Srpski
We won’t write much about previous travels as we want this blog to be focused on traveling with a kid, but also because other destinations are pretty much mainstream. One trip that was specific to be was the last years trip to Philippines. One that makes this one different is that I was second month pregnant with my baby boy Relja and that trip took around 30 days. I didn’t planed to take that trip pregnant but as you can’t plan things in life we made our baby from strike one, and we bought those ticked for a very good price months before that. We found out I was pregnant one months before the trip and didn’t exactly know should we cancel it or no. So first thing first was to visit my gynecologist (that labored be later in July) to confirm the pregnancy and to let me know if its safe to travel that far. He confirmed and said that its ok and with normal sense of percussion there is no reason why not to go.
Still I had double thoughts and I was very nervous, especially because our ininerary was very complicated. I had to take a bus to Ljubljana, Slovenia from Belgrade which is around 8 hours a trip, then spend a day and night there, catch a flight to Frankfurt then a flight to Beijin, spend 12 hours between flight in downtown Beijin in wintertime and finally flight to Manila. If you ask us why, well like I said I didn’t planed to travel pregnant and we got those tickets for a joke of a price – 366eur for a round trip. It’s actually not all, because on Philippines themselves I had four more flights between the islands – that is 9 flights all together. One thing that was making me crazy is that we had to take our winter clothes with us that we would need for just a day in Beijin and had to drag it with us for 30 days. We got out of the airport in Beijin and it was so misty from smog we actually thought we landed inside a cloud. I heard there are good and bad days, we obviously came into the worst one. One thing that didn’t promise this trip started well are shrimps that we ate on the street which turned both of our stomachs into living hell. I got very sick and vomited on the airport and Bojan got diarrhea that lasted for three days. I was probably sick from three things at the same time: pregnancy (first trimester sickness), tiredness and that shrimp.
In Manila I needed two days to come to myself. We planned to visit Intramuros and downtown Manila for those two days but we were so wracked we stayed in area around the hotel. After Manila we took a plane to Davao, south part of Phillipines that is not very touristy but is very interesting and from there we too a flight to Cebu. We took a tour around Cebu and Bohol that lasted around a week and they are very beautiful. Cebu has a very nice diving, Bojan had a great time and I had to skip, you can ready why in our other post here: https://juniornomad.com/pregnancy-and-scuba-diving/. I had to satisfy myself with snorkeling which was very nice: in Moalboal we saw giant turtles and beaked sea snake and in Oslob we saw whale sharks on organized tour, very shallow and close to the shore.
People always say that pregnant women have a glow. And I say it’s because you’re sweating to death. Jessica Simpson
From Cebu we took a flight to Palawan, most distant and least populated but definitely most beautiful one. Most of the trips and island hoppings on the island we took via minibuses and bancas. On one of such trips in the minivan I was sitting in the back and I got sick. We asked the tourguide to switch places with somebody in the front and I said I was pregnant so she understands why I am asking this. She not just reacted instantly but treated be with extra care during whole trip. I was telling other people about my pregnancy only when I had to, as I don’t like to play a victim, also I was so early in the stage I didn’t have a stomach bumping at all. On Palawan Filipinos are a bit different in a nice way, I guess because they live a bit more isolated and the place itself is not so crowded (its one of largest islands in Philippines and population is just 800.000 people our of 100 million in whole country). Third day on Palawan was the day we got hit by typhoon and we had heavy rain for four days, first one was so bad we didn’t hear each other from the sound of rain and we had to yell. It was alert for all boat trips so those days no one was going far offshore. In the end we came to El Nido and had couple of very nice days, like nothing ever happened. In the end we took a boat trip to the Coron Island, and that was the worst part of our trip, the boat that took us on 8 hours ride into open water wasn’t a ferry but a large banca. I never felt such sickness in my life as waves were hitting the boat for all eight hours. Only after I puked everything and there was nothing left I felt asleep from exhaustion. I was seasick couple of times in my life but never so much, so I am not sure if the main cause was the pregnancy but I am sure its not the only one, as reason is the same like in the plane: its the sum of the things combined together. I believe that if we had a better boat it would be much easier for me.
The rest of the trip went pretty well till Belgrade, in return we had a big stopover in Beijin again but it was so cold we just booked a room and slept over. In Vienna we took a first bus to Belgrade and had a slow and comfortable ride back to our city.
All in all the trip didn’t went bad at all, if I would take the trip again I would avoid two things: experimenting with food and avoid uncomfortable boats. I just want to mention that I was sick through the rest of my trimester and the thing that always helped were crackers.
Hi, I’m in my first trimester and I have a trip planned to the philiPpines in february. When you went, Did you take any precautions regarding The zika virus? I’m extreMely paranoid about this. I’m also travelling to bohol ceBu and El nidO
Hi Bella, sorry we were in Brazil and didn’t check the blog. We had the same paranoia about Zika in Brazil, we found out about our second baby coupe of days before traveling. Brazil is THE zika zone. Mathematical chances are minor, but yes, its not impossible. If its any comfort only 7% of infected woman with zika have problems in pregnancy, so even if you get zika which is not so common it doesn’t necessarily mean the baby will have problems. Stay cautious, use replant all the time and don’t go into deep jungle 🙂
Hi Bella – did you End up going to philippines while pregnant? I have a trip planned in october and am actively trying to get pregnant now.
Yes we did! You can read all about it in the post
Thanks for your story. I love reading it and very helpful
Thank you so much Lan!