Backpacking: The Final Destination

It's been a while, so I think it's time for an update. Travel buddy and bestie G. and I finally decided upon a final destination for our trip. At first we wanted to chill out on the Maledives before going back home. Just doing nothing, laying on the beach, drinking cocktails... I think you will get the picture. Unfortunately the Maledives are relatively expensive and since backpacking is kind of surviving on an ultra low budget, 'expensive' is not in our dictionary. Bye bye Maledives.

Our new travel destination... can you guess where it is?

A couple of days ago, G and I got together over coffee and decided upon a new final destination. It was a brief 'meeting' because we both felt the same way. Are you curious? Well, it's still not a 100% certain yet (Indonesia is still a possibility), but for now we will end our backpacking trip innnn.....

The Philippines!

Maybe it's not the first destination which comes to mind when thinking of a final destination for a backpacking trip. But we did some research. We wanted to go to the Maledives for the beautiful pearly white beaches and palmtrees. Well, guess what: These are also to be found in the Philippines. In addition to that, the Maledives are a very quite island. Nothing much to do, nothing much to see. It's possible that we don't even want to go sightseeing after a couple of months of backpacking, but if we do, there is no possibility. The Philippines however, are a very different story. There's lots of things to do and see. A very brief summary from my dear Lonely Planet guide:

* Swimming with whale sharks. Real ones. Big ones!
* See and maybe even climb a volcano
* Explore one of the many deserted islands
* Visit ancient rice terraces
* Diving
* Venture into the jungle to visit hill tribes
* ... and a lot a lot more...

We are pretty excited about this. Yay!

So, the trip is kind of complete now. The next update will be more specific: It wil cover an estimate on how many days I/we spend in every country. It also covers the alternative route, which I will have to take whenever my budget is not sufficient for the initial route.

Now I have nothing more to tell/show you, except for a couple of jealous making pictures of The Philippines.

Pic 1 via here , pic 2 via here , pic 3 via here , pic 4 via here , pic 5 via here