Islands (Philippines, Guam, etc)

I spent a month in the Philippines last winter. What are you interested in doing? The country is pretty varied and there's a shitload you can do and where you want to go depends entirely on what you want to be doing.

El Nido is extremely beautiful, although a bit out of the way - that's also a positive though because the amount of tourists is bearable compared to some other similar locations in SEA. A lot of jellyfish when I went there, although there's beaches without any as well. The town itself doesn't have any beach to speak of, rather it's surrounded by islands with plenty of them. Most people get tours for island hopping, which is fun, but almost all tours go the same few routes so it's not exactly peaceful. If you want peace, you can just rent a kayak and paddle to a random beach and have it pretty much all for yourself.

I'm not a huge fan of Cebu. It felt like a smaller version of Manila, ie. dirty and full of hookers, but I didn't go there for those. There's lots of malls where you can get anything you could ever want for cheap though. It's also the transport hub for the Visayas region, which is filled with smaller islands with pristine beaches and the best diving sites in the Philippines if you're into diving, so it's easy to get from Cebu to wherever you want.

stupidmonkey_sl said:

Been to the Philippines, can comfirm what aarkh said. In some places if you are a single, good looking white male you will be hailed as a king by the women, not just the bar girls. They want a ride back to the US if you will let them.

I recommend getting out of the cities. Maybe spend a day or two in one then move on. Meals are cheap and so is housing. You can get by on a little bit of money. The cost of the ticket is where it gets expensive, especially this time of year.

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Heh yea, you don't really need to be good looking either. It's a poor country with an exploding population thanks to the Catholic church and abstinence only, so there's a lot of young women with not such awesome prospects for the future who want to get out of there. A single white guy is seen as something of a lottery jackpot, so you get a ridiculous amount of attention just by showing up. Just best be careful with not giving the girls any wrong ideas about marriage etc. You hear stories of people hinting at marriage just to get laid, and then getting thrown in jail or getting beat up / killed by the girl's family after not following through, stuff like that. Not sure how much truth there is to those but you see and hear a lot of fucked up stuff in the cities.

For which reason I heartily second the recommendation to get out of cities. If you want to go to El Nido, I'd probably recommend starting there and depending on how much time you want to spend in Palawan (the island El Nido is on), heading to Cebu and then from there to one of the Visayas islands depending on what you want to see and do.

One island that I've always been interested in going to is New Caledonia. It may be too far for you but apparently there are some direct flights from Seoul available.

It's basically a French territory in the middle of the South Pacific so you get a mix of Parisian and Polynesian influences there. What kind of interested me about it versus other Pacific Islands is that it's apparently one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet. It's still got all the amenities of other islands but it's a bit more off the beaten path.

Foreigners are like foreigners everywhere, I guess? It depends a lot where you go. There's way less family tourists than for example Thailand; a lot of backpackers and couples, and strikingly many sex tourists and older white men with filipina wives. There's less tourists in general than in mainland SEA.

As for the locals, how they see you differs heavily with where you go. Filipinos are generally very friendly and down to earth. In cities you get some hassle from gold diggers etc, outside of cities in more touristy places people are used to white faces and you get no hassle at all really. In some more out of the way places white faces are a novelty and you can get stared at, kids might run after you and you get the whole "ooh it's a white guy" reaction.

Travelling solo, it's really easy to talk to locals, especially since pretty much everyone speaks English. My first week in the country I ended up randomly meeting a group of filipinos in Manila who were vacationing and celebrating a friend's 60th birthday. Ended up getting hammered with them in a Manila slum and travelling with them for a few days in the north heh.

If you just want to chillax it's hard to beat Palawan and El Nido. It is extremely beautiful and perfect for just taking it easy. Any of the Visayas islands will also fit the bill. You'll find most tourists in Boracay, Bohol and Malapascua, less on Siquijor or Negros, not sure about Iloilo or Leyte as I didn't visit those.

Boracay is the typical tropical paradise party island and the main tourist destination in Philippines aside from Manila/Cebu. Bohol is a bit bigger, famous for tarsiers and some uninteresting brown hills plus some very good diving. Malapascua is a smaller paradise island, mostly a diving destination as well though there's plenty of people there just for the sun, plus Koreans doing their best to avoid it. Siquijor is very nice and quiet, most tourists there stay on the beach of whichever resort they're staying at and there's plenty of those, no night life there tho.

In short, if what you want is a tropical paradise it's hard to go wrong with the Philippines.

What about Taiwan? I have a japanese friend who is a big fan, but I am not sure if he went to the cities or the more rural areas (or both).

Springbok_sl said:

Vietnam was my least favorite.

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I'm curious what did you not like about Vietnam? I may be going in a few months and with the exception of the bad traffic in the cities I heard it's beaches and food are great and the countryside is amazing. Could you elaborate more?

Springbok_sl said:

For me, the beaches (the really good beaches) in Vietnam weren't nearly as accessible as in Philippines/Malaysia/Indo (even Thailand - though at least Vietnams were cleaner/less full of drunken idiots). My main draw in the region is the beaches, and the Vietnamese ones while nice, were more of a pain in the ass to get to. I liked the Vietnamese people quite a bit, and the food is very good - but the cities (Saigon in particular) REALLY turned me off. The traffic in Ho Chi Minh made Bangkok look like fucking Stillwater Oklahoma. Once you get in the region, travel is quick and easy between countries (Air Asia) - Vietnam has basically been playing catch up with its neighbors regarding tourism (Thailand, Indo, Malaysia are all WELL ahead of Vietnam in regards to infrastructure).


All that said, the gal I was in Vietnam loved it - and other people I know who have traveled the region extensively absolutely love it. It just wasn't for me. I liked being able to fly directly into Kuta Bali and stumble down to the beach. I like how easy it was to get to Ko Phangan in Thailand, and how quickly I could travel from Manila to El Nido. It was all about the beaches with me, haha.

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Thanks for the info.

So my fiance and i are looking at Tahiti or Fiji for our honeymoon late September and early October. However, I am open to all tropical island suggestions. What are the pros and cons v Tahiti and/or Fiji? I know Tahiti is pricey...however its fit into our budget. I am not adverse to getting savings though.
Anyone have experience on multiple islands in Tahiti? Any advice regarding Tahiti or other tropical island honeymoons would be appreciated.

Vietnam has a hop on / hop off bus service from HCM to Hanoi that stops in tons of different cities for something like $50-60 total, so I don't know where "hard to get to" comes into play. However Vietnamese beaches are not anywhere near as good as Thailand's beaches, and the locals in tourist cities are really pushy and deceptive. I was lied to more than I can remember there. "Are you interested in a booze cruise?" Gives ticket to boat with 80% old people.

On the other hand, if you buy a cheap motorbike and take a month to ride from Saigon to Hanoi or vice versa through the countryside, it's unbelievable. Vietnam has unreal landscapes, and rural people are super friendly.

If you're looking for a beach destination, there are tons of places to go to ahead of Vietnam.

Guam

Cons- it's humid as all fuck, and I say that having been born and raised in the tropics. It's fucking tiny, and a little ugly, it regularly gets the shit kicked out of it by Super Typhoons so most buildings are one story concrete. If you are driving around and start seeing graffitti don't stop the car. You wandered into Micronesian slums (non-indigenous brackish water drinking inbred tards), Meth central. When you see a clean cut guy driving a 30 yr old rusty beater he is an undercover cop riding solo carrying more gear than SWAT team, looking for meth heads. Also it's humid as fuck.

Pros- The local people are super cool, crazy friendly. If you cross paths with the same peeps more than twice, expect to get invited home for dinner. The local food is good. All the local women look tens years younger than their actual age till 45 then it's Dorian Grey. They are all a mix of Chamorro (indigenous people), Japanese, Korean and Filipino, which makes them damn hot. Guam is the poor man's Hawai'i for Asian vacationers, not much to see, but a lotta tourist trap places (water parks, aquariums, arcades, firing ranges, etc.). Tons of lower middle class Japanese secretarial types are there to sow their oats before marrying. If you speak even a teeny bit of Japanese you can get laid. Most Japanese uncensored porn is shot on Guam, the industry bought a small coastal island there to film and dubbed it 'Sex Island'. Don't fall asleep on the beach, Coconut Crabs will take off a toe.



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Merkins4Brazil_sl said:

Don't fall asleep on the beach, Coconut Crabs will take off a toe.

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In what scenario is that a pro?