Blogs from Miniloc, El Nido, Palawan, Philippines, Asia

First day at El Nido Kayaking and hiking ( or shall I say rock climbing) I woke up to the sounds of trikes honking horns, dogs barking and roosters cock-a-doodle -do! I took a quick shower and got dressed to schedule tours for the day and he next day. I walked in the Art Caffe and talked to the ladies there and booked a kayaking-snorkeling-island hopping boat combo tour for Sunday. A hiking tour for the afternoon and a kayak for the morning. I walked around the main area where all the bars, restos, hostels, guesthouses and shops are and I bought a few small souvenirs. Then I wandered around the outside streets and walked into El Nido town. El Nido is in central Palawan it is a bay called Bacuit ( not sure spelling) it ... read more

We had to be at the scuba shop by 8:00am so we were up at 7 and our hostel fixed us a breakfast of bread with pineapple jam and an egg. I always enjoy how people do breakfast in warm climates. Lots of fruit and bread. Once everything got settled at the scuba shop, we had to carry our gear out to the beach and then carry it out to the boat. I carried my dry stuff (clothes, towel, purse) on my head, which worked out pretty well. We drove out to an island around the city and our first task was to swim 200m and back. Which seemed fairly simple at first. But as soon as we got in the water, the winds picked up. And they had neglected to tell us that there were ... read more

Meanwhile, at the Dallas Inn in Puerto Princesa (in my best cartoon narrator voice) I found my way into a van to El Nido, which is a 5-7 hour ride through the same windy, bumby, dusty roads on route to Sabang. Something about travelling through the same road twice didnt appeal to me but as there is only the one road up north I sucked up my outrage and prepared for what I hoped would be a sleepy journey through the philippine countryside. While the landscape was green and beautiful, motion sickness was on my mind and I spent most of the trip doing my best not to vomit on the ornately arranged bobbing head Jesus's and power puff girl dolls that call the vans dashboard home. 7 hours of relative comfort later we arrived in ... read more

It certainly wasn't in my top 5 places to see... hell it wasn't even in my top 15 but let me tell you the Philippines just kicked Lake Louise, Alberta right out of the top spot as my favourite place on earth! About 5 months ago my aunt and uncle informed me that they'd be in the Philippines for 3 weeks and one of those weeks just happened to be my long overdue vacation. Did I wish they were in another country... a bit. I've been dreaming of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos for sometime now but low and behold family business called them in the Philippines. So putting the desire to see family well ahead of my desire to travel to places on my top 5 list I booked a flight to Manila and just hoped ... read more

Coming back from the Philippines and returning to the US for work and endless chore, I almost forgot to blog about our trip to El Nido, Miniloc. But reading National Geographic Adventure October 2009, featuring El Nido as being the richest marine reserve the Coral Triangle. I can’t help but to agree. I have always dreamed of going to the paradise called Palawan. Wondered, mystified, amazed and now I can’t believe I am writing about it. My younger brother, Carlo together with his girlfriend Diana also went home from Dubai to explore this much desired destination. July 20, 2009, 6:30 AM, Papa dropped all of us at the Island Transvoyager Incorparated (ITI) chartered flights terminal for our 7:30AM flight. This is also the jump off point for Amanpulo resorts chartered flights. It was funny that all ... read more