My Trip to the Philippines

For those of you who don't know, I am Filipino. However I was born and raised here in San Diego my entire life. I never got the chance to visit my homeland until I was 8 years old and I was barely starting 3rd grade. The reason why it took so long for me to finally fly overseas was because my great Lolo Nick was celebrating his 100th brithday. Obviously many of my family members were going to travel on such a momentous occassion and luckily my mom asked me if I wanted to go to. Of course I said yes. I didn't want to miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime to visit my long distance family members that I've never even met before. So I took the plane ride for 16 hours from LA to Manila.

Let me start off by saying that the vibe between the city and the province is completely different. In Manila, there are so many people on the streets and begging for money. It was even worse when we went to visit a few family members at their house and it was nothing that I was expecting. Their home was so small and the road leading up there was pretty much all mud. Everywhere that we went was all crowded and I felt so overwhelmed with all the poverty that people were going through.

Then in Patria (province), it practically looked like a pleasant little town in the middle of a jungle and everyone there was pretty much family. It took awhile for us to get there since we had to take another plane and ride on a bus for 3 hours. It was also weird how we had to go through the main province, Antique, in order to get to another province where my family lives. Even though it was so humid, the bus ride was so rejuvenating because of the breathtaking view. I've never seen so many tropical trees all in one place before. Also the house that we stayed was rather snug, I didn't mind sharing the room with my mom and Lola. The whole time that I was in Patria was so much fun and relaxing. I was really living the simple life for once.

But the best part about the trip was when we took a boat ride to the beautiful island of Boracay. The day was a bit rainy that day, but none of that even mattered. When I finally reached the beach, the sight simply just took my breath away. I kid you not, the water was so clear that I honestly thought that it was clean enough to drink it. Of course I thought wrong when I licked the water and realized that it was still salt water. I just felt at home at that beach and I hope to visit there again when I get the chance.

After my trip, I learned that the Philippines is so different from San Diego. Even though both places have many beaches, the environment is different in so many ways. I'll never forget how fortunate I am to be able to have the luxuries that many Filipinos don't get to have. That's why every once in a while my family in San Diego sends a box full of canned foods and old clothing to my family in the Philippines. Hopefully one day I get to see their beautiful faces again and live the simple life again.

#filipino #travel #places