TURNING THE TIDE

With its untamed beauty and irrepressible spirit, the Philippines offers fresh discoveries around every corner. Jeff Chu returns to find a nation stepping boldly into its future.

- by Frédéric Lagrange

A hanging daybed with views of the Philippine Sea at Nay Palad Hideaway, on the island of Siargao.

TOP MARKS FOR transparency to whoever named the streets on the Philippine island of Siargao. Tourism Road, the main drag in General Luna, the commercial hub, perfectly describes a place some have dubbed the next Bali. Sunburned Westerners clog the thoroughfare, their rented mopeds spewing gray clouds of exhaust. Displays of surfboard-shaped magnets and racks of tie-dyed T-shirts spill from the storefronts. Cocktail bars and tattoo parlors tout cheap specials and easy access to regret.

As I was driven along Tourism Road, I desperately wanted not to be that kind of traveler. I would have slid down in my seat for fear of being seen as one of them, except it was pointless: I was being ferried around in a minivan emblazoned with my hotel's name and logo. I was just another American tourist—and not even one cool (or coordinated, or courageous) enough to steer my own moped.

A few miles outside of town, though, the shops, the bars, the traffic, and the shame of Tourism Road vanished, along with nearly all the tourists. Through the van windows, I saw coconut palms, banana trees, and the occasional water buffalo grazing in a field. Then, about a half-hour north of General Luna, I spotted a sign: HOUSE FOR SALE. SEA VIEW.

“Hey, could you pull over?” I asked the driver, Kirk Cabigon. “Just a quick look.”

In the rearview mirror, I saw his skeptical glance. He'd barely stopped on the grassy, overgrown shoulder before I hopped out. “Are you sure?” I heard him say behind me.

I was already jogging up the path. Around a bend and up a hill, a three-story house appeared. A dog trotted up to me, tail wagging. Nobody else seemed to be home. As I scratched the dog's ears, I could hear a watery whoosh-whoosh-whoosh and the crash of waves.