As much as I love traveling there have been vacations that have been terrible…to say the least. So, as my first real post, I’m going to take you on a journey to the Philippines where my sister and I had the privilege to experience something that is still making us die laughing a year down the road.
First off, I want to explain that my sister and I are both 100% Filipino. My parents were both born in the Philippines, a third-world country in southeast Asia. Both wanting more for themselves both immigrated to the US in their 20s where they met, fell in love, (cute I know) and had us.
My parents brought us up very emerged in the Filipino culture. Eating the food, hearing the different dialects spoken in the country. So, it wasn’t a surprise to us when they got us tickets to the Philippines. We visited three areas there: Manila, El Nido, and Palawan. For the sake of this blog post.
We are an active family that loves the adrenaline rush of things that get us moving. So, while on vacation we always go hiking, zip lining, swimming, snorkeling, boating, everything you can imagine. This was vacation was no different and we were doing all those things and more. But, there was something different about being in the Philippines that threw off me and my sister. Either we’re just clean freaks or are just used to something different in the States, but we felt different.
Whenever we ate food there that we would eat at home it never tasted the same. It tasted rather odd. This resulted in us doing one of the two things: not eating or only one meal a day. My sister chose the former and I chose the latter. In the end, as you can probably guess from the amount of activity we do both of these choices ended up being bad ones.
For my sister, while we were waiting on the beach for our boat to take us to one of the many islands around the country, she collapsed of dehydration and the lack of food in her system. So, we had to go to a make-shift hospital in Palawan to get her hydrated again. I know, poor Kathleen. Then, in El Nido, I got some margarita pizza (which only had tomatoes and basil on it) for dinner to eat since I did not want to eat any more Filipino food and at the time I didn’t eat meat. I was then woken up that night with my inability to breathe and swollen face because apparently, it had triggered some kind of allergic reaction.
So, you see, not all trips go as planned. But, at least it’s kinda funny now. Just don’t do what I did and research where you want to go.
Were you scared when you and your sister had to be rushed to the hospital?
I love how real this story is. I hope to travel to the Philippines one day.
I’ve had the same experience with Thai food. Although I am not nearly as active in Thailand as you were when you visited tye Phillipines (unless you count running after small children because they don’t seem to understand you can’t run out in the middle of a gas station where a bunch of people are driving around). I honestly thought I was crazy to think the food tasted unappetizing to me because my mom always said it tasted better in Thailand.