LOH #147: Let’s have an Epic Adventure to the Philippines

Hi, Ladies of Hive! I am back for another contest and I am excited to share my entry.

Take me to your country and two of the best things to do there. Show me the best place to go, the best amusement I have to experience and convince me in the best way that my next travel should be where you live. AND tell me the place you love so I can make a Hive Map again. Originality is something I always look for!

Thanks to @brittandjosie for the beautiful question.

If you ask me, what are two of the best things to do in my country, the Philippines? Well, this archipelagic country has 7,107 islands and 81 provinces. I think I have only visited 12-14 provinces. It is not that much compared to other Filipino travelers who already completed 81 provinces. So many things to do actually. Here I am sharing to you few of the best things I did in my country.

Scuba Diving with the Threshers Sharks on Malapascua Island in Daan Bantayan, Cebu

I earned my PADI Open Water diving certification on Malapascua Island. A blog reader stumbled upon my fun diving articles and asked me if I was interested to earn a diving certificate. I said sure but it is expensive for about $500 so I need to save money for it. He asked me if I could do some research for him where could be the best place to dive around the Philippines. It depends on what he wanted to see. I told him about the thresher sharks on Malapascua Island. I was able to find one of the best dive shops on the island. In exchange for my research, he paid for my PADI Open Water Diving certification.

We met on the island. After our own diving sessions, we met for dinner. He stayed for three days on the island while I stayed for seven days. After my diving certification, I paid for my Deep Diving Adventure course to see the thresher sharks.

My first thresher shark adventure in 2016. I was really scared that I held the arm of my dive instructor. We were about 20 meters deep when we saw the thresher shark. The photo was taken by the assistant dive instructor.

Here is Frank from Spain and Max from Canada. Max was our dive instructor, Frank was on his diving course as a dive instructor while I was on my beginner’s level of diving, thus, Open Water.

My second thresher shark adventure in 2018. I froze when I saw the thresher shark at about 4 meters deep and the nearest and clearest I’ve seen, I want to do this again. This time, I got this underwater camera that was given by the same person who paid for my diving course. He sent it from the US to Palawan.

Island hopping and Scuba Diving in El Nido, Palawan

My first travel to Palawan was in 2014 until it became a yearly trip until 2016. I lived in Palawan from 2017 to 2019 where I rented a cheap room in Puerto Princesa. From Puerto Princesa, it takes 6 hours to travel by van.

A panoramic view created by Google photos taken by my Nikon D5100 in 2014. This is part of the Tour C.

Island hopping tours are highly recommended in El Nido. Tours A and C are the most popular tours. I did Tour D which a local boat owner invited me to join them so it was a free tour.

This is the boat tour we were in.

This is me feeling sexy in blue.

In 2018, I did the Mellow Yellow Tour Z. It was really fun. Since I did Tours A, C, and D in the past years, joining the Tour Z was a new experience.

Fun fact: the yellow boat was used for the Survivor Quebec and I am proud to say that I’ve been to the island locations. OMG!

Of course, El Nido has so many diving spots so another adventure I did in 2018.

Canyoneering Adventure in Badian, Cebu

The Canyoneering Adventure is very famous in Cebu. In 2015, this company was looking for a team member to help dealing with customers and tours. I went to Moalboal to meet the person who pioneered the Canyoning/Canyoneering Adventure. He is not a Filipino but a foreigner. I guess his nationality is Austrian/Belgian, not sure but a European nationality. I wasn’t sure to get hired because I had future travel plans to Japan and other Asian countries. For the sake of experience, I did a few days trial.

He asked me if I was interested to do the canyoning Adventure. I said sure but kind of scared. My task was to join the two French tourists and take photos of them. A local guy was our Canyoning guide and he was trained by the company owner to do the canyoning Adventure. He handed me the underwater camera and ta dah! He loved my photos. All photos I took were used for promotional items so I am proud to be an adventure photographer.

The company has a transportation to take us to Badian from Moalboal. Everything is taken cared of.

In return for doing my job, he gave me food allowance and an accommodation allowance. I was bringing my laptop with me as a digital nomad so I never spent so much money on my little holiday in Moalboal. I stayed in a backpackers’ hostel where I befriended one of the staff, just next to the canyoning company.

Oh yes, I faced my fears jumping from one falls to another. OMG, my heart was raising. And I did this again in 2016.

Yes, I am an adventurous person. As a travel blogger, researcher, content writer, tour guide, I got the perks of enjoying these adventures thru discounts or in exchange of paid services.

How I wished I did this travel consultant a full-time job but I was busy working as a Virtual Assistant. So, being a travel blogger was just a side gig. But of course, I highly recommend you to do these things if you have the sense of adventure.

Join the Ladies of Hive Contest 147.

I hope you enjoyed my entry as I am having fun reminiscing my adventures. ❤️❤️❤️

Still blogging from my iPad,

Roxanne

P.S. One photo was taken by Frank using his underwater camera and the rest of the photos were taken by yours truly. Thank you so much for reading!