Advertisement
Philippine Highway
Manila and Puerto Princesa - 7th May to 10th May
We arrived into Manila, the city of smog, pollution and Chowking chain restaurants! Our one night in the city consisted of a cheap room in a dodgy area, cheap beers that weren't really that cheap and walking in and out of dodgy allyways.
Our plan was to leave Manila first the in the morning, and catch the bus to Donsol to snorkel with the Whale Sharks...we headed to the bus station and found out that all the buses were full and we couldn't leave Manilla - well to Donsol anyway. It turns out the election was on (on Monday) and so every Phillipino and his dog was heading to their home to town to vote...hence the bus madness. So basically, we re-arranged all our flights to go to Palawan first, and then Donsol at the end of our Philippines trip.
So we quickly headed to the airport and flew onto Puero Princesa, the capital of the island of Palawan. We caught a tri-k (basically a motorbike with a cabin attached to the side - the main mode of transportation on the island) to our
hostel - Banwa Guesthouse. As soon as we arrived, we met some people in the really cool common area. Anthony and Alli from USA and Charlie and Zhen from England. Originally we were only going to stay one night, and head straight to the 'good stuff' in El Nido - but Anthony and Alli were talking about doing a trip to the Underground Caves in Sabang, and we had wanted to do this anyway so we organised it for the Sunday and stayed an extra night.
The Underground Caves were awesome! We drove about 2 hours to Sabang where we caught a boat across to another part of the island. From there we walked through the jungle for a little bit and arrived at the most amazing, blue, crystal clear pool I've ever seen. That was the entrance to the caves. We took a paddle boat inside for a 45 minute trip which was about 1.5km. Apparently the cave goes on for 8 or so km, but what we saw was enough. It's so amazing seeing all the bats, and the enormity of how big the 'cathedral' ceillngs are. After some swimming on the palm fringed beach - we
headed back to Puerto. All four of the other guys were going to swim with the whale sharks in Puerto, but because we had already brought our bus ticket for when we got back, it wasn't worth us doing it there instead.
So on Monday, we decided we would take the 5hour 'van' ride to El Nido - home to the Bacuit Archipeligo. We did have the option of taking one of the local buses, but decided against the 8 hour journey and 8 hour 'free massage' along side 99 other sweaty locals (inside AND outside the bus!).
We'll be back in Puerto in abuot 8 days time, but for now - it's El Nido for us!!!!! Shaun keeps refering to it as 'the good stuff'...so lets hope it's worth the trip!
P.S I've just added photos to this blog, but mixed them all up so now there are some from El Nido and the Bacuit Archipelago as well...the next entry of El Nido won't have any pics cause they're all on here!
Advertisement
Tot: 4.21s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0565s; 3; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Richard
non-member comment
Happy Birthday
Hi Shaun and Jess, Judy and I are taking some time off to catch up on your super holiday. It sounds and looks as if you guys are having a whale of a time. Just keep on enjoying while you can. Keep us posted. TODAY IS THE 18TH MAY 2010 AND A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD US IT'S SHAUN'S BIRTHDAY. HAPPY 31ST BIRTHDAY SHAUN, FROM ALL THE BLOCHIE'S AND HUMBIE'S. Take care and travel well.