A Trip to the Philippines

Guest post by Rachelle Pierce, a Foster senior studying Marketing. She studied abroad on exchange at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

While studying abroad, I had the opportunity to visit my mother’s home in the Philippines. This trip has marked my third time visiting the country and each time I’ve fallen more in love with it.

The Philippines is a developing country in the eastern part of Asia. It’s known for its Miss Universe participation, Manila drivers, and the amazing food. What I love most is the welcoming and hospitable people. As of recently, the Philippines has been surrounded with a lot of political talks and President Duterte’s war on drugs, but don’t let this keep you from experiencing the people’s warmth and amazing scenery the islands have to offer.

I had the opportunity to visit my family whom I haven’t seen in years. I couldn’t believe how much my family has grown and how they haven’t changed since I last saw them. But this past visit wasn’t just about family, it was also about fun! The country’s tagline is: it’s more fun in the Philippines, and I was not disappointed. Since I was only there for about 5 days I didn’t have time to travel much. One place we did go to is called the Five Fingers in Mariveles, Bataan. We rode down to the city on a truck-like jeepney followed by a few rides on Filipino tricycles costing less than $1 each before reaching the port. We then hopped inside a boat that took us around the coves between the first few fingers. This was one of the few days it wasn’t raining so the sky and the water looked beautiful. We stopped on the first finger for an early lunch of Filipino spaghetti and fried chicken before going to the second finger to cliff dive and swim in crystal clear water. I was a bit too scared to cliff dive but swimming was just as good in my opinion. On the way to the third finger, we passed a shipwreck of an old cargo ship which was pretty cool to see up close. At the third finger, we swam in a cave just a bit bigger than our boat followed by second lunch on the coast and returning to the cave to fish out a pair of Ray Ban’s we lost earlier. This was just one of the breathtaking sites in the Philippines and I can’t wait to see more on my next visit!

Here are a few places and things to try if you ever plan on visiting the Philippines:

Places to go:

• Cebu- the city has a lot of historic monuments, shopping malls, and beautiful beaches
• Palawan- names the most beautiful island in the world in 2016!
• Boracay- named the most beautiful island in the world in 2015! Their nightlife is amazing and the sunsets are out of this world

Food to try:

• Balut- a fertilized duck embryo if you’re brave enough to try it!
• Jollibee- they have fried chicken, Filipino spaghetti, individually packaged rice, and my heart <3 not to mention you can get a full meal for like $2!
• Mang Inasal- their chicken and halo-halo. Enough said.