--- Siargao Philippines ---

Stuck on a lonely island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Doesn't that sound like a unique adventure? And that's exactly what it was. An adventure that I will probably never forget in my whole life. As mentioned in the last blog post, after the bad news that we won't be able to leave the island we were on for a while, we packed our things and went straight from Bohol to Siargao.

The journey with several overnight ferries took exactly 24 hours and those 24 hours are among the craziest of my life. It all started with the news in the hostel that the corona situation was escalating and they recommended that we all cut our trip short and fly back home.

"How? I planned to stay away for a year and now I'm supposed to go back to cold Germany after just five weeks?" That's what went through my head. Then we decided not to cancel our trip but to make the best of it and celebrate our "Siargao Adventure" with people we had just met. We called ourselves the "Siargao Survivors" and that night we already made business and survival plans that we wanted to put into action in case we couldn't import food to the island anymore and had to take care of ourselves. Even though we all knew that it probably (hopefully?!) would never come to that, we got totally into it and felt like we were in one of those horror movies where teenagers strand on a deserted island and have to fight for their survival. We were excited to take on this adventure and our first stop was a supermarket and a pharmacy. It's actually not that easy to decide what to buy when you might not have access to any supermarkets for the next few days (weeks, months?). What would you buy?

We mainly chose a lot of instant noodles, medicine, toilet paper, and rum. Lots of rum.

But suddenly doubts came over me: Is this the right path? How long will this lockdown situation last and will we really be stuck on this island for several months? Wouldn't it have been smarter to fly back home immediately, like all the other tourists?

I didn't know whether to cry or laugh in that moment because the whole situation just felt strange. Then, on the way to the ferry, I even fell on my knee, which I had already injured in a scooter accident, and for the first time on my trip, I felt like giving up. But as they say, "no risk no fun," so in the end, I ended up on the ferry to Siargao. With a bleeding knee, but still on my way to the adventure.

Siargao is supposed to be one of the most beautiful islands in the Philippines, but unfortunately, we didn't see much of the island itself (just another reason to come back :p). After two nights in hostels, we decided to rent a houseboat in the sea with 8 people. For the first time in a long time, no bunk beds in hostels and a view directly out to the sea: we were thrilled! At first. Because even though we said at the beginning that we could stay here for a while, we quickly realized that the space for 8 people was a bit too tight. The ceilings were also built for Filipino size, which means they were very low and we couldn't stand up straight.

So at first, we drove around a lot with our scooters, even though all the attractions were already closed. Driving through the nature of Siargao is still an incredible experience because it is simply breathtaking.

So we drove from attraction to attraction, hoping to find something that was still open. Hopeless: all we got was a flat tire on one of the scooters. But since Filipinos are all very warm and accommodating people, it was no problem to get the tire repaired. (See blog post: "15 Random Facts Philippines")

A few of us in our group, including me, started to get sick, and we realized that there was not even proper medical care on this island, let alone a hospital in case of an emergency. When we were on our way back to the houseboat late in the evening to recover, the unimaginable happened and the tire burst again. This couldn't be true! I could feel my body pain getting worse and all I wanted was to go to bed. Now we were standing there in the dark, somewhere on a deserted island with a flat tire, and we all just started laughing. Even though fate didn't treat us well that day, we ultimately got exactly what we wanted: adventure. And if that's not an adventure, I don't know what is!

The most beautiful thing about the whole Siargao adventure by far was seeing how the eight of us came together. Although we were strangers just a few days ago and spoke different languages, we are now like a real family. After all, we were all in the same crazy situation, but together we also mastered it. And now I'm sitting here in Germany and miss these crazy people so much, as if I had never done anything else but getting stuck with them on a deserted island.

Of course, we also informed ourselves from time to time whether there really was no way to leave the island. We went to the airport, but no one could tell us when the flight and shipping traffic would resume. The situation on the island didn't get better, but rather worse day by day. Roadblocks were introduced and we were no longer allowed to leave our area. But since the houseboat had become too crowded for us, we teamed up with the remaining backpackers on Siargao and wanted to rent a big house for 25 people together. Often the price of such a villa, divided by 25 people, is even cheaper than a night in a hostel.

We packed our things and were about to go to the villa when suddenly the police showed up at our house. "You are not allowed to leave the houseboat anymore, your landlord will do the shopping for you in case of emergency," were their words. Half of our group immediately started crying, one had a little breakdown and yelled at the police: "But I can't stand it here for another minute! Just take a look at the apartment, there's no way there's enough space for eight people! And besides, the kitchen doesn't work, we have to go out to get food, and we can't even stand straight because of the low ceilings! Please let us move to the big house just for now, where we can easily stay for the next few weeks!" But no chance, we had to stay on the houseboat. Now even I was in despair, I just wanted a trustworthy person who would tell us exactly what was going on. A few days ago they said we probably couldn't leave the island for the next 6 months, and now they suddenly talked about rescue flights organized by Germany to get us out of there. I didn't even know myself what I would prefer because being stuck on an island without a functioning healthcare system for half a year is almost as bad as flying back to Germany. But only almost, because the latter was really the last thing I wanted now. After our six group members decided to take the rescue flights back home, Scotti and I reluctantly joined them.

The journey back home was so long and complicated that it actually deserved its own blog post. The complicated part was first of all that we found out just a few hours before whether we were on the list for the rescue flights from Siargao to Manila International Airport. So we couldn't even book international flights from Manila to Germany because in the worst case, we would miss them if we weren't on the list. However, for the rescue flight from Siargao to Manila, you had to show your flight ticket for the international flight. Logic? Yeah, I don't see it either.

When we found out shortly before that we were actually on the list after all the back and forth and would leave Siargao tomorrow, we booked a last-minute return flight to Germany. Or rather, we wanted to book one, because of course, my credit card decided to stop working right at that moment, and when I tried to contact customer service, I received the following message: "Temporarily closed due to Corona." I couldn't believe any of it, and at one point, I even considered leaving everything behind and staying on this island forever. Fortunately, my dear uncle helped me out, and together we finally booked a return flight to Germany.

When we arrived at Manila Airport shortly afterwards, we were glad that the "next day" had come so soon, because everything there was very poorly organized. People were sleeping outside the airport because they were not allowed to enter if their flight wasn't on the same day. There was no sign of the terrible traffic in Manila that I had reported at the beginning of the trip, the streets were completely empty. In addition, all hotels and hostels were fully booked or closed, and so people spent several days at this airport. I didn't know at that time that it would happen to me as well.

We also spent the night outside the airport since we were only allowed to enter after midnight, and then I received the shocking news: My flight was the only one that got canceled! Since my card still didn't work, the whole process started all over again, and we booked a new flight with the help of my uncle. I was really at my wit's end and just wanted to go to bed with my slight fever. But luck was not on my side, and the second flight was also canceled. As they say, always stay positive, and good things come in threes. So we booked another flight, which was not canceled for the time being. However, this flight was not the same as Scotti's and only flew a day later. At this point, I didn't care anymore, I just wanted to go home by now, or back to the island, but unfortunately, I still had many more hours to kill at the airport. The night was certainly not the most pleasant, and I've definitely had more comfortable places to sleep than the cold bench at the airport. But somehow we survived that too, just like the rest of the day, which I spent at the airport without the others. Until the last moment, I hoped and trembled that my third flight wouldn't be canceled either, and this time I was lucky: boarding started on time at 7:45 pm, and I could finally leave the airport.

Just before I finally boarded the plane, I turned around one more time, looked back at the airport, and then finally got a bit emotional: It was strange, I was back at the same airport where my journey had started five weeks earlier, and even though I had spent so much money on the return flight, I felt so much richer. "Traveling is the only thing you buy that makes you richer."

And even though I could only travel for five weeks instead of the planned year, I am infinitely grateful for this time. Those five weeks were packed with so much, and even though it was such a short time, it feels like I have never done anything else but traveling. I have experienced so much more than ever before, not only meeting other wonderful souls but also getting to know myself better. I have surpassed myself, whether it was with the flights I mastered alone or the English I was able to improve. So when I think back to the beginning of my journey now, it feels like it was years ago because in these five weeks, I have seen and experienced so much more than I would usually do in a whole year.

Fortunately, it was not a year but only "just" 26 hours later that I had German ground under my feet again, and one thing is for sure: that was my first, but definitely not my last trip, and hopefully, my travel diary here will be adorned with many more blog posts.