Philippines, Part 2

On the 5th of April we had a flight booked from Cebu to Palawan (Puerto Princesa). And once again, we encountered issues with the flight company; this time with Cebu Pacific (better known as ‘Cebu Horrific’). The first problem started with checking in the luggage. We had booked one bag of 15kg and one of 20kg, even had a conformation email for proof. However, this had not gotten in their system so they wanted us to pay for 5kg excess weight. We refused, made a scene at the counter and after the fifth employer (and manager in duty) got involved, they finally accepted it. Once sitting in the plane (Pam at 6E, Sven at 24C), we found out that they issued us one wrong boarding pass (with which we got through security nevertheless). Then, finally sitting beside each other, and with the airplane moving towards the runway, they announced a technical problem and we had to wait another hour: Cebu Horrific!

We finally made it safe to Puerto Princesa, booked a low budget guesthouse there and got cash for the next 2 weeks since there were no ATM’s on the islands we wanted to go to. We took a minivan to El Nido the following morning (6 hour drive north). With the last curves approaching El Nido, we could already see the drastic and magnificent landscape of plenty little rocky islands.

El Nido is mostly known for boat tours to the surrounding islands – the Bacuit Archipelago. We were already aware that this was a tourist hotspot and therefore we booked an overnight boat tour to try to avoid the rest of the regular daytrips. This choice turned out to be ideal, and we ended up with only two other tourists on board; two cool brothers from Paris. Both days included a few stops at different islands, with lots of snorkeling, hidden lagoons and beaches and lots of grilled seafood. In the evening we had a beautiful sunset on a remote beach, followed by bonfire and rum&coke. The second day we started extra early and had the first few stops almost all for ourselves. Besides the diving, this was exactly what we were hoping for in the Philippines!

The day after we rented a moped and drove around the area, exploring some remote beaches. Since we both didn’t feel ideal, we took it easy and were back in El Nido sooner than expected to look for another room located a bit further away from all the noise. We then spoiled ourselves with some unhealthy food and drinks, a foot massage and a bit of shopping.

So far, most spots we had been to in the Philippines were crowded with tourists, and we were looking for something more remote. Online we found little information about Linapacan + surrounding islands and a crazy 50-year old Canadian Hippie renting out tent spots on a remote beach; his name was Karel. This would be an ideal break in between El Nido and Coron (our next destination).

We spent two days at Karel’s beach. For little money, sleeping and minimal food was included. We took a private boat for the day to hop to surrounding islands for snorkeling and exploring a cave. The water was clearer than anywhere else we have been so far! We had lunch at our boatman’s home: Dried fish, exotic sea snails and rice.

The only drawback was the heat and absence of wind & shade and we soon were looking forward to a somewhat cooler room again. Therefore we decided after two nights, to take the ferry to Coron. We were dropped at Linapacan, from where the ferry would leave 2 hours later, but arriving there we found out that due to technical problems the ferry would not go this day. We had the option to take a private boat for 200 euro, or wait one or two nights. We went for the cheapest option, spent one night in San Miguel on Linapacan (Dory’s Lodging) and used our time to get updated with all the pictures and the blog again.

Luckily, there was a boat going to Coron the following day. The sea was very calm so the 5 hour boat ride was rather pleasant. Upon arrival, we booked our overnight boat ticket to Manila for Saturday, 3 days later.
The main reason to get to Coron was for one last missing activity: ship wreck diving. There are dozens of Japanese WW II wrecks to be found in the area of Coron/Busuanga Island. Some are located at locations shallow enough for snorkeling, but most were only accessible for advanced divers, with depths deeper than 20 meters.

We spent two full days around Coron, of which one day was dedicated again to island hopping, swimming in beautiful freshwater lakes and lots of snorkeling. Once more we were lucky with the boat, and this time shared it only with a cool French couple (Yes, lots of French people around that area!). The second day was fully dedicated to diving with 3 dives at three different shipwrecks: The “East Tangat” submarine hunter, the “Olympus Maru” (a giant cargo ship) and the Lusong gunboat. Especially the Olympus was very spectacular. Diving through such enormous spaces is best to describe as flying around a giant cathedral with weird alien-like animals surrounding you. A turtle accompanied us a few times and even nearly bumped into our guide.

By accident, we had booked our ferry-tickets with a local travel agency. This one was unknown for tourists and therefore much cheaper. On the whole boat (+/-300 people) only 6 white faces. It was a night boat and therefore had only very basic bunkbeds instead of chairs. We both slept surprisingly well and after a 15 hour trip we arrived fit in Manila.

We were advised, to leave Manila as soon as possible (since it’s a very big, crowded, hot and dirty city). We made our way to the bus terminal (via tricycle-jeepney-local bus) and from there we took the first bus Solano in the north. We slept in a local hotel and got up early to catch the first bus direction Banaue.

Banaue is a popular tourist destination known for its spectacular rice terraces, reachable from Manila by night bus. With our overnight stop in Solano we avoided the rough night-drive and could start trekking around the rice terraces that same day. We first went to the Batad and Bangaan rice terraces and they were amazing! We took lots of pictures and it was just a joy walking around over the small clay walls and the many hundreds steps up and down. We had a small break at a waterfall, where we swam and refreshed in-between the strenuous hike. Although we had our own private tour guide, we figured out he was rather useless since he could not give us much interesting information and finding the way ourselves would not have been difficult. Therefore, the next day we rented a motorbike from a local guy and spent the full day touring around ourselves to the more unknown rice terraces. Especially the ones in Batad and Malicgong were spectacular, because those weren’t harvested yet and still very green. The roads were very steep and driving around was a challenge. Especially when at some point going downhill the front break just stopped working! Nothing bad happened and we were able to pull off safely. Funny enough, after a short pause the break worked again.

That same evening we took the night bus from Banaue back to Manila, from where our flight would bring us to Kuala Lumpur the next afternoon. Another country to say goodbye to, and another favorite on our list :)