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  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    El Nido

    February 24, 2019 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    On Friday we took the ferry from Coron to El Nido. El Nido is a town in the North of Palawan, a long Island on the west of Philippines. It is known to be good for diving and island hopping, and to be one of the more beautiful parts of the country.

    The journey was meant to take 3 hours, but ended up consuming our entire day because we had to get there one hour before leaving just to sit in a terminal. Then we boarded late, sat on the boat for ages before leaving and the journey itself took 4 hours. So we arrived at El Nido at sunset. We passed many beautiful, uninhibited islands on the way and a couple of impressive local sailing boats, wooden with multiple sailes. Immediately upon arriving we like El Nido, it was cleaner and quieter than Coron with pedestrian streets lined with nice cafes an restaurants. We had a nice dinner on a roof top and then took a trike to Coring Corong, a quiet bay 2km away. With no booking we walked until we found somewhere with rooms and ended up about 20 meter from the beach. Our room is a significant upgrade from Coron-we have air conditioning, space around the bed and en suite and a balcony. And now noise. Previously we had no space, a fan, shared bathroom and were right above a very noisy bar with terrible live music. The Philippinos love their music and singing, but unfortunately have an atrocious taste in music. It often sounds like a cat is being strangled and that somehow the people near the cat feel the need to attempt a harmony for the cat. My personal view is to kill the cat. I can't wait to hear good music again.

    Going back to El Nido, yesterday we took a wander and spontaneously joined a fancy boat trip. It was a big local boat, with space for 32 but there were 16 of us so there was lots of space to lounge around. They fed us all day and provided nice drinks. And we visited lots of beautiful locations. Some of which we the only people at, because the boat timed its route to avoid the masses of tourists. We went to a beautiful lagoon, two hidden beachs that you had to swim through tunnels to get to, some caves and some coral garden snorkelling spots. The landscape around here is totally stunning . Island upon island on the horizon and big sheer limestone cliffs towering over the sea.    Read more

  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    Few days boating

    February 22, 2019 on the Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We spent another few days in Coron. One day we just took easy and went to a local beach and then climbed 721 stairs to the viewpoint over the city. It was a very sweaty walk, even though we did it later in the day.

    Then we ended up on a private yacht ...as you do! Our friend Skinku has a yacht in a boatyard back in Cebu and someone he met at the boatyard had brought his catermeran down to Coron, so we spent two days sailing around the local islands with him and his dad. We hired a 'Chariot' vehicle to drive there, which was an adventure of its own. It is like a TukTuk, or what is known as Habul-Habul here- a carriage attached to a 125cc motorbike. It was a bumpy ride and very well driven by Shinku. The journey took about an hour from Coronary to Conception, where the boat was anchored.

    He is an Irish captain of a brand new boat that he has just put into the water, with family visiting from the UK ,so it was a bit of an adventure for all of us. It is a beautiful boat and very nice sailing experience. It was really nice to be back on the water this way. Marla and I were negotiating crew jobs with the captain, but I have since decided not to go down that route as it was a very boosey couple of days and I would rather not live on a boat with alcohol having such a high presence in every day.....so I will indeed go back to the real world and my job at home.

    (Speaking of which I have just booked my flight home on April 8th, I have my first shift back at work on April 11th. And I have found somewhere temporary to live so that I can find a permanent new home once I am back and able to view places. )

    We sailed to Pass Island one day and Pamalican Island the second day. Pamalican island was beautiful as it had no other boats there. The islands in this area are incredibly beautiful, white sands, turquoise sea and surrounded by coral. But they are often littered with tourists and boats, which takes away some of the beauty. So it was great to find a spot no own else was at.    Read more

  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    Coron and around

    February 20, 2019 on the Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    On the day we got off the dive boat it was Marla's birthday, so we started celebrating early. We were woken by the chef and cruise director, who entered our room with cake and bloody Mary's. We had to disembark early in the day, but we continued celebratimg at the resort one of our new friends was staying on-muxh nicer than our backpacker budget accommodation! We spent the day drinking and in and out of the swimming pool, then we went back to our place where our friends from Singapore were. We all planned to travel together to Coron, which involved taking a flight at 5am. Needless to say at 3am I was not at my best, after two days of celebrations. And by the time we arrived at Coron I was pretty much at my worst, just needing some sleep.

    Coron Island is part of the western region of Philippines, known to be very beautiful and on teh standard tourist route. We are spend the next 10 days exploring here and travelling down Palawan Island.

    On the first day, after a long nap, we hired mopeds and went to explore come off he surroundings. The roads are in appalling condition and create pretty tricky driving conditions, but we saw some nice views and started to get a feel for the area.

    Coron town is nothing special to speak of,but in the surrounding waters are beautiful lagoons,impressive rock structured islands and multiple shipwrecks. It's a great spot for island hopping,diving and snorkeling. Today we took a tour on a private boat to some of the famous locations. We went to a beautiful fresh water lagoon, some coral garden snorkeling spots,a shipwreck and a couple of beautiful inlets. The water is a stunning turquoise coulour and the islands look like something out of Jurassic Park. It has been beautiful sunny days, the colours everywhere are vibrant.

    The safety regulations here have caused some amusement. We have to wear life jackets on the boat, when within eyesight of the coast guard. And we were not allowed into the fresh water lake without wearing them,because the water is less buoyant than the sea-even if we can swim! However to embark the boat it involves a sketchy jump from land onto one boat, then walking along one boat and taking another huge step to our boat. This part we didn't have to wear life jackets for, even though it was the time we felt most vulnerable and it was within eyesight of the coastguard. On the way back to disembark they held a plank of wood with their feet and a long wooden rod with their hands, so that we could walk along the wood using the wood as a hand rail-it was a very sketchy set up…..but we all made it, splash free.    Read more

  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    Quick update

    February 18, 2019 on the Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    We spent a week on a dive boat and then the next day flew to Coron, and island on the west of Philippines. I am in the process of writing a detailed blog post about the boat, but I am living a very social time with friends from Singapore. So watch this space....Read more

  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    The dive boat experience

    February 12, 2019 on the Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The Live-aboard experience.

    On Sunday, from Cebu Marina we got on board the Inifiti; a boat that is built specifically for recreational diving. It is the most luxurious and extravagant thing I have ever booked as a backpacker and so I didn't know what to expect from the other people on board, but they weren't going to be other backpackers!

    There is room for 22 guests altogether, on our trip we are 19. It is mixed group of nationalities; South Africans, Australians, Americans, Chinese and a few of us from various place in Europe. The director of the boat is a young guy from Ukraine and his Taiwanese girlfriend is one of the main dive guides. The crew are all phillipino and there are plenty of them-boat guys, dive guides, chef and kitchen staff, captain and assistant and housekeepers. So there are a lot of us, but it is quite a big boat so it's certainly not crowded. Most of the guests are very experienced divers, some are instructors themselves and most have done a live aboard before. So I am the baby of group, in experience, but not age-the age range is between 18-72. We all have a shared interest and each day as we come back from dives we have more to talk about, we have communal meals and free alcohol on board….so naturally it has began to feel like we are one big family. To begin with I felt it was a lot of dive junkie enthusiasts and that I would not keep up with the chat, but actually we find plenty else to talk about and friendships are being formed.

    The boat is a 48 meter yacht with 4 floors, 11 guests cabins, a huge sundeck, large dining area, room dedicated to computer and camera gear, a deck for dive equipment and a launch deck for the dingys. We reach our dive sites in smaller boats and we roll off them into the sea.

    The boat slogan is 'Eat. Dive. Sleep.’ and this is exactly what we did. The days started between 6.30-7.30am and we would do 3-4 dives a day, taking longer sails overnight to reach a new dive site and shorter sails in the afternoon to reach anew dive site. We could do 2-3 dives on one site, taking a different part of the reef or different side of the island. Most sites were coral walls or coral gardens that were just off the coast of a beautiful island. The best dives were usually the early morning ones, as we started before other divers who need to travel from land and therefore we had the peace of the site all to ourselves. We also did one night dive, which was incredibly peaceful and where we saw lots of weird looking creatures that come out after dark. The best dives we did we would see multiple sea turtles and have very close encounters, many eels, clown fish and lion fish everywhere and some hugemongous schools of sardine and jackfish. I've never seen anything like it, the size of the schools make you feel so small even though the individual fish are really small. Altogether we did 17 dives in 5 days at a maximum depth of around 30 meters and maximum time of one hour. The deeper you go the quicker you use your air and our dive guide would spend a lot of time in the depths so we rarely met full dive time, which was slightly annoying. We were put into groups of 4-5 and had an experienced guide who had dived the sites many times and could lead the way. It's necessary when you aren't experienced to manage your own dives, but the divers who were instructors themselves could manage the route themselves.

    Being underwater is one of my favourite places, it is so peaceful and can be incredibly beautiful. I liken it to safari in africa-there is always anticipation that an encounter can be about to happen. And you can observe the natural behaviours of the creatures in the sea-mating rituals, feeding, sleeping and cleaning each other or themselves on coral. It's a fascinating world down there and in this week I have cherished the moment. Whenever I am having a hard day at work I imagine being under the sea and so every time I went down I reminded myself this.

    Other than the diving the trip basically involved eating and sleeping. The food was incredible and there was plenty of it. And the alcohol was all freeze so we would enjoy sunset with beers together every evening. Once we finished our last dive of the trip we drank the bar dry and had a song and dance celebrating birthdays-there had been 3 of them during the week.

    It was a great week, something I would definitely do again. It is so nice not having to think about anything, everything being organised for us. I read a whole book and switched off to everything other than the Ocean. Bliss.

    The route we covered and name of the dive sites is on a photo below.    Read more

  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    Beautiful island of Siargao

    February 9, 2019 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    We took a 40 minute flight from Cebu to Siargao on 6th Feb and have really enjoyed our time here. The flight was beautiful, giving us great views over the country. We came to Siargao because Marla's friend owns a hostel here, we knew not a lot else. We arranged to meet two more of Marlas friends here as well and we have all loved the island. It is a not huge island and doesn't reach great elevation, but it is covered in Palm trees. Even on the beach there are palm trees dotted around in the sand. It is beautiful and nice and cooling to get natural shade from the burning sun. One of the main things people come here for is surfing, because it has good waves for surf. So it is the kind of place that people get stuck in, living the life of surf by day and party by night. We've met many brave people who have moved here from Spain and are starting out businesses to make it their future home. It's probably a good move though, as the place is rapidly developing and so property values are increasing by 183% a year!

    We haven't been surfing, but spent yesterday afternoon watching the crowds of people making their attempts at it. It's good for beginners and professionals, so there is a good range to view.

    On our first day we hired a boat and and a tour of some of the local islands. We were meant to stop on 3 islands, but we enjoyed the second so much we stayed there for ages and just viewed the third one. We bought a huge tuna in the market and had it booked on the barbecue with some mango and watermelon. It was delicious, and an incredible feast. We got through a fair few beers and had a brilliant day.

    The theme has basically been beers and good food. Here they have food of all nationalities, we are spoilt for choice. It's been a really relaxing and fun few days, everything I expected of this country-good vibes, weather, views, water and sunshine. Perfect!    Read more

  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    Falls and sand

    February 4, 2019 on the Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We woke in Alegrio to a view of beautiful clear sea upon a stone shore, with such clarity of the stones below it was clear the waters were pristinely clean. Our accomodation is a travellers lodge and is built on stilts over the sea. It is on the outskirts of Alegria and Alegria is on the outskirts of a touristy part of the island, where many people flock to swim with whale sharks. We had decided not to join this crowd due to the ethical and environmental implications of the trade,but we were here to enjoy the natural beauty of the land instead.

    Yesterday we started, with recommendation from people we met when diving, to visit Kawasaki Falls- a series of beautiful waterfalls within the jungle. However they are far from being a secret and they have been built around with restaurants and canyoning tourism, so some of the nature beauty is distorted. Thankfully, due to the laziness of many tourists, we found a quieter, more beautiful part to swim in. The higher you went the quieter it got, and these seemed to be neverending waterfalls! The water was a stunning shade of turquoise and the foliage around was thick tropical jungle. The water was so fresh, it was very refreshing.

    We spent a couple of hours here and then we headed to Langbog beach, about 15km north on the coast. I expected the beach to be built up and comercialised, because I knew it was one of the beautiful spots of the island. However I was refreshingly surprised by the rustic untouched feel of the place. Although there were some resorts and restaurants they were wooden, shanty style and incredibly basic places. It felt like a real Asian beach, not one built for tourists. The beach was a beautiful white sand, lined with palm trees and the water was crystal clear turquoise, slowly becoming deep blue. I took a walk into the sea, which was warm like a bath and I could walk for so long before it even began to get remotely deep. Once far out I could see a backdrop of spectacular bouncy looking hills-the formation here is like the Teletubbie land of round bounds of hill upon round bound of hill. It is something I have not seen before and a spectaular backdrop.

    After a couple of hours relaxing in the sun we took a walk, to head back toward our place. We walked a beautiful road that took us past homestay, renovations in progress, a golf course and some farmland. It was tropical, functional, lushious and untouched. Quite amazing that such a beautiful beach has retained its’ natural surroundings, within the local culture.

    We stopped for a coconut before boarding a bus that can only be described as full like Asia. We managed to squeeze into the doorway and as people got off we had to disembark so that they could, and then we would squeeze back on. Depending on the angle you were squeezed a different aroma would greet you. I managed to squeeze into a chair at one point, but now being lowered to armpit level wasn't necessarily an upgrade!

    Then after sunset beers very the sea at our place, we walked up to a restaurant on the seafront. It had become quite apparent that I wasn't going to survive here as a vegetarian and when I saw this menu this was completely confirmed. There is literally no option, other than chips that doesn't contain meat. Even their rice or the one vegetable dish they serve, comes with meat in! So I decided if I need to eat I may as well eat what I enjoy and so seafood has become my dietary choice. We ordered the vegetables and rice to come without mest, but when they acme the vegatablea were tinned veggies and so I knew I was right to have chosen some fish, because everything else would disapoint me. The rest of the food was delicious, we enjoyed sizzling prawns, calamari and sweet and sour fish. I ordered sweetcorn soup and when it arrived it was a huge bowl, big enough for about 8 people, but clearly made out of tinned ingredients. Vegetables don't seem to feature in the diet here, it's not even that I struggle to eat vegetarian protein-they just eat nothing but meat and rice/noodle. Nevertheless I enjoyed the meal, but I have already spent 2 days talking about cravings of fresh fruit and vegetables, so it could be a long month ahead for my patient stomach!    Read more

  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    Starting the real Philippines adveture

    February 2, 2019 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌬 28 °C

    We spent the first two nights in Mactan, which is an island that the airport is on and is  joined to Cebu by a bridge. Our main aim was to relax and recuperate as Simon arrived very alternative at night, I have had long days and little sleep recently and Marla has been working hard. So we had a big lie in and took a slow start to the day.

    Mactan mainly provides resorts for tourists, but we wanted to get out of ours (resort being a generous term for our hotel complex) and explores little. So we took a taxi to one of the monuments, which was rather disappointing because the Amin stature was closed for access. But from there we took a walk to find a beach. We passed lots of kids playing basketball on dirt courts and shanty style houses with a backdrop of glass condos. I wasn't expecting to see such evident poverty in this area and was surprised by the contrast in building structures. The kids were all happy to see us,because they could ask for money-obviously an important English phrase they have learnt.

    We found a beach, but it was man made and had entrance fees. We took a look and decided not to stay because it wasn't nearly as attractive as we know beaches can get here. By now we were getting hungry so we briefly visiteda fancy resort, with its own beach, but we weren't allowed to the beach until after 6pm and the food was expensive. Sow we ended up at a trendy bar build on top of the sea. It was happy hour, so we enjoyed some drinks and ate there.

    The next day we had a days outing booked and this is when it became exciting and the beauty of the Philippines was shown to us. We took a boat trip out to Nalusuan Island and here we went diving. The water was beautiful, if a little cold. 26 degrees is lovely for a swim, but can get chilly when diving for long time. The visibility was great and the corals were beautiful. We did three dives here and saw some rare fish, some huge schools of small fish and a sea turtle-to name a few. We saw lots of Nudibranch, which are colourful sea slugs, Orangutan Crab, which is a tiny orange furry looking crab with long orangutan like legs and a Mantis Shrimp, which is a shrimp that was break through tempered glass with a punch of its claw. Every time I go down is see something new or a new interaction of fish behaviour. There were some really friendly big bag fish that kept swimming up to us and along with us, which was great.

    The staff on the boat were all lovely and made it an ever better day, with their bubbly personalities. They provided a great spread of food and were very professional with the diving. The whole day was fantastic and made me excited for the boat we will be living on next week.

    We stayed for beers with the staff afterwards and then got a taxi to Allegra, a small town on the south coast of Cebu, about 2.5 hours away. We enjoyed the journey with stops to replenish our beer supply and get snacks and by the time we arrived I was ready for bed.    Read more

  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    Frustrating first day in the Philippines

    February 1, 2019 on the Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    This post is so that you can believe life isn't always fun and games as a backpacker!

    I had a long day of frustration when I travelled to the Philippines. It started with an early rise to get me to the airport. From 6am until I finally arrived in Cebu at 8pm I was absolutely freezing because the air conditioning was so strong. My first plane journey was from Bali to Manila and for this I wore all the layers I have and still my hands were completely numb. It chilled me to a point where I was impatient, wanting to be able to move to try to warm up, but instead being stuck on a plane. When I arrived in Manila I was already less than happy, then I was confronted with a massive queue at customs which seemed not to be moving at all. Then I had to drop my luggage for the next flight and go through security again, which all took longer than necessary. Then I tried to take cash out at every ATM, only to have my acrd spat back at me. Thankfully I bought some pesos from a traveller, so had a few hundred to tide me over for now. By the time I got to the departure zone I was ravenous…..and every single food option was 80% meat based, and not even nice meat that could tempt me. There was one place that served an egg ramen and it was closed for lunch. I was furious! I found another option of a small egg based snack and the woman wouldn't serve me because I didn't have small enough change. So I sat and waited for the ramen place to open, meanwhile getting more annoyed and beginning to hate the Philippines! Eventually the staff finished their lunch and putting make-up on and I ate a very salty soup with a few noodles and an egg in. I am hoping my options will increase slightly when I get into the country, but I don't have high hopes for the food here.

    My next plane, to Cebu ended up being delayed. But they don't seem to bother with information boards or announcements here, instead they have screens where people watch sport. So I waited by the departure, getting rather impatient as time tikced on and I had no idea when I would get in the air. When we did eventually board we sat on the plane for an hour. So in the end I arrived in Cebu chilled to my bones, malnourished and toe hours later. Thankfully Marla had bought some beers and some vaguely vegetable based snacks. Apparently vegetables are hard to some by here!

    Nevertheless it was a happy reunion and I was very glad to be here. With no doubt at all that my views on the country would soon be transformed and the arduous day would be forgotten.    Read more

  • TravelerStoire’s winter escape

    Walking Ubud

    January 31, 2019 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Today, after a big sleep I went to a long yoga class and then had a slow start to my day because it was raining. In the afternoon I went for a walk on some of the paths around Ubud. Once you leave the main centre it is much more peaceful and beautiful. I walked a Ridgeway pathway, which is lined with great views of the jungle and some rice fields. Then I walked along a path that goes through ricefields-where my yoga class had been the other day. It was beautiful, I am glad I got time to do this before leaving.

    I am travelling to Kuta tonight, which is near the airport and also is the party place where all the Australians go. I am taking the last bus from Ubud to there and then have one evening to ignore the drunks before flying to the Philippines first thing into he morning. I am going to meet a local guy from couch surfing to take me for some authentic location food in Kuta, but I am staying in a hostel.    Read more

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