Blogs from Palawan, Philippines, Asia - page 6

We take a minivan to El Nido, we were packed like sardines for 4 hours, there was just enough room to get your legs to squeeze in sideways. We arrived in Corong Corong, a couple of km away from El Nido, we are booked for 2 nights. It has its own beach and meant to be quieter than El Nido, and beautiful sunsets. We walk down to the beach through a guest house, the beach is dirty, people living in huts on beach, rubbish in sand, cannot walk along the beach without invading people’s privacy, dead jelly fish washed up –we don’t like it. We catch a tricycle to El Nido, 2 minutes over the hill. El Nido is a bigger village than Port Barton, but again a few back streets with guest houses and stalls, ... read more

So we head to Palawan with expectations of flies, mosquitos and some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Over the next 3 weeks we stay in Puerto Princesa, Jungle Beach, Port Barton and El Nido. We are joined by local Filipino vacationers (it’s their summer break) and young European travellers, all the men sporting Zach Galifianakis beards – must be the latest fad. Puerto Princesa We are booked into Puerto Princesa for 3 nights, which we find is 3 nights too long. We wanted to visit the Underground River, a world heritage site during one of these days, but the council have no more permits left for 3 days. So we walk up and down Rizal Street, every second shop a Bank, unsuccessfully search for the war museum that is in 5 different places ... read more

In total we spent around 10 nights in El Nido. We did not need to stay that long but to be honest we opted for the cheapest flight back to Cebu which was over 2 weeks after arriving in Puerto Princessa. Initially we planned to visit Coron island but instead decided to spend more time in Port Barton (see previous blog) and El Nido with a few days at Puerto Princessa either side. So what did we do with all that time? Well, for starters - every morning we went to the Mid-Town Bakery. They sell the best donuts in Palawan, the size is decent and they are always fresh. Compared to the donuts in Greggs bakeries back home, here we were treated to warm donuts covered in sugar on the outside and a warm doughy ... read more

Travelling to our next destination was long winded but we enjoyed the scenery, listening to music and reading so it wasn't too bad at all. From Apo island we caught the boat across to Malatapay, the jeepney to Dumaguete then a bus to the island of Cebu which was meant to take 5 hrs but took around 6.5 hours as our bus broke down and we had to wait for its replacement before travelling across on the bus ferry. In Cebu we decided to stay near the airport in an area called Lapu Lapu, but we soon wished we choose something a little closer to the bus station as the traffic getting here was horendus and the taxi took one and a half hours. In total we spent a whole 12 hours travelling that day so ... read more

Pegamos um voo de Vietnam dia 22 de novembro a 1:00 da madrugada, fomos fazer o check-in e o que acontece? Precisava de uma passagem para sair das Filipinas e eu não tinha... Fui comprar uma passagem qualquer para poder ir para Filipinas, voltei correndo para o check-in, enfim, conseguimos entrar e embarcar. Chegamos a Manila e tivemos que pegar outro voo para Coron. Chegando em Coron, pegamos uma Van até o Porto onde tivemos que pegar outro barco para poder chegarmos a nossa expedição que tinha saído as 9:00 e nós chegamos no Porto as 12:00. Chegamos mais ou menos 13:30 no barco da expedição de Coron a El Nido, chamado Tao Philippines, fomos super bem recebidos, ainda tinham umas pessoas fazendo snorkeling mas nós estávamos morrendo de fome, sorte que o almoço estava quase ... read more