The Philippines! I wish I was there now, it was sooo good! Definitely worth the 17 hours travelling time. I went for my cousin Nav’s wedding to his girlfriend Melody who is from the Philippines. With my cousin Nav, Vinay and my uncle, we travelled around with Mel’s sister Kit, and saw the wonderful world of the Philippines.

By Leah Bargota

It took 7 hours to Dubai, 2 hours waiting time and then 8 hours to Manila, Philippines! And I was awake for near enough the whole time. When I got off the plane I saw loads of people, immigration didn’t believe in ‘service with a smile.’ When I left the airport the humidity literally slapped me on the face! And it was midnight. It was hot, so many people were there. We got into the car and the first thing I recognized was KFC. We were waiting at the traffic lights and I was looking out of the windows and I saw like 10 kids, no older than 11, walking in-between the traffic begging for money. They would stand at your window and just stare at you waiting for you to give them something. But if you gave one kid food, all the kids would come. We had to lock the doors because they would open them and snatch anything that they could. This was my first impression of the Philippines and I hadn’t even been in the car for 10 minutes! We finally got to the hotel, I fell asleep straight away.

The next day we were going to Manila, the city was hot and packed full of more people. There were loads of food stalls and you couldn’t move 2 feet without being bumped into by at least 5 different people. Men would be walking around with wheelbarrows full of boxes for stock in the middle of the road through all the people running over their feet! Every corner I turned there was a different smell. There was even a woman selling live baby rabbits, I bet you can guess what they were for! They ate lots of different foods there; it was mainly meat which was bad for my uncle as he is a vegetarian. He ate chop suey for most of the holiday, which are just fried vegetables. It was really hard trying to find something with no meat. They put a twist on everything, even English food! Their spaghetti had brown sauce, their bread was sweet and they served rice with EVERYTHING! Even McDonalds sold rice, breakfast, lunch and dinner. You would order food and you’d get a little plate of rice with it. Just to make rice less boring they would put it in different shapes. I ordered KFC once, and I thought ‘finally normal food!’ but I was so wrong, their sauce was yellow and the chicken was grilled. Totally different!

The next day we were travelling again to Puerto Galera, one of the many islands that make up the Philippines. First we had to get a jeepney, which is the size of a minibus but with 2 lines of seats and one door to get in and out. We got in and there were already 7 people in there. There were 7 of us, so that makes 14 people in one jeepney which should hold around 9 people in England. You’d think we wouldn’t be able to fit anymore on, but another 5 people got on! Now there is like 20 people in one jeepney. My day couldn’t have started any better, and then the jeepney broke down and we had to catch another one. But this one had less people. Then we upgraded to a nice air-conditioned coach. With individual seats! And food and drinks came to you. Street seller would come on the coach selling baskets of food! I had 2 hours of this, plus there was a Filipino film on, I couldn’t understand it but it was pretty good.

The motorways were surrounded by dense jungle and mountainous streams. Every window had a different view. I would have happily stayed in the coach all day with views like that. I thought I was in the middle of Jurassic Park. We were almost there, I could see the sea! We were at Batangas Port, which is where we got a boat. Yay, more travelling! But at least the boat had some decent music. Most of the music in Philippines was like ours, but more American artists. I remember listening to The Script.

We had an hour long boat ride and we passed so many beautiful islands. All I could see was trees, sand and sea. It had Jurassic Park written all over it. The boat was about to stop, we were all stunned with the scenery and the beaches, until one of the crew members asked if we were going to White Beach (which we were) and he told us to stay on the boat. I was wondering if White Beach could be any better than this beach, and it totally was! It had crystal clear blue sea, clean beaches and really big jungle behind it. There was no port; the boat would park on the beach.

We were hassled by hotel reps as soon as we got off the boat. We finally picked a hotel, the rooms were decent, 2 double beds and an en-suite. But the bathroom was horrible. No shower curtain, no toilet lids, no air pressure in the taps, the showers handle leaked, and when you turned on the shower, most of the water would go into the toilet. Oh and there was no hot water. I didn’t even want to use that bathroom, I brushed my teeth outside. I couldn’t worry about that now, I was about to go snorkeling!

We had our own boat, but first we had something to eat. Yeah, you guessed it RICE! And then we were on our way. He took us to a different island; we could feed the fish and explore all the coral. I was ready to go out, I was excited. I saw loads of fish, even Dory from Finding Nemo. They would just come up to your hand and eat the bread, the corals were huge! We stood on one, but the current kept pushing me and I couldn’t keep my balance, then I felt something on my toe. I got stung by a sea urchin. I don’t think I’ve ever felt my toe so much; it was like a headache in my toe. Everyone laughs when I say that but I can’t explain it any other way. Then I kicked the coral, I had no idea how bad it was until I got on the boat. One foot was cut and the other had a sea urchin spike in it! My feet had so many scars from this holiday.

Then it started to rain. And it rained!  It was monsoon rain, it was so heavy. The boat took us to this link between two islands. The strip was about 5 meters long and the sea was on both sides. We were waiting to see if the rain would stop soon, so we waited… in the sea!  It was so nice and warm, definitely warmer than the hotel water, but the rain was getting heavier. Try and imagine being in the middle of monsoon rain, in the sea in literally nothing but bikini and shorts in England. It wouldn’t happen, it would be too cold.

We had to start making our way back before the waves got stronger, but of course it was too late. We had to stop at an earlier port and get off in the middle of the sea. There were no places for the boat to park so we had to tie it to another boat. The sea was even warmer! We had to walk to land; and had to wait in the pouring rain for the tricycles to come. (Which is just a motorbike with extra seats on the side) we weren’t even in the tricycle and he got stuck up this mud hill which led to the road. We had to push him up; well I left that to the boys. While we were waiting I saw a goat standing under a huge leaf on the smallest rock I’ve seen. All 4 of its legs were on there, it looked so cute I wanted to pick it up and take it back.

Our ‘drivers’ had finally turned around and we got to go back to our crappy hotel, the alleyways we went through were so flooded that the electricity cables had come up from underneath the ground. They were only like 2ft underneath. The rain had moved on by the time we got back so we went straight back to the beach. The waves were so big and strong, they would pull you right out to sea and then push you back onto shore. It sounds boring but it was so much fun, I was literally eaten by the waves. And then Vinay decided he was the newest member of Baywatch and that I needed rescuing.

The sky was so pretty, it was different shades of orange and pink and the clouds were big too. The nightlife on this beach was so weird. Every club had the same entertainment: fire dancers and dancing transvestites. But they looked so real. There was this one person called Richard who was a pole dancing Lady Gaga! He (or should I say she) was so weird you could not stop looking at them, and then they started fire dancing, but they were actually good.

In the morning we were going to this waterfall place, I’m not really sure on the name, but it was amazing. The drive there had loads of nice views because we were going up these huge mountains. We stopped by this other waterfall which we passed on the way. It was called Tamaraw Falls. It was really big and it had its own pool. And at this hanging bridge, which is like the ones on “I’m A Celebrity” but way more dangerous!

After 1 hour of driving we got to this village which was on the outskirts of the jungle. We had to get a cow from here. But then it started to rain yet again. But this cow was amazing; it pulled 7 people on a cart through rivers, up middy hills and through long grass. We were right in the middle of the jungle, no electricity, no roads. It felt like I had gone back in time.

We got to the waterfall place and it was so beautiful. The water was fresh and clear. I couldn’t wait to go climb it. I swam across this pool which was 13ft deep. I got to the rock and I couldn’t get on, it was so slippery. The waterfall was pushing me out as well. After 10 minutes of trying to get on, I finally did it. Again my feet still bear the scars from it. But I looked around and I saw this huge black and yellow millipede, it was like 12 inches long and 2 inches thick! It made me cringe. I did a cliff dive into that 13ft deep pool. I was expecting a crocodile to jump up and eat me as I jumped off! I was walking around the waterfalls and its pools and then this butterfly kept fluttering around my legs and landed on me. It was big and blue.

We went back to our hotel, but I really wanted to be eaten by the waves again so we went back on the beach. I tried this drink called ‘halo halo’ which is just water, ice cream, jelly, kidney beans, cream and anything else that you can throw in as well. It was really sweet. And then I tried cheese flavored ice cream, and chocolate sauce. Not what I expected, because it was really nice! This would be our last night at the beach, we didn’t do anything special. We just went back onto the beach to eat, there were a few fire dancers but no transvestites, but a nice walk along the beach at night.

The next day was a whole day of travelling, there was so much traffic. We got back to our hotel and I was glad to see its bathroom. It had a shower curtain, hot water, air pressure and a toilet lid. We spent the next day in the hotel room. It was so nice, we went to the mall and brought squid flavored crisps, pretty good but in the Philippines they rip the side of the packet open, rather than the top. And they eat with just a spoon and fork. It was really hard for me; I was eating the wrong way. Then we watched Paranormal Activity 2, I don’t think I was as scared as I thought I would be, only because I knew I wasn’t sleeping alone that night. But Vinay and I heard some pretty weird things that night!

We were travelling again the next day; we were going to the world’s smallest active volcano. I’m not sure if that sounds impressive or really lame but we were going to climb it. Actually, we didn’t even climb it, we rode horses up there! It was hard trying to keep your balance, when it galloped or going through really thin pathways between rocks, again my feet suffered for that. There was a moment where the horse was galloping and my hair was blowing in the wind, it felt like I was in a film. It took an hour to drive there and then a 10 minute boat ride to the volcano. When we got to the top there was a lake in the volcano. You could actually see the water boiling too. We took a walk around the top and the pathways were so small. If you fell slightly on either side, you were certain of a long fall, it was that steep.

We went to a local park after the volcano and oh my gosh they had the best park I’ve ever been too! They had a really nice view of the volcano and there was this zip wire across the top of the jungle. It was so high. You were literally hanging off nothing and the brake to stop you were just tyres on the rope! I saw this horrible spider as well. It was black and orange with super thin legs and a gold shiny body. I was scared it would jump on me while I took a picture. I wanted to move away as fast as I could.

It was almost the end of the holiday, Friday was our last day to do anything we wanted because Saturday was Nav & Mel’s wedding, and Sunday we had to pack. So we did make the most of it, we went shopping! We went to the mall, saw the 2nd largest mall in Asia, went to Manila’s oldest church, ‘Intramorus’ and visited the tomb of a Philippines national hero. But Saturday was the wedding. It was amazing, I’ve never experienced a Filipino wedding before, it’s just like a church wedding but they get more single people involved and Nav had to put my name at the top of the list!

They released dove’s which landed in my food. There was a cake eating contest where the girl is blindfolded and has to feed her partner. Whichever couple finishes first, wins. We came last! There was another game where the guy had to pick up the girl, while balancing on a piece of newspaper, which gets smaller every round. We actually won that one, me and Vinay on behalf of England!

My last day in the Philippines was so tiring. Packing, checking out, flight details bleughh! It finally sunk in that I was leaving the Philippines, but to be honest I didn’t miss anyone back home. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, but it’s always been like that. And in exactly one week I had 5 very important GCSE exams! But I can guarantee you that my first meal back in England was most definitely from the chippy.