Philippines

Just spent two months in the philippines, mostly in san juan on luzon island 6 hours north of manila. San juan is a mellow little beach resort that we heard about from several people and is featured in the stormrider surf travel books. We found a 2 bed apartment set back across the road from the beach with kitchen and cable t.v for £40 a week, so nice and cheap.It was fortunate that the place had a kitchen because the food in the local restaurants was not my favourite in asia,have you ever seen a philippino restaurant at home? I thought not.

In the main town nearby san fernando, they have a good market with veggies, fruit, and amazing seafood. We made the most of the cheap seafood having it 2 or 3 times a week, tuna ,mahi mahi and monster prawns for next to nothing.

Our main purpose for visiting san juan was to surf the right hand points of the area, namely mona lisa point and carille point. Mona lisa is the main break, a gentle consistent right that worked most of the time we were there, quite crowded with expats and locals alike, but easy to score a few waves, mona lisa point is the main focus in the area while carille point only a few kms down the road starts to work conveniently when mona lisa becomes too big and closes out. Carille is a longer ride than mona lisa but both waves are easily ridden  by all abilities.

The prime season for this area is nov-april and the rainfall is at its lowest, if you are searching for big hollow waves then this is not the place to come, better to wait for the season to start at cloud 9 or various other spots, this place is strictly gentle fat waves but long rides,not for me personally but Helene enjoyed them (except when she cut open the top of her foot and needed  5 stitches!).

Plus points of san juan..cheap, safe, consistent surf, seafood, weather, cheap alcohol.
Bad points..way to many sex tourists, fat waves, bad food, not much culture compared to the rest of asia..
A worthwile sidetrip to the town of sagada was maybe even the highlight of the trip, a mountain town full of caves, trails and better food, well worth a visit,reminded me of northern india strangely...
So to sum the trip up, will i go back, no, im glad we went because we wanted to see somewhere new that was the good time of year but the waves are not challenging enough and the sex tourism is a bit depressing for me......