To the Pines

Asia » Philippines
October 14th 2015

Published: October 14th 2015

Edit Blog Post

Toya

White beach 6

The Philippines. My first trip outside Japan and, Asia.

I spent a bit more than 2 weeks backpacking around some of the most well-known spots of the Philippines.

It was in september, the rainy season (the end of it).

I arrived at Mactan Cebu Airport and the day after travelled to Palawan.

Puerto Princesa is a clean city. There is a nice bag-packers hostel near the Immaculada Concepción Cathedral owned by a philippina woman that is adorable. The place is cheap and clean. From Puerto Princesa you can join a lot of tours. I went to the Underground river in Sabang. It took 4h to go on a crazy van (drivers go very fast and there are no seat belts). The Underground river tour price was a bit high (a thousand pesos more or less), and it's a very short tour. Nonetheless, it is a must see, and some caves are breathtaking.

There is a 6h drive from Puerto Princesa to El Nido. The road is mostly paved, but some parts are unpaved and if it rains it can be a bit difficult.

El Nido was my favorite place in the Philippines. It's an amazing

Jeepney Cebu

village near the sea and a lot of rocky islands.

I stayed in a new hostel that was very cool and where I met nice people.

There are 4 tours in El Nido. A, B, C, D. I did tour A and D with Coco Bar. They have very nice staff and can give you a nice price if you rebook with them. The food they cooked while island hoping was delicious. Fruits, pork, fish and vegetables.

My last stop before leaving Palawan was Port Barton. It's a nice quiet place where you can relax without electricity (except from 6 to 10pm). You can go from El Nido and it takes around 4h (the road isn't paved).

Going to Boracay is CAOS if you are flying via Manila. My flight to Manila was delayed and I missed the one to Boracay, so I was sent to Kalibo and from there a bus took us to Caticlan.

You have to pay a thousand different FEES to get access to Boracay and finally take the boat to the island. From there a tricycle is compulsory. Try to share the tricycle with other people and it won't be

Best juice maker in Puerto Princesa

so expensive. A tricycle alone will ruin you (especially because you are a foreigner). But if you share you can pay 10 pesos.

Off-season Boracay is not as crowded but the prices are not that low. It is a very expensive Island and it's completely different from Palawan. It's like the Ibiza of Philippines. There are lots of activities (you can meet nice people with the Pub Crawl), people trying to sell you something every 50 meters and expensive restaurants (if you compare it to other places in the Pines).

In Boracay there are 3 famous beaches: long White beach, surfer's Bulabog beach (not in the off-season because the wind changes) and Puka beach. This last beach is on the top of the island and is mostly used by philippinos. If you are lucky you can see giant bats flying together from island to island (I was lucky).

Boracay is a place to party with friends, so if you are traveling alone, better go somewhere else.

After two weeks I was back in Cebu. I wanted to go to Oslob and try swimming with shark whales, but Oslob is quite far from Cebu and my time