21 reasons why it's more fun in the Philippines

"It's more fun in the Philippines" is the slogan of the official Philippines tourism campaign. Now I know that it is 100% true and I can give you at least 21 reasons why. So here are my most memorable moments, activities and photos of the last six weeks in the Philippines.
Special thanks to AIESEC and Route +63 for making our project happen.

1. Ifugao rice terraces. They definitely take the 1st place in my personal ranking of Philippines attractions. 

UNESCO World Heritage site - 2000 years old Batad rice terraces

Since there are no roads leading to Batad and no motorized vehicles can take you there, we had to do some hiking. After an hour and a half (and a few extreme moments caused by the heavy rain and road construction works) we finally got to the top of the terraces where we were rewarded with the best view you could ever imagine.

The guesthouse we stayed at was quite simple, but the view was priceless. One more pleasant bonuswass the weather: it was colder than in Manila, so I finally could enjoy my morning coffee without sweating like hell.

One hour trekking through the rice terraces to get to a beautiful 70-meter waterfall

Chilling in the cold waters of Tappiya Falls in Batad

2. Visiting paradise islands in Palawan province. Palawan is the top destination for beach lovers. We took a boat and went to one of the tiny islands where I really felt like in those Bounty chocolate commercials: hammocks, crystal clear azure water, corals and almost no civilization. 

3. Sumaguing cave in Sagada. This was the most extreme of all our activities: going through a cave labyrinth, squeezing through narrow tunnels in waist-high cold underground river and climbing a vertical rock wall using a rope! We were accompanied by local guides with kerosene lamps. Unfortunately, I have no pictures taken there: I was afraid that my not waterproofed camera wouldn't survive the journey.

4. Riding on top of a jeepney

In Manila travelling by jeepney is the worst experience, but when you leave the city a simple jeepney ride is turning into a pleasant adventure: spectacular landscapes, refreshing wind and the serpentine road that makes you feel like on a roller-coaster. Oh, you should have seen those fights between us about who gets to be on top :)

·   5. Watching the sunrise was a must-do on every trip. The best sunrise was in Sagada:

6. Snorkeling on a ship wrecks.

Coron island in Palawan is one of the most visited destinations for wreck diving. There are many Japanese ships from World War II sunken in shallow water. You don't even need scuba diving equipment, just a mask and a snorkel is enough to see beautiful corals covering the wrecks. A useful tip for snorkeling: it becomes more entertaining when you have something to feed the fish :)

7. Surfing in Catanduanes

8. Travelling to less explored destinations. Philippines have a lot of off-the-beaten-track destinations, less explored yet very interesting. One of the advantages about travelling with Route+63 is that you get to visit such places. For example, we went to Culion island (Palawan province)  which is a former leper colony. Culion was called the Island of the Living Dead or the Island of No Return. In early 1900s USA isolated all people ill with leprosy on this island. At that time it was an incurable disease and the only way to stop its spread was to isolate all ill people. Nowadays Culion is leprosy-free, but the reputation remained and many tourists are still avoiding the island.

9. Eating rice from a banana leaf using just your hands 

Filipino rule #1: there is never enough rice

At some point we all turned Filipinos and could eat rice from banana leaf instead of the plate using our hands as forks, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Ah, and for dessert - sticky rice.

13. Balut and other weird food

Street food in the Philippines would deserve a separate post, but I'm a picky eater, so I'll pass :) I'll just say that it includes chicken intestines, squid and fish balls, balut, pig's ears etc...

Chicken intestines

My favoutorite filipino street food - deep fried bananas ;)

Balut as a developing duck embryo (around 18-day-old) that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. I found the courage to try it, but didn't really like it (mostly for esthetic reasons). As for the taste - it tastes like a usual chicken egg with something crunchy. Many Filipinos think that the most delicious part of balut is the soup inside.

I will really miss ube also known as purple yam - a vegetable that looks like a potato but has a very bright lavender-purple color. It is used in almost all kinds of desserts: ice-cream, jam, cakes, pastry.

Ube-flavoured cake

Local market - my mangoes paradise 

15. Drinks: buko juice and something stronger

Number one drink in the Philippines is Buko (coconut) juice. The best way to enjoy it is to use freshly cut coconuts like we did during the project. After you are done with the juice don't forget to eat the meat using this self-made coconut spoon:

Of course, buko juice and buko shake are not the only coconut drinks

Lambanog - coconut vodka produced in Quezon Province

In Manila Lambanog is expensive, so we bought it from locals during our trip to Batangas. It is sold right on the street and 6-litre bottle costed us only 4 euros. By the end of our project the bottle was over :)

There is also a big variety of unusual wines in the Philippines, they are made from rice, pineapple, guava, berries and even carrot. They are so lusciously sweet that I couldn't have more than several sips. 

11. Rice harvesting
At this point I have to explain that our travel company Route +63  is a social enterprise that aims to promote the Philippines and contribute to local development initiatives through tourism. The difference from usual travel agency is that Route+63 is cooperating a lot with local communities and gives the travelers opportunity  to volunteer and contribute to causes which they believe in. Raising awareness for the local issues and appreciating local efforts was a unique element in every tour. We were involved in different volunteering activities: harvesting rice, cleaning beaches, planting mangrove and so on.

After rice harvesting experience (and by this I mean two hours in a bent position in + 40C heat bitten by leeches and sunburnt) we understood what did they mean by the phrase "appreciation of local efforts" in agenda. It's impossible not to appreciate every tiny grain of rice after you realize how hard it is to make it.

Getting familiar with rice production

After harvesting and drying the rice you need to remove the hulls off the grains.

12. Mangrove planting

The water was only waist-high, but with every step we immersed into at least ankle-deep warm mud. There was also this itchy feeling like the mud was also a home to some insects, but I prefer not to think about it. Well, everything for the sake of ecology :) Mangroves play an important ecological role protecting coastal areas from erosion and their roots have a unique ecosystem for fish and crabs. 

13. Visiting small local farms
Philippine farms are among the least mechanized in Southeast Asia. We had the chance to visit many of them and we were amazed by the manual work, the farmers doing literally everything with their hands. And once again we were given the opportunity to try everything ourselves: crab catching, weaving, making sticky rice and cacao paste, making oil from pili nuts and ropes from abaka.

Pili nuts are very rare and Philippines is the only exporter of pili nuts in the world! They are used for cakes, pastillas, marzipan and other delicacies

Trying to squeeze some oil from pili nuts, it is used in cosmetics and medicine

I was surprised to discover that cacao beans grow in pods like this.

Grinding cacao beans. If you add some sugar you will get fresh and yummy cacao paste.

Philippines is the world's largest supplier of abaka fiber - the strongest of the natural fibers

This process is called handstripping - fully manual method of cleaning abaca fibers. It looks very simple: you place the leaf between the block and the stripping knife and pull. But believe me, it requires really strong arms.

14. Fighting roosters 
As an animal lover I decided not to visit a cockfight, a popular attraction in the Philippines. Instead we were invited to visit a roosters farm during our Catanduates trip. The farm belonged to the city Mayor and he gladly organized this small show for us:

15. Crab catching

It was my first time to try crab meat. Moreover, the meat from the crabs we caught ourselves. During our visit to a crab farm, we were explained how to catch them using a trap and tie them:

16. On the coffee trail

Planting coffee was so much fun because we were allowed to create our own names for the plants and tag them

And that is how the famous Luwak or Civet coffee looks like before it is cleaned.

17. Surprising burial styles

There are so many different burial rituals in the Philippines, but I want to mention two that surprised me the most. In the mountain province of Sagada, people used to bury people in the coffins and hang them from mountain cliffs. The purpose is to bring the dead people closer to heaven, and this ritual is stll practised.

Another surprising one is the secondary burial: in several years after death when the corpse had decomposed you remove the bones and rebury them in a special jar!

18. Being welcomed by a local band in the airport!
Airport in Palawan is the smallest airport I have ever been to. No baggage scanning machine, no baggage carousel (conveyor), everything is done manually. But you don't care about such things when you are a welcomed to the island by a music band playing outside right in front of the plane!

19. Team experience

Want to get know someone better - travel with them! Living together and travelling together for 6 weeks in a team of 14 people from 13 different countries is a unique experience. 

The team on Taal volcano. The Crater lake is the largest lake on an island in a lake on an island in the world

20. Celebrating my 24th birthday! 

The celebration of my birthday was combined with a welcoming dinner at Mike's (a local AIESECer) house. That evening I discovered that Filipinos are one of the warmest and hospitable people I know. Mike's grandmother had this amazing dinner cooked for us.

My birthday cakes: usual one and the one from sticky rice :)

After all the food Mike and his grandma put a bottle of Lambanog on the table and explained to us that Filipinos usually start a party by drinking from a common glass that is passed around the table.

And then the evening became even more fun.

21. Typhoons

Typhoon Rammasun or Glenda was all over the news. Even some of my European friends were asking me if I was ok. But I was more than ok, typhoon turned out to be a good "digital detox". By that time my project was already over and most of the time I spent either on my phone or on my laptop. But then typhoon came causing a power blackout in most of the neighborhoods and bringing some diversity into my daily routine. No mobile network, no internet, no electricity, even all the malls and MRT (public transportation) was not working.  AIESEC interns from other projects and I had a lot of fun playing card games. By the way, it is so much fun to teach foreigners to play a popular Russian card game "Durak".