It’s been a busy few weeks since my last post! A couple of my classes wrapped up the week before last with final projects and papers, and final exams are taking place this week and next. I’ve definitely been surprised at how academically demanding this semester has been, but I’ve been fortunate to get breaks from the school craziness by going on lots of small trips. NUS has a ‘reading week’ between the end of classes and the start of exams, so Martha Stewart, Sam, and I took advantage of this time off by going to the Philippines for a few days.
We started off with a long day of travel. We caught an early morning flight to Cebu City, took a taxi to the port, took a 2-hour ferry to Tagbilaran, then were picked up by our Airbnb host to head to our final destination (for the day): Panglao, Bohol. Our accommodations were so nice, especially after an exhausting few weeks of school. We stayed in a villa run by a sweet local family on Momo Beach. It was quaint and had a pool, beach chairs, and some of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen–what more can you ask for? We were a 15-minute tricycle ride from town, so it was nice having the option of a quiet beach or a more lively area. We went to Alona Beach for most of our meals and to buy fresh fruit from stands along the road. We probably each ate about three mangos per day. I know that seems excessive, but they were just too good not to.
Our host was extremely helpful and sent us out on an island-hopping tour during our first full day. We snorkeled and explored several surrounding islands. Of course, I forgot to take pictures that day. Trust me, though, everywhere we went was beautiful. We spent our second–and last–full day in Bohol relaxing on Alona Beach.
The next morning, we headed to Cebu City. We visited Magellan’s Cross, Basilica Santo Nino, Fort San Pedro, and a museum, but the highlight of Cebu was (of course) the food. Since our first night in Panglao, we had basically eaten pork and rice for every meal–and we loved it. Filipinos are that good at cooking pork. At the top of our list for Cebu was Zubuchon–the restaurant that sells the “best pig ever!” according to Anthony Bourdain. I can’t definitively say that it’s the best I’ve ever had, but it was pretty delicious. The other food highlight was Larsian, an outdoor food court that sells barbecued meat and seafood. The food is amazing, but there’s a catch: you don’t get any utensils. You receive one plastic glove with your meal and are left to figure out how in the world you can manage to eat a whole meal one-handed. It was definitely an experience, and I’d say it was worth the struggle.
Our last day, we took a 4am car ride to Oslob, where the main event for the day would be swimming with whale sharks. We were greeted with a breakfast of mango sticky rice (which they claimed was a local dish although I’ve always thought it was Thai) and hot chocolate. Afterward, we got in the water for our 30 minutes with the whale sharks. We rented a GoPro to document this experience, which may or may not have been a good idea. Our guide acted as our photographer and constantly pushed us underwater to snap pictures of us with the whale sharks, which resulted in lots of funny pictures but not many in-person sightings.
We spent the rest of the day on Sumilon Island, where we just hung out by the pool and at the beach all day. It was the perfect place to spend the day before coming back to final exams.
Well, I (barely) survived my first final yesterday, and it’s about time to get back to studying. I have eight days left in Singapore, so I’m squeezing in the rest of my semester to-do list during my study breaks. It’s hard to believe that my time abroad is coming to an end, but it’s been a semester filled with incredible travel opportunities that I’m so lucky to have experienced.
From the South to Southeast Asia 