July 10th 2019,
Manila, Philippines

 

Harry, I landed in Manila and luckily I’d been able to sort us a place to stay for free using Couchsurfing.

The man was called Tefeet and he was kind enough to meet us at the airport. Together we hopped on a jeepney, which was a new mode of transport for us but definitely the most common for locals, costing only 9 pesos (38p) for any journey.

Tefeet invited us into his home and later he showed us a small outdoor food court with local delicacies. Afterwards, we bought some bottles of beer and watched a sci-fi movie.

Tefeet then told us he was leaving to go on holiday at 7am the next day, but that we were welcome to stay as long as we wanted, and he handed us a key?! We’d only known the guy a couple hours!

11th – 14th July

Boracay

In the morning, Harry and I headed back to the airport to meet Liv and catch our 2pm flight to Caticlan.

From Caticlan we caught a boat over to Boracay.

Boracay is a beautiful island and had recently had it’s famous White Beach thoroughly cleaned, the island was closed for tourists weeks before we arrived!

We stayed at the Mad Monkeys hostel, which is very much a party hostel, giving free shots every hour from about 7pm. The beach area was overcrowded with western businesses like KFC, Starbucks and all those, kind of ruined the atmosphere a bit. Besides this the beach was stunning.

Had a few nights out, the bars had touristy prices but had a good atmosphere. A few lady-boys on the beach made us laugh a few times. And made friends on the beach with some…funny stories.