Mabuhay – Honeymoon Part I

Hello friends!

I am writing this post on Sunday, 10am our local time. It will get posted on the blog, depending on when we will have internet access.

We are beginning our Day 3 of our honeymoon. We have a little bit of downtime before we get picked up to take a boat ride to our second destination.

Where in the world are we?

Can you guess our destination on the board below?

We flew 16 hours to the Philippines, once we arrive in Manila, we took another 1.5 hour flight to reach our destination somewhere in an island on the southern tip of the country. Philippines consist of 7,000+ islands.

Hello from the lobby of  hotel #1, island #1.

We explored local attractions and discovered how lush it is here.

I’ve seen many plants and flowers that I have never seen before.

This hanging plant was more beautiful in person. It looked fake.

I have been admiring the beautiful display of tropical flowers every where.

We hung out with the locals and the natives from this island.

You can see our next destination in the background, across the ocean.

We went ziplining. Oh yeah, we did. So exhilarating and so much fun.

Scary at first, then it turns to fun immediately right after take off.

Since we were already feeling adventurous, we wanted to try all the different local fruits and stopped by the roadside fruit stand.

Found a fruit called Marang. It was very fragrant.

What the fruit looks like inside. It is sweet and soft. There’s a seed inside that you spit out after you eat the outer soft shell.

The stinkiest fruit in the whole world, Durian. It’s not allowed in our hotel because the smell is very strong and most people don’t like it.

Just double checking….oh yeah, it stinks and it’s not even opened yet. I’ve had it before but I wanted Chris to try it for the first time. We bought it, but have not been brave enough to eat it yet. Even Andrew Zimmerman from the Travel Network had to say no to this fruit. And that’s saying a lot since he has eaten bugs during his travel.

Other fun things? These things the local called mickey mouse. I was intrigued and wanted to try it thinking it was a fruit. It’s actually a plant and used for decorations. Ooops, good thing we asked before we started eating it.

The first leg of our trip (Day 1 and 2) was more about exploring the city and getting acquainted with the weather, the food and the culture.

The next destination will be more relaxation and water activities.

We are staying in a hut that is above water. I am so excited to see it and get to cross off one thing from my  travel wish list 🙂

I’ll catch up with you guys soon. I hope you have been enjoying the guests posts on the blog 🙂

As the locals would say it, Mabuhay!