Blogs from Palawan, Philippines, Asia - page 2
February 10th 2012
Feb 5thCebu - Puerto Princesa I woke up and it was raining a bit, and I had a flight at 11am so I decided to not try to see Cebu instead take an easy morning. I grabbed a taxi to the airport, and this time negotiated a flat rate that was the exact same as I paid for the metered to the hotel. If you know the flat rate, it’s the way to go. Unlike the old wisdom of meters being safe, it’s just not true anymore. I got to the airport, which was relatively small for the second largest transport hub in the country. Cebu Pacific Air (which I exclusively flew with) is based out of here. Virtually every airport in Philippines has only 2 destinations: Manila (or the nearby Clark) and Cebu. I got ... read more
PALAWAN - PUERTO PRINCESA, SABANG & EL NIDO
Published: February 17th 2012Asia » Philippines » Palawan » El Nido
February 1st 2012
The journey across from Panay to Palawan was simple enough although still a bit painful. My morning flight with AirPhil was delayed but it didn’t matter as it only meant bumming around a little longer at Kalibo airport instead of the Mania Domestic Terminal. That said I still had to kill a good few hours in one of the dullest terminals I’ve ever passed through. My luck with flights that day had clearly run out as my second flight with Zest Air, an airline that makes even Ryanair seem punctual, was also delayed meaning I arrived to Puerto Princesa in the dark when I should’ve got there during daylight. It wasn’t all bad however since it was at the domestic terminal that I met a fellow Brit called Nev who I would go on to spend ... read more
El Nido, Philippines with Emily, Mom, & Dad
Published: February 1st 2012Asia » Philippines » Palawan » El Nido
January 31st 2012
Living on a subtropical island such as Taiwan means that the winter does indeed bring cool weather, with conditions perhaps comparable to a damp autumn day in North America. Nevertheless, traveling south past the tropic of cancer, which passes through Taiwan near the medium sized city of Chiayi, puts you in swimming-year-round territory, and another hour south by plane brings you to the Philippines, which are outright hot any time of the year. The Chinese New Year holiday provides the must needed days off during this chilly season. This year my parents were in town for the holidays. First, we did a hot springs tour of Taipei City and surroundings, shot off some rounds of fireworks, and then hopped on a flight to Palawan, a thin, 650km long island; one of 7000+ that make up the ... read more
January 30th 2012
Happy Monday to you all, hope this finds you all well. Before we left El Nido we decided to hire a Kyack and do some island hoping. It worked out cheaper than the tourist package and meant that we could visit the islands we fancied and stay as long as we wanted. We packed a picnic and plenty of water to last us the day. So we handed over our 1000 Pesos, and was given 2 minutes worth of instruction which included a map of the islands which we could reach by our Kyack and set sail. We had been paddling for only a short while when the reality of it kicked in, it wasn't going to be the romantic day trip we had had in mind. I'd done a tiny bit of Kyacking on lakes/rivers ... read more
Sailing, Snorkeling and Swimming in Coron, Palawan
Published: January 26th 2012Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Coron
January 24th 2012
For sand, sea, and sun lovers, Coron is one of the country's best yet affordable destinations. Fresh seafoods, awesome snorkeling sites, breathtaking rockformations, calm waters, beautiful sunset, and friendly locals.... read more
January 20th 2012
Hi everybody, We've landed in El Nido after a 5 hour bus journey. In this part of Palawan, electricity is only on between the hours of 2pm and 6am with fairly frequent blackouts. That is the only slight negative about this place. We're surrounded by white cliff mountains, clear blue sky and amazing beaches lovely!! Found a secluded beach on the second day, a short tricycle ride away. We were on the beach for most of the day and only saw a stray dog and two little local kids playing in the sea. We decided to go back to the same beach today, which was a little busier with a group of 8 local children who came running over once they saw scrabble being played. They sat with us for ages watching and playing sand ball ... read more
January 18th 2012
Hello all, Backdated blog due to gremlins in our laptop... We landed in Puerto Princessa after a short flight from Manila and what a place!! Touched down in a tiny airport with the most random passport control/airport you could imagine. It's so green compared to the concrete jungle we left behind. No litter filling every which way you turn, jeepneys are few and far between, tri-cycles are still the preffered method of transport. Bartering the drivers is much the same though, it seems that when there is a whitee as a passenger the fair goes up dramatically. So much for the Catholic ethos... We arrived at Mannys guest house, a lovely family run place, our room consisted of a double bed with a shared bathroom which we shared with a lovely Phillipino family. As it was ... read more
January 12th 2012
Well. I’ve been sitting here drinking icy cold beers for the last few hours just trying to work out how I could possibly describe the last five days. Pictures will barely do it justice, let alone my feeble attempt at putting the experience into words. My fellow travellers and I ran out of superlatives in the first few hours of our five day trip and resorted to ecstatic grins, satisfied sighs and genial shrugs of the shoulders for the rest of our journey. I mean, I couldn't even come up with an interesting and creative title. But here goes anyway… I flew out of Dumaguete at sunrise and after two flights and a cramped and knee-shattering van ride, I arrived in the little village of El Nido sixteen hours later. The real delights of El Nido ... read more
January 2nd 2012
We got up early again to do scuba. Breakfast at the hostel was banana pancakes and oranges (yum). We headed out to go diving with one Discover Scuba diver (Matthieu, originally from Marseilles, used to live in Seoul, currently lives in Hong Kong, architect) and our boat broke down in the harbor. Apparently a bolt got cut. So one of the guys who works on the boat had to swim back to shore to get the spare part so that they could fix the boat. Once it was fixed, we took off for our next beach and about halfway there, the boat died in the water! So we were stuck out between the islands until another boat could come to our rescue. Which was a while because they only have 2 boats. One we were on, ... read more
The Philippines- Days 5 & 6
Published: January 2nd 2012Asia » Philippines » Palawan » El Nido » Miniloc
January 2nd 2012
I got to sleep in a little bit, but I ended up waking everyone who wasn’t diving (Brittney, Lindsey, and Analynn and David who had gotten in at midnight the night before) up for breakfast. We ate at the same place we had eaten dinner the night before. I got a breakfast sandwich with egg, bacon, and cheese, which was just as delicious as everything I’d eaten on this vacation. I tried to order a fruit smoothie, but the town of El Nido doesn’t have power from 6 am to 2 pm. Most businesses have a generator. But this generator was currently being used for the wifi. So no blender. After breakfast, we went to the beach (one street over) to rent a kayak (or three) for the day. We rented 2 2-person kayaks and 1 ... read more
