Celebrating Love in the Philippines
About a year ago, our friends Aris and Jen mentioned they were going to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in the Philippines. Trish and I said "we'll go!" before they even invited us. Not only were Aris and Jen celebrating, but Aris's parents were also celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. We were excited to join in the festivities and booked our flights last September.
Our journey began the day after Christmas, in the early morning. We started with a flight to San Francisco.
Our flight was a bit delayed, as was our from San Francisco to Honolulu. We missed our connection to Guam, so got to spend the night in Honolulu on United.
The next day, we flew to Guam. This was fun because Trish was born in Guam. Another flight to Manila and we were able to rest for the night. Since we were delayed by a day, we missed our flight to El Nido and had to book a new one to Puerto Princessa instead. Puerto Princesa is the capital of Palawan, the island where El Nido is located. We took a five-hour private shuttle from Puerto Princesa to El Nido. The number of dogs, people, and motorbikes on the road was incredible. We were glad to finally arrive at our hotel, the El Nido Garden Resort.
The next day, we took a boat island hopping with our whole crew of 16. We visited a few beaches, a cave, and some folks went kayaking. It rained most of the day, but it wasn't cold and we had a blast anyway.
That evening, Trish and I joined Aris and Jen for dinner at the place they were hoping to renew their vows. To get there, we took a path that turned into a muddy trail, that ended with a walk on two-by-fours over an alligator farm. We gladly accepted the restaurant's offer for a speedboat ride back to El Nido after dinner.
Massages were 10 USD, so we enjoyed as many as we could. Some people even got two in the same day. We celebrated New Year's Eve together complete with illegal fireworks on the beach.
We gathered the next afternoon to renew Aris and Jen's vows. It was a small ceremony with family + Trish and I.
Trish took a gorgeous photo of the sunset that evening.
We did another island hopping tour in El Nido, spent some time at Lio Beach, and splashed around in the resort's pool. We also had several more massages and delicious meals.
We took a flight to Manila for the second half of our vacation. We stayed at the Manila Marriott, where we received lounge privileges thanks to all my travel last year. This was awesome because they had a full breakfast buffet, afternoon snacks, and evening cocktails. We also had a great view of the golf course from our room.
Our hotel was far from the rest of our crew, but it was kinda cool that it had a mall and casino attached to it. We spent a morning exploring it, and I even doubled my money at the Blackjack table one evening.
In the evenings, we'd meet up with the Velasquez family for dinner and entertainment.
One evening, we rented a private karaoke room and spent several hours singing and laughing. Another, we went to Aris's aunt's house and marveled at her rooftop patio with a basketball court.
Finally, we gathered at Gazebo Royale for the 50th wedding anniversary celebration.
We ended the night at a relative's house nearby, where Jen did what she does best, singing her heart out!
It was incredibly fun to travel to the other side of the world with friends. Trish and I've traveled the world together before, but this was the first time we've traveled with so many friends. We're already planning our next trip together in 2025.
For more photos, see my Aris and Jen's 25th in the Philippines album on Flickr.
Thank you soooo much for including us, Aris and Jen! We loved celebrating love with you and your family in the Philippines!! ❤️