'15 Travels -- Last days in the Philippines

It's been a while, and we have been busy exploring the beautiful nature and wilderness that Palawan has to offer. The majority of towns are quite small here, there is one main road that runs down through the entire island (only sometimes paved). Electricity is only on from 6pm until midnight in many of these towns. We spent quite a bit of time in El Nido, I ended up going to a local doctors clinic to get some help for my heat irritation. Walking into a Filipino clinic in a small town was something to remember. It looked like a small wooden house with two adjacent rooms. There was a shelf with towns of drugs and medications just lying out in the open, Paul saw a cup with some old blood in it. Luckily, I didn't need any shots. The doctor was friendly and gave me some pills which started helping immediately, so I'm glad we went. Many if our days in El Nido were spent recovering, me from my rash and Paul from the boat ride, but our last day we rented a motorbike to explore the areas around town a bit. Little did we know, there are basically no paved roads. We spent the whole day pushing our little scooter through rocky dirt roads. Out first stop was the Ille Cave. Upon arriving we were set up with a guide and met one of the main archaeologists working on the site. We had no clue, but research has been going on there for twelve years now, and they have made quite a lot of discoveries about the indigenous peoples and animals of the area. We hiked through the cave, saw some bats and beautiful mineral deposits, then emerged and climbed to the top of it. Guides here are funny, they always prepare for a trek by smoking a cigarette and they take you on seemingly dangerous routes that would never fly in the US. After the cave we set off to find a waterfall, with no luck, and to go to the tourist destination, Nacpan Beach -- also no luck. We complain a little about always needing a guide, but trails and roads are less obvious and less maintained. We ended up at a farther beach, still beautiful and almost empty. Just took along, bumpy motorbike ride to get there. The last stop on our motorbike was Corong Corong Bay, just south of town. We had heard thus was the place to see the sunset, and we're not disappointed. It is a huge bay, surrounded by islands abs limestone cliffs and is absolutely beautiful at sunset. In El Nido, we were able to get some money through Western Union, so did not have to rush to get to Puerto Princesa like we had thought. Instead, we headed down to our next destination, Port Barton. We took a bus and a Jeepney -- and encountered even worse roads than on our motorbike. The last 30km or so into town on the Jeepney was rough. All extremely rocky and bumpy dirt roads, for about and hour and a half. You are constantly being bumped up off your seat and flooded by all the dust. I felt like I was in some craZy jeep in an African Safari-- only with nothing to see. Port Barton itself is a very small, laid back town. It was a nice change from the tourist center of El Nido. I met a nice guy working at our hostel who set us up with a cheap island hopping tour for the next day. When he learned I was from California, he said he had lived in Daly City for a year. I said there are a lot of Filipinos there, to which he replied, 'Yes, when all the fog comes to Daly City it is because all the Filipinos are cooking their rice!' The island tour was another good one. We went to two snorkeling spots and two islands. The first spot the boatman just stopped in the middle of the ocean and had us get out. Apparently, this spot is called 'The Aquarium' and the minute you go underwater you are surrounded by what seems like thousands of fish. They were all shimmering in tge sunlight and quite beautiful. This is in addition to a coral reef present, with lots of cool and bright colored bigger fish as well. I finally spotted my classic Nemo in the anemone scene! After this spot, we pulled up to another random area, this time closer to shore. It didn't look like much at first, but our boatman told us sea turtles were found there. At first they were hard to find, but once you knew what to look for they started to stand out. We must have seen about 5 or 6. For the most part, they are quite lazy and just lie on the bottom, which is why they are hard to spot at first. Many have big fish that attach to their shells to eat the algae, and this helps give them away. Finally I spotted one starting to move and was able to swim along him as he came to the surface for air. They take the tiniest little sip and then are back down again. From Port Barton, we made our wY to Sabang, again by a long and treacherous Jeepney ride -- they always seem to be worse than you expect. I liked Sabang from the start. We got a really awesome bamboo bungalow to stay in, with our own hammock. We spent three days there, and I spent a lot of time in that hammock. The main attraction of the area is the Subterranean River. You take a paddle boat with a guide through an opening in the side of a cliff and find yourself in this massive cave. The formations were very unique and beautiful. Once again, we had a quirky tour guide. I always end up comparing them to the States-- a Park Ranger at home who would probably serious for the most part, providing a lot of interesting, but textbook information, while our guide was cracking raunchy jokes, telling us to look up but keep our mouths closed when viewing the bats, and pointing out that this rock looks like fried chicken and that rock looks like Sharon Stone from Basic Instinct -- this is before pointing out the rock formation that looked like Titanic and then whistling a good majority of 'My Heart Will Go On' as we were quietly paddling through the dark cave. All in all it was a good tour, and in all serious an amazing natural area. It is known as one of the new seven wonders of the world. The next morning we had planned to leave, but I had read last minute about a river tour they offered along the mangrove trees, so we got up early to do that before heading out. I glad we did, it was very nice and peaceful and the people volunteering there were beautiful. They were very passionate about the environment there, and the steps they were taking to protect and preserve it. We spotted a lot of wildlife along the way and at the end they sang us a song about the mangroves! It all just felt so positive and I was very grateful to be in that spot with those people at that moment. Plus we saw some cute lizards and a bunch of snakes! Now we are in the town of Puerto Princesa, it feels nice to be back in a city after being in remote areas for so long. It is so beautiful, but it was starting to take a toll. Paul and I both had a few days of feeling very low energy, and probably just exhausted from the heat and not much else to do but explore everything the landscape has to offer. We are both kind of looking forward to hanging out in an air conditioned mall and maybe seeing a movie! The plan is to take it easy here for a few days until we fly to Bali on the 5th. There haven't been any whale shark sightings lately, but I'm sure we'll find something to do. We had booked a boat to go back to Manila to catch our flight, but just realized we will be on the boat for the Pacquiao fight! Paul says it is the 'fight of the century' and we are in 'the place to be' so I guess it's not to be missed! I think we will be able to figure it out before then. Here's hoping!

'15 Travels -- onward ...

Our last day in Sabang was a great one. We had our first dive as certified scuba divers in tge morning. We went to a spit called 'Kilima' and it was amazing. Five minutes after we entered the water our guide tapped his tank and pointed, sure enough there was a sea turtle -- the creature I was most hoping to see. He was swimming away from us and disappearing quickly, then he swooped back down and swam right along us! There was another person on our dive with a camera, so I'm hoping he gets those photos to us at some point. After that we went through what seemed kind of like in underwater canyon. There was reef on both sides of us, flooded with fish. It was a great end to our training and really brought everything together. I do wish I had done better on the dive, I was having some buoyancy issues from the very beginning, I was even having a hard time descending. In addition to improving my breathing, I'll probably wear more weights the next time we go. The whole thing was such a great experience and very addicting, hopefully we won't kill out budgets too bad. I can't wait to go again not only for the obvious reasons, but also to keep working on my control underwater. That night we ended up hanging out with a bunch of the local staff of the resort, as well as a few filipino tourists who were also taking dive courses. It's always a great time to hang out with the locals, and just drink and laugh despite all the differences you might have. That night we learned the term 'scuba rat', basically a nicer sounding term for a cheap traveler. Or more the idea that anyone can travel, despite their financial situation ... You just gotta rough it and make it work, aka master being a scuba rat! We had an invite to go fishing with one of the guys from the dive shop the next day, but already had plans to get to our next destination so just continue with that. I hope we make it back to that resort sometime before our trip is up and possibly take him up on that offer. We ended up one two jeepneys followed by two vans (stuffed full of people) to get to the town of San Jose. There's really nothing to do there and Paul and I both got weird vibes off the town and the locals, lots of weird stares and less friendly people. We were just there overnight to catch a 6am cargo ship to Coron, Palawan the following morning. The ship was actually very comfortable, it's a huge cargo freighter, but the top two decks have beds for passengers. It was quite easy to sleep, and it was about a 5 hour journey. It is quite weird to be on a boat for hours, and then look around and still see nothing but water -- you really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. Once we got to Coron, we signed up for an island hopping tour to explore Coron Island, off the mainland where all the hotels and town is. Only members of the local tribe are actually allowed to live on the island. The island itself is comprised mostly of limestone and us said to be growing every year. The cliffs are quite tall, sharp and breathtaking. It feels to me like a tropical Yosemite. Everywhere you look you are surrounded by these gorgeous, lush mountains, separated by crystal clear waters. This area has been voted the best island in the world and it is easy to see why. Our tour consisted of visiting 6 different places around the island, from deserted beaches, to hidden lagoons, to the most beautiful green lake, Lake Kayangan. We snorkeled along the way seeing more coral, and tons of sea urchins. It's definitely a little scary swimming over them so close, but you just have to keep calm and keep floating. The lagoons are a mix of fresh water and sark water, which makes for hit and cold spots as you swim and amazingly clear water. Kayangan Lake, was an exceptionally beautiful stop, snorkeling there was very cool as you could follow the limestone cliffs as the lake got deeper and deeper. At one point it's as if you are floating and looking straight down a rock face, it's the closest I would imagine you could come to feeling like an astronaut here on earth. The whole tour was such a highlight and easily the best 650 pesos (about $15!) we've spent. It not only included a delicious filipino lunch, wonderful and friendly guides (they always insist I start learning Tagalog), but also the chance to meet some fellow travelers from Scotland, Sweden and Germany. We ended up meeting up with must of our tour later for drinks -- the night of course ended up at a dingy karaoke bar surrounded by wasted Filipinos. The next morning we woke up not feeling the greatest, for a 7am ten hour boat ride to El Nido on the main island of Palawan. This was not a cargo ship, but a small ferry boat holding about 60 passengers. Everyone sits along the sides of the boat on long benches, so you are lucky if you get enough space to stretch out and sleep. Most people figure out some uncomfortable way to do it. I had developed a bit of a heat rash the night before, so was dealing with that in addition to feeling a little hungover. The rash, or prickly heat, is common among travelers and it's best treated with cold showers and air conditioning, things hard to come by in Southeast Asia. Needless to say, the boat wasn't helping my condition. Everyone seemed to be having a pretty miserable time. I thought Paul was doing fine, but he ended up sick and passed out in the bathroom. All in all we made it, and the bait took less than 10 hours, thank god. Now, we find ourselves in El Nido. Taking a couple laid back days, as I'm still living down this rash and anything I can do besides stay in our room (we were somehow able to find a cheap ac one in this tourist spot) will probably make it worse. We will have to head down to Puerto Princesa as we are running low on cash, and it's home to the only ATM on the island! The plan there is to explore the famous underground river park and hopefully go snorkeling with some whale sharks, but who knows what will happen or how things might change. Until next time, hope everyone is well at home!

'15 Travels -- Time for an Update!

I guess it's time for an update from the Philippines... It's hard to believe we've only been gone just over two weeks. It feels like we've done so much already. On the way here, we chose to have an overnight layover in Seoul. We were able to take a break from the 13 hr. flight and meet some of Paul's family. We had a nice meal, and hung out at a hipster Korean bar before they dropped us off at a jjimjilbang for the night. I had no idea what to expect from this, but found myself naked in front of a bunch of strangers in thus new country very quickly. A jjimjilbang is a Korean sauna. You check in, are given a change of clothes and are free to go at it. The first part of it is separated, make and female. Here you can shower, go in the hot and cold baths -- each are strange colors from different herbs, and go in the sauna. From there you dress in the clothes they gave you and can head up to the common area. There is a big open space, where you can grab a mat, put it on the floor and sleep for the night. It's a little strange and weird, and almost looks like a Korean prison with everyone in their provided clothes. Apparently, it's a popular place to sleep if you're too drunk to make it home. The common area also has more saunas - a typical western sauna, a milder clay sauna, and a very hot dome shaped sauna which basically looks (and feels) like a big pizza oven. There us also a freeze room which feels great after the saunas and refreshing after the long flight. From here we continued on to Manila. Just about another 4 hours on a plane. Getting into the city, dealing with the people and cabs wasn't as bad as we were expecting. Never felt hustled or too unsafe anywhere. We stated in the main tourist belt, Malate. It's dirty, crowded and hectic at places and makes you feel like you're back in Asia. The poverty is bad, you see many kids sleeping in the street --lots run up to you and beg for money or even water. We spent a couple of days exploring around Manila, walked through the main park, Rizal Park - or as some locals call it, Luneta Park. From there we continued into Intramuros, a walked city which still has a lot of ruins from Spanish rule. The locals all try to get you into their bicycles for a tour and we finally gave into one. It was a nice experience, mostly just for starting to interact with the local people. The Philippines does feel different from a lot of Asia as most people do speak English well and aren't shy to talk to you, or poke fun at you. Once we figured out the train system we started to explore other areas of Manila. Upon entering the station, we saw that there was a male and female area. We were confused by this until the train came, then realized you are packed into these things like sardines. The first place we took the train was south to Baclaran market. Think huge Asian flea market. We bought shirts, socks, shirts, pants, an umbrella, etc. for probably around $10. From there we took our first Jeepney ride, to the enormous Mall of Asia -- quite a change from the market. This mall is huge, building after building and bigger than anything I've seen in the states. We spent a little time there before going to our first dampa restaurant. You walk through a market and but your fresh seafood, then bring it to one of the many restaurants lined up beside the market who cook it however you like. We had some delicious chili crabs, steamed prawns and veggies with some San Miguel to wash it all down. It was quite a feast, though if we had more cash on us probably would gave gotten even more seafood! From Manila, the first place we headed was the Zambales coast. We were looking to get somewhere quieter after Manila and decided in some beach camping in a place called Anawangin Cove. It took a bus, tricycle ride and hike to get there. We hired a local 19 yr. old to guide us on this hike. He was very friendly and it was nice to spend some time talking with him. We expected an easy hike, but it was longer than we expected (there is not much info on this spot in most guidebooks) and ended up taking about 4 hours in the hot Philippine sun. It was still a gorgeous hike and great experience, though we ended up taking a boat back. The cove itself was beautiful. Crystal clear water, the cleanest I've seen yet. The beach is surround by mountains and bordered by pine trees, a very special piece of nature. We had shade to camp in, clear water to snorkel in and no mosquitoes! What more could you ask for?? From camping, we returned back to Manila. We had met a local family, by eating at their street food stand, who invited us to their family outing at the beach the weekend of Good Friday. We were hesitant about trusting them, but didn't want to pass up a true Filipino celebration. When we walked up to meet them some of the family pointed and laughed at Paul, calling him 'Jesus Christ'! Tis the season, and his hair was pretty crazy at this point. This was also after two separate peoples shouted 'One Direction' at him and just laughed as well. Kids randomly stare and laugh as well -- all quite entertaining. Anyways, we took off to Batangas with this family. Husband and wife and four kids. Ended up in Matabungkay Beach, where the thing to do is rent what they call a 'balsa'. Basically it's a huge raft, with tables and chairs, shade and even little elevated areas to sleep. We hung out on this all day, cooked, drank and swam. You can even signal to someone onshore who will swim out and deliver you could beer. The family had a local friend/semi-ladyboy there who hung out with us and eventually we ended up onshore in the neighborhood singing karaoke. It had to happen soon enough! The whole experience was a positive one. It was great to see an authentic celebration for this family. In the end, the Dad (and businessman) Bong, asked us to chip in and pay more than we were expecting (more than our fair share) but it was worth the experience, and we didn't end up drugged and abandoned anywhere -- so all was well! Putting it all into perspective, it wasn't a lot of money, and it all went to our warm and welcoming host family. From there we continued south to the island of Mindoro, where we are now. We took a fast boat, bangka, to get here. The ride arriving into the harbor is quite beautiful. Lots of lush land a little islands. We spent a night in Puerto Galera, where Paul finally got his crazy hair cut and beard shaved. It took forever, but he was tight with his barber afterwards. He even had Paul take a photo with him afterwards. There are very many friendly people, and making these small connections with people on the street or restaurant owners, etc. had been very special. From Puerto Galera we made our way to the town of Sabang, where we have been the last 5 days or so. We have been working on our PADI Open Water Diver certification. We have learned so much over the last few days, from all the scuba gear, to the ocean environment, to the more technical side of diving. This morning we finished our training, and tomorrow we have one last fun dive we get to make. There are many, many dive resorts here -- but we decided to go to one run by a nice Filipino family. Our instructor, Hobert, is a local as well. They might do things a little more sketchy than the western run operations, but I've learned a lot and we've gotten some good dives in. Still hoping to find some sea turtles, but today we passed an ocean snake which our instructor later informed us was 5x deadlier than a cobra. While passing it we had no clue! The plan is to continue down to Palawan from here, and then back to Manila and maybe into North Luzon. We leave for Bali in the beginning if May, but not before sticking around for the Pacquiao/Mayweather fight! Lots of love to everyone at home, come visit us!