6 DISHES EVERY VISITOR SHOULD TRY IN THE PHILIPPINES

 Manila food: 6 dishes every visitor should try in the Philippines

“I moved from Singapore to Shanghai where Mark was working and we lived together for the first time,” says Camille Villaflor.

“That first year was hard. We were fighting all the time.”

Then a teacher, Mark pitched his new wife a crazy idea: What if they took a year-long honeymoon?

“It sounded like the coolest thing ever, how can you say no?” she recalls. “But we were doing well with money and had proper jobs … We were just going to leave all of that to go on a sabbatical?”

It started with a trial run. The couple spent 40 days backpacking through Cambodia and western China.

“We knew then that travel was our common ground,” remembers Camille, who is originally from Manila. “Instead of focusing on each other and our flaws, we were distracted by the amazing things we were seeing and we felt so grateful for the experiences.”

Convinced that a year-long honeymoon was totally doable, the couple began saving for the trip. The couple took on several part-time jobs and worked weekends, investing 40-50% of their income each month towards the travel fund.

Mark estimated they could get by on about $100 a day, or $3,000 a month. Once they had saved $30,000, the couple packed up two rucksacks – a 28-pound backpack for Camille and a 44-pound bag for Mark – and set out for the US to begin their journey.

“We did alright with the budget and, actually, it lasted 16 or 17 months in the end,” he says.



Mark and Camille’s epic honeymoon took them through the US, Kenya, Tanzania, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia. Brazil and Ecuador.

It was a year of eye-opening experiences – they took salsa lessons in Colombia and got robbed in Africa, luckily without being physically harmed. Where to find remote and luxurious resorts in the Philippines

Setbacks aside, the couple were able to stretch their budget with a few strategies.

They took advantage of credit card travel promotions, collecting redeemable points and rewards. Mark estimates they opened 10 to 15 cards by the end of the trip.

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