An expat's first Siargao trip

Draft for review before publish.

If you moved to the Philippines for work and your weekends still look like your home country, Siargao is the correction. It is one flight from Manila or Cebu, and the pace drops the moment you land.

The island runs on motorbikes, surf schedules, and early nights. The famous spots earn their reputation: the Cloud 9 boardwalk at sunset, the Sugba lagoon's green water, the sandbar islands you reach by banca.

Going with a mixed group of expats and locals changes the trip. You get the places, and you also get the context: why the food is the way it is, what the town was like before the boom, which carinderia actually deserves the line.