A Modern Day Grand Tour: Bschool blitz in the philippines

Spring break! 2 weeks is a great amount of time for travel. I would say that a month is perfect if you want to go somewhere remote but 2 weeks is perfect for fun, sun and everything else in between. There was a group of about 20 of us (I know, big!) in the Philippines but we were on slightly different itineraries so we were all just sort of cris-crossing and island hopping all over the country. We were like a swarm of business school students partying it up, blitz-style. The Philippines never knew what hit it.

My BFF Melanie and I were together the whole time and we spent the first few days swimming with the whale sharks though the water was murky and all we saw were huge spotted things that would just appear in the abyss. Pretty spooky but cool to see. The funniest part was that we were in the boat trolling for whale sharks and since the visibility was low it was a frantic scramble to get in the water the second the boat guys saw one.

Snorkels on, at the ready at all times. Whale sharks!

With the greater group of 20 we rented this crazy house in Puerto Galera that was on a cliff overlooking the beach. It was an incredible house with a pool, a gazillion rooms and private access to the beach. We didn't do much for the week we were there except drink jungle juice, play cards and hang in the pool. It was a ton of fun but the best part was the food! Our amazing housekeeper cooked breakfast and dinner for us everyday and the food was just incredible. Whoever said that philippino food wasn't very good clearly never had what we did.

Home sweet home!

The pool overlooked the ocean. We pretty much stayed in and around the pool all day...

... except when we were at our private beach!

Yet another jungle juice-fueled game of cards. After finding that a bottle of local rum cost about $1, we proceeded to drink it in everything and thus jungle juice was born.

After a week of fun partying, Melanie and I finished our trip with a romantic beach getaway on the island of Palawan. It was remote compared to the other beach areas but so much more pristine than the tourist-filled Boracay. We stayed at this really cute B&B and spent our days on a private boat, hopping from one perfectly secluded beach to another. And I mean PERFECT - white sands, turquoise waters, huge cliffs, all without another soul in sight. The only drawback was the jellyfish. They weren't poisonous but they were a little stingy and practically invisible. But still, hanging on shore had its perks!