April 8^th, 2026

We were headed to Pagudpud – a beach area in the north of the island of Luzon.  Supposed to have it’s own “white beach”.  

The drive was pretty rural with lots of small towns and farmland with rice, corn and tobacco being the main crops we could figure out.

The town of Pagudpud itself did not really have a beach but we’d seen pics of Saud beach next door.

We had not booked anything for fear we would not be happy at a rocky beach but were pleasantly surprised by a sandy, whitish beach in Saud but it did have small chunks or shells in it in many places.

After checking out then north end of the beach, it looked like the south of the beach was more populated with hotels and cafes, so we made our way there and found a place right on the beach with a pool but the water in it was quite cloudy looking. So we tried next door, also a cloudy looking pool which they claimed was clean as well. Okay, cloudy pool it is.

We asked about a room and she showed us one with a small balcony that did not face the beach and gave us a price of $50 a night and then when we asked about one with a sea view (just to see if it would be worth it), she showed us a much bigger room with a larger balcony and a sitting area, a table and chairs  and a large balcony. Both rooms had fridges and two double beds. This meant we got the four pillows we always want and 4 towels instead of two – bonus! We were concerned that the small AC unit wouldn’t cool enough in this larger space but she claimed it would. She spoke to the owner and got us a deal if we stayed three nights for $67 a night and confirmed that if we didn’t think it was cool enough overnight, we could change to the smaller room.

We plugged in the small fridge, got settled and spent some time cooling off inside before heading out to check out the beach. It was pretty nice with palm trees but there were large sections with seaweed that you wouldn’t want to swim in but enough parts without, that it would be okay. The water seemed warmer than at Boracay but other than walking the shore we didn’t go in today. The far south beyond our hotel had a few more hotels but the beach was rocky so we did well getting the hotel we did.

We stopped at an outdoor cafe for a couple of cold ones for $1.67 each before returning to the room to chill before looking for dinner. Dinner we had facing the beach and watching the red sun dip into the hazy horizon. Meals at this place seems to be designated as for 1-3 people so we ordered a sweet and sour fish dish with rice to share – it was barely enough for us. Maybe you’re supposed to order more than one dish…?

Turns out our room had two issues: one the air conditioner was built into the wall of the bathroom which meant condensation built up dripped on the floor! After a while Fran saw a bucket near the tub (first tub we’ve had on this trip) and put it under to catch most of the drips – luckily the bathroom is large enough that it was not in the way. Second issue was when you turned on the bathroom sink, the water not only poured out normally, but more sprayed out the side! This got that part of the floor wet too!

We dealt with it for the evening and next morning Doug went to the desk and said the AC had kept us comfortable enough overnight but could they fix the faucet and next morning while he went for a walk to find a store, they replaced it. Doug found some kids to make balloon animals for on his walk, and they were very appreciative and kind. Fran used the tub to get some laundry done and hung it out on the large balcony we had. We should be good now till we get home on the 17^th.

We spent the next two days chilling, walking the beach, reading; rinse and repeat. We did a few beach walks, went in the water once; it was warmer than at Boracay but with a drop off that was a bit difficult to get out back up. It did have a lovely breeze, but no beach chairs and we mostly sat on plastic patio chairs outside our hotel in the shade when we went to the beach.

 

Being after “Semana Santa”, most hotels were not full during the week and restaurants were not all open so we tended to eat at the same two although one night we went further afield. This area is mostly for local vacationers so much of the food was foreign to us but we more than managed.

Sunsets themselves were  not impressive but the sun itself was quite red before it set – this picture is the best we could do on our phones:

We went out on the last day to find a new place to eat for lunch as the one on one side of our hotel was closed for an event and we’d already had lunch at the other place twice. We had lovely meal of sweet and sour fish and the server suggested we could take a day trip over to Blue Lagoon and maybe some waterfalls. We looked into it online and the Blue Lagoon was only 30 km / 20 miles away and it looked lovely.  The waterfalls would have involved an over one kilometre uphill hike in the heat, Fran decided we wouldn’t go.  

Well, photos can be deceiving; while the area itself was lovely with a sandy bay, there were no trees, no places to sit on the sand in the shade or even rent chairs/umbrellas. 

Many of the structures (and probably any palm trees) had been damaged/destroyed by typhoons in 2024 and 2025 so the area was hurting. There were a few smaller hotels/homestays and restaurants but nothing very inviting.  There appeared to have been a huge resort with three buildings and some sort of theme park, remanents of which still remained.  

We wanted to drive back a different way to see more of the countryside but that didn’t pan out as the road was washed out!

Road out of town:

and then we hit the turn off – we might have tried this in our Tundra but not in this rental car!

Upon returning to our hotel, we went to sit outside in the shade again reading until it got too hot. On that last night here, the hotel that we wanted to have dinner at had “no chef” so we asked at reception what else might be opened other than the place we’d had lunch at and she recommended “Babu Rice Bowl” up the road a little ways walking. That’s where we ended up and we shared a blue marlin steak (kinda tough) and fried rice before walking back in the dark.

We were out of the hotel next day around before 7 after getting our 1000 PHP deposit back and our first stop was ice for the cooler at the 7-11 about 15 km / 9 mi away. Today we were heading towards San Juan La Union – a surfing beach – about half way back to Manila. We were mostly back tracing the same route we’d driven up (skipping the detour to Paoay).

We did stop once again in Vigan; those phone screen protectors we’d had installed were already lifting at the top edges of both our phones. We found parking a couple of blocks away and walked to the Central Market Mall. It took a little bit of convincing but the clerk finally agreed to give us new ones if we at least paid the cost of the protector otherwise it came out of her salary – that was fair. When they had put on the first ones, they had trimmed down the sides to make it fit correctly over the curved edges of the faces of our phones so we suggested that the top of the protector should also be trimmed so as not to catch on our phone case. This was done correctly and we believe we’re fine now.

As before, this part of the drive is non toll so it goes through a good number of rural areas and small towns as well as a few larger ones.

typical wiring everywhere

About an hour into the drive, Fran realized she’d lost a filling in a back tooth. No pain and the tooth did not appear to be broken. As we drove through towns we looked for dental clinics and tried several who turned out to be closed (it is Saturday) or couldn’t take her anytime soon.

Both on our drive north and today, we saw several fuel stations called “Harry’s”.  Fran did not know that her dad had owned a chain like this:  (😉🤣)

Finally in Bacnotan, less than 10km / 6 mi from San Juan, we found a place that could see her in less than an hour. 35 minutes later she was in the chair and Dr. Joanne Rodriguez confirmed that a filling was in fact all that was needed and she got to work. It all took less than a half hour and cost 1500 PHP – about $25 USD. In the States this would have cost between $200 and 600!

At times we saw funeral processions but not fast enough to get a photo of the “carriage” the coffins are in but Doug some roadside in San Juan a couple of days later:

We did come across some sort of parade with cars, carts and people in various shirts that had “batch numbers” on them and lots of balloons:

As this is the weekend and not that far from Manila, San Juan was pretty busy. It was hard to find a place right on the main part of the beach that was reasonable so we were about 800 m / 2600′ a bit further south which also meant it was quieter and a block off the beach.

We got a one bedroom apartment with a kitchen, dining and living room as well a bathroom with a smart toilet:

We’d never seen one of these before; it’s motion activated. The lid opens when you walk into the bathroom, a light comes on in the bowl and when you sit on it the seat is toasty warm! It will auto flush or you can use the wall mounted remote and that remote also controls bidet functions.

We had a parking spot, free good Wi-Fi and it was a 2-3 minute walk to the beach via an access point off the street. Our room faced the main street but we weren’t too bothered by noise. There was AC unit in the bedroom and one in the living area.

We got the car unloaded, put on our flip flops and went to check out the beach.

While in most places the sand was pretty soft, it was more of a grey colour than up at Saud and in many spots, sea weed lined the shoreline as well as spots where large coral outcrops did the same. No where did we see palm trees on the beach. There were a few, mostly ramshackle bars and restaurants lining the beach but no beach loungers. At one spot we saw bean bag chairs and umbrellas and another spot we saw a sort of camping chair for rent but no umbrella. There were a few surfing schools interspersed amoungst all this but at this time of day, anyway, only small waves. Apparently, there are world surfing competitions held here at times so it must get better.

We were trying to find a nice place to have a drink to toast Fran’s 12 years of retirement  and Doug’s switch to part-time anniversary and finally found a huge place with an upper level. It was now around 5 and sunset was at 6:13 but the sky did not look too promising for a good one due to heavy cloud on the horizon. We couldn’t get a spot along the counter lining the edge but were seated one table behind that. We could see the sea but not the shoreline (besides which there was a rise in the sand just before the water’s edge so we probably wouldn’t have seen it anyway). It took a few minutes for a waiter to take our drink order and then forever to get one to take a food order so we just asked for the bill after getting our drinks and went to look for somewhere else to eat. Fran’s drink was called a “head wind” and it was a rum based drink with two lychees in it. Different but tasty. It was 2 for 1 cocktails and they served them both at the same time.

We did not we were the only foreigners in the joint and probably the oldest guests as well. We found a spot on the main road to have roasted chicken and rice as well as mango shakes and then found a little ice cream parlour on our walk back to the apartment.

We asked for two scoops of different flavours and each scoop was in its own cup:

Sunday, the beach was pretty crowded. As there’s really no place to sit on the beach, nor did we want to go in the water, we didn’t really use the beach for much other than walking. Doug went for a walk in town on Sunday and got us groceries to have our lunches and one dinner at “home”. Enroute he saw many water spigots – it would seem there are many people without access to clean water and containers are filled like this spot across from our apartment, with jugs being picked up and empty ones returned:

or they fill up their own containers at these spigots:

Fran did take a long walk on the beach southbound that morning. She met a great number of kids playing in the water and many said “hi”, “hello”, “where are you from” and “what is your name”. They were easy to chat with and many said “I love you” when she left! One even asked “where are you going – there’s nothing down here along the beach” and looked a little perplexed when she responded that she was just going for a beach walk.

On our last day,  we went out for dinner to the Brgr Bar and had really, really good burgers with perfect fries.  It was really a very small place facing the street with 3 small tables out front; probably more for take away. 

Next morning after getting our 3000 PHP deposit back, we hit the road for one final long drive back to Manila and about 2/3 of the way it was toll so much faster than the MacArthur Highway (no. 2) that goes up the island.

We noticed the price of diesel seemed to be dropping from when we drove north and we had a spot in mind to get some which we’d pinged on the way as the cheapest we saw but even before that we saw 119 PHP so we stopped to get some – enough to get us back to Manila we hoped and have the tank back at the level we’d received that car at. As we continued and drove by the one we’d planned to stop at, we saw it was 132 PHP so we were glad we’d filled early.

After paying 1,110 PHP for 3 tolls, we were in the city of Manila – the second most densely populated city in the world and the traffic backs that up. We had stopped to eat a packed lunch earlier at a rest area (they call them city malls here on the toll ways and they often looking like a strip mall!).

Before checking into our hotel we had a place we wanted to visit and a mall to go to.

For some reason when we were here before we never visited Fort Santiago and the Intramuros district.

Fort Santiago built in 1571, is a citadel built by Spanish navigator and governor Miguel Lopez de Legazpi for the newly established city of Manila. The defense fortress is located in Intramuros, the walled city of Manila.

The fort is one of the most important historical sites in Manila. Several people died in its prisons during the Spanish Empire and WWII, Jose Rizal, the Philippine national hero, was imprisoned here before his execution in 1896.

The fort was named after Saint James (Santiago in Spanish), the patron saint of Spain. It is located at the mouth of the Pasig River and served as the premier defense fortress of the Spanish Government during their rule of the country. It became a main fort for the spice trade to the Americas and Europe for 333 years.

The first fort was a structure of palm logs and earth. Most of it was destroyed when the city was invaded by Chinese pirates. After a fierce conflict, the Spaniards eventually drove the pirates out to  the north, and eventually out of the country. The construction of Fort Santiago with hard stone, together with the original fortified walls of Intramuros, commenced in 1590 and finished in 1593.

In 1714, the ornate gate of Fort Santiago was erected together with some military barracks.  The Luzon earthquake of 1880, which destroyed much of the city of Manila, destroyed the front edifice of the fort changing its character.

On September 24, 1762, British forces invaded and captured Manila, and along with it Fort Santiago. It was during this time that the fort served as a base of operations for the Royal Navy until April 1764 when they agreed to a ceasefire with the Spanish. On August 13, 1898, the American flag was raised in Fort Santiago signifying the start of the American rule in the Philippines.

During WWII, Fort Santiago was captured by the Japanese and used its prisons and dungeons including the storage cells and hundreds of prisoners who were killed near the end of the war. The fort sustained heavy damage from American and Filipino military shells during the Battle of Manila in February 1945.

After its destruction during WWII, Fort Santiago was declared as a Shrine of Freedom in 1950, however its restoration by the Philippine government did not begin till 1953. The Intramuros Administration rebuilt the gate in 1982 after the gate was destroyed during World War 2.

Fran found a parking lot near the entrance to the fort and it was full but they offered to “valet” park the car (in other words double park in the lot) for 50 PHP – less than a dollar so we took that offer and left the keys hoping all our stuff inside was going to be safe. Fran did grab her hat from inside our luggage.

We spent about 20 minutes checking out the fort:

Here is a map of the walled area of Intramuros – the fort is outlined the bottom left corner:

The Intramuros comprises a centuries-old historic district, entirely surrounded by fortifications, that was considered at the time of the Spanish Empire to be the entire City of Manila. Other towns and suburbs located beyond the walls that are now districts of Manila were referred to as extramuros, for “outside the walls”, and were independent towns that were only incorporated into the city of Manila during the early 20th century.

before wandering into the Intramuros themselves to check out the San Agustin church that survived all that destruction in WWII. Enroute we saw the Manila cathedral:

When we got to the aforementioned church you couldn’t go in without paying and going through a museum so we passed on going inside on principal: churches should not have an entry fee.

It was stinking hot out with high humidity and we just wanted to get out of the 1pm sun. We returned to the car and ended up in horrific traffic to get to the MOA – Mall of Asia. What should have taken 10 minutes took about triple that but we found parking and went into the air conditioned mall. It’s really a series of huge malls linked by sky walks or you can go between them on the streets. There are office buildings, an IKEA, a hypermarket, cinemas, an arena with a rink, a Ferris wheel and more. This was a spot we checked out in 2014 so today our focus was trying to find Doug home HOKA’s with the hope they were cheaper. He was also looking for a sling bag.

On the first front we were unsuccessful – they had them but they were pricier than in the US and on the second he found a pretty decent bag for about $12 – figured if it turned out not to work, it wasn’t a big loss at that price.

We actually found our car in the huge parking garage after picking up some Subway for dinner in our hotel room which didn’t seem to have a lot of restaurants around it. Then the “ real frustrating adventure” began. Using both the Organic Maps app and Google Maps, we inadvertently ended up on toll roads and couldn’t seem to get off them. It was confusing because the non toll roads are underneath the toll ones and it’s difficult to make out on the map which one you’re one AND the turn directions from either map were not clear. After having to pay three unexpected tolls (totaling 174 PHP), which ate into our remaining pesos, we finally got off that vicious track and found the hotel.

Well, this hotel was a disappointment. It had been rated 8.2 out of 10 on our booking app but it was really just containers linked other with small rooms. Sunrise Dormitel gave us a room with a queen bed, 1 towel, private bath raised up nearly a foot from the floor, AC and Wi-Fi and a kitchenette with no supplies, not even a kettle for the whopping price of $55 for two nights.  We did ask for extra pillows which they brought but when asking for an extra towel, they wanted to charge us! Here they also wanted a 1000 PHP deposit which we didn’t have so we gave them a $20 USD bill instead.

Then to top that all off, the bed was hard, the pillows quite lacking and the mattress was wrapped in plastic under the sheet so it rattled all night as well as making you sweat despite the AC and the mattress moved around freely on the frame. Oh and they cherries on top were barking dogs half the night as well as a hallway window with no curtain shining fluorescent light into the room from the hallway.

Even though we’ve paid for two nights here, we booked a different hotel for the second night as we both hardly slept and it kinda felt that staying in a hotel in Dar Es Salaam – one of the worst places we’ve ever visited.

So, next morning Fran found us a different hotel, a bit closer to the airport and couldn’t understand why it didn’t come up in the search yesterday (maybe last night was not available?) so we booked it and Fran walked over around 10 am to see about early check in. There was a charge but we felt it was worth it to be more comfortable. She went back to check us out of the other place, Doug loaded up the car and we drove the 360m / 1/4 mi ‘ to the Skyport Hotel.

Here for $42, we got a King Deluxe room with fridge, kettle, AC, desk and one towel (we asked for another towel and two more pillows and they obliged at no cost) and we got free parking out front under watchful eye of the doorman. They have a 24 hour front desk as well, so leaving early tomorrow for our flight back to Taipei will not be an issue (we need to get our deposit back and be able to get the car out).  

Here again, they wanted a deposit, this time 3000 PHP which like yesterday, we didn’t have, so they accepted $40 USD.

Doug went for a walk to see how to get to the airport (very close) without going on tolls. We are meeting Mel, at the airport at 4:45 tomorrow to give him back the car before our flight.

This part of Manila near Terminal 1 is not pretty; lots of traffic, lots of hanging wires, broken sidewalks and more. We went to a restaurant in the next block for lunch and it was a rooftop restaurant with a skyline view of the city. The food was great at Hangar 33 Rooftop Bar, the service was excellent and fast AND we both got served together!  We had nice views of the Manila skyline as well. 

It was so good, we also went for dinner!

We turned off the lights around 9pm and slept until our 4am alarm went off. We headed to the airport just before 4:30, met the car rental guy, dropped off the car and into the airport we went.

Bag drop, security and immigration all went super fast and we regretted getting here so early but we’d been advised 3-4 hours before flight time as Manila can get super busy.  Anyway, it was done and our AirAsia flight back to Taipei, left pretty much on time.

In the Philippines, on Luzon Island, we drove a total 1285 km / 800 mi in our rental car. This country is on the cheap side for visiting and there are so many more islands to visit; maybe next time. The people are amazingly friendly and quick to smile.

Adios, Philippines!

Fun Facts:

• The archipelago consisting of 7,641 islands, making it the world’s second-largest archipelago after Indonesia; only about 2,000 of the 7,641 islands are inhabited
• The country has over 50 volcanoes, around 10 of which are active.
• The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River is one of the world’s longest underground rivers (we visited that back in 2014).
• Longest Christmas: Celebrations begin in September and last until January.
• It is one of two predominantly Catholic nations in Asia (Timor is the other).
• The yo-yo was popularized and effectively invented in the Philippines, with its name coming from an Ilocano language.
•  Jeepneys, colorful buses made from US military jeeps left over from WWII, are a primary mode of transport.
• A Filipino holds the worlds’ only patent on a karaoke machine.
• The Philippines exports more nurses than any other country.
• There are over 170 dialects in the Philippines!
• The largest and most expensive pearl in the world was found in the Philippines! It was being found in Palawan, weighing a staggering 75 pounds and valued at an astonishing $100 million.
• Philippines is the only country where the flag is flown upside down to indicate the state of war.
• Manny Pacquiao, one of the world’s greatest professional boxers, hails from the Philippines. Interestingly, crime rates in Manila reportedly drop to zero during his matches.
• It is known as a, “megadiverse” nation with over 5,000 plant species and unique wildlife, including the tiny Philippine tarsier found mostly on the island of Bohol.