December 23, 2023: 

It’s 1:35 am and we touch down in the Philippines. The Philippine islands are only a two hour flight across the South China Sea from where we live. The flights are cheap, short, and they even served us a meal! 

The downside? 

The flight is in the middle of the night. 

We flew into Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, and are going to spend the next 10 days with Marissa’s college friend Jashon.

Marissa and Jashon met at college in Hawaii where they both were in the university choir. 

Here is Jashon:

Half of this trip was spent with Jashon and his family (for Christmas) and the second half on a tropical island.

Jashon picked us up from the airport and our first impressions of the Philippines, copied from our journal, were this:

“Pretty wild place. To us, it’s a mix of India and Mexico. Lots of signage that looks identical to that in Latin America (or at least the style) and the signs have Spanish words.

But the shops and markets and cars and stray dogs are very Indian.”

The Philippines have a massive Spanish influence, so much so that you hear lots of Spanish words in their language. All of their numbers, months, and days are Spanish words.

This is because Magellan landed here in 1521 during his circumnavigation and, although Magellan was ultimately killed in a battle there, left Spanish troops to set up camp, introduce christianity, and built some pretty awesome stone buildings.

I digress.

So Jashon picks us up at the Manila airport. Jashon currently lives in Manila, but us three are going to spend the next few days in his hometown, at his compound, which is 3 hours north of Manila (or 5 hours depending on traffic). The name of his hometown is Binalonan.

After landing, Jashon took us to a pay-by-the-hour hotel called “SoGo.”

It’s basically for people to hook up late at night, but in our case, it was perfect because we had to wait until 5:30am before we could board the bus, so we could all get a little power nap. 

BUT, the wait for the room was too long. 

So we sat on a couch in the lobby and ordered hotel food. We tried to nap, but it was too loud. 

The bus ride was standard. Jashon bought our tickets ahead of time, which made things so easy. Here is us on the bus. At this point we had been awake nearly 24 hours:

This bus was your standard tour bus, but the Philippines is known for their “Jeepney” buses. 

These are old Jeeps that were used during WW2 and left by the US military. In the early 1950’s, Filipinos needed public transportation so they took these abandoned vehicles, extended them like a limo, and added a roof to protect from the sun. 

They are used for traveling from town to town. 

And then from the town center you hire a tricycle that will take you to your final destination:

Us inside a tricycle^^

We eventually get to Jashon’s childhood home, which is what you would call a compound. It’s a piece of land with several houses built on it, but they are all close to each other, like its own village. It’s a multi generational compound. His grandparents started it. The grandparents moved here and had 6 children, all girls! As the girls got married, many had their husbands move onto the land. 

Here are some photos of the compound:

We walk in and meet Jashon’s mother and father. In Tagalog (the local language in Northern Philippines), when talking to an elder, you say “po” at the end of each sentence. So when meeting them we said “Hello mom po.”

And when greeting a female who is older than you, out of respect, you take the back of their right hand and touch it to your own forehead.

After our lesson in Filipino romantics, we ate lunch, which their live-in chef prepared. Her name is Grace. It included a whole fried fish, rice, veggies, eggplant, and a milkfish. All cooked, of course, over an open fire in their kitchen:

BUT, this meal was just a primer because in just 3 hours, they were hosting a massive feast for our arrival and Jashon’s birthday (12.23.23).

We left the compound for a few hours and when we came back, we walked into the largest feast. 

They roasted an entire pig for us!

I’m not talking about parts of the pig cooked at different times, I mean, we walked in and there was an entire pig sitting on the dinner table:

The Filipino’s call this the style of cooking the pig “Lechon”

It’s very popular in the Philippines. The pig is stuffed with spices, then a long piece of bamboo is put through the pig (from mouth to butt) so it can be spun. The pig is cooked over a camp fire for about 4 hours, being spun a ¼ turn every 15 seconds.

Most of the food at Jashon’s is cooked over an open fire. The pans are set on the stones, camp out style (see the photo above). The Filipinos say the food tastes better this way and also cheaper because they gather the wood for free.

And now we feasted.

Literally.

After dinner, Marissa and Jashon sang some songs (Jashon is a master pianist) and we spent time meeting their massive family. 

It was really special to see their home and meet their family because, right before we arrived in the Philippines, Marissa and Scott had read Jashon’s book “Swirling in the Eddie ” which is a collection of his life stories.

So we got to see the book come to life. 

That first night we had booked an Airbnb locally because there was a chance there was no free bed at Jashons. So we made our way back.

 

December 24, 2023:

This was a Sunday, so we woke up and prepared for church. 

In most developing countries, when locals see you’re a foreigner, they instantly raise their prices. Doing so in our culture is very much illegal. So we would often ask non-vendors what the price should be, to give us a ballpark number to barter with.

And because we had to take a tricycle from our Airbnb to church, so we asked our Airbnb host how much a tricycle ride should cost 

She said 50 pesos.

Us and the Airbnb host all go out to the street and call a tricycle over. We tell the tricycle driver where we are going and he says, “40 pesos”. 

Then the Airbnb host tells the driver she told us 50, so, right in front of us, he increased the price from 40 pesos to 50. 

It was hilarious. 

She had his back, not ours. 

But, 50 pesos = $1 USD, so it doesn’t really matter to us.

We arrived at the church and it was an open air building. At church we sat down, except on Scotts chair was a dead baby lizard. He picked it up and moved over to the next seat (plastic chairs, not pue). 

During sacrament (church), Jashon and Marissa performed a musical number. Jashon played the piano and Marissa sang.

After church, we took lots of photos with the church members as we were special guests. We felt like celebrities. 

After church was lunch with at Jashons parents. The food in the Philippines is so wild and diverse. And Jashon’s family was feeding us SOOOO much.

Something we notice as we travel is how giving other people are, and what’s most interesting is, the ones who have the least seem to give the most. Especially in relation to what they have. 

For lunch we had more milkfish (milkfish is just a type of fish, nothing to do with milk). They also had these deep fried bread balls with cream cheese inside and the outside of the balls were covered in sesame seeds. They were amazing. 

Then of course rice, leftover pork, mangos, eggplant, and lamb. 

Scott, Marissa, and Jashon talked for about an hour about all sorts of things, mainly around therapy work, parents, and learning to accept the way we were brought up. We also talked about the balance between donating/helping others versus donating/helping yourself first. 

Sometimes it can be easier to help others and avoid helping ourselves, but we can help others much better if we took some time to help ourselves first. 

The old saying “you can’t give what you don’t have”

It was a really good conversation and was nice to spend quality time with someone so close to Marissa’s heart.

Next up was party prep….which meant a nap.

Filipinos have a Christmas tradition where they stay up and party until midnight on Christmas eve and then, when the clock strikes 12, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

When we wake from our nap the families are now eating dinner.

More food.

As we ate dinner, there was an old karaoke machine sitting next to the food. Everyone there would get up from their meal and go sing a song. 

Marissa sang “Let it Go” for the kids, they loved it!

Then Marissa and Jashon sang old songs they loved together in college. Scott even got up and sang a few songs like “All the small things” and “All star.”

Finally, Marissa and Scott sang Free Falling together. 

A huge life lesson is, if you’re the type to hate singing, or have a bad voice (like Scott), playing songs where the band doesn’t really sing and more talks (like “All The Small Things”) allows us terrible singers to be part of the fun without needing to actually sing.

While singing and waiting for midnight, one of Jashon’s uncles started an open fire and began cooking a whole baby pig over the fire. Scott was intrigued and asked to help. They gutted the pigs’ internals and stuffed lemongrass, garlic, and onions inside. Then wrapped the body around the bamboo using eight inch aluminum wire.

They set the pig up next to the open fire and spun it for about four hours, or until the skin is dark brown and hard/crispy. Several people from the party took turns spinning it, but mostly the young kids did it.

Because Scott doesn’t really eat meat, the chef (Grace) deep fried many whole fish for him. But, she left the guts inside. 

Jashon said this is the most desirable part for the locals.

Scott did not eat the fish guts.

Some other foods included:
-BBQ chicken blood (they let it solidify then cut the solid blood into cubes and put the cubes on skewers and grill it over wood coals).
-BBQ chicken intestines
-BBQ chicken feet
-Pasta salad with other unknown animal parts
-A fruit cake which included 2 grapes (one green grape held to a smaller red grape with a tooth pick). They called this Jesus.

Sadly, we didn’t take many photos of the food spread. Too busy eating.

 

December 25, 2023:

We wake up and eat leftovers for breakfast. At this point we started getting nervous about food poisoning because the food had been sitting out for who knows how long.

But, neither of us got any serious sickness on the trip. And of course, like when you travel to developing countries, we only drank water that came from a water bottle. 

In the standard fashion to celebrate Jesus’ birth, we went shopping. We went with Jashon, auntie po (Jashon’s mother), Justin (Jashon’s brother) and us. 

The mall was very clean, very modern, and very western. It did not match the vibe of the dirty streets just outside. It was really nice to be around English signage, English music, and a culture that is lively, vibrant, and friendly.

Here’s the only photo we took inside the mall, which was our lunch spot:

The rest of the day we just chilled. Marissa and Jashon recorded a song together. Then we watched a movie. And Grace hand washed our clothes, which, hands down, are the best smelling our clothes have ever been.

 

December 26, 2023:

It’s Tuesday and we leave Jashon’s hometown to start our journey to Bohol Island. We will make it to Cebu tonight and take a ferry to the island tomorrow.

So today, we woke up and hired a van to take us to the Manila airport (thanks to Jashon’s mom for booking it). Grace (the live-in family chef) and her two little boys rode with us. It was the cutest thing ever, her children had never seen the city or an airplane. They got sooo excited when they saw the airplane in the sky.

Above is Auntie po (Jashon’s mom) and Jashon before we get in the van.

Here’s a photo of Manila. We thought it was wild how the houses were stacked on each other, very similar to Latin America.

We flew from Manila and arrived in Cebu. We walked around for a bit and saw some history spots including Magellan’s Cross and some super old Spanish churches. We also went to the ferry station and bought our tickets for the next day (from Cebu to Bohol island). We were very lucky because Jashon knew the language spoken in Cebu (Cebuano). So we had our own personal translator. 

Below are some photos from Cebu:

 

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped for dinner at a very fancy water-front resturant. 

December 27, 2023:

We woke up in Cebu and took our ferry to Bohol island. In the below image, the lightning bolt point is Jashon’s hometown. And the red line from Cebu to Bohol is our ferry ride.

Here are some shots from our ferry ride:

Once in Bohol, we checked into our hotel and grabbed food at a place called Kajun.
They served cajun food. We are staying in a town named Alona.

Then we walked down to Alona beach.

It was similar to a boardwalk, just without the wood walkway. Lots of shops and stalls along the beach. And of course, lots of massage stalls. 

Then it started to rain and we had to hide under one of the massage lady’s tents!

It was cool to see the different style boats here. Many of them were trimarans where a standard canoe style boat had bamboo outriggers attached so it now was a small boat with lots of stability. Even the little panga fishing boats had these outriggers attached. 

Bohol has many foreigners, it reminded Scott a lot of Goa, India.

Tropical, cheap, dirty, fun, and beautiful. 

 

December 28, 2023:

Today we hired a private driver to take us all over the island of Bohol. 

Here was our itinerary:

1. Chocolate hills
2. Walk around a rice paddy (a farm where rice is grown)
3. Bohol Enchanted (a nature/animal preserve with a flying penis statue)
4. Man made mahogany forest
5. Twin bridges (two cable bridges across some river)
6. Dinner river boat cruise (Loboc river)
7. Baclayon Church (super old and huge catholic church)

Our first stop was the Chocolate hills which are these neat geological mounds that go on for as far as the eye can see. They stick up out of the ground like Hershey Kisses. They are covered in grass and, during the dry season, which of course was not when we visited, are completely brown. 

When we were there, they were green. So they were more like Juicy Pear Jelly Bellys.

Here is some info on chocolate hills, and some random lady posing for my photo:

Our next stop was to walk around a rice paddy. This was per Scotts request.

Our third stop was Bohol Enchanted, a nature and animal preservation spot. We paid to see tarsiers and some native Manobo dances. But the dancers called out sick today, so we were jipped out of that money. 

The tarsiers were so cool though. These animals are little tiny monkey things with alien looking faces. They are nocturnal, so all were sleeping, or trying to sleep, as us tourists were staring at them:

The park also had some very strange statues that represented gods that were once believed in by the native people. You’ll see below one was a flying penis and the other is a water fountain statue of a female with her legs spread. Water was flowing out of her vagina, which, apparently, represents this god’s powerful urine which helps flowers grow.

Hands down, our favorite part of this mediocre park was a little 5 year old named Miguela. She was the daughter of a worker who took a liking to us. After our initial conversation, this little 4/5 year old girl followed us all around the park. She was so adorable and kept saying “watch this” as she climbed and jumped off stuff.

We didnt know it at the time, but her secert plot was to be very nice to foreigners and then, at the very end, take us to the snack shack to see if we would buy her candy.

Here she joined us in our photos.

When we were getting in the car to leave, she was trying to get in the car with us!

Next stop was the “man-made forest.” It’s called this because, in the middle of an area that is wide open is this massive area of mahogany trees that were planted by farmers not too long ago. The farmers had killed off so much vegetation that they over planted these trees to compensate for what was removed. Now it’s an invasive species and the forests are too large.

But it was cool to see such a drastic change of landscape.

Our 6th stop was twin bridges. This was two cable bridges over a river. On the other side were tourist shops where we bought chica worms, which were fried worms. Not gonna lie, they were great. They were crispy and spicy.

Our second to last stop was the river boat cruise. On the boat was a buffet style meal. We floated down the Loboc river as we ate our faces off and were serenaded by a local band. The food was amazing. 

Here are some photos from the river cruise:

During the boat ride, the boat stopped at a little shack on the riverside. Inside the shack were locals dressed in traditional clothes and performing a native dance which resembled double dutch jump rope, except, instead of ropes, they were long pieces of bamboo that were lifted up and down off the floor. 

Videos exist of us dancing with the locals, if you want to see them, message us and we will send your way.

Here are some screenshots:

Our last stop of the day was at the Baclayon Church.

It’s an old Roman Catholic church built in 1596. It was MASSIVE. 

And it’s wild to think how big this building was in relation to the size of native buildings / huts of that time. 

After our tour, we headed back to the hotel. We ended the day walking around Alona beach (where we are staying). 

 

December 29, 2023

This day was Whale Shark day!!! 

Dec 29, 2023 turned out to be the top 10 best days of our lives, maybe even top 5. It was filled with so much adventure, so much excitement, and so much fun. It started with swimming with whale sharks, then a moto ride/ hike to a beautiful waterfall where we cliffed jumped with locals, and concluded with snorkeling and freediving in the open ocean where we touched clown fish. 

Our day started at 5:30am when our driver, named Joken, picked us up at the hotel. The dive spot is on the northeast side of Bohol island.

After arriving and paying the 2x foreign price, we sat through an instruction session then waited around for our group to be called. Some rules included:

1. Stay 6 meters away from the sharks
2. You have 20 minutes to swim
3. Don’t take off your life vest
4. And don’t touch the sharks (again)

Jashon paid extra to rent a gopro, which we’re so thankful he did. Although Jashon never touched the GoPro, the worker just filmed Jashon.

They also gave us life jackets, but Scott had to question the workers how we would ‘swim’ if we had a life jacket on. They had him sign a waiver if he did not want to wear it. 

Boys.

Once they called our group, we all walked out to a motorless canoe and piled in. 

After cramming in the canoe, a motor boat came and pulled us out to sea. You see in the above photo, us being pulled. It was quite genius when you think about it, instead of having a bunch of boats with motors, the company now only needed to maintain one engine. 

We are pulled about three quarters of a mile out to sea, not too far. The whale sharks come to this part of the world each year to feed. And this company goes out each day during their feeding season and, well, feeds them. 

Marissa jumps out first and Scott hear’s,

“Ohhhh, I jumped on the shark, omg I kicked it! Oh my its under me!”

Marissa just so happened to jump out of our canoe and land right on a shark!

Scott and several others turned around and said,

“SHhhhSHHhh, don’t announce it”

The whale shark is the world’s largest shark, growing up to 62 feet long and weighing up to 20.6 tons! They are massive yet gentle creatures. We had never seen any animal so large before. 

We remember putting our heads underwater and seeing the beast for the first time that day. Just so at awe with how massive it is.

Yet it moves so elegantly, so effortlessly. 

The sharks swam up to the feeding boat, which was a guy dumping loads of feeder fish off the side so the shark was attracted. 

And we all swam around the boat watching the sharks feed and occasionally swimming off, which was our favorite part because you got to actually swim alongside the creature. Below are some photos:

After whale shark viewing, we drove to Pahangog twin falls. When the road ended, we get out and there was a group of locals and their 125cc motorbikes waiting to give tourists a ride to the falls (instead of walking):

We hired 3 bikes to take us (one bike per person). 

But of course, it stopped early, at a hut, with a local lady selling overpriced drinks. 

So, we bought overpriced drinks. 

Scott rode with Wendell, an 18 year old boy. The ride was very bumpy and really meant for a 4wheeler, not a road bike. 

We had to hike about ½ mile down hill from the hut, but once arriving, it was something out of a fairytale. The white water fell into a turquoise water pool.

We all jumped in and swam over to the falls, letting the water hit our heads for a relaxing moment of bliss. 

We then each climbed out of the pool and followed Wendell up the side of the waterfall. We get about half way up and he has us walk right out into the middle of the falls and then jump!

We all played, climbed, swam, and enjoyed the tranquility for about an hour. Being here, swimming, and jumping off the cliffs really made us feel alive. All our worries and cares disappeared from our minds for a bit. Such a good dose of happy. 

This moment at the waterfall was also a great reminder of how lucky we are to have each other. Both of us are adventure seekers. And not timid to swim in rivers or jump off waterfalls. We both thrived in todays settings and were not timid.

Here are some additional photos from the waterfalls:

Once back to Alona Beach, we rented snorkel gear and went out for some free diving. On our first day we were told there is a drop off about ¼ mile out with a great shelf for fish sighting and to get some deeper free dives in.

So we swam.

While snorkeling, it started raining cats and dogs! So we swam over to a nearby tourist boat and a local jumped in and started swimming with us! He saw we could dive deep and told us to swim down with him. At the bottom, he reached out his finger and poked a clown fish! Back up top, he said the clown fish aren’t scared of humans and let you get very close to them, even touch them! But sometimes they will nibble your finger.

We spent the next 10 minutes diving down and touching clown fish! It was so fun.

After our snorkel, we headed back to the hotel. Dinner in town and an early night because the next day was our travel day back home.

 

December 30, 2023

We woke early to catch a ferry from Bohol back to Cebu. This was a VERY long travel day:

1. Ferry from Bohol to Cebu.
2. Flight from Cebu to Manila.
3. 12am Flight from Manila to China.
4. 1.5 hour taxi from airport to home.

In Cebu, before our flight to Manila, we stopped at a famous restaurant called Rico’s. They are famous for their Lechon (the slow roasted pig we had at Jashons house). Jashons uncles was better. 

From there we all flew to Manila. In Manila we said our goodbyes to Jashon, he was going back to his hometown for a new years party. Marissa and I slept in the airport for a bit and then got our flight to China.

And that’s it!

Thank you so much for reading yet another super long post about our adventures. 

In our next post we write about our Chinese New Year holiday trip to India where we spent 10 days exploring New Delhi and the beautiful foothills of the Himalayan mountains.

Stay tuned.

Love you guys,

Marissa and Scott