the philippines // day 1

^only decent picture i got of the underground river. it was pretty dark inside and my camera had a hard time taking pictures.

^our resort

^where we stayed.

back in june, for my birthday, tanner handed me my gift to open. inside was a flight to the philippines. i was happy to be traveling and thanked him, but then he asked me if i was excited. yes, but no.. i had never thought about the philippines and didn't know what to be excited for. we both went into it blind but maybe that's why we LOVED it. we didn't have any expectations and every day we were there just got better. 

i was 26 the first time i ever flew alone. yes, and that was in august. i was 26 the first time i flew alone internationally, which was to the philippines. a part of me was freaking out but then the other part was excited to do it on my own. tanner was already in vietnam for his grad program and i couldn't wait to join him. traveling to asia is a lonnnnngggg day of travel. i woke up at 9, plane from boise left at 11:30,  it was a little over an flight hour to seattle, 3 hour layover in seattle, 11 hour flight to korea, 2.5 hour layover in korea, 3 hour flight to the philippines, then a 20 minute taxi ride to my hotel. to be safe, i put all my luggage in the backseat of the taxi and then pretended to call tanner and said the number of the taxi and approximately how soon i should be at the hotel. (i read to do this online haha) i arrived to the hotel around 1 in the morning their time and thanks to jet lag, i was wide awake at 6:30 AM. i was very grateful that the day went so smooth and there were no issues. a huge plus to the philippines is that almost everybody speaks english. i didn't really think about that before hand but that sure made it easier. 

two other couples from tanners grad program decided to join us in the philippines so i met with their wives the following morning and we had breakfast and walked around the area we were in. then we met with one of proof's distributers who took us to the airport to pick up our husbands. we all went to lunch and then caught a flight to the island of palawan. this is where the real fun began. 

it was dark so we didn't get to see how crazy beautiful the island was until the morning. we stopped and had a delicious dinner and then took a 2 hour drive to our hotel. that drive was not fun.. we were so tired and the road windy and bumpy the whole way. i get nauseous really easy and felt pretty miserable.  but holy cow, arriving to the resort was like a dream. i forgot about my nausea and just soaked it in. the resort was very nice and we could hear the ocean. when we opened the door to our room, we just looked at each other and were like, this is going to be fun. 

we slept like angels. we woke up and walked out to the ocean. we were surprised at how warm the water was. we took a stroll around the resort and then went to breakfast. they put on an incredible spread, complete with fresh philippino mangos. i've never had better mango in my life. 

after breakfast, our group went to the underground river, which was a boat tour through a cave. it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. it was so cool and our tour guide was hilarious.. or i could have still been really tired. either way, i enjoyed it. 

we lounged at the beach for the rest of the day and i absolutely loved it. we ordered lunch and they set up a table right there on the beach where we seriously feasted on the best food. dinner that night was no exception. sounds dumb but worried about the food because i've never heard anything about it.. it's not popular in the united states but it should be. its soooo good. anyway, we just played in the water and layed out, went on a zip line over the water and just completely relaxed. 

the group we were with were fun to travel with. we all got along and were totally cool if someone wanted to do their own thing. our proof distributor took care of everything. he planned our rides, hotels, where to eat, the plane rides.. everything. i would ask tanner everyday what the plan was and he didn't know.. but honestly, everyday just got better. it was nice to not do anything but play and eat haha. 

i would recommend the philippines to everyone.