The Many Sides of the Philippines (Angie)

Mo Gawdat, author of "Solve for Happy" said that the equation for happiness is equal to your life events, minus your life expectations. Meaning that if your expectations aren't met (because they're too high), you won't be happy. 

The same could be said for your satisfaction or happiness with a travel destination. 

I actually went into the Philippines with a mix of expectations. Coming out of Vietnam, I had high expectations of the quality and freshness of original, authentic food. Based on my always-smiling Filipina nannies back in Canada, I had high expectations of the kindness and positivity of Filipino people. Knowing that it wasn't a high tourism destination like Thailand, I had tempered expectations of how it would be as a beach vacation destination. And since I had just read "Some People Need Killing", Filipina journalist Patricia Evangelista's account of the narco related killings during the recent Duterte era, I went in with quite a pessimistic view of the country, its political structure, and voters.

We saw many sides of the Philippines: a small village in Palawan where we volunteered for a week; touristy island areas of El Nido, Coron and Moalboal; and urban areas of Cebu/Mactan and Manila. We learned about the Philippines' complex history of occupation and war, we saw people on polar sides of the poor-rich spectrum, and felt an economy that feels like it could be so much more. 

Based on these expectations and observations, I have come away with my satisfaction and happiness with our Philippines travel being mixed. 

Food

Let's just say that you don't go to the Philippines for the food. On our very first night there, we were shocked into this reality when we went to go eat street food for dinner. In Vietnam, we had enjoyed delicious pho and other local foods from street vendors all the time. In Puerto Princessa that night, the main options were American-war leftovers of thin burger patties, spam and oddly bright red hot dogs. Sure, there was some Chinese dumplings. All over-processed, pre-prepped food. To our sadness, no fresh chicken adobo or pansit.

The food at our volunteer camp was on-par with what you'd expect to be cooked for a bunch of backpackers -- decent, simple food. While island hopping through tourist destinations, we had simple local Chinese-inspired foods, fried chicken, and ended up going to restaurants serving other countries' food. In Mactan, home to mostly Korean tourists, we ended up eating average Korean food a couple of times. And in Manila, we mostly gave in to the multi-cultural offerings in the city. And we definitely had our share of Jollibee fried chicken.

Too often, it felt like the food was too processed, too salty, too sweet and/or didn't have enough vegetables or fruits included. In a tropical country ripe for pineapple and mango, it is surprisingly hard to find it! 

In the end, we never did have chicken adobo or pansit as good as our nanny used to make!

My conclusion (perhaps over-simplified), is that after 300 years of Spanish colonization, and 39 years of US occupation, the original Filipino foods are a little lost. And the US left behind a strong impact of its processed meat and deep-fried food that most of the country hasn't moved off of. 

Food expectations: not met

The Ocean and Tourism

There are alot of islands to explore in the Philippines. Basing ourselves in El Nido, Coron, and Cebu, we hopped around several smaller islands as well. This is the main reason to go to this country!! 

The water, both the oceans and rivers we saw, are the most beautiful blue color I've ever seen. But the coral reefs are in varying condition. Beautiful, alive, healthy, and teeming with tons of fish in some areas (a little farther from the main tourist areas, and I'm sure diving further away there are more that we didn't even see). But trampled and damaged in high tourist traffic areas like San Vicente Marine Sanctuary and Panagsama beach. 

After a super disappointing Great Barrier Reef experience in Australia, the water, coral and marine life exceeded all of our expectations!

On the one hand, I'm surprised that the Philippines doesn't market itself as a beach and ocean vacation destination more. On the other hand, it's probably good that it doesn't get the same level of tourism as neighboring countries like Thailand, otherwise the corals and fish would suffer.

Ocean expectations: exceeded!

History and Current Urban Life 

Manila is not on the radar of most travellers going to the Philippines. But after 2.5 weeks volunteering and vacationing on the islands, I was keen to learn more about the history of the country (as I always feel it reflected in the present day culture), and see city life. I almost wish we had done this part first to ground our observations and experiences.

One thing I have observed with many Filipinos is that they are generally humble, modest people. And every one of them downplays Manila. But the Intramuros (walled old Spanish city) section of the city was so interesting and has so much potential to be an even more vibrant, colorful part of city life. We did a Bambike ecotour; saw evidence of Spanish, US, Japanese, British, and Chinese desires to occupy this strategically located country; and walked around old Spanish-built Catholic churches (a major difference of religion after all the Buddhist temples in other parts of SE Asia). Even though parts of this city's infrastructure is re-built (not original), it felt so neat to eat Chinese buns in an old Spanish tavern. I'm not sure why the city doesn't embrace this area to promote more restaurants, cafes from opening up there -- it would certainly be a driver for tourists.

Aside from Intramuros, we walked and drove (both in the comfort of Grab cars and the excitement of tricycles/jeepneys) around a few neighborhoods including Bonindo (the original and world's first Chinatown), super modern and upscale Bonifacio Global city, Poblacion Makati, and the neighborhood just south of Rizal Park where our hotel was. The range of economic stature of people was astounding. Street kids that sadly smelling like beer begging for money and prostitutes (female and transgender) propositions Dave in some parts of Manila. And then high end fashion brands, ultra modern 3D LED displays, skyscrapers in other parts of the metro area.

Urban life expectations: exceeded!

Volunteering and the Environment

Through IVHQ, we signed up to volunteer for a week of mangrove restoration, which took place in a small village called Tigman, part of Arbolan on Palawan Island. It was one of the best matches for what we were looking for as part of our trip, where the kids could take place and we could learn and contribute something to the environment. 

The work involved planting mangroves seeds that had fallen from mangrove trees. The seed pods were large and easy to spot, and each one was fairly easy to replant, but the heat made each morning shift very tiring! We worked as a team of 6-8 people, along with the local coordinator every morning planting anywhere from approx 320 to our most productive last day of over 1200. It was satisfying to plant them and it felt good to help restore mangroves to protect the village.... But it left me wondering why locals weren't protecting their own village. 

In the afternoons, they had us doing other things which was good because most of us volunteers from the north couldn't handle an afternoon of working in the sun! One afternoon we made ecobricks by taking garbage such as styrofoam, cigarette butts and plastic packaging and cramming them into 2L plastic bottles. Each one took longer than expected to make because they had to be so solid as they would be used as building materials for a wall. It seemed like such a great way to clean up and upcycle garbage! We even saw them in use in a cement + ecobrick wall outside a school. 

However, some of the garbage came from the beach, which we helped clean up the day before. This dirty work was really discouraging... Apparently the volunteers would go every week to do this. Attempts to put garbage cans there didn't work because they were stolen! So it felt like people were leaving garbage all over, and expecting that volunteers would clean it up. It was frustrating to see this, and feel like our impact was nullified simply because it would be dirty again the next week. 

On the last afternoon, volunteers are usually encouraged to create an educational poster for the school or other part of the village. We didn't feel this would be impactful enough on actually driving change in how people behave with garbage, so we thought of something else. We got the idea to just start small and at least get people to throw out cigarette butts into bottles (the same bottles that would be made into ecobricks), as surely those wouldn't be stolen. And the neuroscience-based marketing person in me wanted to figure out how to get people to do it (without lecturing them about not littering). So we decided to create a sign with two bottles attached that asked people to vote for their favorite Filipino... Manny Pacquiao or Jose Rizal (my first idea was Bruno Mars, but one of the coordinators suggested their national hero Jose Rizal instead). We translated it into Tagalog, painted it, and mounted it at the beach where the fishermen hang out and smoke. A week after we installed it, other volunteers still in Tigman told me that it's being used! Small micro successes!

Volunteering expectations: met

Environmental treatment expectations: not met

Conclusion: Philippines for your next Travel or Vacation?

If you're looking for a beach, ocean, snorkeling, diving or general water activity vacation -- Philippines is a great destination. It's cheaper than Thailand, and not as crowded. Though you'll have to spend a few bucks on getting around to the different major areas if you want to see more than one place (which is worth it given the different activities to do in each place).

If you're looking for a cultural, historical experience as well, don't skip Manila. The guides on the islands don't talk about the history much and I believe it's a critical part of really understanding the people and current culture.