Wedding Blog

Mr. Bee and I are in Manila right now! We’re boarding a flight tomorrow morning to a remote island called El Nido in the province of Palawan, where Mr. Bee’s parents live. EL Nido is a beautiful little island where Mr. Bee’s parents run a little b&b (with 100+ chickens!) and a cafe, so I’ll be back with plenty of fun pictures.

El Nido’s tourism is largely comprised of honeymooners, so I thought I’d share some pictures from the last time we were there 3 years ago. You have to fly through Manila to get to El Nido, so first, here’s a little glimpse of Manila!

The jeepney is the symbol of the Philippines.

They’re converted army jeeps with refurbished engines that are used as public transportation. Each jeepney is privately owned by the driver, but they have to apply for routes from the city. The back of the bus is open so people hop in and pass their money/change from passenger to passenger to the driver and back. The cost for a ride at the time was 7 pesos or around 13 cents.

In a cab, driving down the streets of Manila

While in Manila, Mr. Bee and I went on a city tour. Our first stop was a cemetary honoring American soldiers that lost their lives in World War II. This is the largest American military cemetary outside of the US.

The star headstones are for Jewish soldiers.

These squatters live along the railroad track, bordering the one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Manila. They’ve made homes out of discarded metal and have no running water, heat, or electricity. 

You can hear our tour guide explaining the situation here.

A monument of Rizal - the Philippines National Hero.

I love coconuts!

We stopped by a gift shop where foreigners receive 60% off Filipino goods like linens, pearls, and baskets. The shell necklace I’m wearing indicates I’m a foreigner because local vendors had been posing as foreigners, buying goods, and then reselling them in Chinatown.

Then it was over to Intramuros/Fort Santiago which served as the military headquarters of the Spanish, British, American, and Japanese regimes during World War II. Hundreds of men and women were jailed, tortured and executed here, including the country’s national hero Rizal.

We ate a lot of Japanese food because we stayed right next to Japantown.

After a couple of days in Manila, we boarded a small plane for an hour-long flight to El Nido. The Philippines are made up of over 7500 islands!

Here’s a video clip of the airplane just before we crashed.

Just kidding. It’s water vapor from the air-conditioning, but kinda freaky huh?  This is a cool picture - a shadow of the airplane inside a rainbow.

Some thoughts about Manila:

• Security is tight. Your bags get searched at every mall entrance, most places have an armed security guard and you see lots of people with big rifles. But I never felt unsafe the entire time I was there.
• There is so much poverty everywhere. I saw people bathing on street corners, children pressing their faces up against our car window begging for money.  It was pretty heartbreaking.
• There are many tours that take you outside of the city including volcanoes, waterfalls, etc.
• Service at every restaurant we went to was impeccable. The Filipino people are so polite and friendly.

I thought Manila was hot and humid, but it was scorching in El Nido and I sweat like an oinker the first day we arrived.

Crystal clean waters, white sandy beaches, and tons of coral.

We were greeted by these ladies singing in Tagalog upon arrival.

I found a bird’s nest in the airport.  You can hear Mr. Bee’s mom’s voice in the video. She’s tapping the nest to get them to come out.

A polliwog in the river…

There are tons of these lizards everywhere. Can you see three of them in the picture below?

We left the airport and headed to Mr. Bee’s parents’ place - a 20-minute walk from the town pictured below. There are no roads to their property, so we have to walk along the beach or through a trail in the forest.

These boats are called vankas pronounced bankas.

Low tide exposes the coral and you can catch crabs and octopus.

Coming up: Part 2 - Mr. Bee’s parents’ b&b!