Philippines becomes infinitely more enjoyable.
I Despise Roosters, Yet They Are Everywhere
Seriously. The Philippines has some deep love affair with these animals. They take them everywhere they go and cockfighting isn't only allowed, it's encouraged. If they weren't so dumb and loud, they wouldn't bother me, but I guess that's asking too much now is it? I will not miss the roosters.
Not Easy But Definitely Worth It
The official tourism slogan of the Philippines is: "It's More Fun in the Philippines." I agree with that, but only if you come in with the right mind set. The Philippines are not an easy place, at least if you're not ready for it. The system works for the Philippines in a way that is unique to them. An outsider will find it strange and probably easily point out a few major issues with it. From my perspective, there are two ways to deal with this disconnect. Either fight it every step of the way knowing that your efforts will only be in vain or sit back, enjoy what's going on around and whenever something goes awry, smile and laugh it off. For me, I'll go with the latter.
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| Taking it easy |
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