Blogs from Palawan, Philippines, Asia - page 2

Day 2 We had complimentary breakfast and needed to be there before 9am, so had set an earlish alarm. The buffet consisted of rice, noodles, deep fried sweet hotdogs, fried eggs and a slightly spicy dish and mushroom soup... it was good. A swim in the rooftop pool for an hour felt like we were officially on vacation. The weather was a balmy 32 degrees, slightly humid but exactly what we wanted. Packing our suitcase back up (We travel lightly, 17kg suitcase between us plus carry on) and we got a Grab to the airport. Air Asia asked us to check in 2 hours before and over an hour of that was spent in line for the bag drop. A quick lunch of sweet doughy buns filled with pork and a donut kept us saited. Our ... read more

Ich weiß gar nicht so richtig wo ich anfangen soll. Wer hätte gedacht, dass Palawan zu meinem absoluten Highlight mutieren würde? Am 22.1.18 hatte ich den Flieger von Cebu City nach Puerto Princesa genommen und war spät am Abend gelandet. Die Stadt war nicht sonderlich attraktiv und ich lief im Dunkeln zu meinem Hostel. Am nächsten Morgen lernte ich 3 Malaien beim Frühstück kennen und gemeinsam fuhren wir mit Rollern durch die Stadt. Ich hatte von einem Gefängnis gelesen, in welchem die Gefangenen arbeiten und leben, aber nicht in Zellen, sondern auf dem Land. Ohne Kontrolle passierten wir den Eingang des Iwahig Prisons. Arbeitende Männer winkten uns zu, während wir mit den Rollern über die Schotterwege fuhren. Wir wurden von Insassen in Zivilkleidung, sowie einheitlichen Shirts, je nach aktuellem Sicherheitsgrad, begrüßt. Das war alles sehr imposant. ... read more

Bad bugs = sand flies. These tiny little evil black dots can barely be seen but they suck your blood and leave itchy welts. We read that the female can burrow under your skin and lay its eggs. Lovely! Good bugs = fireflies. These little flying bugs don't bite or sting. They hang out after dark, lighting up the trees like Christmas lights. We ran into both kinds within a day of each other. We booked two nights at the Astoria hotel, four hours South along the coast from El Nido. At $100 a night, it was by far the fanciest place we'd stayed on the entire trip, but we just did it for the kids as a special treat. They couldn't care less about an expensive hotel room (and frankly neither could I) but the ... read more

I already wrote a blog about Tour A. Over the course of a few weeks, we did the other three boat tours. Here's the scoop... Tour B - Caves We did this trip with Saldi as our guide again (although Tom called him Salty!) but this time it wasn't a private tour. We had a Spanish couple on board too. They seemed nice but couldn't speak a lot of English. At least Scott got to practice his Spanish! The first stop was snorkeling from the boat. Somehow we'd not gotten around to having the kids practice, so now was the time! Jake flatly refused to put his goggles on but Kyla tried it, holding her breath for a second or two to look under the water. She loved it, and kept popping her head up and ... read more

El Nido from bucket list to reality… So a few years ago I saw a photo taken by a professional, of this place I had never heard of, called El Nido. I had to look up where it was and then it was added to the bucket list. I’ll be honest, I was put off for a while because the transport links weren’t great, having to take two flights and a six hour drive. I recently learnt that it’s now just two flights – one to Manilla and one to El Nido, and pretty quickly I had my trip booked! Being in Asia already made it quite accessible for me. The “airport” in El Nido is awesome. It’s hardly an airport to be honest! One runway and a small shack where we were greeted by singers ... read more