Personal essay: My trip to the Philippines
By Heyli G.
Going to the Philippines with my family was a once-out-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was something I never thought would happen.
For the first week, we went to El Nido, Palawan. Palawan is a small island that took a 1-to 2-hour airplane ride and a 5-hour van ride to get there. In Palawan, for the first day we mostly spent it in the van ride and getting settled into the hotel. For the second to fourth day, we went island hopping. In island hopping, we went on an 8-hour boat ride seeing 5 islands a day. We had 40 minutes to explore each island and we went kayaking, snorkeling, swimming, and playing volleyball on the beach. In total we went to 15 islands. After the island-hopping was done for that day, my family and I would go get ready to eat and call it a day. We also went to a crocodile farm for the last day before we went back to Manila.
The food in the Philippines was different but similar to ours in the U.S. My family and I mainly ate rice, pork, chicken, eggs, or soup. There were occasions that we would go out to restaurants (Shake Snack, Greenwich Pizza, or McDonald’s). In my opinion, the food had a good taste because there wasn’t a lot of seasoning in the food.
For the second and third week, we woke up really early to be able to see and do more things throughout the day. We went to visit different cities and we also did things you would do over here: we went to the mall, got our nails done, and went to visit my uncle’s family. We also went ziplining, horseback riding, kayaking (again), bike riding, to church, and rode in a jeepnie. For the two weeks, we stayed at two houses that my uncle’s family built and owned.
The Philippines was a trip that I’ll always appreciate. It helped me see how good I have it in life and how lucky I am. I got to go to not just a different country but also a different continent, and it helped me bond more with my family.
You can see some photos from my trip below!
