Philippines Travel Photos | iPhoneography | Personal Story
The last time I travelled back to the Philippines was December 2003. I’ve been wanting to visit home a lot sooner than ten years but my schedule never worked out. When my best friend from the Philippines told me she was engaged, I made it a priority to book a couple of weeks off my calendar last October to fly nineteen hours over the Pacific and come home.
Canada is where me and my family reside now but I still refer to the Philippines as home. Before my trip, I was excited to eat authentic Filipino dishes once again and have fresh sea food everyday. The coastal city where I grew up is called San Fernando, about a six-hour drive north of Manila. The fish you buy from the market is as fresh as you can get. Travelling within the country is a lot easier now too since domestic flights are cheaper, as seen on my Facebook feed from my Filipino friends who post images online of their recent adventures.
It was great seeing families and old friends again. I am however disappointed of how much my city have changed. Progress is good for the economy. But with that comes all the negative aspects urbanization brings — pollution, traffic, over population. The smog in the downtown area was so bad during rush hour that when dusk falls, you could see the smoke linger like fog. It was suffocating. I am glad though that the little towns a few hours away from cities don’t have the same problem. My Mom and I was able to visit Pagudpud, a town in the most northern part of the Philippines and it reminded me of how my city used to be. We stayed at a place called Pannzian Beach, a resort at the bottom of a mountain. That’s where my best friend Emmy and her fiance, Pen, joined us later on. I photographed their engagement session there which I will share on the blog soon.
The hardest part of my trip though was being away from my husband, who couldn’t get two weeks off from work, and our dog Bella (we didn’t have Norman yet then). My husband told me that Bella took my pillow to her bed when I was away and wouldn’t give it back. I missed them both so much.
I wanted to travel light that’s why I didn’t bring my DSLR while we were our sightseeing. That and I didn’t want to stand out more than I already do. I’m only 5’3″ and 105 pounds but in the Philippines, I’m considered tall and huge. So I used my iPod to take photos using an app called VSCO Cam. It app does take a lot of memory storage but I am impressed on how much it can do. It’s almost like shooting raw. I did wish though that I had something more responsive as an iPod is not really great for taking photojournalistic photos. But for things that don’t move, an iPhoneography was not bad. Here are a few photos from my trip!
