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  • Part 2.2 of our Philippines Trip: Island Hopping Tour A

    Part 2.2 of our Philippines Trip: Island Hopping Tour A

    One of the primary tourist attractions or activities in El Nido is the Island Hopping. There are 4 different versions of the Island Hopping Tour (A, B, C, D) and each tour is the same, and each is operated by a local. Each tour’s format is also the same – stop at 2 attractions, stop somewhere for lunch, stop at 2 more attractions, go home. Each stop is around 40 minutes. Everyone who goes on a tour must pay an eco-fee, which goes into a budget aimed at preserving these natural attractions.

    Our first tour was arranged through Golden Monkey Cottages, and our drivers Richard and Ariel took me, Kevin, Anne, and Loc on Tour A.

    Here’s a map of that area that each tour covers:

    el-nido-tour-map

    Tour A took us to Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon, Simizu Island (for lunch), Secret Lagoon and 7 Commandos Beach.

    The pictures perhaps tell a better story, but I’ll share a few anecdotes as well.

    When we first arrived at the Small Lagoon, we were greeted by beautiful, crystal clear water. It seemed quite shallow, so I neglected the life jacket suggestion, just as Loc and Kevin had done. “This place can’t be that big”, I thought, “and the water seems shallow anyways” – wrong-o!

    Don’t worry people, I was totally fine, but the shallow lagoon turned into something much deeper that required much swimming from this semi-lazy gal. Once through the clear, shallow lagoon, we then entered a beautiful larger lagoon (technically the Small Lagoon, I think. It was hard to keep track of what was what), where we were surrounded by stunning limestone cliffs. On the other side of the lagoon, we went to smaller little lagoon spot, and then into a small cave. About half way across the Small Lagoon, Kevin (aka Captain Heather’s-Safety) realized with a bit of a shock that I wasn’t wearing a life jacket, and was actually just swimming. I was totally fine, but I definitely had bitten of a bigger challenge than intended. BTW, people, swimming is tiring!! Anyways, I totally survived without incident, though my arms were feeling it later. Lesson learned? Life Jackets make life easy, but for reals swimming is more fun without one.

    It was pretty windy on the day of our tour, so we weren’t able to go into the Secret Lagoon, but we were able to snorkel just outside of it. When we first got to the snorkelling spot, I pulled on my little snorkel/mask combo, along with my life jacket, and jumped into the water. It was a fairly open-water kind of spot, and the waves were fairly big (for poor little me, according to Kevin, the waves in Portugal are much bigger), so when I realized that I couldn’t see any corral or fish, I promptly climbed back on the boat with a resounding “Nope, not today. Not for me.”

    Of course then Loc, who was swimming much further away from the boat than I’d been willing to go, shouted over to me that he could see lots of fish and lots of corral. So, fine then. I tried again, and this time I ventured further and saw tons of beautiful water life. Kinda scary, but worth it.

    Check out our photos below. You may also want to check out these other blogs for some better quality photos that do a better job of showcasing the natural beauty than we could. Option 1 and option 2.

    Entering the Small Lagoon
    Anne, thinking about her thesis
    Looking fabulous!
    Me and Richard – me, struggling post-snorkelling
    Me, snorkelling!
    a private rich people dwelling
    relax
    chillax
    Winners!
    Kevin found a volleyball
    This is what champions look like.
    a storm is brewing
  • Part 2.1 of our Philippines Trip: the town of El Nido

    Part 2.1 of our Philippines Trip: the town of El Nido

    There’s a lot to say about El Nido, but wikitravel says it better, so I’ll direct you there to begin.

    When we were planning our trip to the Philippines, my friend Anne suggested we go either to Boracay, with its beautiful beaches and big parties, or to El Nido, “Boracay for grownups”.

    Hoping to avoid the throngs backpackers, denoted by these wacky pants they always wear, I decided we’d go to El Nido. Though we stayed a short walk outside outside of the small remote town, we spent quite a bit of time in El Nido proper, enjoying their variety of bars and restaurants in the town and along the beach. We (read: Kevin) were especially captivated by the unique variety of fresh fish offered up each day. We also couldn’t get enough of the view of the limestone cliffs and crystal clear bay from the beach.

    Weirdly enough, we also discovered one of the best Mexican food restaurants we’ve ever eaten at, the Lonesome Carabao. The local community centre type place Art Cafe was another local spot where we spent a fair bit of time – they make their own ice cream!!

    Check out the photos below of our time in El Nido – mostly photos of the El Nido beachside, and us eating food (typical).

     

  • Part 2 of our Philippines Trip: El Nido, Palawan – Staying at the Golden Monkey Cottages

    Part 2 of our Philippines Trip: El Nido, Palawan – Staying at the Golden Monkey Cottages

    During our time in El Nido, we took so many darn pictures that I’m going to break our El Nido stay into several posts in order to keep things somewhat sensible and interesting.

    So, let’s start with where we stayed while there. Later I’ll be covering El Nido itself, as well as the tours we embarked on. While in El Nido, we stayed at a great place called Golden Monkey Resorts. It was well reviewed on Trip Advisor, relatively inexpensive, and not too far from downtown El Nido. So, we stayed in an Ocean View Cottage on the weekend with Anne, and then switched to a less luxurious Garden View Cottage for the remainder of the week. The ocean came into view after walking 5 steps from our cottage anyways, and there were ample Ocean View seating areas anyways.

    The cottages were lovely, with great bathrooms, and mosquito nets to keep us safe from any bugs at night (though there weren’t many). Electricity was on from only 2pm to 6am, meaning we had cold showers in the morning and warm showers in the evening – but when the water pressure is always good, you can’t complain! We ate breakfast on our front porch every morning, and drank our coffee sitting by the water’s edge, overlooking the still lagoon.

    The walk to town took around 15 minutes and was always beautiful and filled adventure (sometimes cows in the lane at night, sometimes baby cows in the field drinking milk from their mom). Either way, Golden Monkey Cottages were the perfect quiet addition to our week and a half of relaxing in Palawan.

    Of course, the Cottage resort was chock full of animals – cats and dogs, always looking for attention! Check out the photos below!

    Our room at Golden Monkey Cottages
    Me in the porch of our Gardenview Cottage
    The Oceanview Cottage
  • Part 1 of our Philippines trip: Manila

    Part 1 of our Philippines trip: Manila

    We’ve been in the Philippines for 2 weeks now, and while the main purpose of our trip was to see my friend Anne and also to visit El Nido, we began (and are now finishing) our trip in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

    Luckily for us, a colleague of Kevin’s graciously offered her condo to us during our stay here in Makati, a city within Metropolitan Manila. From what I can tell, Metro Manila is made up of a variety of smaller cities – Manila City is one, Makati is another, and there are several more as well. I guess the who amalgamation of cities that you often see in North America (i.e. the GTA, Chicagoland) hasn’t happened here. Anyways, Makati is the financial heart of Metro Manila and a lot of major corporations have their headquarters here. There are also a whole bunch of malls, and we’re currently sitting in one of them.

    So, what have we been doing here in Manila? Site seeing, eating, drinking, sleeping, and watching TV.

    When we first arrived, we spent 2 full days here. Here’s what we got up to:

    Day 1 – Intramuros; Anne; Australians

    We really struggle at first to find good wifi in Manila (a theme that has continued throughout our time in the Philippines), but around the corner from our sleeping quarters we eventually found a great bubble tea shop with next level excellent wifi. So, we started our day there, researching the things we could do. Before the trip, I had kind of assumed that we could just wander around and find things to do, but Manila is really just not walkable at all, so we had to do some planning.

    We decided to head to Intramuros, the walled city in Old Manila City, where we did an eco-bike our with a company called Bambike. Bambike is a social enterprise that makes bamboo bikes using some magical sustainable process in a rural Philippines community. They also offer ecotours on said bamboo bikes. Kevin and I love to bike, so we hopped in a cab to the nearest transit station, and then took Manila’s LRT (aka train) up to Intramuros.

    Tangent: that was the craziest public transit experience of my whole life. Here’s how it works: A train pulls up. It looks packed  – so packed that it seems its impossible to get on the train. It’s not rush hour, so a train that packed seems weird, but whatever. Then, the train doors open. Immediately, people start crushing their way into the train. At the same time, those wanting to exit are literally pushing their way out, because they’re so tightly packed with those on the train, and also because the people getting on the train are blocking their exit. We were so bewildered that we skipped the first train that came, but when the second one was the same, we just fought our way on. Despite all the crowds, it was a fairly pleasant ride, and one of the better-smelling busy transit vehicles I’ve ever experienced. Anyways, eventually we got off the train (much pushing was required) and we took a winding/confusing walk to get to Intramuros.

    Our Bambike tour was totally awesome. We rode all around the walled city with our tour guide, Ray, who share lots of interesting facts about the walled city and the history of Manila. We were the only people taking the tour that day, it was a nice, laid back experience. At a certain point, we were even interviewed by a student group doing research on Intramuros. We learned much more than I care to regurgitate here, but if you’d like to learn about Intramuros, read this. We took tons of photos on our tour, and you can see them all below.

    We then hopped in a cab to Greenbelt 3 (part of a giant crazy mall complex in Makati) to meet Anne. 2 hours later, we were very, very late. We’d also learned a valuable lesson about traffic in Manila, particularly in the rain. After a brief rendezvous with Anne, we headed back to our section of Makati, where we promptly made 2 new Australian friends in a bar. From there, the 4 of us went to a restaurant that had some pool tables for us to play on. This restaurant was rocking some kind of “Americana” theme, and was filled with more American culture memorabilia than I’ve seen in my life. This place was like a museum. The photos don’t quite do it justice, but it was definitely an interesting/crazy place. We then hopped through a series of bars, and went home sometime around 5am.

    Day 2 – Sleeping, Bubble Tea, Pizza, TV

    This day was much less exciting than the previous day, but every bit as enjoyable. For the most part, we slept all day. When we finally woke up, we went back to our Bubble Tea Local where we vegged out on internet. We did a bit more exploring around our neighbourhood, before picking up Dominos pizza and heading back to our condo to watch TV all night. Cable TV is really not something we usually watch, so we soaked up our fill of Nat Geo Wild, Pickers, and the Simpsons. All the while enjoying some delicious Dominos pizza – very popular in Manila, apparently, where there are about a zillion different options for fast food.

    After all this, on Day 3, we hopped on a chartered plane and headed to Palawan Province, to the remote and beautiful town of El Nido.

    See photos below from Days 1 and 2!

     

     

    Some of that crazy Americana I was talking about
    Magnus, taking his shot
    Me and Mike, waiting for our turn at pool
    Airport Shenanigans
    A delicious pork knuckle dinner
    The view from our condo
    Pancake dessert at our Bubble Tea hangout spot – Socialicious
    The stones in this walkway are actually headstones from a Chinese cemetary
    Me and Ray on our tour!
    Heather – Mid-Air Jump as we walk along the walls of Intramuros
    Me in a church in Intramuros. It was old and kinda fancy from the outside, but kinda plain inside. I guess Spain took all the good church building materials back to the motherland. Jerks.
    Me, with Gen. MacArthur and the President of the Philippines
    Ray and I entering Fort Santiago
    The Prasig River as it passes beside Intramuros
    Bamboo Bike Frames
    Bambike HQ
    View from the top of the Bayswater Hotel in Intramuros
  • Birthday surprises with old and new friends.

    Birthday surprises with old and new friends.

    I’ve already written a bit about my birthday, but it’s my birthday and I’ll double post about it if I want to.

    Unfortunately I was unable to bite into the delicious cake that Rebecca made me, but I was given a second cake surprise in El Nido (and before that, an adventure). Like many of my stories, this one is long and rambling – grab a tea and get ready for some nonsense.

    The night before my birthday was our first night in El Nido. We started out strong, taking a chartered plane to the small airport just north of El Nido. It was pretty darn fancy – with a red carpet and everything. The airport in El Nido is mostly intended for people arriving to stay at super fancy/expensive resorts (aka not us), so it has a small choir awaiting visitors, along with lovely scenery and snacks. Check the photos below.

    Once settled in, myself and Kevin, along with my friend Anne and our new friend Loc (her former colleague who happened to arrive in El Nido on the same flight as us) spent the evening eating and drinking on the beach. At a certain point, Kevin, in total Kevin-styles, wandered off and made friends with some nearby women from Manila.

    When Anne and Loc each retired to their respective cottages, Kevin and I ended up spending the rest of our night with his two new friends, Carmela and Diana. Before the night was over, we made plans to meet the next day (my birthday) for dinner.

    (This is the tangent part of the story) After we said our goodbyes, Kevin and I embarked on the most treacherous walk of all time. In El Nido, electricity is a limited commodity, so our rural road walk from the beach to our cottage was a poorly lit to say the least. It didn’t help that we weren’t smart enough to bring a flashlight, there was a new moon (aka no moon), and it had rained that day. So, we grabbed each other’s hands, and slowly shuffled along a 600 metre rural road – a winding road that takes you past beach, farms, and a cemetery. El Nido is probably the most remote place I’ve ever been, so this walk was full of unfamiliar and occasionally terrifying sounds. For the most part, we walked in complete darkness, looking toward a small light in the far distance to guide us. When we were almost home,  I heard a strange noise, and we realized there were two cows on the road ahead of us. I was prepared to just stop and wait until they left (5 minutes previous I had considered just turning around and sleeping on the beach), but Kevin grabbed a giant stick and tapped a fence to scare them away. He then proceeded to make much noise for the rest of the walk, until we made it back – safe, and very relieved. Technically this occurred on my birthday – believe me when I say I’ve never begun a birthday with such an adventure.

    Flash forward to the next day: we woke up in paradise, and then went on a boat tour (more on that later). That night, Anne, Kevin, Loc, and myself made our way to Altrove, where Carmela, Diana, and their friends Jackie and Joel were awaiting us at a table for 8. As dinner was wrapping up, I suggested going elsewhere for dessert, but was quickly told that dessert had been pre-ordered. Ten minutes later, I was shocked when the lights went off and people began singing “happy birthday”. I actually thought “oh, fun! it’s someone’s birthday”, and turned around to see whose it was. Turns out, it was my birthday! Cake, gelato, and tears soon followed.

    I was completely taken by surprise. I spent all day with Kevin, and hadn’t seen him plan this, but that’s because it was actually Diana and Carmela who had spent a good chunk of their day coordinating all of this (at Kevin’s behest). It turns out that the night before, not only had he made 2 new friends, but he had asked them to put together this birthday surprise for me. Surprises and generosity really are the best, and I am so thankful that we’ve made such great new friends (who we’re looking forward to seeing again tomorrow in Manila!)

    Birthdays are good, but friends are great.

    tl;dr – Heather and Kevin made new friends, and Kevin conspired with them to surprise Heather with a cake at dinner on her birthday. Tears ensued. Photos below! (PS, Mom and Mom’s friends, “tl;dr” means “too long, didn’t read”)

    Our boarding passes.
    Anne and I waiting for our chartered plane to El Nido
    Not our plane, but very similar to the one we flew on.
    The view as we’re landing
    Of course when you get off a private jet, you do so on a red carpet.
    The Jeepney that took us (the short distance) from the red carpet to the waiting area (where someone later handed us our bags)
    The runway in El Nido
    Me grabbing some snacks when we arrived at the airport
    A water buffalo at the airport – because why not?
    Arriving in El Nido – check out the Canadian flags on our tricycle driver’s livery
    A scene from our scary late night walk
    Our late night walk also took us past this scene.
    Cake and homemade gelato!
    Dancing on the beach after dinner 🙂
    Our group at dinner!
    Check out Kevin’s cat sushi t-shirt!
    Kevin’s fancy new CAT SUSHI t-shirt!!!
  • A vacation from a vacation

    A vacation from a vacation

    I haven’t worked since July 12th. That was my last day of work at Influitive, and then I hopped on a plane to Bangkok. It feels weird having not worked for so long, but also pretty great. Though Kevin is working in Phnom Penh, and I’ll begin working soon, I’m still not working yet, so it feels like I’m in vacation mode. This is why it felt even more weird when we decided to go vacation in the Philippines. It’s a genuine vacation for Kevin, but for me it just feels like a vacation from a vacation.

    Anyways, why the Philippines? Why now?

    Here’s Kevin’s answer: “Why not, coconut?” (his new catchphrase)

    As for my answer, my friend Anne is currently in the Philippines where she’s completing research for her master’s degree. So we flew to Manila to see her, and then we all three trekked our way down to El Nido, Palawan together, where she spent the weekend with us before heading back to Manila. We’re going to be in Palawan province until Monday, but then we’ll be heading back to Manila where we’ll hopefully get to see Anne one last time before adventuring our way back to Phnom Penh.

    I have much to write and say about Manila and El Nido, from our adventure to get here, to what it’s like being here and getting around. However, my Dropbox access is hampered by my internet situation, so my photo access is limited. Here are a couple of photos from our flight to El Nido. The second photo was taken at the tiny airport we flew into on a private jet. Craziness.

    20140801_161847 20140801_163339

     

     

  • Birthday Cake!

    Birthday Cake!

    For the past week, we’ve been in the Philippines, where our internet access has been woefully limited. That said, it’s well worth the isolation, because we’re actually in paradise right now. Google “El Nido, Palawan” and then start planning your own trip. It’s outrageously beautiful here. So, we’ll have many, many photos to share once we’re back in a city, but for now a quick post about my birthday cake.

    Those of you who really truly love me know that my birthday was last Saturday, August 2nd. This year on my birthday, I received something truly unique – a birthday cake, a continent away!

    My bff Rebecca writes an awesome food blog over at itsanourishingthing.com and for my birthday she baked me a cake and blogged about it! And not just any cake, but a carrot cake cheesecake. When she asked what my favourite type of cake was, I couldn’t decide whether I preferred carrot cake or mascarpone cheesecake, so she found a way to combine the two. Check out the photos below, and check out her blog as well. It’s a one stop shop for tasty yet healthy recipes that will have you rushing for the kitchen.

     

  • Vaccinations in Bangkok

    Vaccinations in Bangkok

    Anyone who’s ever gone through the travel vaccine process in North America knows that it costs a fortune, and that some vaccines are more pertinent than others. So, when it came for me to get all vaccinated up, I opted to press pause. Knowing I’d be starting my travel adventures in Bangkok, we did some research, and decided to get most vaccines done at a hospital there instead, and that’s we did just that this week. Before leaving Toronto, I opted only to get my Hepatitis A shot

    An awesome blog post that we found led us to get our vaccines at the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute in central Bangkok. It was only a 20 minute walk from our hotel near the Chong Nonsi BTS. Bonus: the hospital also had a snake farm! Not only did we get vaccinated – we also saw some pretty crazy snakes.

    The whole vaccination process took about an hour, and cost $60 for the two of us. Total cost included:

    – 1 Typhoid Vaccine (would’ve cost roughly $50 in Toronto)

    – 2 Japanese Encephalitis Vaccines (would’ve cost roughly $800 in Toronto)

    – 2 Rabies Vaccines (would’ve cost roughly $360 in Toronto)

    Kevin and I both agreed that the nurses who did the injections were the best injectors we’ve ever encountered. So from my experience, vaccines in Bangkok mean less cost and less pain.

    The Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, in addition to being an old and beautiful building, also does venom research, which is why they have a super cool snake farm in the hospital courtyard. Who knew hospital visits could be so fun?

     

    At the back of the farm there were two cages filled with white bunnies for the snakes to feed on. A weird moment of “wow, nature is so cute/gross.”