Description

Hello + welcome to episode 160! In this captivating episode of the Winging It Travel Podcast, host James Hammond welcomes Leah Arao, a Filipino-American traveller + co-host of the Ticket 2 Anywhere podcast. Join them as they dive deep into Leah's fascinating travel experiences and recent journey to the Philippines, where she reconnects with her heritage + uncovers the hidden gems of this stunning archipelago. Leah's stories from Balabac, an untouched paradise in Palawan, are reminiscent of Thailand decades ago, hinting at its potential as the next big travel hotspot for adventure seekers and wanderlust-filled backpackers.

As they explore Leah's travel anecdotes, listeners will gain valuable insights into the logistics of navigating the Philippines, including the essential need for registered tours in certain regions and the unique challenges of getting around the islands. Leah shares her personal travel planning tips, making this episode a treasure trove of travel advice for those looking to embark on their own adventures. They cover all the budget discussion points, too!

The conversation also highlights the vibrant Filipino culture, particularly through its rich culinary traditions, showcasing how travel can be a gateway to understanding and appreciating diverse cultures. Leah emphasizes the importance of travel for personal growth and self-discovery, making a case for why everyone should consider stepping outside their comfort zones, even if it means starting small in their solo travel journeys.

Listeners can expect to hear about Leah's adventures as a backpacker, her experiences with hitchhiking, and the camaraderie found within the vibrant backpacker community in the Philippines. This episode is packed with travel inspiration, making it an essential listen for anyone interested in adventure travel or looking for travel recommendations.

So, if you're ready to embrace the spirit of winging it and discover the beauty of the Philippines through Leah's eyes, tune in to this episode for an engaging travel conversation that promises to inspire your next adventure. This episode is your ticket to exploring the world, one story at a time.

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Transcription

• Speaker #0

  I actually haven't talked about this on my social media yet at all, but last November I went down to the very, very south of Palawan called Balabak.

• Speaker #1

  Okay.

• Speaker #0

  It's completely untouched. So it's interesting because they tell you repeatedly, like your guides, you can only go down to the south with tours, registered tours. You can't go on your own.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, really? Wow.

• Speaker #0

  Yep. And because it was formerly part of like an area that was kind of inhabited by like Muslim terrorists.

• Speaker #1

  Right.

• Speaker #0

  And so foreigners just like weren't allowed. And it's like literally even from like Puerto Princesa, which is where the main airport is in Palawan. It's like another five hour drive down. And then to like even the more beautiful islands around Balabac. Balabac is a region. It's another like three hour boat ride. So I did this and really incredibly untouched, incredibly untouched. But there I was like, I feel like. This was Thailand like 30, 40 years ago, and I feel like Malabok is going to become the next big thing in the next like 10, 20 years.

• Speaker #1

  Wow. Welcome to the Wingin'It Travel podcast with me, James Hammond. Every Monday, I'll be joined by guests to talk about their travel stories, travel tips, backpacking advice, and so much more. Are you a backpacker, gap year student, or simply someone who loves to travel? Then this is the podcast for you, designed to inspire you to travel. There'll be stories to tell, tips to share, and experiences to inspire. Welcome to the show. Hello and welcome to this week's episode. I'm joined by my friend Leah Aro, who co-hosts the Ticket to Anywhere podcast and is an avid traveler. Leah is Filipino-American. We're going to dive into her heritage in the Philippines for places to visit, the must-dos, and any other hidden gems. I recently met Leah at Travelcom for the first time. It's great to meet fellow-minded travelers and travel podcasters like herself. Leah has been traveling, it seems, like all year. So, Leah, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

• Speaker #0

  I'm good. I'm actually, I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. And I'm actually in the middle of a four-month stint at home in Los Angeles. So, pretty rooted for the summer.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. I thought you were traveling all year.

• Speaker #0

  I know. It felt like, I feel like the...

• Speaker #1

  lately the first half of each year has been jam-packed with travel yeah because when i left you you're like going to europe mexico i couldn't get trapped uh so i sounded like i was on the run really yeah what from tell us where you're based right now

• Speaker #0

  Uh, Los Angeles, LA baby. And it's crazy because at the time of recording, the Olympics are happening, Paris Olympics, but we're also, they're talking a lot about the LA Olympics because that's where 2028 is going to be for the summer Olympics. Yeah. I'm actually going to try to volunteer. So we'll see how that goes.

• Speaker #1

  Sure. It's going to be too hot.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, it's going to be sweltering because it'll be this time of the year, but it's okay.

• Speaker #1

  I'm suffering right now, and it's 26, 27 degrees in Vancouver. And you're like, oh, that's fine.

• Speaker #0

  I have a very high heat tolerance, really high heat tolerance.

• Speaker #1

  What is the cusp of too hot for you then?

• Speaker #0

  It's probably over like 105, which is like 40 Celsius.

• Speaker #1

  Shit, man. Wow,

• Speaker #0

  that is. That's when it gets very uncomfortable for me. Up until then, I'll be like, okay, this is like. hot hot hot this is like too hot too hot like after 105 I'll get headaches but you have air con though we do we do because I'm in the desert of Los Angeles the high desert so we need it we definitely need it yeah 100% okay

• Speaker #1

  I'd like to delve into the backstory of my guests and a bit of early travel wanderlust so where did you grow up initially and was there any travel as part of the upbringing

• Speaker #0

  I'm actually from Los Angeles. I'm from a suburb of LA. I was born and raised in the suburb of LA and traveled for me growing up with my mother, stepdad, and my sisters, and sometimes my brother, who was a lot older than me. So he stopped going on the trips at one point, you know, and we would take road trips all the time. You would actually like love this, James. We, every other year, we'd like take the car and... road trip somewhere so fun fact i've been to every single national park west of the mississippi river okay like growing up um and then every other year in between those road trip years we'd fly somewhere whether that be like alaska hawaii wherever and all of it was pretty domestic oh no we did canada a bunch um i know it doesn't But sometimes sometimes those flying years, we'd like fly to a place and then road trip around from there. So one of my favorite ones was when I think I was 18, just turned 18. So it was like the summer after my senior year. We flew into Boston with my family and then we road trip like all throughout Cape Cod, Rhode Island, Connecticut, up to New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and then back down through the west, the west side of. of Massachusetts. That was really cool. We saw like three Hall of Fames in that trip. The baseball, the baseball one, the basketball one, glass blowing museum. That's not a Hall of Fame. Cape Cod chip factory. Yeah. But we did all that kind of stuff. A lot of road trips growing up, a lot of Vegas growing up because LA only one hour from Vegas. A lot of Disney Disneyland growing up as well.

• Speaker #1

  How far is that drive? Is that one hour? It's not one hour, right?

• Speaker #0

  Vegas to LA flight is an hour, but driving is about four.

• Speaker #1

  Is that an easy drive or do people just fly?

• Speaker #0

  We used to drive when we thought we would like save money and like college or we wanted a car. We wanted to go places like outside of Vegas. But I feel like as you become adults and you're not traveling with kids, most people just fly.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, that's fair enough. And before you come to adulthood, was there any international trip that's not Canada?

• Speaker #0

  No, isn't that weird?

• Speaker #1

  No, no, that's totally fine. Yeah, yeah. I'm keen to see where it starts, right? Because you must get to adulthood. So what are you thinking in terms of travel? Are you always thinking about maybe going on a trip? Was it in your mind? Was it even possible? Maybe like college, I guess.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  A bit more freedom. But obviously you need money. So how did you think about travel in that sense?

• Speaker #0

  I wanted to study abroad in college, so I applied. And actually, this is I'm going to tell you a big secret, which now all your listeners are going to know because I never tell anyone about this because I'm kind of ashamed. But it's OK. It worked out 10 years later. I applied for study abroad program in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I went to Cal State Long Beach out here in the L.A. area. And I was dating someone at the time who, you know, I thought I was going to marry. We'd been dating for like two, three years. But I was like, I still want to do this trip. Strong, independent woman. Like, I can be away from my boyfriend for a semester, right? And turns out I couldn't because I had already decided, you know what? I don't think I want to go. And the decision took a bit longer than I thought it would. So when the decision came back, they actually were like, actually, you're accepted into the program. And I literally didn't respond. I didn't reply because I'm like, I'm not going to go because I want to be here with my boyfriend. I literally gave up traveling semester abroad in college to be with a man.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, dear.

• Speaker #0

  Ladies listening to the podcast, don't do that. Don't ever, ever, ever do that. Take the trip instead. I mean, it worked out because when I backpacked South America, like seven years later, Argentina was the first place I went for six months. So I did get end up getting my time back in Argentina. It was just in a different phase of my life.

• Speaker #1

  And the boyfriend was no more.

• Speaker #0

  I assume the boyfriend was no more no yeah big lesson big lesson big I was so young and I was like I'm gonna marry him why would I leave him no just leave just go just go on the trip that kind of reminds me of uh I don't know if you watch the what Americans would call the soccer

• Speaker #1

  I call I call football in um in Europe right so the Euros has happened in Spain one and uh that 16 17 year old from Spain Lamao right he's decent he was at the end with his like I guess at the time girlfriend on their trophy parade, right? And then there's a story out two days later that they're broken up. I'm like,

• Speaker #0

  now you got me wanting to Google this. I'm like, wait, they were so cute.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. And I think she was on TikTok and sitting on some guy's lap. He wasn't happy with it and they just broke up. But I'm like, that young, you don't need to have what you think is like a girlfriend or boyfriend at the time in those photos for something as big as that. Because the likelihood is not going to be.

• Speaker #0

  there in 10 years time right so just 100 there's a huge error and now he's got like this excalibur and it wasn't even there that long wait i am cracking up that you thought of this because when i saw them like on the pitch taking celebratory photos yeah i was like get out of the photo i was like you who knows how long you guys are gonna last because i'm not gonna lie like fame changes people he's

• Speaker #1

  16

• Speaker #0

  17. i know he's 16. fame changes people like Case in point, Jeremy Allen White from The Bear. Him and his long-term wife broke up. Now we're getting into celebrity gossip. Oh,

• Speaker #1

  God. I didn't know that.

• Speaker #0

  I'm just like, you're 16, but I literally was like, why are you guys taking photos together of his huge championship win?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. So I guess the lesson is, if you're younger, just...

• Speaker #0

  pinch of salt so you need I was young at that time too I was like 20 when I made that decision and like that yeah I don't tell a lot of people that because it was like big regret I don't tell a lot of people that because it was like a regret for like six seven years and then I fixed it so I was like ah yeah you know I wouldn't call it a regret it's just a lesson learned I think maybe

• Speaker #1

  100% regret is quite hard I mean you went back it's like yeah Argentina is always going to be there right if you didn't go when you're 20. But you always had it in your mind that you wanted to go. And I'm sure in the future it would have gone anyway.

• Speaker #0

  I think the bigger part was like that I did it for a guy.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  I think that was the thing. It's like I didn't do it because family needed help at home or like an amazing job opportunity. It was because I didn't want to leave my boyfriend at the time. I've gotten smart since then. Don't worry.

• Speaker #1

  That's good to hear. Okay. So that kind of leads me to the next question. After that scenario, was there a trip?

• Speaker #0

  that maybe fueled the wanderlust in terms of you wanted to go further and for longer yeah definitely I mean all throughout college too I would travel to Vegas a lot with my friends which I mean that I did that as a kid growing up so it was just different now we were like legal to drink we were doing it on our own without parents so that was always really fun um and then right when I graduated from university so about two years after I didn't respond to the Buenos Aires acceptance and I took like a three week trip to Spain with, I mean, sorry, Spain. Whoa, now I'm getting like three years ahead of myself. I took a three week trip to Greece. Same, same, right? Yeah. Spain.

• Speaker #1

  Your words, not mine.

• Speaker #0

  I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Yeah, took a three week trip to Greece with EF College Break, who's now like EF Ultimate Break or whatnot. Yeah. So it was a group tour, but I didn't know. anyone going on the tour and I thought like cool I get to follow a schedule but like it's super new and I'm going alone I don't know anyone here I'm going to be mixing with a bunch of randos and it was like Greek island hopping in June right after university graduation and it was amazing so that was definitely the start of everything big and that's how we like kicked off the summer.

• Speaker #1

  What did you learn from that trip do you think culturally or the way travel is or did you like the freedom of it like anything you learned?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I definitely learned. I think I had been gearing up mentally to be like, I want to start like traveling on my own and traveling internationally. And I learned that I could do it pretty well. And that as a roommate, I was never the problem. It's always everyone else. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. My roommate was, she was interesting. Like, we're good roommates, but like, I don't think we were like friends in real life, but that's okay. You're just on a trip for three days. Yeah, I was like, oh, I can do this. I can go solo around the world.

• Speaker #1

  What happened after that? I mean, Spain, you said three years later. I mean, what's the gap here? Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  no, I'm pushing that. It was like eight months later.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, okay. Fair enough. Yeah, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  So, of course, two months after that Greece trip, I started working the corporate world. You know, I wanted to climb that little corporate ladder. I actually got really lucky, I think, at the time. this was back in the day when that's that was the american dream right like travel a little bit and then like boom graduate college start your corporate job yeah and that all worked out really perfectly for me because it was basically the end of summer and i had started my corporate job i was like this is so great i had my three months of summer now i can i can make money yeah um and then yeah um over christmas and new years i went to spain to visit a friend And that I went alone, but I met my friend and all her friends there celebrating New Year's in Spain where they had all these cool customs and traditions. And then after that, yeah, I went to the Dominican Republic alone. I went to throughout the years, went to Nicaragua alone, went on another Euro trip with another group tour. And then I was still working corporate. So there were still restrictions on like time off and whatnot. And so I could take I was taking all the trips we can and the company I was with at the time. And then during those four years that I just told you all the trips about, I had moved to Vegas in between that. And then the company in Vegas, like one year in, they switched to unlimited PTO. So I started taking more trips, more weekend trips. Yeah. And then it was about 2015 when I went on a trip to Nicaragua with a friend and I was like. I don't think I'm going to work in corporate anymore. And I've already been working in corporate for like five years.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  So it was like an early to mid-career point where I'm like... I don't even want to be in advertising for the rest of my life, you know? And then, like, I had loved traveling, seen so many people do it different ways. And this was when, like, blogging was still really, really big as well. Yeah. And it was on this Nicaragua trip where I brought a suitcase, which was really embarrassing. Like, I brought, like, a huge one, James. Like, not a carry-on. I brought a massive suitcase, and every single driver was making fun of me.

• Speaker #1

  A big no-no.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. I brought a suitcase and you're going to die because I brought I also brought a sweater. Don't ask me why I brought a sweater.

• Speaker #1

  Did it quite? Oh,

• Speaker #0

  my gosh. I was like, why did I bring a sweater? Yeah. And yeah, I was on that trip. I was discussing with my friend who's still one of my really good friends to these days. We talk a lot about like life and career and business. So he's the perfect buddy to be like, do I want to make this shift in my life? Right. So when I got back from that trip, I booked another one to Europe right away. And it was set to leave in like three months. So I had that to look forward to. Nice. But when I was back in Vegas, I was like, you know what? I think I'm going to get certified to teach English. And so I spent all my free time. This was like that year was really transformative for me because I spent all my free time getting certified to teach English. I changed my money habits because I was like, I need to save. If I want to do a year in South America and use my Spanish that I got a minor in, half my degree. is for my Spanish minor. I was like, I need to make some really, really big changes. So I stopped going out a lot. I stopped shopping. I stopped doing my nails. And like, this was all stuff. I was so, I was like the typical poster child for like over consumerism. Yes. It was disgusting.

• Speaker #1

  A lot of people are, a lot of people do.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. And I was young and these were, you know, the economy was. pretty solid. It was like bouncing back from the recession, right? I was young. I was, you know, working hard. I was like treating myself. I was in Vegas. But I was like, no, no, no. I need more than this corporate life and buying all these things. But like turning that switch on my habits and like having this bigger goal of like, wait, I want to backpack South America for a year really helped me like fine tune my spending. And, you know, dialing down on like things that were important to me. So it was kind of crazy how I like shifted my life. And like it was like eight to 11 months that, yeah, I was like, wait, I want to do this. And then luckily, towards the end of me about to leave, my department actually got outsourced in Vegas. OK, so I took that as a sign. And I'm like, wait, this has this is a sign, right? Like this is me going to South America at the end of this year and like backpacking for at least a year. Right. The first person I call is my mom. And she's like, yeah, I definitely think this is like all good luck for you. Yeah,

• Speaker #1

  I've got a few questions about corporate before we go into that. Yeah. Unlimited PTO. Now, what does that even mean? I know the phrase unlimited pay time off. But people be thinking, what? You just have time off all the time. How does that actually work?

• Speaker #0

  Unlimited PTO as long as your manager approves your PTO. Right.

• Speaker #1

  So it could be never.

• Speaker #0

  Correct. And the problem is, and this is like the big discourse about unlimited PTO in the U.S., is like, one, when you leave the company, they don't have to pay you out for anything. Right? Two, unlimited PTO, psychologically, it's like using kind of reverse psychology. It's like, we're going to give you as much PTO as you want and you think you need. But in reality, the workload is probably going to be so much and they'll probably guilt trip you and not actually approve half your time off that you're not going to require. be requesting as much PTO as you probably could. So to like manage, it's all manager dependent. They could be, or maybe this is like my third point, I guess, like it's all manager dependent. They could be like, no, I don't want two people out that month.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, of course. Yeah. It was up to them. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. And then what is the threshold? Because I, of course, because I was loving travel so much during the time with that company that was like unlimited PTO, like I would request it was almost like I took every other Friday off because I would go on like long weekend trips like I didn't abuse the policy but I used it for sure what was the average you think then that people did get time off paid do you think I mean I think still people I think well okay I'm talking about like at a time I think still people just used like their two weeks a year two and a half weeks a year when I booked my three weeks to Europe like after that Nicaragua trip I swear that was the longest anyone in my building had taken off at once you

• Speaker #1

  Oh, wow.

• Speaker #0

  I swear. Yeah. And then like a month and a half later, after I came back from that, I took like 10 days off for my sister's bachelorette. That sounds crazy because it was also in Vegas. But I was like, I'm just going to take a couple extra days. Well, the bachelorette itself was five days and then I like took a few more extra days.

• Speaker #1

  Bloody hell. So your manager was quite lenient then by the sounds of it.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, yeah. So that's the thing. Yeah, my manager was incredibly lenient. So I got very, very lucky. Also, I was in one of the departments where we were able to work remotely if we just let them know beforehand.

• Speaker #1

  Right now before the trend, you're kind of already doing it, I suppose.

• Speaker #0

  A bit, yeah. Like we had so many meetings that I'd end up going to the office a lot or like the clients, the properties offices. But Um, if I was like, Hey, I'm just going to work from home Thursday, Friday, like it was Monday and it'd be like Thursday, if I'm just going to work from home, like they'd be like, yeah, sure. So I got really lucky.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. And corporate world, you hear this all the time. You put it here on your podcast. I definitely hear it on mine. It does have a shelf life for a lot of people. So you said four years, I think there before you started to think, well, five years, I mean, some podcasters that we know probably were in finance or whatever, and they quit after five, six, 10 years. Right. So. There must come a point to people where they think things aren't as needy as what they think, what corporate can give you. So I wonder why people stay in it. They must not be interested in experiences.

• Speaker #0

  I'll tell you why. It's the golden handcuffs. Yeah. That's exactly why. Because, I mean, let's be honest. We all want, personally, we all want security and we want our lives to be easy. We want. consistent paycheck to like fulfill our hierarchy of needs right and like that's only going to come if we're steadily if we know we're working for other people we can get a consistent paycheck every other week you know and it ties into your bills

• Speaker #1

  isn't it because if you commit i guess to big debts could be a house could be a car whatever it is you're kind of committed on that's it unless you sell off early i suppose

• Speaker #0

  yeah interesting yeah i do think a lot of people in corporate are i mean i think now now there's there's a big differentiator between like being actually miserable and like having a job just to live because like you know it used to be maybe 10 years ago it's like you should love your job if you are in love with your job you're not doing what you should be doing but not everyone like a very small percentage of people can live like that it's like we all need to you make money to sustain ourselves yeah and like you don't have to be obsessed with your job or be doing the perfect thing you want to do you just have to be respected and treated well and paid fairly you know and not like hate it every day but you know now there's like i don't know there's there's like groups of people that are like okay i'm okay with my job i'm fine i get enough vacation blah blah and there's the people who like are actually miserable yes yeah it's tough it's tough yeah i was reading a book where it said

• Speaker #1

  14% of people love their job, 14%. And I think 24%, 25% hate their job.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, that's a lot.

• Speaker #1

  So there's a big lot in the middle who are just like, yeah. But even that, I mean, get too deep here. But if you're in the middle and it's, I don't know, 40 hours a week, 40 hours a week is, eh, that's a lot of your week, isn't it? It is. The 14%, I guess, are winning, I assume, because...

• Speaker #0

  I honestly think that 14%, most of them are lucky.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  I do believe you create your own luck. Like you set up these opportunities for yourself, right? Yeah, hard work,

• Speaker #1

  et cetera.

• Speaker #0

  Most people, I mean, how many of your friends, you look at your circle of friends, so you have five friends, eight friends, really good friends, like are obsessed with what they do.

• Speaker #1

  This is what I talk to my partner about is how many people do we know who we generally think love their job?

• Speaker #0

  Right.

• Speaker #1

  But there's a problem here, right? They could say they love their job. Yeah. But they will say that because they're defensive about their choice they've made. So my question is one step further. It's like, well, people can say what they want. So my next question is, well, tomorrow, if you didn't have to do that job, would you do it? So an example of this is if podcasting was paying a nice livable wage, not like huge, just livable wage. And then I got loads of money tonight and tomorrow they said. you don't have to podcast and again i'd still do it because i think it's fun to talk to people and release some content right yeah but if you're doing a crappy job like teaching or something i'm like oh he wants to be a teacher so i think like that's tough some people will say they love their job but i don't actually think deep down they do and that's probably reflected in that 14 i'd imagine right

• Speaker #0

  right yeah and i i also think that's dependent on like people's uh definition of loving your job right yes

• Speaker #1

  very subjective. Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  exactly.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Okay. And a few more questions. Before we get into Philippines, I want to touch on your year trip as well, because that's not my notes, but you mentioned it. So we have some questions. How many languages can you speak?

• Speaker #0

  One and a half. I speak English. And like I mentioned, I minored in Spanish at university. So definitely enough to get by. So even though I grew up. I'm Filipino-American. My parents immigrated here from the U.S. My parents divorced and remarried. So I actually grew up in a household where only one parent spoke Tagalog, which is the national language of the Philippines. Only one parent spoke it fluently. And what happens, and I'm seeing this in my sister and my brother-in-law, what happens when only one parent speaks it is the kids don't really end up learning it because it's much easier when both speak it. parents can speak it so then everyone in the house can speak it yeah so my siblings and i um didn't learn tagalog growing up which i think is really unfortunate it's really sad but i will say i mean we'll get to this later but everyone in the english speak or everyone in the philippines speaks english so it's it's quite easy to get around no just english yeah there's more there's more on the spanish colonization later but sure Yeah, I definitely speak way more Spanish than I ever will Tagalog. And like people are like, do you want to learn? I'm like, listen, I'm in my mid 30s. You know how hard it is. And I don't even have a full grasp on Spanish, which is my second language. Right. I consider it my second language because I literally know maybe like 10 words in Tagalog. I can't I cannot string a whole sentence together.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  And I'm just like, I'm in my mid 30s. You know how hard and I'm just not. What do they call them? Polyglot or polyglots.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  I'm not one of them. It's hard for me to learn languages. And everyone in the Philippines speaks English. So what this sounds so horrible. I hope I'm not, you know, making any Filipino Americans out there ashamed. But I'm like, what is the point of me learning when it's only going to cause me tears and stress?

• Speaker #1

  Again, another thing I read, I don't know if all this is bullshit I'm reading, but apparently language is the classic example to learn something new. So it could be language. It could be a sport, maybe whatever. I think where it starts getting really difficult is 33, 34.

• Speaker #0

  Great. I'm past that.

• Speaker #1

  I'm just past that as well. So I'm like, oh shit, it gets harder now. So I think the...

• Speaker #0

  I believe that.

• Speaker #1

  Must be something to do with the brain function, right? Where it becomes a little bit harder. But maybe that's an excuse. I'm not sure. But my Spanish is not brilliant, but I need to get a move on because Central America in November is going to need it.

• Speaker #0

  I think Spanish for me is a fight or flight response. Like, I swear it turns on. And I feel like...

• Speaker #1

  I think so as well. I agree.

• Speaker #0

  If you love the language, like, I feel like we'd be similar in this. Like, if you love the language, I feel like it'll just turn on for you.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, so me and my friend had this sort of experiment, really, in Spain a few years ago, where I would say he learned more Spanish and knew more and could understand, like, the sentences and what that means. But I was a bit more bolder. So I would maybe... be a bit more brave in speaking to someone and maybe even understanding the response whereas he's a bit more shy with that yeah so like he afterwards could say what he said but in the time it's like well i need it there right and he's no now like i just started getting 10 sentences together if i ask a question what are they going to say what are the possible words i might recognize that's how i learned it yeah i

• Speaker #0

  feel like that's you learn faster if you're like you versus your friend yes because it's more real i mean yeah 100 100 and i think well i don't know about spent like spanish speakers in spain but my experience with latin america is like they really appreciate you trying which i like so so you'll have a great time in central america because i love that they'll be like oh your spanish is really good i

• Speaker #1

  swear to you they'll say that okay well i need to do some more learning i think just to get a few questions on them a little app our app okay I don't know.

• Speaker #0

  Duolingo.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  No, I don't know, because their sentences are like, the cat went to the library. We're going to use...

• Speaker #1

  It's always pointless, isn't it? I understand maybe from a... It builds up, but I want to know what he's going to respond to when I ask him, like, is this bus going to San Salvador? What's he going to say? Well, probably C or no. Yeah. No. Because I'm planning to take public transport and stuff in El Salvador over land, I'm going to need to converse in Spanish, right? So I need to start learning some sentences or relearning. I know some words, so it's fine.

• Speaker #0

  I feel like when you're traveling, it's so like traveling, traveling so nice because you need to learn, you need to know like, like directions, times.

• Speaker #1

  Yes.

• Speaker #0

  Foods.

• Speaker #1

  Numbers.

• Speaker #0

  Numbers. Yeah, exactly.

• Speaker #1

  I'm good at foods. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. Cervezas.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Atun, which is tuna.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Tequila. No, I think. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Pupusa is where you're going for sure. Yeah, I think it'll all come together for you.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  I'm not worried about that. You said that story about you and your friend in Spain. You already have a willingness to be more outgoing about it. I think you'll be great.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, and I think my only advice, I'm not a potty clock for any second, right? But in their response, because I think that the real hard part is not actually asking the question, is the response.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, of course.

• Speaker #1

  Because they're going to understand what you're saying and give you a response, right? And it could be a sentence you've never heard of. But you just need to latch onto that one word you know and just quickly think what that word is. And I think once you know that, it makes it easier.

• Speaker #0

  Or you can just, when they have their response, you can just have Google Voice on to capture what they said.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, it'll be good.

• Speaker #1

  Okay, we'll do Philippines. Then we'll come to your backpacking trip. I know it might be...

• Speaker #0

  the wrong way around but want to get stuck in the philippines because i've never been i've got some facts about you about that as well i'm gonna do some of your travels after that so philippines is the only country i've not been to in southeast asia shut up so that's an apology straight off the bat wait why why i i'm curious i feel like i asked you why at travelcon but uh remind me why and if there's if there's no reason then you can also say that but i'm curious there's two answers one's one's gonna annoy you promise for you i won't for you i will not get annoyed i'll just take everything in stride okay well at the time i was in indonesia and i thought philippines same same don't need to

• Speaker #1

  go okay and then the second part of that is i just never got around to it but it's on my list Actually, that was in Borneo, which is obviously half and half Malaysia and Indonesia. But we had a chance because just over the water to go and we're like, nah.

• Speaker #0

  Okay.

• Speaker #1

  But anyway, I thought it'd be better to start with off that bombshell.

• Speaker #0

  That's so funny.

• Speaker #1

  Maybe let's talk about the geography of the country because what I find amazing about the Philippines is, it's a bit like Indonesia actually, I'm not trying to wind you up. Lots of islands, lots of places. It's overwhelming to... So how would you describe the Philippines?

• Speaker #0

  Very overwhelming. Well, I also think, okay, the Philippines has about 7,600 plus islands. Yeah. But they also consider like some uninhabited islands of land and island.

• Speaker #1

  Okay.

• Speaker #0

  And I'm like, I get it. You can be uninhabited. But I'm like, if it, I'm like, they've pointed to things in the middle of the ocean as we're like sailing by. They're like, that's an island. And they'd say the name of it. And I'm like, that thing is the size of my house back in California. Like. It's, you know, tiny in comparison to like an actual landmass. I'm like, what are you guys calling islands? And like a lot of you can't even like go up to it. You know, there's no beach. There's no like easy entry. Like it's just like rocks in the middle of the ocean. Yeah. Tons of islands. Where do you even go when people are training, planning trips to the Philippines? I think you hear about the classic Palawan, Boracay, Cebu. behold you hear about the classic places and those are all honestly excellent places to start and even as like a traveler there like i've been to those places and i want to go back to some of them and then some of the popular ones i haven't been so i don't care if people are like that's so touristy i'm like i'm still gonna go i'm a tourist like i didn't grow up there my parents did yeah first to their country you know so um but to the reason i asked you why you didn't you feel like going to the Philippines when you had the chance and you were in Southeast Asia is because I think the biggest problem people are fighting is that it takes too long to get everywhere in the Philippines. And I'm not going to lie, it does. You have to fly or you got to take a ferry, which means you also got to be good with long distances over quite rough seas. So, and in that case, you have to fly. And if you buy the flight too late, it could get pricey. Okay. Yeah. My solution. to island hopping in the philippines or visiting the philippines is honestly do not go for less than three weeks right okay and because i'm a slow traveler you know um that's what i i coined myself as i'm like three weeks i'd probably go to like maybe four places max max because i'm like i want to spend especially in the philippines especially in place like an island nation you don't know when you're gonna go back again yeah it's like why not spend four or five days in each place and then like on each island some of these islands are so massive they have like three to four places you want to see and then when you yeah

• Speaker #1

  that down that means you're only spending one night in a place no you don't want to do that so no and i was actually going to go this november ah okay changed my mind for a few reasons one being the flights costs to asia are ridiculous at the minute so i'm like i am sticking to central america time which is basically pst or est right um and it's short time to get back and stuff like that yeah absolutely i also we mentioned this earlier the the reason I asked about Spanish is because I, I think, am I right in saying that it was colonized by the Spanish first?

• Speaker #0

  Oh yes.

• Speaker #1

  And then the Americans, second world war and stuff like that.

• Speaker #0

  The Japanese.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Uh, I think, I think maybe, you know, the Brits had colonized them for a little bit.

• Speaker #1

  Already. We got stuck in, did we?

• Speaker #0

  I mean, you guys stick your business into every country. No, you better keep that part in there.

• Speaker #1

  Well, you know, don't feel left out.

• Speaker #0

  Exactly. They're like, hey, we want to join the party too.

• Speaker #1

  Do you know what the biggest, I don't want to go off on a tangent here, right? Do it. This almost sums up the whole thicknesses of colonization, right? Imagine a Second World War where we obviously colonized before Japan came along. Singapore, Malaysia, or Malay, I think even Thailand as well, right? Japanese come along. much stronger we give up no can't deal with that we'll surrender they take over for a bit and then when they lose we just roll straight back in i'm like you didn't even fight the first time around and you had your audacity to go back and say yep we're coming back how about just leave it to the people there unreal unbelievable so funny oh my god we laugh about it now right oh man but yeah so the spaniards

• Speaker #0

  colonized the philippine oh there's so much discourse about this online too right um they're the spaniards colonized the philippines for 330 years isn't that insane there's a rule that started in like maybe the late 1500s or early 1600s um that's why i always tell people it's like if they look asian but their last name is spanish they're filipino yeah yeah because i can't tell you how many of my cousins are like their surnames are like flores is de cruz man cruz credo pineda like spanish last names you would hear in spain yeah or like just like our latin american brothers and sisters you know so um but yeah so they mixed with the indigenous people they did a lot of killing and taking over the land um there are some spots of the parts of the philippines that actually still speak broken spanish okay it's kind of crazy And the language, the official language of the Philippines is, well, it's two languages, Tagalog, also known as Filipino. So either way you say it is correct. Yeah. And English. English is a national language, which is funny because English is not even a national language of the United States of America. But it's a national language in the Philippines. And that's because of the Americans, which we can get into in a second. But there's a lot of words in Tagalog that are literally the exact word in Spanish, which is really cool. Yeah. So when my parents came to visit me in Argentina, my mom and aunties were actually able to negotiate with the street vendors because they like the fruits and vegetables and certain words and numbers are the same in Tagalog.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, wow. OK. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Where does Americans come into this then? I was watching a documentary the other night about the World War Two and the Asia part and Americans were already there at that point. So where did they come in?

• Speaker #0

  The Spanish American. war where basically the u.s and the spanish were fighting for control over the philippines and the americans won and this was the beginning of the 1900s and they said english everywhere health care education english that's why they've literally been speaking english in the philippines for over 120 years my parents literally learned it growing up so when they came to the u.s in the 60s and 70s which is when a lot of asians were coming over because of like civil unrest right in different parts of asia um they were easily able to get jobs because they speak pretty good English.

• Speaker #1

  And I imagine your parents'grandparents maybe remember that time, early 1900s maybe?

• Speaker #0

  Oh yeah, but I don't think my parents remember their grandparents really.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, they're not. Okay. Fair enough.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. I haven't talked too much about them. Yeah. But that, yeah, that was a long time ago. I mean, but it's just interesting because, you know, also I just learned this recently that Philippines is one of the only places that the US has colonized.

• Speaker #1

  Yes. They're late to the game, weren't they? Yeah. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Which is why I was like, oh my gosh, that's true. So there's there's really I mean, there's really still strong connections, if you will, between the US and the Philippines. And I mean, now we're getting into like the history part of it. But there was like, you know, like there was agreements to like bring a lot of nurses over from the Philippines to the US, which is how you'll see a lot of it's like a like a joke that a lot of Filipinos in the US are like in nursing. But that's like she came over as. Yeah, yeah, of course. Exactly. So, yeah. But yeah, there's like a connection there. It's just, it's interesting because when I go visit the Philippines, like everyone can speak English.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, crazy. There you go.

• Speaker #0

  I mean, it's easy to get around.

• Speaker #1

  So based on travel portion, this comes to conversation, that's great because if you're an English spoken traveler, you're not gonna have any problems with language. Nope. So I want to get to the first place that probably most people are gonna get to is Manila. Now Manila gets a bit of a bad rep sometimes. Oh yeah. A lot of people say don't bother staying there. It's busy. It's dusty. It's whatever. What's your opinion on

• Speaker #0

  Manila? So I've only been to Manila once. My last trip last November, I actually didn't go to Manila. My parents are from Manila, which is funny, but it's changed so much and it's grown so much. Yes, it is ranked number one in the world for traffic. And honestly, it is a little dangerous in some parts. But what big city isn't? It's just you stay out of the. you know, kind of the more dangerous portions of the city. They literally tell you don't have your phone out, don't have your jewelry out. And yeah, I kind of try to avoid it, to be honest, because the airport is also a mess. So when I fly to the Philippines, I try to fly in and out of Cebu, which is in the Pasinas. Yeah. So there's three different regions in the Philippines. Manila is in the north, which is called Luzon. Luzon is the region. Cebu is in the middle portion called the Visayas. which is where most of the tourists go because that's beautiful beaches, the limestone, the white sand. And then the south is Mindanao, which used to be occupied by like local terrorists. But it's a bit safer now, but still has a reputation. So they tell tourists there's actually a warning on the south of the Philippines, like a level three or level four. Don't go, which is funny because I've been, but I didn't go alone. I went with my stepmom's family. So I wouldn't go alone. I've been, but it's a little easier for me because I look full Filipino. Yes. I mean, I am full Filipino. They just don't know that I can't speak the language. So when we go to the South, everyone tells me to shut up. Don't talk. They do. They're like, don't say a word. We're going to do all the talking. And I'm like.

• Speaker #1

  But why is that?

• Speaker #0

  Because they're going to hear that I'm like speaking English. Or if I can't speak any Tagalog, which I can't, they're going to hear that I have an accent. And they're just going to know.

• Speaker #1

  Why is that bad?

• Speaker #0

  They just don't want to. I don't know, though. It's like having a target on my back.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, wow.

• Speaker #0

  They'd be like, oh, she's like a great whatever the Southeast Asian equivalent is of like a gringa. OK, right. Oh, she's a she's a Westerner. She's a foreigner. She's got money. She's got all this, you know. But yeah, Manila is interesting. This is my my one of my biggest tips about the Philippines. Also, before you have a flight. like a big especially big international flight i would get to that city um a day early just to be safe because a lot of transportation whether it's like ferries buses whoever may go on strike or weather may be inclement right um planes may not take off or land on time yeah so when you're flying in and out of cebu or manila get there like the day prior okay And with Manila, I think there is a lot to see and do. It's just that you have to fight through the traffic, which could take hours, to be honest. Unless you stay in the nicer touristy parts, which is like Makati and BGC. Yeah. And you can just walk around and stay there. But there's Intramuros, which is a beautiful historical part of the city along the seawall. And there's close-by day trips you could take. But you really do have to have patience in Manila. And I... I'm trying to go back to the Philippines the beginning of the next calendar year. And if I do, I'm going to stay in Manila for like several days to make it worth my. time.

• Speaker #1

  Is there like a thriving hostel backpacking community in Manila?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I'd say so. I think a lot because a lot of people use it as their base to jump in and out of because I will say flights in and out of Manila are cheaper than in and out of Cebu.

• Speaker #1

  Okay, fair enough. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. But the Cebu airport one, it's stunning. It's clean. It's modern priority. They have lounges there on priority pass. So and then like getting in and out of the airport is just much easier there than it is in Manila. Manila's just got so much traffic. It's I don't know how I did it. I don't know how I did it the first time I went to the Philippines. I'm like, how did I get in and out of the airport? You know, so.

• Speaker #1

  All right. So you mentioned the three parts of the Philippines. Let's dive into them in terms of where to go or maybe what to see. So you mentioned the northern part, which includes Manila. Is there anywhere else in that northern part that people can check out?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, absolutely. Batanas, which is the north-north. It's like they call it, the locals call it like the New Zealand of the Philippines.

• Speaker #1

  Oh.

• Speaker #0

  So beautiful scenery, but like it's not necessarily, I think people, what they want to do when they go to the Philippines, they want to dive and they want to snorkel and they want to see like clear waters and limestones. So Batanas is there. Bagyao is there. Bagyao has the most mild weather. in all of the philippines so it's a good maybe like 22 celsius 72 fahrenheit all year round nice which is really cool for the philippines because it's like so high up in the mountains yeah yeah okay so high up in the mountains um and then just outside manila like there's la union which is kind of a new chargao which is like a surf the surf capital of the philippines but yeah la union or in english la union you um they're kind of up and coming surf you know and then there's tagai tai which is right uh surrounding mount to all which is the active volcano um yeah there's there's a lot there's lots to see in luzon it's just um making your way out there because it's all very sprawling across the region so you know long bus rides everywhere or like short flights but sometimes flights aren't always available right as i'm gonna say for

• Speaker #1

  Luzon, the transport is flights pretty much.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. Unless you want to take like 10 hour, 15 hour buses.

• Speaker #1

  What's the roads like?

• Speaker #0

  Um, I mean, slightly bumpy, but I never felt like my life was in danger. Oh,

• Speaker #1

  yeah. Okay. So they're basically not roads from like Nepal where they don't even work.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No, the roads are pretty because the locals take them too, you know? Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Of course. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  So.

• Speaker #1

  So it's worse. get into manila maybe just acclimatizing for a day or two seeing the city and then going north is an option yeah if you're coming back from the north going to the middle area which you mentioned is that sabu yeah like the visayas space visayas yeah so i can imagine that's a bit of a journey oh yeah you'd you'd want to fly i think you want to fly i've got a list of areas here that i've obviously gone on google and had a look but I think these are what you're saying earlier about these are the tourist areas. So we all know Boracay. Oh, yeah,

• Speaker #0

  yeah, yeah, yeah.

• Speaker #1

  That's a classic, isn't it?

• Speaker #0

  Classic. And like it was so touristy years ago that they had shut it down in order to like let the island breathe and they changed all the rules. So they didn't have visitors for like six to eight months.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, wow. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Which worked. But when they opened it back up, they they. implemented noise restrictions they moved all the businesses had to move back from the beach so you couldn't be on the beach okay right so they kind of had to like rebuild their patios and and whatnot yeah and their storefronts um and people like oh it's like different than when it used to be i was like what it was was trash and like you guys were screwing everyone over like you were screwing yourselves over you were making the island so dirty and like just causing hell for the locals And so now it's just different and it's good. I'm glad. I'd rather like save the beauty of the island than worry about people like a night out, you know?

• Speaker #1

  So is it an island where you can maybe see all the like fantastic nature?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  But not just a party or a night, but like you can.

• Speaker #0

  100%.

• Speaker #1

  Okay, good. That's good.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, you can have a good time. But I do think there are noise restrictions now. And it's just not like that full moon party backpacker crowd anymore. Right. Fine with.

• Speaker #1

  So that was there before. Mm hmm. Oh, wow. I didn't realize that. OK.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. I've I've actually never been. But I've heard I know people are like, well, how you how would you know if you've never been? I was like, I have billions of people I know have been. And it's like it's not hard to see photos and like they shut it down for a reason. They're not saying, you know,

• Speaker #1

  of course. Yeah. Yeah. So.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. So very popular. Very popular place to go. I do plan on going on my next trip. I just because I'm like, even though it still could be kind of thirsty, I'm like, but I want to see it. I don't want to just keep. talking about it without not ever having gone, you know?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, of course.

• Speaker #0

  Yep.

• Speaker #1

  And Cebu City.

• Speaker #0

  Yep. Cebu City. I love Cebu City. They also have a Temple of Leah up there in the hills. So if you guys ever get out to Cebu City and go visit Temple of Leah, it was like a guy that dedicated it to his wife. I was like, wow, I just need to find a man to build me another Temple of Leah. But even along Cebu, like... People are like, oh, I hate the city. I don't know. I just, I love cities. So when people are like, I hate cities, I'm like, good for you. Would you like, would you like a gold star? People are like, so they're so proud. Have you noticed? They're like so proud of hating cities.

• Speaker #1

  I know, it's weird. I don't understand.

• Speaker #0

  I know, it's the weirdest flex I've ever heard from travelers. Yeah. I'm like, all right, bro.

• Speaker #1

  I love a hub.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. I know. And like the city, you can get everything in, you know, things that you can't get in remote areas. Like if you need stuff, I don't know. I just. You have access to things like a hospital.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, true. What is Cebu known for?

• Speaker #0

  What are they known for? I was just going to say mangoes, but there's an island nearby that they're... They are known for mangoes, an island nearby. The island itself, I mean, they have Oslob, which is where you can swim out with the whale sharks, which I personally don't think is very ethical. That's just me. If you want to do it in Cebu, the island. Do your research. But they also have Moabaw, where you could dive or snorkel with the sardines in an incredible sardine run.

• Speaker #1

  Okay.

• Speaker #0

  That like blocks out the sunlight. It's so wild.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I'm also online. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, absolutely. And then they also have, I mean, like dozens and dozens of waterfalls, but they also have like Kawasan Falls where you can do like the canyoneering. Oh, okay. And you jump off like eight different waterfalls that are like different heights.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

• Speaker #0

  And it's basically, honestly, Cebu, the island itself, is a massive jump off point for everywhere else in the Visayas.

• Speaker #1

  And one of those areas in the Visayas, which if you go on Google and put in these places, is pretty dreamy. And that's Palawan slash El Nido. I mean, this place looks incredible. I know it might be popular, but some of the scenes there, sensational.

• Speaker #0

  I mean, it's not voted best island in the world for like five years running for nothing.

• Speaker #1

  But it's as good as it says.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, it's absolutely stunning. And the water, like, I love this quote from a Dutch friend I was on a boat tour with last time I went there. She's like, we were like riding on the boat, like on the hammock on the side of the Banco boats, which is traditional Filipino boat. And we're just like staring at the scenery, having a San Miguel light. And she's like. When I think of the Philippines, this is the scenery. This is exactly the scenery I think of. Like it's everything in your dreams. Yeah. It's absolutely stunning. And yeah, it's quite touristy, but for good reason. Yeah, yeah. You know, and it is more expensive than the other islands. I mean, very affordable for maybe someone coming from like North America, Europe. But yeah, a little touristy compared to other islands.

• Speaker #1

  Is there little pockets where you can escape that or you just have to accept it?

• Speaker #0

  There are towns on Palawan that are either developed or they're not. So it's like the developed towns, like, I mean, the undeveloped towns, like we went in there with guides because like even those, like they, first off, they speak another language on Palawan. They speak Tagalog, but they also speak their local indigenous languages.

• Speaker #1

  Okay.

• Speaker #0

  But even in those like kind of secluded towns, they don't speak a lot of English.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  So. Everything there is kind of made for the locals. I wouldn't even know how to like order something, order like a dish. And like, to be honest, I don't even think they would have like lodging in these more like remote towns, you know? Because there's a lot of, I mean, it's an island, so it's all like seaside towns. Because the closer you get to the middle of the island, the more mountainous it is. There's not really inhabitants in that area. Yeah, I would just. stick to the places where the tourists are on Palawan. I actually haven't talked about this on my social media at all. But last November, I went down to the very, very south of Palawan called Balabak.

• Speaker #1

  Okay.

• Speaker #0

  And it's completely untouched. A lot of a big Muslim community. Yeah. So it's interesting because they tell you repeatedly, like your guides, you can only go down to the south with tours, registered tours. You can't go on your own.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, really? Wow.

• Speaker #0

  Yep. And because it was formerly part of like an area that was kind of inhabited by like Muslim terrorists.

• Speaker #1

  Right.

• Speaker #0

  And so foreigners just like weren't allowed. And it's like literally even from like Puerto Princesa, which is where the main airport is in Palawan. It's like another five hour drive down and then to like even the more beautiful islands around Balabac. Balabac is a region. It's another like three hour boat ride. So I did this and really incredibly untouched, incredibly untouched. Like, but there I was like, I feel like. This was Thailand like 30, 40 years ago. And I feel like Balabak is going to become the next big thing in the next like 10, 20 years.

• Speaker #1

  Wow. Hey, just a quick one. I just want to say there are many ways to support this podcast. You can buy me a coffee and help support the podcast with $5. Or you can go to my merch store with the affiliate link with TeePublic, where there's plenty of merch available to buy, such as T-shirts, jumpers, hoodies, and also some children's clothing. Thirdly, which is free, you can also rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or GoodPods. Also, you can find me on social media on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. Simply just search for Winginit Travel Podcast and you'll find me displaying all my social media content for traveling, podcasts and other stuff. Thank you.

• Speaker #0

  I know, which I that's why I wanted to get out there before. Like they start building up because even we stayed at a camp that was all like Nipah huts, which is a traditional straw, really strong straw and bamboo houses in the Philippines that can withstand all kinds of weather. But we stayed in like a Nipah hut camp and they're like, see that sign over there is like maybe half a mile that way. They're like, don't walk past that sign because they're building on it. It's a property owners own it. And we're like, OK, like who's building that? They're like, oh, a big hotel corporation already bought that piece of land out and they're going to start building up. I'm like, already?

• Speaker #1

  Wow. I guess what I was going to say is it all depends if they stop the tour rule. As soon as they let people to start letting people go there by themselves.

• Speaker #0

  They will. I know.

• Speaker #1

  And then that's it.

• Speaker #0

  It is because they're trying to build, they're getting approval for a port and they're for cruises and they're getting approval for an airport. I know. And I'm like, oh my God, I need to get in. And honestly, if I go to the Philippines early next year, I think I'm going to do another tour. I want to do another tour down there.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. That's great to know. People are like, shit, I need to go now.

• Speaker #0

  No, for real. I'm like, I want to go now because I want to be able to say like, oh, I was here before they even broke ground on a single hotel. There's no hotels. You stay with families. You stay at tourist camps that are very like controlled to one area. You know, but it's crazy. Like the rules, they're like, you have to cover up, especially the women, like do not walk out with.

• Speaker #1

  I was going to say, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  They're like no bathing suits. It's like the men try. I mean. They didn't really care about the men, but like the women, like you can't like fully cover up. They're like, you can uncover your head. That's fine. But like shoulders, knees, chest, everything has to be covered. And I'm like, and they would hammer that into us. Okay. So even when we did, though, like the stares that we got were burning. And like I said, like I look Filipino, right? Because I am. But like I look and I felt them still staring at me, even though I was with a group. But I was just like, oh, the eyes are burning.

• Speaker #1

  So. That was my next question. What is the relationship between people on the island who are living there, indigenous population to the tourism there? Is it harmonious or is it quite fractured?

• Speaker #0

  I think, I don't know, you know, I feel like you hear this a lot in Southeast Asia. Like, I wonder if they're like, oh, you can do this. You can run tour operations here. Just give us a cut. Sure. Yeah. You know, I don't know. That could very well be. The case, and to be honest, like for a three-day tour, like everything included, right, besides alcohol, three-day tour, transport, meals, activities, I paid like 250 US, which sounds really expensive for the Philippines. But I'm like, well, if like the locals are getting cut into it, of course, we're going to raise the price, you know. And like, if you can't do it on your own, then what do you do? Yeah. What choice do you have? And like for me, I'm like, for me, I always think I'm like, it's easier for us to make a dollar than it is. It's faster for us to make a dollar than it is for them. And like me, I like to look at it as like supporting the local business because they are like these tour groups are very, very local. And I know they're run by Filipinos. And the guides, the guides speak pretty good. English so we were able to get by but um yeah I think I think the relationship is one of curiosity 100% with this all the staring that we got I I am a little bit worried for what the future holds for them you know I just think once you start building it gets operations start coming in yeah yeah but yeah get out get out to Balabak if you can but you got to go on a tour and it's like idyllic untouched Oh, it's stunning. Like sea turtles, beautiful. I like, like, it's just so, it's peaceful. Oh my gosh. It's so peaceful. Also, I didn't know, I didn't realize this. I didn't learn this until last year that Palawan sits on a completely different tectonic plate than the rest of the Philippines. That's why they don't get the same weather. Oh, wow. That the Philippines gets. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  I don't know. Isn't that crazy? That's mental. Yeah. Also, what's mental about that place is the difference between the southern part you just described. to the northern part yeah sounds like polar opposites which oh yeah i can't i don't know the geography that well so i don't know how big this place is in terms of the island but for an island i think that's a bit crazy right that it is north is completely different to south like completely yep

• Speaker #0

  yeah well i think it's because the south is so far south that it was it was occupied for a long time right um but i really really i really love palawan and i say You know, I spent an extra, I'd say maybe six days in order, six days on Palawan just to take that three day tour. Yeah. Because there was a different storm that came in. So it pushed our tour date a day late. So I'm like, OK, well, I'll book another night in the hotel. And then they tell you we got back like two hours late on the night, the day we're supposed to get back. So they tell people we don't recommend booking anything for that night. So I stayed another night. So I'm like, if you're going to go to the south, stay at least five, six days. Because you'll need that to adjust for timing. So that's the thing with all the Philippines is like, you never know like weather out of their control, right? If the Coast Guard's not letting boats out, no boats are going to go out. And that's what happened. Like this night, they're like, we cannot go out tomorrow because the Coast Guard said official notice, no boats can leave.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, that's fair enough. Okay. Yeah. And what are some of your favorite activities to do on the island?

• Speaker #0

  I'm not as... diver I'm not a scuba diver so I go snorkeling snorkeling yeah yeah that's cool but diving snorkeling yeah snorkeling I mean you can kayak you can paddleboard um swimming they little boat tours through the you know like the cliffs and stuff like that yeah 100% yeah they have a lot of day tours that do that also and like a lot of the day tours have lunch provided they'll provide you know fins and snorkels and a lot of them are like lunch provided and like alcohol provided or you can like bring your own if you wish, you know? Yeah. And then they have like these cool vendors that ride kayaks and boats and they'll serve you like if you want to buy beer, like coconuts from them, they'll like ride up to the boat and like you can transact with them. Yeah, it's really cool. It's like truly like island life. But I know people are like, it's so touristy, but it's just it's just unlike anything else. Like I feel like the only other place you can see limestone structures and infrastructure like that is in. Is it Thailand? I haven't been. The one bay that has all the beautiful...

• Speaker #1

  Hai Long Bay. It's in Vietnam.

• Speaker #0

  Is it? Yeah,

• Speaker #1

  Vietnam. Yeah, I've been there twice, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Okay.

• Speaker #1

  But that is super touristy. I mean, I know there's a big thing about tourism and over-tourism, I get it, but I went five years apart and the first time I thought, okay, fairly busy, quite a few boats. Five years later, high-rise buildings everywhere. I'm like, what is going on here? This is completely different to what I saw. Yeah. I've done two types of tours. One, if you're younger listening and you fancy a bit of a party, you can get dropped off at one of these islands and just stay there for a night. You have no one else apart from your group and you just do some activities like rock climbing or it's free on the beach or just drinking beers, whatever. That's more of a party vibe, if you like. It's called a castaway tour.

• Speaker #0

  It's appropriately named.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the second time was more of a mature experience on a nice boat, nice accommodation, older crowd.

• Speaker #0

  A little quieter.

• Speaker #1

  A little quieter. You can do some activities, of course, out to sea. But you're staying on the boat, not on an island. So you have two options to do that.

• Speaker #0

  I'm always so torn between still being like a crazy backpacker and then just... Yeah,

• Speaker #1

  tell me about it. We're the same age, aren't we? It's like, what do you do?

• Speaker #0

  I literally, I literally, I'm like, I want to go have fun. But I was like, I need everyone to be quiet by like 11pm though.

• Speaker #1

  That's me in November. I'm like, yeah, not for a beer, but like...

• Speaker #0

  No, 100%. I feel like I was like, I want to party until like midnight and then I turn into a pumpkin at midnight. And I'm like, I'm ready to.

• Speaker #1

  When's up next time? Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  100%. Okay, sidebar, like I've been looking into going to Panama and then like, have you been to Panama yet?

• Speaker #1

  No.

• Speaker #0

  Because you know how they have like Bocas del Toro and they have, what is that, Friday? They have that Friday.

• Speaker #1

  I don't know. I don't know much about Panama, actually, to be honest.

• Speaker #0

  So one of the party islands there.

• Speaker #1

  San Jose. No.

• Speaker #0

  No. One of the party. Oh, Filthy Fridays in Bocas del Toro. It's just like a literally like a nine, nine hour day party. And you're on a boat and they. boat you to this island and you're just and i'm just like i don't think i could do like what if i wanted to leave i can't leave oh yeah i can't leave till the night is over no chance yeah that's why i'm like i think this would have been okay maybe like 10 years ago for me but i was like i don't think i could do it now i

• Speaker #1

  think i value the the next day too much now if you're on finite time you know you're traveling a bit faster not not slow travel and you gotta get to a certain point at a certain time you need to be strategic about this right But when you're like six months backpacking, there's no real time constraint. That's fine. You can do that. But for me, I'm like, I need to see the next thing the next day or at least do something that's not too strenuous, but still feel like I'm seeing something, right? Tempting, but we'll see. Yeah, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  I know. I know. And then I feel like I always debate that. What personality do I want to be? What character do I want to be when I'm traveling abroad? I debate that back home. And then when I'm actually abroad, I'm like the crazy character. And I'm like, I'm. FOMO, you know, like, let's just do everything. Oh, man.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. And for Philippines.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  I've got on my list here, Coron. Is that in the same area as the middle section?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, it's actually the north of Palawan. Like, still north. The north is very long.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  So you can take, what I've done is take... A multi-day ferry between Coron and El Nido, which you can do either way. And there's a bunch of boat tour companies that run it. I always take Big Dream Boatman and Disclaimer. I am an affiliate with them, but I've been on three of their tours.

• Speaker #1

  Okay.

• Speaker #0

  I am obsessed because it's an all-inclusive price. So if you're still like a broke backpacker, this isn't for you. But if you're like, I want to slow travel the islands, like I have, you know, I have a few days to get between. alnido and caron like let's explore it and you spend overnights on the islands at like these beautiful camps and so you're like waking up on the beach in these beautiful needle huts no it's incredible and like all your meals are included um unlimited rum and beer included all access to all the activities and then the guides like these guides you have a crew like my last crew when i went in november i did caron to alnido 18 of us guests 11 staff 11 crew. A lot of them. Yeah, you bring the cooks, they bring the guides, they bring the captain, but it's so incredibly worth it and like slow traveling through there because you can take the fast ferry. The fast ferry will get you there. The commuter ferry will get you there in five hours between the two places. But like also you could also throw up at the end.

• Speaker #1

  What's it known for?

• Speaker #0

  There's a lot of shipwreck diving. They're really, really known for their shipwreck diving. Some of the shipwrecks are so shallow that you can actually snorkel or free dive to. But Coron also has an airport as well, so you can fly into there. They have some great hot springs. They're known for Kayangan Lake and Twin Lakes. There's beautiful scenery out there as well.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. And is there anywhere I've missed on my list that you go to normally?

• Speaker #0

  Hmm. Well, just the places around Cebu. I'll just call them out. Behold and Siquijor, two famous places. And then really close to Siquijor, Dumaguete, which is another big city, not as big as Manila or Cebu. But I have cousins that live out there and I think it's a good like it's still really inexpensive. So I always tell people, I'm like, if you want a taste of like real Filipino city life that hasn't been. like yes like gringo fight or turned into tourist central yeah um go visit dumaguete because it's super cool yeah and it's only in like a two-hour ferry ride from the nearest tropical island so really nice oh okay i was gonna come to budget in a minute because i'm keen to know in the visayas shargao which is very it's like the next bali oh for like surfing yeah okay but I don't surf. There's tons of things you can do there. There's like rock pools. You can take a bike and ride all throughout the island. Tons of islands to hop around around there. But they do usually get hit by the hurricanes first.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Right.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, which is sad, but it's stunning. Like people, non-surfers can spend like a week there. It's really beautiful.

• Speaker #1

  Sounds awesome. And there's the other area, the south. Have you been to the south?

• Speaker #0

  I have, yeah. Mindanao, basically. That's what it's called, where like Davao is, General Santos City, which is where Manny Pacquiao is from.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, okay. That's where he's from, is it? Okay.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. So the northernmost part of the south, Mindanao, is literally like a few hours ferry ride from Shargao. But Shargao is considered the Visayas, I think, still. Yes. So I have family that lives in Mindanao. Yeah. And they do live in the northern part of it because the further south you get in the Philippines, there's still some terrorist turmoil there. Yes. And all of Mindanao as an island is still on a level three or four warning with at least the U.S. um travel state of travel right meaning we don't want americans to travel there or reconsider your travel plans but i went with family members so it was it was fine um and i just stick around with them so i haven't traveled solo around minne now and

• Speaker #1

  i don't think i will be doing that anytime soon okay just to be safe yeah yeah i don't i don't know that the south does have that recommendation i think most countries do have that i think i think islamic state were down there right or might still be down there. I'm not sure.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. I mean, the northern parts, the northern parts of the island of Mindanao are fine to travel alone. I wouldn't go any like lower. Like I would basically try to stick to the more people and touristy filled places in northern Mindanao. But I wouldn't go to the south of Mindanao alone.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. And the further south of Mindanao, that sort of touches onto Borneo, right? the west of it right so southwest mindanao oh padawan no padawan's even closer yeah oh wow basically in sandakan which is like the northeast of borneo on the tip yeah when we're there we're like told just beware pirates because i mean they're real they're real thing apparently in in that area of the world so we had to sort of be on alert but honestly didn't see or hear anything but i don't know even know what that means are we talking like people in the sea you

• Speaker #0

  yeah what are we talking about captain phillips here what's the name orlanda bloom whatever his name or johnny depp yeah so i didn't really know what that meant i can see that though yeah they give out the same warnings in like the south southwest of the philippines so for that region it makes sense um yeah kind of some of the regions around the sulu you see there i was actually just watching a movie about that okay um the other day have a like there's still like enemy states and whatnot okay i know you know but oh hang on no what film was that i don't know i don't remember i think i watched it as well uh land of bad recent one yeah i watched that the other night oh that's so funny because i was like oh my god this is in the philippines yeah yeah i watched that as well oh that's so funny i think some of the places they either didn't name or they made them up but like the general the general area of it was like you know because i think they were like oh this is in in palawan and i'm like where i was like googling i'm like where's this air force but i think it was just you know not exactly

• Speaker #1

  correct yeah i've got other questions that people might want to know about philippines so i'm going to start with which part of the year should people go to in terms of weather okay so i would say

• Speaker #0

  December through April are the best months. After April starts getting really, really hot, like April, May, and then June, and then like July, August, September, October, that's like rainy season, or as they call it, monsoon season in the Philippines, which is, it's interesting though, because my podcast co-host has been to the Philippines in like August. Oh, wow. And she said it was quite rainy, a lot of mosquitoes out. um but it didn't look that bad like her posts and her videos and pictures I'm like it didn't look that bad but I would never I wouldn't really risk it going in August um I will say though like November through Feb are probably the most expensive months to go though got it okay so you're thinking March might be a good time or April yeah yeah I think March would be good April would be good um but for sure like I've gone in January into Feb like highest highest tourist season that's like peak peak tourist season yeah and then i was there november november to mid-december last year and also like it was still a little bit rainy i think little rainier than usual um but yeah still pretty big on tourist season i know people don't like to travel during the holidays which is like you know i mean a lot of filipinos come home to the philippines but other nations sometimes don't like to travel during you that time, but it was still, it was still quite, quite busy. Okay. But yeah, I'd say Jan, Feb are definitely the most, the most popular, popular and expensive months.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Good to know. And what about vaccines? I'm not talking about COVID, I'm more talking about the traditional ones.

• Speaker #0

  I don't think they require you to have anything. Right. I would just get whatever your country or your doctor recommends, to be honest.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Fair enough.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  And budget. I've heard...

• Speaker #0

  Whatever you've heard is probably correct.

• Speaker #1

  Well, I've heard the Philippines is one of those weird countries where it can be as cheap as the next country, but you can obviously spend high-end, luxurious prices. Sure. I'm thinking for the generic backpacker budget, I assume it's pretty good.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, so I would say I was staying in like... I stay in like shared dorms, but I stay in like nice hostels. Yes,

• Speaker #1

  yeah,

• Speaker #0

  yeah. Like... especially because i'm like older i'm like i want like a clean vibey just like something that brings me peace and it looks good you know so you know like what the state of it is and to be honest i would say they're between like maybe 12 and 25 per night per bunk per bunk okay u.s dollars yeah u.s dollars okay which is yeah is i mean like no it's it's not that's the thing so my i think the what people hear about the philippines is that it is the mo one of the most expensive like southeast asian places to visit to travel in terms of the area yeah okay yeah and then like the fact that you have to like take a boat or a flight everywhere people are like that's expensive but i would say when it comes to like price per meal like street food and price per bunk in a dorm and price for a beer for like total backpacker budget yeah it is quite pricey like compared to thailand vietnam cambodia right yeah um but yeah and you know the the time between like the second time i went and the first time i went like i felt like all the dorms had doubled in price so i was like oh like i mean it's it's i just feel like for us it's not i was like oh paying 18 a night for a dorm bed in a really nice hostel in el nido but i was like 18 like people would you gawk at that in other places of asia but for me i was like oh it's a great hotel super social rooftop really vibey like really great rooms air conditioning hot you know like all these things i'm like 18 what what's 18 but i also think it's like i'm in a different place in my life too where we're making more money yeah

• Speaker #1

  that's a weird one that's all right my mind's stuck in 10 years ago so when i hit 18 us dollars which pounds like oh it's only 15 pounds a night but canadian dollars like 25 like shit the bed oh right but i think do you know what in this day and age from my trip last year i just think it's the thing now i don't think hostels are as cheap as they used to be and the gap between a hostel and hotel is not that big anymore like if you can get certain hotels at decent cost right right i just think maybe there are other places that are a bit more dive that you can get like a five dollar bed in a dorm i'm sure but uh Yeah, it's interesting to hear that. Yeah, I imagine the cost would be a lot for the hopping as well. Just unless you stay in one place in Padawan or an island or whatever. But if you want to go to four or five places, that is a ferry or a flight cost, isn't it?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, but I mean, yeah, no, you're right. But like when I've planned four or five places, I understand. I'll do some research, kind of time it out. I understand that flights are going to be between. I mean, honestly, you can get flights for as low as like. 22 us dollars for the philippines yeah but if you buy too late you can also like my friend we were in behold he's like oh i'm planning on going to flying to el nido this weekend and i was like buy your flight now it's monday what are you doing and um he paid 189 euro for it oh wow okay yeah i was like i would never pay that much to like buy a flight to el nido but like that's on you you know like you're buying the flight late but like yeah i've I've purchased flights between like Cebu, Manila, different islands for as little as like 30 US dollars.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, it's cheap. Yeah. Okay, that's not too bad.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, so we're thinking mid-range is if you had to label Philippines as...

• Speaker #0

  budget mid and luxury i guess mid mid-range is probably the same yeah i'd say like the lower end of like mid-range but that like for for someone who's not a backpacker it'll be considered cheap cheap if you will but

• Speaker #1

  if you're a backpacker and a budget yeah it's definitely going to be mid-range got it not that okay okay and i've got a question here what is the backpacking vibe like i guess it's quite a popular hub yeah a lot of people definitely But I guess there's a mix between those going for like a vacation as opposed to those staying in, I don't know, six weeks in the Philippines, start hopping around.

• Speaker #0

  Right, right. I think there's a big backpacker culture, actually. Yeah, yeah. And I think what everyone will be comforted by is that, like I said, everyone speaks English.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  So I think that like that not having that language barrier helps a lot of travelers feel comfortable there, you know.

• Speaker #1

  We mentioned safety. Now, big one is food.

• Speaker #0

  Yes. Okay. Have you heard anything about Filipino food?

• Speaker #1

  No, I'm in the dark. So you're gonna have to teach me.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. So you've never had it either?

• Speaker #1

  No.

• Speaker #0

  Oh my God. Wait, you're in Canada. You know how many Filipinos there are in Canada?

• Speaker #1

  Do you know what? There's Filipinos everywhere.

• Speaker #0

  We are. We're everywhere.

• Speaker #1

  But I've never had Filipino food, I don't think.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. Yeah. I mean, also, you're in Vancouver. There's so many Filipinos there. You'll easily be able to find a Filipino restaurant. Easily. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  That's my task this weekend. Okay.

• Speaker #0

  So Filipino food is interesting because it's a mix of like Malay, Chinese food, like indigenous. I believe it's meat heavy. Yeah. I believe it doesn't have as maybe many different like spices as different Asian. whether it's East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian foods. A lot of their flavoring comes from like bay leaves, onions, garlic. And I think you'll hear a lot of differing opinions on it. I am a little biased because I grew up on a lot of it, right? I didn't grow up eating it every day, but like I grew up eating it quite often. And I have my favorite dishes, you know, pancit, which is like the noodles that are pretty famous. lumpia which is basically filipino egg rolls which is really famous there's like the lechon which is the roasted pig which is like at celebrations you know it has the apple in its mouth it's also a little difficult for me because it's because of me heavy i don't eat meat oh and this is a new thing like well not a new thing i'm pescatarian so i eat seafood luckily filipino cuisine has a lot of seafood in it yeah um but a lot of times when i'm having you meals with my cousins in the Philippines, they don't have seafood prepared. They only have meat prepared, pork, chicken, whatever it is. And I don't eat any of that. So what happens is I end up carbo loading. Right. So growing up, I ate the meat, but then I gave up. I like stopped eating meat minus seafood like 12 years ago. Yeah. So like relatively new. I grew up eating all kinds of Filipino food. Now a dish like street food. for a plate in the Philippines will run you anywhere from one these days restaurant street okay if you go to like street food where there's no tourists you could buy probably a plate of food for like a dollar fifty yeah but like most tourists don't go to those places so I'd say the average price of like a a traditional Filipino dish in a restaurant is honestly like four dollars oh that cheap well I don't know some people say it's cheap some people think it's expensive that is not expensive I don't think it's that expensive either. I'm like, I can't buy it. You can't get Chipotle. You can get, you know, Chipotle is like $12 down here.

• Speaker #1

  $4? That's nothing.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  That's not on the market either. That's in the restaurant. Even the touristy markets might be $2, $50 or $3. So, yeah, I'll take that.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I think people have a very tunnel vision view of what Filipino food is. They think it lacks flavor. They think it's oily. And yeah, some dishes are. But, you know, it takes trying. And like there's 7,600 islands. It takes trying different regions'cuisines. It takes like being open-minded to like trying new dishes that may not be like mainstream Filipino, if you will. You know? And yeah, just being a little bit more open to discovery.

• Speaker #1

  Is there a country it aligns to in the area? Is it more Indonesian than rather Thai? Is it more Vietnamese or Japanese? Is there any particular country or is it kind of on its own?

• Speaker #0

  I think it has a lot of like it has a lot of I'd say, yeah, like Malaysian and Chinese influences. Yep.

• Speaker #1

  I like that.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, there's like, you know, a lot of meat dishes, but there's a lot of noodles. There's a lot of rice, a lot of seafood dishes as well. They make one new favorite dish of mine is guinata on calabaza, which is like pumpkin or squash in coconut milk. Yeah,

• Speaker #1

  yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Which I love. Yeah. And I put that over, you know, put that over rice and whatnot. But yeah, I think. There's a lot of good stuff in the Philippines. You just got to try it all.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I think all those seven islands, right?

• Speaker #0

  You just got to try their street food or whatever,

• Speaker #1

  local food. Okay. I think that's all my questions in the Philippines. Have I missed anything?

• Speaker #0

  No, I don't think so. You covered all of it. Yeah, definitely the basics of what people want to know.

• Speaker #1

  Sure. Okay. Let's talk about your podcast actually next. All your things that are going on. And then we'll finish on your year trip in South America and my quickfire travel questions. That's what we're going to do.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, yeah, for sure.

• Speaker #1

  So tickets to anywhere. Let's start with that.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  How long have you been going for? And tell us what you're doing.

• Speaker #0

  We're going to be five years in January and just a few months here. And, you know, we talk we we want to provide travelers with a more travel filled life by giving them tools, tips, gear, videos. um in order to help that and to help people understand that you don't have to go far to go on vacation right travel discovering your own backyard and having an open mindset but three types of episodes me and my co-host trizzy will do a duet episode where you know where the experts will also bring in do guest interviews we're bringing subject matter experts and then we do destination episodes as well where we like focus on a single destination so we've done like Bali, we've done Finland, we've done South Africa, we've done like just working remotely in London, we have a few on Southern California. Upcoming, we'll have a two part series on Trizzy's trip to China where she ran a half marathon on the Great Walls.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, wow.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, that'll be really amazing. But yeah, it's been a lot of fun. So we're on, you know, YouTube and anywhere you can listen.

• Speaker #1

  How often do you release an episode?

• Speaker #0

  We have episodes every other Wednesday.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Yeah. And let's talk about your LA flight.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. LA in flight is me. So me and Trizzy have our own brands as well. Like we've been friends for since, since university, which is a long time now at this point. And, you know, we started, we wanted to start the podcast because we had such like a wealth of knowledge that we wanted to share with others. And we're like, I think we can help others out too. I like lending our voices. So yeah, that's how Ticket to Anywhere was born. But I'm LA in flight. So I talk a lot about like slow travel, coffee views. I call myself like your resident like rooftop and coffee guide. You would love this, James. Because I'm always like having the list of like where to go, what coffee shops to visit and drink and work from like prepared before we even land in a place. Right. I'm like, I got all the bookmarks, guys, like I'm ready to go.

• Speaker #1

  when you introduced yourself at travel con which was before me in this little group setting you mentioned that you do travel podcasts and you travel coffee views i'm like she's just saying what i'm gonna say she's like hey that's my intro that's what i am yeah you're like that's my intro you can't say that well we just have a similar interest right um exactly exactly or them yeah definitely coffee is a is a mainstay definitely a view obviously traveling anywhere. Yeah, it's just very similar thoughts, right?

• Speaker #0

  So I have a question. Do you, because like when people ask what souvenir do you get, I buy bags of coffee, I buy beans or I buy ground coffee and I bring it home with me.

• Speaker #1

  I used to buy t-shirts. I don't do that anymore because when you go to a few countries, there's a lot of t-shirts. I just don't wear them. So I stopped that. And yeah, the only other thing I would buy is coffee. If I'm in a cafe, independent, not a mainstream one, and I love the coffee, I will buy some beans and I'll get them chopped up. And if I'm traveling for a long time, I'll send them home. But if I'm like, you know, if I go to El Salvador in November and I go to a coffee place, I'm like, yeah, I'll have some of those beans. I'll just carry them with me.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I was going to say you better buy coffee in Central America. Yeah,

• Speaker #1

  yeah, 100%. That's my, yeah, that is my souvenir. Yeah, I got, my friend went to New Zealand and got me a birthday present, which was coffee from a place called Supreme Coffee in Wellington. It's probably one of my favorites in New Zealand. And she brought it back for me. So I'm like itching to try it. So I'm just like biding my time.

• Speaker #0

  Not drink it, so it's there. So I know it's there in the future. I can't bring myself to drink it.

• Speaker #1

  Oh my gosh. Oh my goodness. But yeah, Elaine Flight. So I am a content creator, a podcaster. I'm an event manager by trade. And now I'm working. I'm an event director for one of the biggest travel conferences in the industry, which I'm really proud and excited about. But I'm also a new travel agent with Fora. as well helping people book their travels and i'd like to specialize in latin america and the philippines but i you know won't deny people if they want to come book any other country is that new with me or talk about traveling did i tell you about this at travel con no i don't know why i didn't i think it's because i wasn't like certified yet but now i'm like all set up and ready to go i think i was like going through the training when i when i met you at okay yeah this is pretty new you

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, yeah. You mentioned the events job that you got. I think that's quite new, which is great. But yeah, this travel agent thing, I see it all the time online about people who...

• Speaker #1

  Oh, it's so popular now. I just feel like... Now I just feel like one of the millions of people doing it, but it's fine.

• Speaker #0

  I guess because you're you, you'll know some people and they know people that might want to travel. I guess you work your connections to get bookings, right?

• Speaker #1

  100% Yeah. And for me, like people turn it into like their main source of income. And for me, it's like, um, I'm not, I mean, like, who doesn't love the money, but I'm there because I'm like, okay, I want to specialize in the Americas and the Philippines. I want people to know the beauty of these places and how easy it can be to travel these places. So that's what I'd love to really like sell to people and like work on a trip that that plans that so um so yeah but i'll drop my travel agent link like my profile to you so you can stick it in your show notes your you know description whatever you need to um but yeah i'm yeah yeah i'm with an agency called fora so it's been it's been really cool yeah access and perks to over 5 000 hotels around the world but we also have like insurance like villas transport you tours, all different types of activities. So yeah, yeah, it's exciting.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. Yeah. I dropped those links in the show notes. And also I want to quickly ask about your newsletter. You're getting some interest right now in your at AIM flight newsletter. So people should click that link in the show notes.

• Speaker #1

  Thank you. Yeah. It's called Mariana Mondays. Actually, you're going to love this. I sent it out right before you and I logged on to start recording. Yeah. Marienda means it's like the Tagalog variation of Marienda in Spanish or Merienda, which means like snack in Spanish and Tagalog. So every other Monday sending out like snack size bites, tips, all travel related deals, stories. I'm going to share one of my crazy stories every other Monday, which I have like a bank of them. I wrote all of them out the other. You'd be proud. I wrote all of them out the other day to be like, OK, let me just like get ahead of the planning. And I literally captured like 120 stories for myself. If I keep doing every other Monday, that's five years worth of story.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, yeah. That's amazing. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. So I'm like, all right, let's get this going. And it's like a lot of stuff that I haven't told people before. Like the general public obviously doesn't know about me.

• Speaker #0

  So that's great. Yeah. Yeah. I think podcasting is the same, right? I think I still got loads of stories from loads of trips that I haven't talked about yet. Oh, yeah.

• Speaker #1

  A hundred percent.

• Speaker #0

  Imagine your podcast if you have no stories. That'd be a shame, wouldn't it? Anyway. We're going to finish the episode on some travel and then my quickfire travel questions. So I wanted to hear about your year trip in South America. Because I've been for like three months and I barely touched the surface. Oh, yeah. I haven't been back since. So Central America is my first trip into the Americas apart from USA and Canada for 10 years.

• Speaker #1

  Where did you go in South America?

• Speaker #0

  I flew into Rio. So then Rio, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Iguazu Falls, over to Argentina.

• Speaker #1

  Nice.

• Speaker #0

  Then... uh salta in the north and then it went across to the atacama desert in chile and san pedro spent some time there they drove over to the salt flats in bolivia and spent three weeks in bolivia based on most of their country wow and then oh no i missed peru peru was in there somewhere as well i think was that the end i can't remember how i left yeah that was at the end because i flew yes after bolivia went to peru to the inca trail nice and then finish in Lima and fly out. That's my route.

• Speaker #1

  That's amazing. You did a lot.

• Speaker #0

  Oh yeah. As far as going. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, you haven't been to Columbia yet.

• Speaker #0

  No.

• Speaker #1

  It's so good.

• Speaker #0

  So what was your trip?

• Speaker #1

  Okay, I flew. This was right after my, you know, in Vegas. I was like, I'm going to South America. I flew one way ticket to Buenos Aires. I spent six months in Argentina in with my home base as Buenos Aires. But while I was there, I also visited Brazil for a week. I visited Uruguay for a week and I visited Chile for a week. So I hit those places while I was. They're in Argentina. Then after six months in Argentina, I was like, okay, I'm cold and it's getting really expensive, which is really funny because now it's like actually unaffordable. It was like back then I was like, oh, it's expensive, but expensive for South American standards, I guess. Yeah. So after six months in Argentina, I flew to Medellin and I did three months in Colombia, running out my tourist visa, traveled all around Colombia, which was fantastic. And then that was like two thirds of the year. of the way through the year. And I was like, well, I don't need to be in Mexico until December for a 30th birthday in Cabo. So I was like, but I'm not. So basically I have three months left and I'm not leaving this continent without seeing Machu Picchu. So I decided to fly to Peru.

• Speaker #0

  Yes.

• Speaker #1

  And then I bartended my way through Peru, which was absolutely nuts. It was the time of my life. Still probably the craziest, like three months of travel.

• Speaker #0

  Just like working cash in hand.

• Speaker #1

  No, it was work for exchange.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, work for exchange. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Yeah. So I basically got a discount off my bill, a bed in a staff dorm and then a meal per day. Yeah. But then like I've never. Okay. So many revelations like I've never worked hospitality or behind a bar before. And when you're like a decent looking person, there's a lot of stuff you don't have to pay for when you're working behind a bar. So like I. feel like six weeks in argentina and you know i would like flirt with all the guy like whoever yeah uh six or not six weeks in argentina i meant six weeks in in peru i probably spent about including machu picchu my trip up there and everything accommodation everything i was spending outside of the hostel i think six weeks in peru i spent six hundred dollars because i was working for exchange wow that's like nothing with all the drinking that i was doing a hundred dollars a week yeah you take that i know yeah So it was it was like the wildest experience of my life. And it taught me a lot. And there were some times where I was like, I don't know how people work in hospitality because I was basically doing it like I was doing it under the table. Work for exchange.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a hardcore industry.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, yeah, for sure. And then after after Peru, I flew to Cabo in Mexico and topped off my trip with a all inclusive resort for five days. treat yourself yeah yeah exactly so that was my year in south america it was crazy amazing so like free just do what you want oh yeah yeah yeah no it was it was incredible and i i mean like you can't recreate it at all and i was at a stage in my life where where all of that was like appropriate and fun but i'm just like i'm not even the same person i was back then you know i feel like i don't think i could do anything like similar to that right now i'd be like Like, there's no way I'd survive. No way I'd survive. But it's nice to just have those, like, memories from that time there.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, yeah. We always, like, go back to nostalgia, don't we? Yeah, yeah. Okay. And what's the plans for this year getting into 2025?

• Speaker #1

  Oh,

• Speaker #0

  my gosh. Travel plans.

• Speaker #1

  Travel plans? A bunch of domestic travel in October. And I believe heading to... Disneyland over Thanksgiving, which is a lot of, which will be fun, but also crowded. And then maybe a side quest trip to Valle de Guadalupe, which is wine country in Mexico.

• Speaker #0

  Yep.

• Speaker #1

  Um, well, other than that, no crazy plans.

• Speaker #0

  Well, you have been traveling all year. You went to Europe for like six months.

• Speaker #1

  I have. I know. And then like in Taiwan, I was in Vegas. I was in Disneyland. I was like, I was doing so much. I was doing the most. So,

• Speaker #0

  How did you find UK, by the way? Does that have interest as I'm from there?

• Speaker #1

  Oh my gosh. Well, I loved it. And I think we chatted a bit like I, it was my first time out of London besides Glastonbury. I went to Oxford and went to Brighton.

• Speaker #0

  Oh yeah, classic.

• Speaker #1

  And Oxford was so cute. I even got a sweater. I purchased a sweater that says Oxford and realized, yeah. But, and then I realized that no one at Oxford reps Oxford University. They all rep. their college they rep like christ church and and new cult like they don't rep No one has a sweater that says Oxford University.

• Speaker #0

  Any tourists?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, no, 100%. I was like, oh, look at me, like went to Oxford. And then I see people walking around. It's like, no, Christ, like they rep their individual colleges. And I was like, okay, well, now I feel like a dummy for big ass like Oxford. It was so cute. And Brighton, oh my God, killer weather. It was incredible. We got so, so, so lucky. It was beautiful and sunny, probably like 20. 20 to 21 degrees oh my god it was stunning yeah um london itself i swear it's got more expensive than the last time i was there three years ago yeah ridiculous but i i love london though you do don't hate me for that i do i love london it's just so like i get so much energy from the city when i'm there i'm like oh i love the city yeah

• Speaker #0

  i like cities but do i like it i don't think i do you what big you said you're a big city you like some big cities which ones do you like i love like new york okay i feel like oh new york i'm like no no one of the best cities in the world i don't care what anyone says i love tokyo i love new york oh tokyo i haven't been yet but i have you not okay i love bangkok okay that's a favorite uh i do i actually love rome i know some people like rome rome's great okay

• Speaker #1

  Okay, you don't have to like London.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I don't think I will say that. Yeah, I think in America, well, I don't mind LA. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Have you been through LA? Yeah. Okay.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I don't mind it.

• Speaker #1

  I guess it depends on where you are. I don't know. We have a lot of pros here. I was going to say cons. We have a lot of pros here.

• Speaker #0

  And Vancouver's the right where I am now. Is it a big city? It is, but I don't think it is in a real sense.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Well, not as big as like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Vancouver is still considered a big city. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. So, yeah, they're the cities I love, I think. I swear I've missed one. Oh, Rio. Love Rio.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Rio is massive.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. Love that place. So, yeah, big city guy.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Okay. Cool.

• Speaker #0

  But London, maybe because I live there.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I think, I feel like it's because you like, that's where you go back to, you know?

• Speaker #0

  I just find it stressful. I just don't enjoy it.

• Speaker #1

  You don't think LA is stressful? No,

• Speaker #0

  it is. Yeah, it is. No, it's true. Okay. We've got some quickfire travel questions to finish the show with. Yes, let's do it. All right, quickfire, whatever comes to your mind. It's travel question time. Top three favorite countries.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, Philippines, Colombia. Australia.

• Speaker #0

  Top three favorite cities.

• Speaker #1

  Favorite cities. You're killing me. Medellin, El Nido, Cape Town.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, that one. Nice. Three countries you've not traveled to that if tomorrow no money is an issue, whatever it is, you can go anywhere. What three countries are you going to?

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Japan. I haven't been to it. You'd be surprised to hear I have not been to a lot of countries. So Japan. Tanzania, that's how you pronounce it, right? And, and, and, uh, Belize.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, just down there? Okay, fair enough. If you could live in a country for a year, where are you going to live?

• Speaker #1

  Oh, Taiwan.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, yeah? Do you know what? I could do that.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I loved it. I was there for six days in March and... I freaking loved it. I didn't even leave the city of Taipei. Oh,

• Speaker #0

  Taipei, another great city.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Taipei, duh.

• Speaker #0

  Not real. Okay. And top three favorite international cuisines.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, okay. Japanese, Korean, and Lebanese.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. And are you a sunrise or sunset person?

• Speaker #1

  Sunset. Because the vibe like totally changes and it's so vibey. I love it.

• Speaker #0

  Okay.

• Speaker #1

  Take a shot every time I say vibes.

• Speaker #0

  Too late now. End of the podcast. I'll cut that bit out and put it at the start. Right. What about if you could sit anywhere in the world with a cup of coffee and just watch the world go by for a day, where are you going to sit?

• Speaker #1

  It's probably in a beach town in the Philippines, like El Nido or Coron. Okay. Which I've actually done that before. Is that cheating if I've already done that?

• Speaker #0

  No, no, no.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. El Nido or Coron in Palawan. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Right. Okay. Favorite landmark? Can be nature or man-made?

• Speaker #1

  I'm not ready for these questions. Ooh, Table Mountain in Cape Town. Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  that's a good one.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, beautiful.

• Speaker #0

  It's not bad. Which country's got the best coffee?

• Speaker #1

  Oh, ooh. Okay, I'll one-up you with this. Best coffee culture, Australia.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. We don't even talk about Australia.

• Speaker #1

  I know. Oh, my gosh. I lived there for a year. That could be a whole other point. Oh, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Next time. We'll compare notes. Yeah. How's it been anywhere you travel to? It can be one or two or three places, whatever you want, that you didn't like.

• Speaker #1

  Dallas. Sorry, I have friends there. Dallas, Texas. I don't like you. Let's see. Is it sad that that's like what the only thing, the only place I can think of right now? Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  let's keep it at that.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  That's on my high list to go to actually. This is interesting.

• Speaker #1

  Wait, it's high on your list?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, in America.

• Speaker #1

  Why?

• Speaker #0

  I just want to go to Texas.

• Speaker #1

  Okay, pick a different city.

• Speaker #0

  Auburn, Gansal Auburn. Road trip.

• Speaker #1

  Oh my goodness.

• Speaker #0

  What is the best country, in your opinion, for the budget?

• Speaker #1

  Thailand. And that is the one country I recommend when people are like, what's the first best place to go solo for the first time? Thailand, 100%.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, wow. Okay, great question.

• Speaker #1

  What do you think? I'm going to turn that question back on you. What do you think?

• Speaker #0

  That's where I went for the first time.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. So I'm not wrong.

• Speaker #0

  Is it the first place I'd go?

• Speaker #1

  No, for like budget. Oh,

• Speaker #0

  for budget.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, or Vietnam. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. I haven't been to Vietnam yet, so I feel like I can't.

• Speaker #0

  Wow, such a long time ago when I first went, right? But I still think they're pretty cheap. I think even parts of Indonesia are really cheap.

• Speaker #1

  That's true.

• Speaker #0

  Like not Bali, like other places, you know?

• Speaker #1

  I think they're cheap. Oh, yeah, for budget. Okay, we're talking about budget.

• Speaker #0

  Budget, yeah. We're just talking about budget. India, a bit hardcore, first-time solo place. But budget-wise, unreal.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Really?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  I think I need a lot of mental prep for India to go.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, you need to be prepared.

• Speaker #1

  I'll be honest, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Is there, like, a country's people you think are your favorite, maybe the nicest or helped you the most?

• Speaker #1

  Okay, I won't say my obvious answer. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  But opinion aside.

• Speaker #1

  yeah yeah i don't know i would say like any okay now this is going to be very generic but like anywhere in central america oh that's great to hear yeah yeah no honestly honestly i don't think i've told you the central america is like besides like the philippines my favorite region in the world oh is it wow yeah yeah

• Speaker #0

  we'll have to converse back for another episode after my trip oh yeah yeah let's talk about that and australia okay and my last question is if someone's listening right now who's a bit nervous about going on there on a trip, could be solo, could be just traveling in general, what few words or sentences of advice can you give to say that they should go?

• Speaker #1

  I would say if you really, really, really want to go, because the nerves might be that you actually don't want to travel solo or alone. And that's fine. It's not for everybody, right? If that's what you're thinking. Just because you see everyone else doing it online doesn't mean you have to, right? Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  yeah.

• Speaker #1

  But past that, you really do want to go start small. Start with like a beach getaway for one night. Fill your itinerary with things that you want to do, things that make you happy, things that you're interested in. And then go from there. Then make it a weekend. Then make it a long weekend. Then make it eight months in Asia. You know? So start slow.

• Speaker #0

  Start slow. Love that. Okay, Leah, thanks for coming to the podcast. What a chat that has been. Only two hours.

• Speaker #1

  Thanks, James. I know. What a conversation.

• Speaker #0

  I know. And there's so much stuff to talk about next time. So we've got loads more to crack on with. But yeah, thanks for making time. I really appreciate it.

• Speaker #1

  Thank you.

• Speaker #0

  Thanks for tuning in to the podcast episode today. If you've been inspired by today's chat and want to book some travel, if you head to the show notes, you'll see some affiliate links below which helps support this podcast. You'll find Skyscanner to book your flight. You'll find Booking.com to book that accommodation. Want to stay in a super cool hostel? You'll see Hostelworld down there too. You'll find Revolut to get your travel card sorted. Click the GigSky link to get your eSIM ready for your trip. And more importantly, you'll find Safety Wing Insurance to get that travel insurance for your trip. There are many more to check out. So when you click that link and book your product, a small commission goes towards me and the Wiganet Travel Podcast. Thank you in advance and enjoy your travels.