Philippines Travel Highlights 2016 [HD]

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• published: 13 Feb 2016
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PLEASE WATCH IN HD!!! This video includes two of our trips in January and February 2016. The first trip was a 2-day-getaway. We left early morning from Manila by bus to Lian, Batangas. In Lian we bought fresh fish and barbecue at the local market and headed to Burot Beach. I didn't know there is such a stunning beach just that close to Manila. We found a white sand beach and crystal clear water. In the afternoon we hired a bangka for 500PHP to do some island hopping. The next day we left for Mt. Pico. It took us 1 hour with motorbike from Lian. At the bottom of Mt. Pico we hired a guide to make our way to the summit. It was a long and exhausting hike but in the end it was all worth it. Mt. Pico offers an amazing view. Even though it was extremely windy we enjoyed this trip a lot. Tired but satisfied we went home to Manila just to plan our next trip that should be Siquijor Island. From Manila the easiest way was to fly to Dumaguete City, take a tricycle to the port and one of the ferries going to Siquijor. We had a one-way ticket and didn't make any reservations. So the first thing we had to do was to find an accommodation. We ended up in Islandia Beach resort, a lovely resort at the Southern end of Tubod Beach owned by an American expat and his wife. After lunch and checking out our beach, we rented a motorbike and went to the Old Enchanted Balete Tree in the town of Lazi to drink fresh coconut while having a fish spa. Since there is not any nightlife on the island we just had dinner with grilled fish and fruit shakes at one of the small restaurants along the highway and slept early. The next day we planned to go to Salagdoong Beach. It was quite far - almost a 2 hours ride from our resort. After finally arriving there I was a bit disappointed. I knew about this two diving platforms and was super excited to jump, just to find out they were closed due to low tide. Fortunately before noon time the tide was already high enough and I was the first one to jump this day. The higher platform is 20 feet and the view from there is just unreal. However, after a while some tourists groups arrived and we decided to go back to our resort. While having barbecue and drinking cold beer we enjoyed the sunset and made plans for the next day. The last place on our bucket list for Siquijor was Cambugahay Falls. We went there the next morning. No other visitors - just us and the lifeguard. Cambugahay includes several falls, a small cave and a rope swing to jump into the water. No need to mention that the water was clear blue and the water falls are just great, right?! As it couldn't get any better and we explored the best of Siquijor already, it was time to head somewhere else. Oslob, famous for their whale sharks, isn't that far from Siquijor. Even though it was already afternoon, we decided to go there. It was two tricycle rides, two ferries and one bus in total. All together maybe 3.5 hours. To find an accommodation wasn't a problem in Oslob. We also already made reservations for diving with the whale sharks the next morning. We joined the first batch at 6AM and I was surprised that there were already a lot of tourist. For 500PHP each (local prize) we were allowed to dive 45 minutes with the whale sharks. Even though they are completely harmless their size is intimidating. It was definitely an experience I would never forget. People basically only come to Oslob for the whale sharks. And since in the meanwhile we booked our returning tickets to Manila from Cebu (instead of Dumaguete) already, we left around 10AM for Cebu City. Our returning flight was at 10PM to make sure we still have time to do something. After arriving in the bus terminal of Cebu City, we took a taxi to Lapu-Lapu to visit Plantation Bay Resorts. We bought a day-ticket that included lunch, drinks, use of bicycles (tandem for us), kayak, and some other activities that we didn't claim because there wasn't enough time. The resort is quite pricy but it was a perfect culmination for our trip! Even though it was a just a few days, we've seen a lot of places (thanks to waking up early and being lucky with transportation) and we made the most out of it. It's definitely more fun in the Philippines and I'm already excited for the next trips to come! :-)