Philippine surfing paradise Siargao has no desire to be another ‘cesspool’ like Boracay
By 2017, passengers on one of the first red-eye flights direct from Manila were mostly locals escaping the Philippine capital’s traffic and smog. Also on board were a few youthful travellers ready to brave the potholed dirt roads to the main strip on Siargao, General Luna, hunting through petrol-damp air for parties at coastal hotels, sniffing out kinilaw and lambanog, the local ceviche and a palm based liquor, in search of an endless summer.
It took decades for Siargao to reach “backpacker phase”, but a sense of nervous apprehension hung around the young crowds that year, as if they knew it couldn’t last.
That sense of fleeting wonder was captured in the 2017 Filipino film Siargao. Much like The Beach
had done for Ko Phi Phi
, in Thailand, almost two decades earlier, the movie cemented Siargao’s status as an offbeat haven of hedonism, making it a magnet for the next wave, the young and fashionable; boutique, as always, followed backpacker.
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