First day in SIARGAO 🇵🇭 NOT what we expected... Siargao Island is the surfing capital of the Philippines, and this is the trip that shows you why. Come with me to General Luna, where the world-famous Cloud 9 surf break, palm-lined white sand beaches, and some of the best local food in the country all sit within a short ride of each other.
In this Siargao travel vlog I share my honest first impressions of the island, walk the iconic Cloud 9 boardwalk where surfers chase those famous barrels, try Taho (the warm Filipino street food made of silken tofu, sago pearls, and sweet arnibal syrup), and end the day with a meal at Siago, the beautiful Latin American and Filipino fusion restaurant in the heart of General Luna. Whether you are planning your first trip to Siargao or you simply love Philippines travel content, this is your guide to what to see, where to eat, and why Siargao keeps drawing travelers from all over the world.
CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro to Siargao Island 0:40 First Impressions Siargao 1:28 Cloud 9 Siargao 9:30 Trying Taho 13:18 Siago Restaurant
WHAT YOU WILL SEE - A real first-timer look at Siargao Island, Philippines - Cloud 9 Siargao and the famous surf boardwalk in General Luna - Trying Taho, a must-try Filipino street food snack - Where to eat in Siargao: Siago restaurant at Siago Beach Resort - Island vibes, beach life, and travel tips for your own Siargao itinerary
If this video makes you want to book a flight, hit subscribe and join the Nellyslife journey for more travel, food, and island adventures across Southeast Asia. Give it a like, drop a comment with your favorite Siargao spot, and share it with your travel buddy.
I think everybody that comes here is just like immediately in a good mood, big smiles, good vibes.
This is how we wanted to start our Philippines adventure.
We're just going to explore, take it all in, take it easy, slow life.
And this is what we got.
Why is it not turning on?
It's not turning on.
This day was all too perfect.
The scooter is not turning on.
Uh Koya, can you help me?
Our first day in Siagao did not go as expected.
Let's go.
Good morning from Siagao Island.
Magandang umaga.
Let's go get some chicken.
Sorry, missing Jollibee.
You can run around everywhere.
Yeah.
Yeah, at the gas stations, right?
Go.
There's like chicken everywhere, literally.
Just tire and chicken.
Let's go get it.
We're going to head to town and I'm going to be the tour guide for you guys.
Yes.
Let's go.
All righty, we made it to our first stop.
I have to show them this spot.
Oh, this is cloud nine.
This is cloud nine.
This spot is called Jacking Horse.
So if you do surfing lessons and they say Jacking Horse, this is it.
Should I leave this on here?
Yeah, I'm not so sure.
No, just put it on.
Jacking Horse, let's go.
Careful, we're crossing the road.
Hello.
Good morning.
We just had to...
Is that...
Is that kaloi?
Oh my God.
Harder than it looks.
This is my mistake.
What the heck?
It's so hard.
What did you get here?
I thought you were somewhere in the province.
I was in Bacolod for a week, but I got here a few days ago.
It's okay.
What a view.
Beautiful.
And over there, that is cloud nine.
Already setting up the surf lessons?
Yeah.
Nice.
Keeping the promise that I probably wouldn't fulfill.
No, we will.
I promise.
Pinky promise.
We will go surfing, okay?
All right.
Kat, are you going to surf with us?
No, but if you give me some tips on how to shoot videos...
Okay.
Yeah, it was so good to see Carson earlier on.
I haven't seen him, I think, in over two years.
And I was just looking over and I thought to myself,
wow, this guy looks like Carson.
And I look and I'm like, let's know whether it's Carson.
And it was Carson.
So we said we're going to meet up later.
I am going to show these guys around first.
We're just going to explore the tourist area on our first day.
Take it all in.
Take it easy.
Slow life.
We're going to like, I don't know, chill on one of these beanbags maybe.
Oh wow, this spot got so much busier.
That's crazy.
I'm so happy right now.
Yeah, this is so different than Bangkok.
Exactly.
I love the enthusiasm.
Yeah.
Change from papaya tree into coconut.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes, that's the life.
That's my new friend.
Yeah, this view.
Stunning, huh?
Wow.
It makes me really happy that my friends love it here.
I think everybody that comes here is just like immediately in a good mood.
Big smiles, good vibes.
Ah, what a life.
I love looking up and seeing so many trees.
Here you come, here you go.
Thank you.
Are you a surf instructor?
No, but I'm a surfer.
You're a surfer?
I'm a tattoo artist.
Tattoo artist?
Yeah.
Surfer and tattoo artist.
Nice.
Your sister?
Yes.
Here, she's my British sister.
Sister from another mission.
Oh my god, look at him.
He found a tree.
Sean, are you okay?
That's a pretty good spot.
This is my dream.
This is your dream?
Taking a nap?
Alrighty, I'm just taking a second out of the vlog because I wanted to say a big,
big thank you to you guys for 150,000 subscribers and saying it out loud is just so unreal because
wow, we've come a long way.
It's been a journey and you guys have been a big part of it and yeah, it makes me teary-eyed.
Yeah, let me just sit down with you.
I watched a few of my old videos and there has been a personal transformation,
a lot of growth but also the way how I shoot content,
how I tell my stories and how I try to make you part of that whole journey.
Yeah, my aim is to get better and better at this every year so I decided to step up the camera game
and the camera that I'm currently shooting with is the DJI Osmo Action 6 which I'm
pretty much blown away with and as you guys know, I've been shooting with my GoPro 13 so far but
I've been eyeing on the DJI Osmo 6 since I saw the footage of my friend Colt in Paris.
I have to say it's pretty convincing to me but let me show you.
There are two things that make the big difference for me and you'll see them in every clip.
A variable aperture and a much bigger square sensor.
Let's start with something that is very important to me which is low light filming
and this actually shocked me quite a lot because how?
Elevator test. It's very dark in here.
Another feature that I love is the aperture which is 2.0.
I can just go into certain situations knowing that my camera can keep up
and the GoPro cannot. Definitely a win for the DJI Osmo 6.
Wow, crazy transition. Wow, what the heck?
The best part is you can crop it for YouTube, Instagram, whatever you want with no quality loss,
no reshooting and something that most people don't know which is the most underrated thing
is audio. If the audio is bad, people won't watch the video so the DJI has a clip-on
magnet microphone and it automatically connects to your camera and you have fantastic audio
without the noise around you. No receiver, nothing extra plugged in or having to fiddle
around to set it up. The DJI Action 6 can connect to DJI mics. I just have to clip it on.
The GoPro Hero 13 only offers Bluetooth mics which works fine but I'm having two clean channels
with the DJI built into the camera which makes filming easier and one more thing that I have
to mention is that most of the times I'm just filming myself so I need to make sure that all
the shots are nailed and the DJI Osmo Action 6 has a subject tracking feature that keeps you centered
so wherever I go it will follow me. There you go.
There's one thing that bothered me with the GoPro which is the change of accessories. It's slow,
it's inconvenient and every time I have to do something I'm scared for my nails to break.
The DJI Osmo Action 6 has a magnet mechanism that clips in easily and if you have to change
accessories you can release it within a second and clip it onto your next one and some shots
need to happen fast so practicality and ease of use are a must for me. There are just a few things
that make sense to me. The aperture, the microphone, the quality and even a 50 gigabyte in-camera
storage in case I forget my SD card so definitely a win for me. If you want to check it out for
yourself I will leave a link in the description box down below. So yeah for me it is definitely
the DJI Osmo Action 6 that is going to be in my future vlogs and now I would say let's go back to
my Philippines adventure. All right we found a good spot. We decided we're going to stay here
for a little bit because we are really enjoying the island life and Sean is just in heaven like
so blown away. I love the Philippines. Yeah it's good right? Yeah why Philippines?
Yeah you said people are so happy here. Yeah yeah. I love it here. So I'm going to retire here. I'm
25. You have to work a little bit harder. 25 wow what an age. This is a good spot. We're just
going to chill here for a little bit. We are not in a rush so okay so Kuya just came along
and yeah we're getting some taho because my friend has never tried it
and I already know how much he loves fried chickens. Let's see how much he loves the taho.
Mix mix. Thank you Kuya. Thank you. Let's go.
Oh wow. I love the flavor of the sugar. It's like brown sugar. Are you ready? Yes. All right.
It's like a creme brulee. Yeah like a custard right? Custard yeah. Custard. Yeah I think once
you get used to it. I just took too much in that time. Oh yeah yeah yeah but it's sweet.
Oh I think we have this. This is toha. Oh. It's really good. Nice. It's my childhood.
It's your childhood? Yeah. Nice. Oh how beautiful is it to relive childhood.
We're just going to embrace the island life. This is my view. So nice.
We spent a good amount of time by the beach because it was just
too nice to leave. Kat needed that a little vacation. So we're just going to head into town
get some food in our belly and then we'll see.
You ready my lady? Ready. We need to go to a petrol station. Okay. I've got the hat. Yeah.
I need to get some fuel because I don't have good
with the bare minimum of fuel to just get me to the next petrol station. Why is it not turning on?
It's not turning on. Koya can you help me? Yeah it's not. I think we have an issue here.
This day was all too perfect. The scooter is not turning on. Yeah it's not turning on.
It's not the first time that this happens. It's working. Ah okay. Thank you Koya. Yes Koya saved
the day. Let's go.
Okay we made it to Chiago and my scooter is not turning on again. I just called the rental
company so they're coming to check on it. In the meantime we're just going to sit here,
enjoy the beach, have some food. All right. How do we like this view? Good spot no?
Yeah. I'm so glad you're here. We don't know what you eat.
There are so many good spots here in Chiago but I really like this one because it has this view
like you're directly by the beach. Alrighty, sun came out and I decided to get a little
refreshment. It's his first time trying calamansi. Yeah calamansi. Oh it's really good. Yeah. I feel
like I'm so healthy right now. Do you see my skin getting better? Yeah I know right. Can I try it?
It doesn't have... that's really nice. Yeah that's really nice.
Why does it always look like you're going to throw up when you try something?
No no because I'm just trepid, trepidation, trepidation.
It's more like a lemon-ish but also not sour. It's not sour. Healthy.
Yes. It tastes a bit like tamarind. Tamarind? Really? It's got a... I'm feeling floral notes.
Tamarind. Lemon. And something like caramel-y. Yeah? Yeah. Maybe the sugar. I love this so much.
Sean is getting certified Filipino here.
He's already made plans of like how to move to the Philippines when we were by the beach.
Just trying to figure it out. Cheers to the Philippines. Okay I just came out because
I got some additional help for the scooter. It's not turning on so we're trying to resolve the issue.
Is it on? Okay there is a trick to it. I just have to press it very slowly and they were fiddling
around to try and figure it out. But he said if it doesn't really work I should just message them
and he will come and replace it. So no problem. We'll just roll with it. By the way how pretty
is this flower? Wow.