I’ve spent the first 2 weeks of 2018 in the Philippines. New Year’s Eve was spent in a plane with free champagne from the flight attendants. By the time my parents and I arrived, it was already the evening of New Year’s Day.
The last time I’ve visited the Philippines was during the holidays in 2001, arriving back to the States on New Year’s Day 2002. Things definitely changed 16 years later. The most notable changes were paved roads within the neighborhood (or “village” as they call it) of my Aunt’s house, working and flushable toilets 99% of the time, and my little nieces and nephews who were around 1-6 years of age in 2001 are now young adults. Unfortunately, what hasn’t changed is the major traffic around Metro Manila and the nearby provinces.
The first week in the Philippines was mostly spent with family, seeing relatives I haven’t seen in a very long time. The week ended with a beautiful outdoor wedding with the bride wearing a dress that would put Kate Middleton’s wedding dress to shame.
The second week was spent with more family, especially on my Dad’s side. We ended the week spending it at Boracay, which is a huge tourist destination.
I didn’t want to bring my bulky Nikon cameras that I normally use for paid work, so I used my Dad’s Canon Rebel T1i during this trip. It was a great camera to use, but also frustrating because this camera is entry level, and therefore had less features than my Nikon cameras. Some pictures were from my cell phone, a Samsung S7 Galaxy Edge.
