Moving forward with my reviews of the hotels I’ve stayed in within the Philippines and also I found that the most recent review of the place was in 2013, I present to you: Fort Ilocandia Resort! After we traveled to Palawan, we made a pit stop in Manila for a day or two, then flew out to Laoag City, more specifically Ilocos Norte, a region where some of my family live and where my ancestral family originated. Ilocos is a wonderful region in the province that surprised me with markets, malls, and other sprawling towns. We visited Vigan for a day, which was a small town that delighted me with its old world Spanish colonial buildings that presented rich history and kalesas (horse carriages) clip-clopping on the cobbled streets. At the end of the day we’d regroup at an aunt’s home for a big dinner then we’d drive only five minutes to our interesting resort.
Review
I finally had the pleasure of traveling back to the Philippines, my second ancestral home after nearly 14 years. I always considered these 7,107 islands to be beautiful, and was lucky enough to venture out to new provinces I had never been to before. My family and I flew to Coron, Palawan in the middle of December and spent a few days in the luxurious and wonderful Busuanga Bay Lodge, located about 25 miles (40 km) from the town of Coron. The moment we landed at the small Francisco B. Reyes Airport and was shuttled for an hour to our resort, we felt nothing but excitement. We awed at the rural scenery in winding narrow roads scattered with shacks in the fields or makeshift homes and sleepy dogs laying on the gravel almost a foot away from oncoming vehicles.