Trying Freedom

Since planning to leave Koh Tao, I’d already been excited about getting back to that island lifestyle I’d become accustomed to while there. I had already decided at that point that I needed to plan something to fulfil that and look forward to while I travelled between big cities in Thailand and Vietnam, and that plan was to visit the Philippines.

As the Philippines is made up of so many beautiful islands I was confident that it wasn’t going to be difficult to get back to that feeling, and I didn’t have to worry about exactly which islands I’d visit at that point but as it got closer to the trip I decided that the first stop would be to Siargao, mainly as I found out that it was also a sought after surfing destination and that’s something I’ve wanted to do more of since leaving Bali.

Thanks to the remoteness of the island, flight times aren’t ideal meaning I finished work at 11 pm in Hanoi, headed directly to the airport and landed on the island at around 5 pm the next day after a long layover in Manila trying to get some sleep where I could, no joy there though.

Leaving rainy Manila weather behind and stepping off the plane it was immediately all worth it, despite the small airport giving me flashbacks to Lukla in Nepal. I jumped into a shared taxi and headed to General Luna, home to Tourist Road which is pretty much everything you’d imagine and also home to a wide variety of accommodation options.

Most of the sights I found in online blogs are in fairly close proximity to each other, so before I’d even made it to my accommodation we got to see the Palm Tree viewpoint.

I was up bright and early the next day to head out surfing (as I had already arranged a surf lesson before I’d even arrived) but poor conditions meant I had to wait until the next day, so I decided to take a trip to the next best thing, which I was very surprised to find here, Siargao Wakepark.

I’d highly recommend giving it a go, surfing is still by far my preference but an experience non the less well worth a go, it also means that you don’t have to wake up at 5 am most mornings to catch good conditions, but the sunrise is definitely worth it.

I had originally planned to spend 3 days here before moving to the mainland to ensure I had reliable WiFi for work, however, I knew pretty much immediately that this was somewhere I should be spending more time, as I’ve learned from previous trips I shouldn’t fight that feeling, and after testing Starlink for the first 2 days I decided that it’d be good enough for me to be able to stay here, so I extended for another week.

The extra time meant I could go on an island hopping tour, visiting Guyam, Daku & Naked Island. They were all incredibly beautiful and paired with meeting a group of Filipino tourists and drinking together the local way, buying a few large bottles of Red Horse (the local extra-strong beer) and taking turns to drink from a glass you pass around – I can say it was a great day.

It was really refreshing to be surrounded by mainly local/Filipino tourists, who are all incredibly welcoming and kind people, something I’d hoped for as I’d already experienced it on a much smaller scale during a trip to Manila for work in 2019, and not recently to the same extent with the exception of Nepal.

There’s also a real sense here that tourism is supporting the local communities which is something I didn’t feel in Bali, mainly using that comparison as it relates to the island lifestyle. In fact, there’s a strong sense of community in general, taking a trip to Catangnan Bridge at sunset where people gather and do anything from just relaxing to setting up a Karaoke machine is a prime example, maybe not the Karaoke…

At this point, I was conscious of the fact that I only had a total of just over 3 weeks to spend in the Philippines and I wanted to maximise my time here, many locals had told me that I’d made the biggest mistake by starting a trip in Siargao as it’ll just mess up the rest of your plans but fortunately, I didn’t have anything set in stone.

As I was so comfortable here it didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that I’d spend my whole time here. At this point, I still hadn’t really experienced the northern parts of the island as you have everything you could need in General Luna, but there’s so much to explore which is nice in comparison to Koh Tao, which was much smaller.

I was invited to join my surf instructor and his friends on a trip to Burgos to surf and stay overnight in a beach hut. It genuinely felt like being in a different world to General Luna, there’s so much open space and very few people (in comparison) it’s easy to see why people living in General Luna can almost class this as a holiday, a pretty great one at that considering it’s only a 1-hour drive.

The rest of my time disappeared before I knew it, split between surfing, relaxing and spending time with new friends which also meant an introduction to the local rum, Tanduay, and a hangover I won’t forget anytime soon. I also bought myself a surfboard… good motivation and a promise to take a trip back soon, just need to get my skills up to scratch now.

I’m not ready to leave and I feel like a part of me is still on the island but for now, it’s onto the next stop, Tokyo, Japan.