Blogs from Puerto Galera, Philippines, Asia - page 2

Day 7 - Tamaraw Falls, Hidden Paradise, Hanging Bridge, and Jungle Kayaking For just under $50 (2000 pesos), we decided to go on an organized tour to see the falls. Now, the falls were just falls and we took the necessary photos and left within 10 minutes. BUT the tour was still totally worth it. They drive you around the island and you get a great view of the water and jungles below. And our driver played Bob Marley so I was really feelin' it. After the falls, we were going swimming somewhere called the "hidden paradise". In my research I hadn't come across this but it's totally worth it. It's a big pool of water that runs into the river with small waterfalls that you can slide down. It's totally awesome. Sunny day, refreshing swim, ... read more

Day 3 Strangely enough, I didn't want to sleep on my vacation. I woke up at about 7:30am most mornings, maybe laid around in bed until 8:00am but was bouncing around as soon as the sun came up. It felt good, unlike the volatile fight I have with myself every morning here in Incheon to get up and go to school. Best thing about Badladz - the Mexican restaurant. It's HEAVEN. We must have ate their for all 3 meals every day we were there. The resort itself is situated on a pier so there isn't a beach...just boats to look at. The rooms were pretty basic but clean and decent enough. BUT the Mexican restaurant, anyone could have eaten themselves out of a depression here and that, I achieved. My feelings of despair and bitterness ... read more

Dear all, Christmas has been and gone already and tomorrow is New Years Eve! It is supposed to be the dry season here in the Philippines but at the moment the weather is all over the place and it is raining hard every day. It even rained all day on Christmas day. Boxing day was more of the same and it was that evening that we had an earthquake. Dan and I were playing Risk when the room began to shake. We were just debating whether we should head outside or get under the table when it stopped. The next day we found out that the centre of the quake was very near but thankfully it was only a 4.5. Since then we have had a couple of tiny after shocks...but its all quiet again now. ... read more

Dear all, I am now here in Puerto Galera after a very interesting journey here! We set off from Subic Bay and took the bus to Manila. When we got to the bus station in Manila we found that the bus company that we were planning to use to get down to Batangas City had gone bust so we had to get a taxi to another bus station. Getting a taxi was very interesting as everyone who owned a car within a five hundred metre radius wanted to take us in their car or had a friend who would take us or wanted a tip for flagging us a taxi! But we finally got to the next bus station. Eventually we got to the right bus and three hours later we arrived at Batangas pier. It ... read more

The day before I arrived in the Philippines, I found out that a pretty big typhone had passed through. Wow- talk about being lucky! From the airport in Manila, it took 2 1/2 hours to get to the boat. The sea was angry that day! Instead of taking 1 hour to reach the island of Puerto Galera, it took 4 hours! There were 2 other passengers on the boat and they were sea sick- probably wishing that they were dead! The boat was jumping up and down crashing on the waves- crazy! Then, 15 minutes to destination, the boat's engine smokes up and dies. The captain, went down to the engine room with a big kitchen knife and pulled out, I swear to God, the most ERODED pipe ever! We were stranded in the boat rocking ... read more