The Trip to the Philippines

Introduction

   For our winter break, we decided to go to the Philippines, We actually already went to the Philippines before, but it was with a group. We decided to explore on our own this time. We were going to a part of an island, called El Nido(not the name of the island, the name of the part of the island).When the day finally came, we were all pretty excited.

Day One-Trip to Manila

   Because we couldn’t go to El Nido directly from Kaohsiung, we had to fly to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, stay there for a night, and move on to El Nido the next day.

   The day we went to Manila started like any other day. My mom and dad sent me to my grandparents house for the morning, and we had McDonalds for breakfast. We stayed at our grandparents place until the afternoon, when my mom came. We went back to our usual apartment, got all our stuff ready, and waited for the other people. We were going with two of my aunts this time, so there was a total of six people. My mom called an Uber for half us, and one for the other half. We went to Kaohsiung airport by Uber, and went in.

   First, we had to find our flight. Our flight was a small AirAsia plane. We then checked in. Luckily, there wasn’t a lot of people, so we managed to get it done decently quick. My brother was kind of hungry, so he and my mom went to a nearby restaurant to eat. After my brother was done eating his beef noodles, we checked our luggage and sent them onto the plane. Then we went past the custom scanner thing. After everything was done, we waited a while, ate a bag of chips, and boarded the plane.

   The ride was pretty smooth for the most part, but there wasn’t a screen on the seats, so we instead passed the time by eating snacks, looking out the window, reading the little magazines and playing on my iPad. After we landed, we quickly went through all the passport stuff and found the hotel. It looked pretty good, but when we saw the room, we were shocked. The bathroom was tiny, and there were only two single beds. We had no idea how us, four people, were supposed to all sleep in there, so, first, we went to see if the other rooms were any better. The other room wasn’t much different, except instead of two single beds, there was one double bed. Mom decided to tell the hotel, and we got a bigger room. After that, we ate up the food we bought at Jollibee, played around for a bit, and went to bed.

Day Two-Freshwater and Saltwater

   After checking out of the hotel, we went to a different local airport and found our flight to El Nido. The plane was a really small turboprop plane with no winglets(OK, I stole that part from my brother). We arrived after about an hour. After we got to El Nido, I realized that, beside the runways, there was a lot of jungle. It kind of reminded me of a scene from Jurassic Park III when the main characters land on the island and a dinosaur comes out of the woods and attacks the characters. Anyway, we went into the airport and got our luggage.

   We then went to our resort, called El Nido Cove. I really liked the resort, because it was so close to the sea and it had a swimming pool. After we settled down in the resort, we ate the Papa John’s pizza and donuts that we picked up at the local airport yesterday. After we were full, me and my brother went swimming in the pool.

   We played a game called Apple, Banana. It was basically Marco, Polo, but we thought it was weird that you had to say Marco and Polo, so we used Apple and Banana instead. We also played a game called Fishie vs Monster. The objective of the game was that the Monster had to drag the Fishie into his den, and the Fishie had to escape the Monster. Another game we played was called Underwater Phrase Guessing. The rules are that one person says a three word phrase underwater and the other people have to guess the phrase. We had lots of fun.

   After we we had played enough, we went to the seashore and played in the sand. The whole rest of the day was like that, just playing around in saltwater and freshwater.

   After it was noon, I decided to take a nap. When I woke up, my dad told me it was time for dinner. My mom, my brother and my aunts were already there eating. I had some salad and spaghetti, but then I was full. After everyone was full, we went for a walk. We chatted and walked around for a bit. We saw that the sky was filled with bright, twinkling stars, it looked amazing! When we were enjoying our walk, though, a huge wave crashed against the wall. It sounded a lot like firecrackers, and it scared all of us. After we were done our walk, we went into the room and relaxed for a bit. Then we went to bed.

Day Three-Trip to Town

   Today, my brother wanted to go kayaking in the sea. There were kayaks for rent on the beach. We went playing in the pool before we went kayaking, because we didn’t think we would have enough strength to play in the pool after we went kayaking. My brother went kayaking on the same canoe with my mom, and I went in the same canoe with my dad.

    I didn’t row a lot, because I had scraped myself in the pool, and the wounds hurt in the salty seawater. We went back to shore pretty quickly, because me and my brother both had scraped ourselves in the pool and now the scars hurted a lot. My brother went to play in the pool after we went kayaking, and he said the  water made the scars not hurt. I put my knee scars in the pool, and it actually made my scars hurt less. Then my brother pushed me into the deeper part of the pool. I wasn’t wearing my swimsuit, so I wanted to get out. However, my mom, who was walking by, said that I could just swim in my normal clothes, since we had a lot more dry clothes. So, we played around for a bit and had some fun.

    A while later, my mom said that we were going to a nearby town to have some food and explore. We changed our clothes and got on an air conditioned shuttle bus. We drove for about twenty minutes, and arrived at a run-down, old looking place. The first thing I saw was a food stand, but my mom told me not to eat anything from it, because we would most likely get diarrhea. I realized that the big building that the shuttle bus dropped us off beside was an elementary school, and, through some of the windows, we could see children having classes. I asked mom why they weren’t on winter vacation like we were, and she said that it was because they had different vacations than us.

    We walked around for a bit, and we found a place to eat. We ordered two big roast chickens, a bowl of ramen and some Coke. We ate the first roast chicken and the bowl of ramen, but we were too full to eat the last roast chicken. We then found a bread shop and bought lots of delicious bread to eat during our trip. After that, my parents went to get some coffee. We also found an ice cream place and we had some ice cream there.

   Then, we kept walking around aimlessly, and we eventually came across a massage spa. My parents and one of my aunts ordered a dry massage with air conditioning., while me and my brother played our iPad on the side. After my parents were done massaging, we went back to the elementary school and waited for our shuttle bus to get us. We waited sixteen minutes for our shuttle bus, but he never came. So, instead, we flagged down a little motorcycle cab. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a motorcycle with bits of a car slapped on to make a seat and a roof. Motorcycle cabs are all over the Philippines. Anyway, we flagged down a motorcycle cab, and the driver said that he could take us to our resort. He also said that he was going to need two cabs to carry us all. It was gonna cost us 300 peso each to get us to our resort, so it wasn’t too expensive. The ride back was really rough, and it felt like the cab was going to fall apart any second! When we got back, we played in the pool again, and went to bed.

Day Four (Part 1)-The Amazing Boat Trip

   Today was our last day at El Nido Cove. Today, we were going to visit some nearby islands by boat. We were going to meet the tour guide at a café in the town. We  got on another bus to the town and looked for the café. We didn’t find it at first, but, after a few minutes, we eventually found the tour guide. The tour guide talked to us for a bit, and took us to the boat.

   The boat was a small banca boat. If you don’t know what a banca boat is, it’s a wooden boat that has outriggers to stabilize the boat. It also has a small roof and a motor. We had to go through a patch of sea to get to the boat, but my brother and I could go on a canoe because the water was too deep for us.

    After we all got onto the boat, the captain started the engine and we were off! The first place we were going to go to was a coral reef. We could dive down and go snorkeling there, so I was really excited. Before we got there, the tour guide said that I could sit on the nose of the boat and she could take my picture. I was a bit scared when I sat in the front, so I didn’t dare to put my hands out. After that, my brother and both my aunts took pictures on the nose of the boat, too, but my parents didn’t. After a while, we got to the coral reef.

   We put our snorkels on and dove in. I saw lots of corals and colorful fish. I wasn’t too blown away by the reef, because I already went snorkeling lots of times before. The guide, who was also in the water, took a spare life vest and threw it into the sea. It floated, obviously, and the guide told us to hang on to the life vest so that she could pull us along to show us some fun stuff.

   First, the guide led us to a patch of corals. These corals were called antler corals, because they were shaped like deer antlers. Another coral we saw was the plate coral. It was shaped like a plate(duh..), and the guide told us that they could grow to the size of dinner tables. I thought both the corals were pretty cool. The next thing we saw was an anemone filled with clownfish. The guide said that there were different kinds of clownfish in different types of anemones. After swimming around, the guide dove down into the sea and took out a small coral. The guide said that it was called a snot coral, because it produces a slimy, sticky, snot-like liquid to preserve moisture once it is out of the water. The guide then held the coral up, and there really was a sticky slime oozing out of the coral! After a few minutes, the guide pointed out a large brain coral. The guide said that it was called a brain coral because it was shaped like a brain. I already knew that. Then, we came across some multicolored antler corals. We saw a lot more corals and fish, and, after a while, we surfaced onto the boat.

   Our next stop was an island called Snake Island. Not because there were snakes on the island (there wasn’t any), but because that the whole island was shaped like a snake. We boarded the island, and we saw a small canoe pull up beside us selling coconut milk and some soft drinks. We didn’t want anything for now, so we said no and got on the beach. There were a few tidal pools by the island, so I went and looked around in them. There were a few small crabs, some sucker fish, and two big black sea cucumbers. The guide said that there was a beautiful view on top of a mountain of the island, so we went to look. There was a very good view on top of the mountain, We could see the whole island! There was also a little kitten on the mountain, and it was very friendly and cute!

   After we came down from the mountain, The guide led us to a cool sand trail. The trail went through a shallow part of ocean to another island. We all started walking on the sand trail, and it was really cool! After a while, though, my dad and my brother complained that it was too boring and their legs hurt, so they went back. At one point, my younger aunt went back, too, so it was down to me, my mom and my older aunt. We eventually got to the end of the trail, but there wasn’t much to do there, so we just took a few pictures and went back. On our way back, we saw a big fish jumping in and out of the water, it was pretty funny!

  When we got back to the mainland, the rest of the family were already waiting. Some Filipino people (our “crew”) had made lunch for us, and it looked super tasty! They made soup, rice, mussels, and much more! They even made a little crane (my brother thought it was a duck :P) out of an apple! We ate it up, and went on to our next stop.

   Our guide told us our next stop was a cave island. We were going to see the inside of a real, natural cave, so I was really excited. When we got to the cave, I saw that the entrance hole was really small. Our guide put life vests onto the hole so we wouldn’t get ourselves scraped on the sharp rocks. I went first, and I had to get inside in a very awkward position, but it wasn’t too hard, because I was the smallest in the family. Soon, we were all in the cave.

 The cave had a foul odor, but I didn’t think much of it. This part of the cave was big and empty, so, while it was pretty cool being in a real live cave, it got kind of boring after a while. Then, the guide said that there was another part of this cave, so we went there. We had to climb a bit to get there, but it wasn’t too bad. This part of the cave was smaller, but it had more places to climb around on, so it was a bit more fun than the big part of the cave. After we were done taking pictures, our guide led us out.

   On our way out, the guide pointed out some birds and bats that were living in the cave. Then she said that the weird looking stuff on the floor was bat droppings. Well, that explains the smell! Anyway, our guide said that our next stop was a small sand island that not many people go on. It was also our last stop.

   When we got on the island, we saw that it was really small. There were hermit crabs, crabs and fish all over the island. It was fun to swim around carelessly around the island, so we had a good time.

   Then the guide got out a drone with a camera to take cool pictures of us. She used all sorts of little effects, like making the camera spin around us and making the camera go far, far away. The drone could even chase a target! I’m gonna ask my mom to send me the footage of the drone’s perspective of chasing my brother and edit it with my “Action Movie FX” app to make it look cool. I could add fighter jets chasing my brother or something.

   After we were done playing on the island, we went back to the town. There, we flagged down another rickety motorcycle cab (I recently learned that Filipino people call it a tricycle) and rode to our new hotel, called Hotel Covo. It was a long, rough ride, but we eventually made it.

Day 4 (Part 2)-The New Hotel

   When we got to Hotel Covo, we were all dying for a rest after the long, exiting boat trip. We quickly signed some forms and stuff, got our luggage, and went to our room. The first thing I noticed was that the hotel looked much more “hotel-like” than the last hotel, which was really a resort.

   We went in our rooms and unpacked our luggage. Then, we settled down, took a shower, and watched some TV. A while later, my mom asked me if dad and I wanted to explore the street beside the sea. I said yes, and so did dad. Next, we went to the room of my aunts and my brother to ask if they wanted to come. My younger aunt and my brother didn’t want to go, but my older aunt agreed, so we all went out.

   We explored the street, and we eventually found a place to eat. I think my mom and dad got some coffee, and we also got some pizza and ice cream, so we had a good time. Then, we all chatted, and then we went back to our rooms and went to bed.

Day Five-The Day at the Beach

   Today, me and my brother were going to play in the big beach beside the hotel. We had breakfast first. The breakfast bar was pretty good here, and the food was pretty tasty too. We saw a black dog sitting in the breakfast area, so I gave him some of my fried fish that I thought tasted weird. The dog was really friendly, and it let us scratch his belly.

   After breakfast, we went to the beach. My parents stayed on the shore while we played in the sand. We had lots of fun! We built sand castles, played in the water and  found some crabs and fish. We also did this thing called “Human Surfboard”. What we would do is we would run into a big wave and we would let it push us back to shore. It was a lot of fun, and me and my brother played it many times. Another thing we did was that we waited for a wave to hit us, and we tried not to move when the wave hit us. We kept playing around, and at one point I started digging around and I came across a really big clam. It was about three times as big as the clams I’ve seen in Taiwan! I held my clam and me and my brother dug for more. In the end, we found a total of three big, fat calms. I thought they would make a delicious soup, but there was a policy, so we couldn’t do that. We also built a big sand empire that could withstand small waves without toppling. Our empire even had residents-hermit crabs!

   We played on the beach for many hours, and we had a great time! Then, we went to eat lunch in a barbecue restaurant nearby. We had chicken, shrimp, and much more delicious food!

   After we were full, we went to our hotel room and rested. We watched TV, we took a short nap, we walked around, and soon it was time for dinner . We went to another restaurant on the street that sold spaghetti and pizza. We ate some delicious pasta and we also looked around the street for a bit, too. Then we went to our hotel room and we went to bed.

Day Six-Shopping at Manila

   This was our last day at the Philippines. We were going to Manila to shop, and then we were going home. We ate breakfast, and we went to the airport to got on our flight. We flew to Manila and got on a taxi bus thingy to a really big mall. We had agreed that my aunts and mom would go shopping and me, my dad and my brother would play video games and eat.

   Soon, me, my dad and my brother found a good looking fast food restaurant that had charging places in it. We walked in sat down, charged our iPads and started playing games. We ordered some buffalo wings, onion rings, french fries and burgers. We ate until we were stuffed, and there was still a lot of buffalo wings left! Anyway, we played more video games, and before we knew it, my aunts and my mom were done shopping.

   So, we went to the airport, hopped on a plane, and went back to Kaohsiung. It was a long flight, and we ate all of the leftover buffalo wings in the flight.

   When we got back to Kaohsiung, we were all pretty exhausted. We called an Uber and all went home. I was kind of sad that we had to leave El Nido, but I was still happy to be home. We relaxed for a while and went to bed.

My Thoughts

   I think this trip to the Philippines was really fun. We got to play at the beach, go snorkeling, catch crabs and lots of other fun activities. One of my favorite parts was the boat trip, because we got to see all sorts of amazing places. I like El Nido because there are so many things that you can do, and there are no mosquitoes. I really enjoyed this trip, and I hope that we can go to El Nido again sometime!