2 days in Iloilo, Philippines - Best pork noodles, Molo Church | Long Weekends (ft Kimberly Wang)

Weekends are short, but what if you could trade your routine for a quick escape, new food, and a new city, all for $600 or less? Hi! I was told to look for you guys. I got a message saying that I'm supposed to go on like a long weekend trip. You have to pick one first. Just pick one first. Okay. What's this? A bingo card? Am I going to Iloilo? Yeah, you're going to Iloilo, Philippines. Okay, we've just arrived in Iloilo. You can still hear the airport announcement. Good morning! Everyone's so friendly. I love it. We have a bingo card here and there's actually a couple of activities that I'd see. It also says book your own stay near the city centre. No help! And keep it budget-friendly. Let's see what we can do. Shall we go? Yeah, given only $600. Huh? $600? Yeah, $600. Okay, so we're on our way to the hotel right now. I managed to book us into Citadine's Amigo Iloilo, which is nearer like the old area. But the key is, it's beside a really nice night market. And I decided to book a Grab from the airport to Citadine's. Because on average, the Grab here is actually quite affordable. So this ride from the airport to the hotel is about $500, which is about $12 Sing dollars. I think we're well within budget. I'm very pleased. Okay, after minusing accommodation, I have about $150 left. That's Sing dollars. I got my room keys! Let's go! Okay, we're on the way to our first meal. I'm extremely excited. I don't know if it's a meal or a snack. But we're gonna take the jibney. So the jibney is basically an iconic local transport system. If you think of like the tuk-tuks in Bangkok, this is like essentially the Philippines slash Iloilo version of it. Okay, I'm in the jibney right now, which means I get to check out one of the items on the menu. Great. Travel like a true local in Iloilo's iconic public transport. And here I am. Okay, so while we are on our way to get our first meal, I was super curious like why is Iloilo called the City of Love, right? And apparently it's because their language, which is Ilonggo, if I'm saying it correctly, is basically a really sweet-sounding, very soothing tone. And that's why, you know, it sounds very romantic and beautiful. So yeah, that's how we get City of Love. Oh my gosh, we are here at Roberto's. It's so crowded with locals. They're famous for this thing that's called the siobao. We're gonna try and grab a seat and then order the food. The jumbo is a Chinese sausage chicken pork adobo with egg siobao. That's literally like everything in the siobao. And it's like huge, it's the size of my face. Look at it, it's bigger than my face. So it's basically all kind of like minced up and cooked together. It's like a saucy gravy situation. Like the flour is very sweet and it's more of like a chewy texture. One is about a hundred pesos, which is about like two dollars a thing, two-ish. And that's very affordable. So this part of the city is kind of like their Chinatown. There's a project to basically beautify the city and put all the wires that are overhead underground. And that project is going to be completed by 2027. So if you want to see it in its full glory, you know, the before and after modernization, I guess. Maybe now is a good time to come. We are currently in Lapa's Market. Hi! Say hello! See, I told you they were really friendly, right? Okay, we're currently here at Netong's. And this is actually founded by the owner, Frederico Netong Gilagat Sr. back in 1948. So he's actually considered as one of the most OG bat choy places in the entire Iloilo and here in Lapa's Market as well. So if you come all the way here and you don't try their bat choy, you are really, really missing out. So let's go try! I'm hungry! So I've learned that the Ilonggo way of eating this is to actually drink the soup first, slurp it. And then what they can do is you can refill the soup, okay? It is like unlimited refill. And when they're starting to get like, you know, a little bit more satiated, then they'll finish all the ingredients. That's when you wrap up the meal. So it also comes with this rice cake. And you're supposed to eat the rice cake because it helps to kind of neutralize the flavors of the soup. Oh, this is very addictive. It's got that meatiness, like that savory broth, like um, flavor to it as well. But at the same time, it's very light. I was expecting it to be maybe a little bit like heavier. Assume that you would get gelat on, but this one, no. That was a good bite. So this entire bowl, with refillable soup by the way, is 130 pesos, which is about 3 Sing dollars. I think this is like, unreal. I'm starting to like, reload a lot. Welcome to Molo Church. Look at it in the background, it's so beautiful. So Molo Church is interesting for a few different reasons. But the first and most important one I need to share with all my ladies is, apparently, if you're looking for your forever, this is the place to come and have your prayers heard. Back in the days when the church was built, which was actually in the 1800s, they didn't have anything like cement to hold the blocks and the stones together to build the church. So they had to come up with something creative. They're like, what can we do? They actually pulverized limestone and egg white, mixed it up, and they built the church. And it worked. It's still standing until today. Let's go see. Oh my gosh, so we were gonna go in to check out the church. And there's actually a wedding happening right now. The bride is about to walk down the aisle. So it's just a very beautiful moment to witness. Let's go see. That was a bonus. I knew we were gonna see the church, but I didn't know we were also gonna see such a beautiful wedding. So that was really, really lovely. Now let's go to the Molo Mansion. We are entering the Molo Mansion, which is a beautiful store that you can come to to buy souvenirs because they basically sell a lot of local native products. So this is known as a Kultura Store, which basically means a culture store. And I just stepped into the most beautiful room of Pearl's, so I'm a little bit distracted. Wait, look at this. Oh my god. This is right after my heart. I need to go shopping. I'm very distracted. Bye bye. Before the end of the day, we must have ice cream. So we sat down at an ice cream place. Because they have a pretty unique flavor. So one of it is dark chocolate, and the other one, this white one that you see here, this is actually called Bye Bye. It's actually a Filipino dessert in Iloilo that's actually made from grated young coconut. And this is actually toasted. So two scoops of ice cream is approximately three Sing dollars. I think we have more than enough for day two. The weather's pretty warm here in Iloilo. Let me enjoy my ice cream before we head back to the hotel. Good morning. Okay, it's day two and I'm super hungry. We're gonna have cup eating for breakfast. This is a famous local wonton soup dish that people love to have for breakfast. And I'm excited to try it. Usually before a trip, I get a bit paranoid. So I'll do a lot of things to make sure food doesn't ruin my plans. I will take vitamin C. I'll exercise a little bit. I will also take my food charge. Also, like, you know, wash your hands, keep yourself, like, clean, sanitized, wear a mask if necessary because you don't want to fall sick on a trip. Okay, ready? Let's create breakfast. Hello. Okay, we're at the breakfast spot right now and we made a mistake, okay? So the dish is actually called Pancit Molo, which is basically a wonton dish. And it's really cool because you can pick basically either pork or chicken depending on your preference. I'm gonna try this. Oh, I really like it. So the filling is, like, a little peppery, very, very savory. It's, like, super fragrant as well. And the skin of the wonton is very, very thin. I really like it. It's only 70 pesos, which is about 1.57 Sing, so, like, 1.60 Sing dollars for breakfast. Oh my gosh. If you are on a budget, you would definitely feast like a king in Iloilo and, like, enjoy a lot of delicious food. Hey, we're currently at Ilo Moca, which is the Contemporary Art Museum. And there's three levels to this entire space. So Ilo Moca was actually opened in 2018 in Iloilo Business Park. And they, of course, want to make this a beautiful destination for tourists and even locals alike to enjoy the arts and culture, not just artists from the Philippines, but also artists from around the region, traveling artists as well. So there's actually a level of traveling exhibits that will change routinely so people get to see various kinds of arts. The entrance fee at Ilo Moca is 150 pesos per person, which is about $3.37 Sing dollars, which is very, very affordable. I think I might have found my favorite piece in this exhibition. Look at this and tell me, what do you see first? It's just one of those images that they show you and they ask you, what do you see first? I was just scrolling on my phone and I got a notification from Singtel telling me to get on my roaming. But I already got my roaming settled before I even got here. So it's actually so convenient to be on data roaming with Singtel because within two clicks, you're easily on. You can start updating as soon as you land. And the best part is that it actually prevents you from intrusions from shady networks so that your data and your privacy is safe. So it's really, really convenient to start surfing and you can surf without worry at all. Okay, I'm waiting for my KVL to arrive. That's a dish I'm really excited to try here. Whoa, savory sourness that makes your appetite go like, oh my gosh, I'm ready to eat. I think it really opens up your appetite. Definitely worth trying KVL soup. And I'm so happy because this was actually on the bingo card as well. We kind of completed it as a side quest. Worth checking off the list for sure. Okay, we have a little bit of a wet weather situation. It's raining right now. But that's not going to stop us from having fun. So you can also take a tricycle ride around Iloilo. And depending on the distance you want to go, it usually starts from about 20 pesos, which is 44 cents in Singt dollars. And currently, we're actually going to ride through where the night market is at. So yeah, this place transforms. And at night, basically, they shut off the street. The tricycles don't go in as well. The cars don't go in. And there's tables and chairs everywhere as well. So apart from the night market, there's actually quite a couple of bizarre areas where they sell goods. I actually saw a store that was selling clothes for 15 pesos per piece. And if you buy one, you get one. I don't know, man. I feel like you're going to find some treasure there. So we're going to go down the Iloilo River Esplanade and explore a little bit on the tricycle. Let's go! Okay, as you can tell, there's not much of a sunset today. However, I still wanted to check this off the bingo card and take a nice little cycle down the Iloilo River Esplanade. Just for the vibes. The Iloilo River Esplanade was actually developed in 2012 for locals, for ecotourism. And it is a favorite spot amongst a lot of the younger Gen Z It's just really, really beautiful. Hopefully when you come, you get a nice sunset. It's been quite a fun recharging experience. So I'm ready to go home. See you back in Singapore. Okay, we're back in Singapore. Back in our garden city. And I just want to say that if you've never been to Iloilo or if you want to check out other parts of the Philippines, it's definitely quite a worth it weekend getaway. Also because there are direct flights. And guess what? With flights, accommodation and all the food that we had included, $600 was the budget. We still have about $100 left. So I think it's really, really well worth it. The experience was really fun. The people are super duper nice. I would definitely recommend going to Iloilo for a long weekend. But until then, catch you for the next one. Time to go to work. Let's go! Go to work!