Hello everyone! Most of you who follow me on instagram would know that I went to the Philippines to visit my mum's side of the family in December last year. I will be uploading the vlog later this week as well (hopefully), so do look out for it!
It was quite a holiday! I haven't been away for 3 weeks straight in a while so it was a little tough to sort of leave work behind. It's a low slower paced there, so naturally, I didn't get as much work done as I would in Singapore, but then again, my vlogs and blogposts for MSCT2019 went up so I'm very happy with that!
I didn't do exciting things everyday as it was meant to be a chill trip, mostly to spend time with my cousins and other relatives. However, there were days that I did go to somewhere exciting!
Grape Picking in Bauang Town
This was the first time I went grape picking! Sad to say it wasn't really grape season so there weren't THAT many to pick in the first place, but it was still a fun experience! There were a fair few to pick, but it could also be because we were literally the only people there. I'm sure it'll be a lot more crowded when the grapes are in season!
There were produce on sale such as soursop wine (which basically tasted like sugar water to me, so it wasn't really my cuppa) and different sorts of snacks like dried fruits!
Luna Beach
This place is one of my favourite places to visit! I love that the entire beach is filled with pebbles instead of sand that gets in your shoes. There were two places you could visit, and of course, we had to visit them both and explore all the pebbly-ness!
Not entirely sure what was happening in this picture but I thought it was pretty funny.
The first museum we went to was filled with lots of painted artwork, not too much of pebbles, but it was definitely fun for my younger cousins since they haven't been there before.
And off to the second one, which was deeper in, and much more empty.
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These had wayyy more interesting things to look at, and there were actually more pebble related sculptures as well! There were also two beautiful houses for you to explore!
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The first house was a little smaller, and had a nice view of the beach from the second floor.
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The second house had a lot more for you to see, there were many artefacts and the flooring was just mesmerising to look at!
I'd definitely recommend going to Luna Beach if you're in the Ilocos region. It's a very interesting place and personally, its one of the most beautiful beaches I've been to!
Vigan City
I've never been to Vigan city, and its about a 3-4 hours drive from where I live. One of my cousins goes to school there so we were picking her up for the holidays. It has a lot of Spanish influence, and you get to ride on the little horse carriages to various tourists sites like the museum and church!
I did get a souvenir or two from one of the antique shops, but I definitely wanted to spend a bit more time wandering about the place!
Christmas
This was one of the main events of my trip! Christmas is really big here in Philippines, and with so many cousins under one roof, there were just so many things to do! Loads of presents to give out, loads of food to go around, and loads of games as well!
Baguio City
I was so excited to go to Baguio city! I've not been there for such a long time, but much to my dismay, it was TOO crowded (we went there a day after Christmas - BIG mistake) so we mostly spent our time in the jam, holding our pee for a good 3 hours. It also rained quite heavily while we were looking for the carpark so I was honestly really bummed out!
I really wanted to wander around and enjoy the nice weather there, take a few videos and photos and buy souvenirs for friends and myself, but I didn't really get to get off the car. The only thing we took back from Baguio were little pandesal buns for lunch - so yummy, but honestly quite miserable, as well as some Ube jam and fruit jams from the side stores on the way down from the mountain!
Lafayette
This was one of the resorts near my house, and my eldest cousin works there. We decided to go there for dinner and have a listen to the band that was playing that night. The resort is near the beach so the breeze was really nice and the atmosphere was great!
New Year
This was probably the biggest highlight of my trip. New Year celebrations here are crazy! We had really loud music on, loads of games, as well as fireworks! Of course, lots of food and a lot of alcohol as well. I can't wait for you guys to watch the vlog because I've managed to catch quite a few interesting clips from the games!
The next few days were just spent catching up on sleep, packing my luggage and settling some work things for back home.
Airport
Heading to the airport was definitely bittersweet. I know I would miss my family in the Philippines but I had so much work to do back here in Singapore. Honestly, I did miss getting really busy, which I did the moment we got back! The plane ride back home was pretty smooth and we even had time to sit in the lounge area that had wifi and some food for us to eat. I definitely got some work done there. Of course, I had to have my cup noodles on the plane - my favourite comfort food!
It was a great 2-3 weeks away in Philippines, and it was nice to spend some time with my family, really pull away from the hustle and bustle of the city life and just chill, basically. I hope you guys enjoyed this short blogpost, I'm sorry it came so late, I was really held up with all the backlogged work here! The vlog will be coming out soon so please do look out for that!
Till next time!
xx
Shayne