Philippines

Our 48 hour journey to Yangon

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Reluctantly we had to leave Coron after an awesome five nights in one of the most beautiful areas I’ve seen so far. We had booked an overnight ferry (with 2go travel) from Coron to Manila (the route also continues to/from Puerto Princesa) and having not been on an overnight ferry up to this point, we were a bit sceptical as to how pleasant the journey would be. Both of us are not particularly strong-stomached when it came to rocky travel and there are various reports online of how tricky the journey can be. Firstly, the ticket says you need to be there four hours early. Yes, that’s right, four hours. That’s longer than waiting for an international flight! Secondly, we had gone for the cheapest option of the Super Value class (which worked out at ~1,200 PHP), and had been told by others that there is no aircon. So going onto the ferry, we were definitely apprehensive.

When we got onto the ferry, the apprehension didn’t go away. We were on the third deck which was filled with small bunk beds with narrow walkways in between. 15 hours on this ferry? I really wasn’t sure how it would go.

A couple of the bunks didn’t even have mattresses or pillow and the owners of these bunks were stealing them from other bunks that were unclaimed at the time. It was all a bit chaotic really.

After we set off though, it did get better. There was a good breeze coming through the deck (apparently the aircon gets too cold in the cabins), we got a small meal included in our ticket and watched a beautiful sunrise as we ate. The main thing that made it one of the best trips we’ve done was that we made friends with two French guys and also a small group of French Canadian people. With them, we drank and instigated the karaoke that seemed to be lying neglected by the Filipino travellers. Once we started though, the requests didn’t stop and soon we had performances from everyone all round. It turns out “Breathless” by The Corrs is very popular in the Philippines…

By the time we sang our hearts out, we went to bed at about 11.30pm and managed to get a half decent sleep. The deck lights don’t get turned off so remember to bring an eye mask but actually it was not the worst sleep I’ve had on the trip.

Once in Manila, we had a short time going around the Intra Murose area of the city (the historical centre full of old Spanish buildings from when it was colonised) which was very pleasant before getting a flight to Singapore for our 11 hour stopover.

When we booked our hostel, our main requirement was that it had hot showers, was cheap and close enough to the airport. Unfortunately, it turns out it wasn’t a good enough requirement, our hostel turned out to be pretty dingy. Kind of like the setting for a horror VR game where the players get murdered. Kind of a derelict unpleasant feel. Since we only had a short stopover we made the decision to just not sleep and stay out all night. Annoyingly because we booked both flights with Jetstar, despite it saying that you need to collect your baggage between flights, it turns out if the flights are on the same booking, they will keep hold of your bags to transfer to the connecting flight even if it’s a long layover. Luckily, I had my rucksack as hand luggage (it’s a nifty Osprey 40l farpoint) so I had all my things and could lend Giada some clothes for the night. It descended into a chaotic night where we ended up in a party bus that had blaring music, neon lights and a fog machine but somehow we managed to not sleep until we got onto the plane to Yangon. For anyone doing that journey, I’d recommend a longer layover time so you can actually experience Singapore!

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Coron, Coron island

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From El Nido we took the “fast ferry” to Coron. The company was called Phimal and the ferry was actually 4 hours not 3. It’s a smallish boat that carries about 150 people and the journey is super choppy. Both Giada and I were feeling incredibly seasick throughout the journey but the crew only allow 5 people to sit on the top deck. Even when you try and explain that you need fresh air because you might throw up, they are pretty unsympathetic. It was probably one of the less fun journeys we’ve had…

Arriving in Coron on Busuanga Island, we walked to Hop Hostel where we had booked our stay. It’s about a half hour walk, unless you particularly feel like walking, I’d haggle a tricycle down to take you. The hostel was awesome. Newly opened two weeks before our arrival, the building looked like it had been lifted out of Santorini with its pure white walls and arches. The place had been lovingly designed and had a boutique hotel feel but with large hostel sized rooms. There were also king sized bunk beds available. Yes, you read that right. Bunk beds which are king sized. One of the owners Gino was around most days and is very friendly and loves to chat to guests. The staff are also friendly and try their best to help you although not always getting it right with food orders. We dined here two out of our five nights and the restaurant does very good food. The menu changes most days and offers a good value set menu. The rooftop is definitely the highlight though. The sunsets from here are one of the best as the hostel is up a hill. I imagine it’s only beaten by actually hiking up Mt. Tapyas.

The island hopping here is superb, we did Coron Island Tour B. The area is stunning and worth the hype. But tourism is on the rise so it’ll be interesting to see how long it can keep its charm for.

I also did my Advanced Open Water whilst being here which was awesome. I chose to go with Reggae Diving Centre who were brilliant. Very professional with well run courses. Most of the instructors and divemasters are cheeky Filipinos who are all very well spoken and friendly. Lunches were included which were super tasty and they even give you a beer at the end of the day.

What attracted us to Coron to dive in the Philippines was the wreck diving. Being pretty new to diving, I really wanted to go see some cool shipwrecks and Coron is famous for the 10 WWII Japanese imperial navy wrecks here. And I was not disappointed, they are so cool. The coral that is on top is also stunning with a good range of fish and lots of them too. Sadly I didn’t get to see a turtle at all during the entire trip. It turns out they’re very elusive!

Coron was an awesome stop and I would recommend anyone to go if beautiful beaches, divespots and snorkel sites are their kind of thing.

El Nido and Nacpan

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Having to play catch up a bit now as we’ve been so busy I’ve had very little down time to write.

El Nido was spoken quite highly by quite a few people we’ve met on our travels so far. But having now been there and other places, I would say it’s on its way to being too touristy. The town is very small, the main centre consists of two parallel streets and one perpendicular one. Even whilst we were there we saw so many construction sites as they build more accommodation to meet demand (book in advance if you’re going in peak season as it does book up very quickly). There is not much of an actual beach to relax on in El Nido, the beach there is mainly used as a mooring site for island hopping boats and not that pleasant for relaxing on. The town itself is probably 99% tourist driven. Most buildings here fell into one of the following: restaurant, bar, travel agency or accommodation. Although traditional Filipino cuisine is not really all that memorable (in my humble opinion), it doesn’t justify the copious amounts of Italian and Mexican restaurants in the centre. As with my rant about Thailand being too touristy, I think El Nido is definitely heading towards that direction.

The island tours are good, we did A and C (out of A to D) and thought A was the better one with the lagoons we went to and the option to hire kayaks to explore these with. The lunch on these tours were definitely a highlight. A simple grilled lunch of pork, fish, seafood (squid, mussels or shrimp), rice and fruit prepared by the crew on board. I’m salivating at the memory. The Philippines are beautiful and the boat tours only provided more evidence of this by showing you white beaches with intense blue skies and sunshine as well as turquoise lagoons that are bordered by sharp, jagged grey stone rising impressively out of the water. With over 7,000 islands, you are not short of stunning scenery here.

In terms of price, El Nido was much more expensive compared with Thailand. That’s not to say it was expensive, you could have a decent meal out for about 300 pisos (about £4) but obviously when you compare with Thailand where accommodation and street food are much more in abundance it is definitely a marked difference.

One place that we really enjoyed going to was Nacpan beach. It’s a gorgeous long white sand beach that lies 16km up the coast from El Nido. You can get shuttles up there 350php one way or 600php return. We stayed up there for one night and would definitely recommend it. It’s currently 5km of a quiet beach but in future will definitely be developed into a tourist hotspot.

We enjoyed our stay in El Nido but definitely looking forward to Coron.

The Road to El Nido

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Having spent the last few days in Puerto Princesa, currently in a van on our way up to El Nido. We’re on the island of Palawan in the Philippines for two weeks. First impressions, I have to say I really like the Philippines. The country is made up of numerous islands which offer lush, green and dramatic landscapes. The water is clear and gorgeous and the climate is hot and humid as you would expect from a tropical country. The amount tourists in Puerto Princesa also is a lot less than Thailand which was a welcome observation. I would imagine this will change dramatically in the next 5-10 years.

Puerto Princesa is the largest city on Palawan although I think it’s better described as a vast urban sprawl. Most buildings are a couple of floors high with lots of lots of unpaved roads. It’s quite laid back and because most of the touristy things are concentrated in the centre, it’s really easy to walk everywhere. I wouldn’t say there’s much to see in the city itself but there’s certainly good bars, restaurants and cafes. We spent the first full day just sorting out admin and milling around and yesterday we booked a day trip to see the Underground River which was worth a see. It’s a large river network housed in a cave in a national park. We also had the option to pay 550 pisos (it’s £1 to 73.50 pisos at time of writing) for a short cave hike and zip line which was really good fun. The tour also offered us our first look into the Philippines countryside which is just gorgeous.

The people are also friendly with lots of smiles and “hi”s said to us. One thing we’ve noticed is that Filipinos can dance!! On the night we arrived there was a dance show in Chinatown where local groups of kids and teens performed hip hop routines. We also had a fun night out at the Tiki Resto Bar and again saw the vivacious dancing of the locals. They certainly aren’t shy about throwing a move or two!

We flew into Puerto Princesa as we wanted to visit Palawan but flights to El Nido from Manila are much more expensive. The van has aircon and takes six hours roughly. I’d say so far it’s been a good journey. The countryside is so beautiful that armed with some good tunes and a couple of naps, it’s been pretty relaxing. We went with a company called Camarih Transport who offered the transport for 600 pisos. We also saw a couple of others that offered anywhere between 735-1,400 so do shop around. Camarih had an easy to use online booking system and includes hotel pick up.

Excited to see El Nido! We’ve been told a lot of good things about it. The plan is to spend a few days there and Nacpan Island hopping and doing water sports before heading to Coron further north which is famous for its WW2 wrecks dives.

There are already things I’ve heard and seen about that I want to come back to the Philippines to do already.