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Philippines
  • Natalie Steinbichler

Philippines

And another one off the bucket list!! Read more
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  • Trip start
    July 19, 2025
    Natalie SteinbichlerPhilippinesTraveler
    1221

    El Nido

    July 20 on the Philippines ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    24 hours and one headache later, Luke and I have finally arrived on an island in the Philippines called El Nido. Since we flew, waited, flew, slept and waited some more, there's not much story to tell.

    We were however greeted by a very friendly Korean-American host (of our air bnb) with homemade Filipino food just for us because our last flight was delayed.

    We spent the rest of the evening sleeping! 😴💤🥱    Read more

  • Natalie SteinbichlerPhilippinesTraveler
    8
    breakfast, Filipino eggplant-omelette1Ceviche saladpumpkin soup1fish steak

    Personal Cheffin'

    July 22 on the Philippines ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    What a day! We started out snorkeling right in front of our air bnb, went swimming in the pool, did some reading / relaxing and went to town.

    And, here comes the highlight: we had a personal chef cook us dinner. Yes, you heard right, a personal chef!

    And oh MY GOD the food was delicious. Every. Single. Dish. SUPERB!!!!

    First course was a Ceviche salad with blue merlin fish and I liked it so much, I asked if he could make it again when he returns next week.🐟

    Then came a pumpkin-creme soup. Also divine.🎃

    Then sword-fish steak with a mango/avocado/tomato salad and OMG THE MANGOS.

    Dessert was a typical Filipino dish: "spring-rolls" as in banana filling with a coconut-milk-sugar sauce.

    I mean... must I say more?

    I'm going to bed utterly STUFFED but incredibly satisfied. And well, it cost us a whole of 35 Francs... cook including the food. 4 courses. Simple but AMAZING. 🤤🤤🤤🤤

    @Mom & Dad you woulda loved the food.😍    Read more

  • Natalie SteinbichlerPhilippinesTraveler
    first, a haircut
    so happy this guy was outsidestarted reading...barely read a page...aftermath of said stormanybody else notice how Luke was walking like a closet?after massage face1tuk tukin' faces6dad and steve shoutoutaftermath of mr. crabby fighting back

    Storms and Wetness

    July 25 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    Yes, for those wondering, we are still alive. 💀👩‍❤️‍👨

    The past few days have been very rainy and since quite a storm (typhoon) hit us yesterday, we haven't seen much outside of our air bnb and the constant rain. We went out to a little bar on the seaside, close to us, and got an emergency message that the winds are at code orange. Not sure what that means generally - for us it meant to cover us with yoga mats and pray we make it a level lower before the building blows away. (Yes, I am being over-dramatic).

    It was actually quite funny. 🌧️⛈️

    We got soaked of course and ordered pizza for dinner.

    Today we dared venture out and tada, the streets were literally flooded. That too was quite funny, hehe. Now although we expected sunnier weather, I do appreciate the odd adventure because at the end of the day, it's an adventure! And trudging through seas of dirty water classifies as such. Never done that before... now I have.😎

    Btw: the crab photo is a shoutout to both my dad and Steven. To dad because he told me to eat it and to Steve because he'd have gotten up from the table and left, had I ordered it in his presence.
    Love you both dearly.

    I cut myself eating it, so that was an adventure too. 🦀

    Tomorrow we FINALLY get to go on the tour we booked for the day before yesterday. Stay tuned to find out what else we will venture out to...🗺️    Read more

  • Natalie SteinbichlerPhilippinesTraveler
    11251restaurant view behind us

    Island Hopping

    July 26 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌬 29 °C

    We used the opportunity of rainfree weather wisely and finally attended our island hopping adventure. It only took two "coast guard said no today" for it to take place.⚓️

    But, alas, it was worth the wait! We started out in the morning, slightly late because Luke enjoys being late🙄 And once on the boat... we were already soaked. Not because it rained but because the boat was open in the front and the waves slapped us in the face. Or my face. Luke, sitting behind be, got what was left of my water-slap.

    First stop, a lovely beach. Second stop was a little note-worthier, since we got to canoe into a lagoon.

    Where we got sunburned.☀️🔥

    To our defense: it had been raining two days straight and the day started out cloudy. It was precisely during our canoe-excursion that the sun came out. Now my shins, my knees and my lower arms are red. I look ridiculous.👙

    We ate lunch on our next stop and went snorkeling. We saw blue star-fish, beautiful corals and lots of fishies!🐠🐟🪸

    We ended the day in a restaurant a car drove us up to, bothered by teenage Filipinas taking more than a million selfies in front of us.🙄    Read more

  • Natalie SteinbichlerPhilippinesTraveler
    2341

    Sibaltan

    July 29 on the Philippines ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    And for this trip, this is the last post-worthy day and perhaps one with the the nicest beach picture.

    Luke and I awoke early in the morning, ate our usual breakfast and our adventure began with renting a scooter. First noteable thing was this, and here I must give a little context first. 🛵

    Once upon a time, Luke, Stev and Nat went on a long trip to a land far far away. As preperations were underway, Luke Steve and Nat, as many times before and many times after, had a discussion about the necessity of making photos of important documents. Like ID's, passports or drivers licenses.....

    And so, when Luke was supposed to be the designated driver for our scooter tour (1h oneway) with a passenger (me) on the back.... he couldn't (legally) be it because he forgot his drivers license at home and did not have a photo of it (!!!!) because according to the lady renting us the scooter, that would've sufficed. 🥲🥲 But, alas, I drove for a solid 1 minute until I let him takeover since the road was a disaster. We took turns afterwards and all was good. I liked winning that discussion though, 1 year later🤓

    The beach where we went diving was paradise. So beautiful. And the corals, fish and other sea life was amazingly untouched and therefor super colorful, unlike the reef in Egypt which was not in such good condition. Diving itself was great too, everything went smoothly. Since it's not season, we had a private tour without paying a private tour😎😎😎

    OH BOY AND DINNER, LET ME TELL YOU, WAS AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE. Well, the food was amazing!!! We had "Golden Duck Adobo" which is duck meat with rice in a curry-ish vinegar sauce. And the desert was a lava-cake with white chocolate and calamansi juice (which belongs to the family of lemons/citruses/lime and is native to the Philippines) and ooooh myy goooood. It was so good, we're going to eat lunch there tomorrow on our last day here and eat it again. SO GOOD. We went to bed absolutely happy.🤓😁❤️    Read more

    Trip end
    July 30, 2025
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