Palawan, Philippines: Back to My Dad's Family After 11 Years

This was always going to happen. Eleven years since I last set foot in Palawan — my dad’s side of the family lives there, and it’s a place I also called home growing up. Episode three of the Philippines trip starts the night before in Manila, at the BayPrime Hotel near Roxas Boulevard, because our flight out was 4 AM.

If you missed the beginning of this trip, we flew in from Ontario, California and then spent a day walking the streets of Liliw, Laguna on my mom’s side. This chapter is different. Palawan is an island on the western side of the Philippines — most people know it for world-class beaches and diving. I know it for something else entirely.

An EV Charging Station on SLEX

The night before the flight I was near SLEX — South Luzon Expressway, one of the main highways running south of Manila — and spotted something I genuinely did not expect to see.

A Shell Recharge station. Multiple charging stalls, lit up at night. A BYD was plugged in when I arrived. I’ve never seen a BYD in person before — they’re everywhere in the news but not where I live in SoCal.

The pricing: ₱28 per kilowatt for the 22 kW charger, ₱35 per kilowatt for the 180 kW DC fast charger. And here’s what surprised me most — CCS2 connectors. I’d never seen CCS2 before. Back home everything is CCS1 or NACS. Different standard over here.

I didn’t end up charging anything, but seeing proper EV infrastructure on a Philippine highway at 11 PM felt significant. The country’s getting there.

Business Class on Philippine Airlines

We barely made the gate — they were already boarding when we got there. Somehow we got bid on business class for the one-hour-twenty-minute flight. I have logged a lot of miles in economy. Hot towels and drinks before takeoff hit differently.

Dinner was rice, meat stew, egg, and bread. Breakfast service too — on a ninety-minute flight. I’ve been on transatlantic flights that fed me less.

Arriving in Puerto Princesa, Palawan

Puerto Princesa is the capital of Palawan, Philippines. Half my growing-up years were spent in this province. The moment we stepped outside the airport it was already 90°F with so much humidity that my phone showed a weather warning. Southern California has completely softened me.

We were booked at the Best Western Plus, but only stopping there for breakfast. We weren’t staying that night — my cousin was picking us up to drive out to the province. To a place called Busuanga, in the Caramay area. That’s where the family property is.

The Ancestral Home in Busuanga, Caramay

The drive out was in my cousin’s Toyota Fortuner. When we arrived, the first thing I noticed was the house — it used to be white. It’s yellow now.

Before we went inside, we made a stop at the cemetery to visit relatives who have passed. Some things you just do.

The property itself hasn’t changed in the ways that matter. There’s a tree near the entrance where we used to hang a basketball rim and play for hours on the dirt. A water pump tower used to sit nearby — you’d pump water up and it ran through a long pipe to the back of the house. Before electricity reached out here, a diesel generator lived in a little shed by the pump. They’ve got solar panels and grid power now, though blackouts still happen regularly.

Walking through the kitchen in the back, I could picture my aunts catching chickens and cooking them fresh — you had to boil them a certain way or the meat would come out too tough. The dining room, the property out back, upstairs — we could only open some of the rooms. One still had my dad’s old Chicago poster on the wall. A flat screen TV in a room we never imagined would have one.

Upstairs there used to be a view of the beach from the bedroom window. The trees have grown in and you can’t see it anymore. But you can still hear the seabreeze through the shutters.

Around the back is where I once drove a tractor. My uncle let me do it when I was young. We’d use it to work the land and haul copra — dried coconut meat pressed for oil. There used to be far more coconut trees here before years of storms took them down.

The Beach Out Front

The beach is literally the front yard. Walk through those trees and you’re there.

Growing up in front of a beach means you stop treating it like a destination. This isn’t a postcard beach that makes you gasp when you see it. It’s the beach where I waited for my uncle’s fishing boat to return so I could help pull in the catch. It’s the beach where nicknick — tiny insects, smaller than flies, nearly invisible — come out in calm weather to make your life miserable. It’s 91°F and so humid my phone was sweating.

It’s also genuinely beautiful.

There’s cell signal here now, which is wild. When I was growing up, even on my later visits, signal out here was nothing. Now I can check the temperature on my phone while I’m melting on the sand. The island visible in the distance is about a one-hour boat ride away. My uncle used to have a bangka and would take it out fishing. I’d wait on shore and help drag in the catch when he got back.

I kept thinking the whole time about how much fun the Rivian would be out here on these roads.

Uncle Henry in Roxas, Palawan

After the property, we drove north to Roxas — another city in Palawan, Philippines, another place I spent a lot of time growing up. My Uncle Henry is a dentist there, and the guy who has always lent me his vehicles whenever I’m back.

He used to have an older HiLux — the one I drove years ago, much smaller than this. Now he’s in the new Conquest spec and it’s a seriously nice truck. He lent us this one for the day and also offered us his beach house for the night. If you’re ever in Roxas, Palawan and need a dentist — go see Tito Henry.

Godmother Vivian and the Family

We stopped by my Godmother Vivian’s place — Nang Vivian. Her home is right on the water out in Roxas, Palawan. Cell signal out there is basically nonexistent and the roads to get there are rough enough that I was thinking about the Rivian again. She had food ready, family had gathered, and we sat and caught up over lechon.

These are the visits I look forward to most. No plans, no itinerary. Food, family, everyone talking over each other.

What’s Next

We ended the day at Uncle Henry’s beach house — I showed a quick preview at the end of the vlog. That’s going to be its own episode. Next time, I’ll take you around the resort and we’ll spend more time with family on the water.

Palawan is a whole other world. Next up: a night at Uncle Henry’s beach resort — cottage tour and lechon dinner.

---

This post is based on our travel vlog. Watch the full video above for all the footage, reactions, and moments from our Palawan homecoming.