Siargao: The Bali of the Philippines 🇵🇭

Where Jordana and Grant from Shot of the Dark travel and from the bustling streets of Manila to the stunning beaches of Boracay to the epic landscapes of El Nido, we're bringing you a front row seat to the magic of this extraordinary country. Hit that subscribe button and let's uncover the beauty of the Philippines together. This time we're heading to the stunning island of Siargao in the Philippines. Get ready to immerse yourselves in the beauty of its breathtaking scenery and pristine beaches. Join us on an unforgettable journey through this incredible paradise island. After an amazing time in Manila, we hopped onto a plane and touched down in the beautiful island paradise of Siargao. We arrived pretty late in the day and knew we had a busy day of sightseeing planned for tomorrow, so we jumped straight onto a trike into General Luna, Siargao's main touristy area, so we could have some food. We ended up eating at Big Belly Burgers and it was really, really tasty. This was easily one of our favourite meals in Siargao and we definitely recommend it to you guys. We finally bit the bullet and we have got some scooters for the day. This has taken a lot of convincing to get Grant on a scooter, but we had like a little 15-minute lesson from a guy called, it's called Jack? Jack at Lola's Bike Rentals. Yeah, Lola's Bike Rentals, just at Mad Monkey. They're brand new bikes, which is really exciting, but also scary. And he seemed so, so nice. He's even sent us a little itinerary of places to go on a map, which is really nice of him. So yeah, we're just going to go out, explore some more of the island. We want to see as much of Siargao as we can. How are you feeling about getting a scooter by the way? I'm really excited. I'm just a little bit scared, so I imagine I won't be going past like 30 miles an hour. Yeah, I'm pretty nervous just because we've never done it before. We did like a 15-minute test ride, and now we've signed up for like an hour and a half trip to the other side of the island. So any problems? Yeah, we've jumped in at the deep end, so let's hope we can do it. Fingers crossed. And the first stop on our tour, by the way, is we're going to Magpapunko Rock Pools. So it's supposed to be really cool. We're running a little bit late. You're supposed to get there by high tide, so fingers crossed. That one is still looking good when we get there. The ride to Magpapunko was simply breathtaking. The whole way, we were surrounded by lush green fields and swaying coconut trees. An absolute paradise. For our first ever scooter experience, it was perfect. Smooth, quiet roads made it a dream for beginners like us. We're so glad we chose this route for our first ever scooter ride. So guys, we have finally made it to Magpapunko. I might be butchering that pronunciation there, but so far it looks absolutely beautiful. Just a quick one as well to say, we've got to tell you guys how much the bikes were per day. So it's 500 pesos per day, which is pretty cheap to say as well. They're brand new bikes and the drive was lovely. It wasn't too scary or anything. Me and Grant are both really getting the hang of it to say that we're both very new to it. So that's good. So the entrance fee was 125 pesos per person and the bikes were 20 pesos per person to park per bike. So yeah, not too expensive or anything, but I'm just gonna show you the beautiful views. I don't know if you can see, but the sand is so soft. It's absolutely gorgeous and look at the colour of this water. It's clear and crystal blue. Oh, it's just amazing. So as you can see, we're still not at the rock pools. We haven't got far. We've just had about 20 minutes of a pure drama because Grant lost my bike keys. So that was like a really good start to learning how to ride a scooter. Luckily, it was just in the sand and Grant managed to find it again. So after all that, the heat of looking for the key was very, very warm. Got a watermelon shake, which tastes delicious and refreshing in this absolutely horrific heat. We're just gonna hang in the shade for a bit, have some drinks, something to eat, and then we're gonna head to the rock pools. So we got garlic prawns, vegetable curry and Grant's grilled chicken. So 180? Yeah, 250. 250 and 150. Guys, we just appreciate how cool this is. I've literally never seen anything like it. It's literally so clear and it's turquoise and it's beautiful and it's such a nice temperature. I keep saying it, like this is unbelievable. It's beautiful. Grant's currently enjoying himself over there floating on his bag, on his scuba bag. So this is a pro tip. If you're lazy like me and you can't bother swimming and staying afloat, just use your scuba bag, blow a bit of air in and it's a ready-made float. Then you can just swim there like this. You only look slightly stupid. Okay, very stupid. Also, another pro tip is we stupidly did not get any water shoes that have got a sole on the bottom of them. Some of the rocks can be a bit sharp and uncomfortable. But yeah, I would definitely recommend finding some of those before you come here. Not the end of the world. I would have preferred to have been able to walk more comfortably. Magpa Punko has simply got to be on your to-do list for Siargao. The rock pools are really beautiful, the ride there is an unforgettable experience just in itself and the beach is a gorgeous soft white sand beach. After a delightful ride back, we hopped into a trike and headed to General Luna. A tasty bite to eat set the stage for a few quiet drinks, which quickly turned into a wildly fun night out. We met really friendly people from all over the world, hopped from bar to bar and found ourselves at an unforgettable beach party under the stars. It was definitely a night to remember. Morning guys, we're in the room now and we've just got up. We're going to explore a bit of Siargao. It's going to be a really relaxed day today just because we're a bit tired and it's a really nice sunny day so we want to kind of sunbathe. We've been in a lot of cities recently and we're just looking forward to island life. So this is our room. There is a little desk area over here that I was working out this morning. Massive bed, really comfy, really spacious room. A bit of storage, always good. And then bathroom, fairly standard. But then probably the best bit about this room is that we've got a balcony here. So we've got a balcony, a couple of seats and a table. So we'll sit out here later. And the best bit is it looks out onto the pool but then also the beach and the sea. There's a lot of room here for sunbathing. There's the pool, there's a hammock, loads of chairs. There is a bar underneath here and then there is another bar up here. They're calling it a rooftop bar. All looks good. And the hotel we're staying at is called Dalyong Beach Resort. And it's costing 5,300 pesos a night which is way more than our usual daily rate. It's miles over budget. And one thing we've noticed about Philippines, we mentioned this already in Manila, is hotels are really expensive. So if you want something that's like the normal standard that you'd expect whilst you're traveling around Asia, really roughly it feels like it's about double compared to, you know, maybe like a Thailand, Bali, Vietnam. Like at least double. We and Jordar have had quite a few rounds about this as we're trying to work out what hotel to stay in and you just have to spend more than you usually would because otherwise the hotels that you can afford at your normal budget have very poor reviews usually. I'm just having a relax in the pool because the weather is absolutely glorious. It's so nice and warm. So we're just having a bit of a sunbath after lots of been in cities. Finally trying to get a bit of a tan. I'm looking very pale and I don't like it. So we've just got to Sunset Bridge. This is where all the locals and tourists come and watch sunset and it's the best place to watch the sunset on the island. It's a bit cloudy so I don't know if we're gonna get a good one today but yeah, we're just gonna sit and watch the sunset. After watching the sun go down, we headed back towards town for a traditional Filipino barbecue and then a few drinks. How was the chicken intestine? The chicken intestine was not for me. Not for you? No. I thought it was a bit of a rogue choice. The other guys were where they've come back and they've got some chicken, they've got some veg. Jordana's like, I've got some intestine. Last time I sent her to the bar for the food. Next day, we went on a breathtaking island hopping boat tour. This is probably the main tourist attraction in Siargao and it did not disappoint. It was absolutely fantastic. We're going to be doing a full video on this incredible boat tour so make sure you check that one out to see why we think this is an absolute must do in Siargao. We'll put a link up on screen at the end of this video. Unfortunately, I ended up being quite ill for the rest of our time in Siargao and we didn't get a chance to visit Sohaten Cave, the Massin River or the incredible Sugba Lagoon before we had to leave but we still had an amazing time in Siargao. With its gorgeous scenery, hipster bars and restaurants and beautiful beaches, it really reminded us of a more chilled out version of Bali and we'll definitely be back to visit this beautiful paradise island. If you've enjoyed watching, please like and subscribe to see more videos and we'll see you in the next one.