Philippines – the stories that I'm telling.

Part 4 of our Philippines Trip: Puerto Princesa and the Underground River

After leaving Nacpan Beach, we took a bus down to the Palawan capital of Puerto Princesa, where we were scheduled to catch a flight back to Manila. So, we boarded an air-conditioned van that took us on a 7 hour bus ride, despite telling us it would be 4.5 hours. But hey – rain, a flat tire, and slow-moving fellow passengers get in the way of schedules sometimes. Anyways, Puerto Princesa bills itself as “a city within a forest”, and while we didn’t see much of the city, we did check out the area’s main attraction – the Underground River.

This included a wild van ride through the forest to get to said attraction, followed by a boat ride inside extensive caves underneath the mountain where the Underground River flows. I’m sure there was a lot of science-y facts to be learned about this place, but we didn’t learn any of them on our tour. Here’s what the UNESCO website has to say:

“Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park encompasses one of the world’s most impressive cave systems, featuring spectacular limestone karst landscapes, pristine natural beauty, and intact old-growth forests and distinctive wildlife. It is located in the south-western part of the Philippine Archipelago on the mid western coast of Palawan, approximately 76 km northwest of Puerto Princesa and 360 km southwest of Manila.

The property, comprising an area of approximately 5,753ha, contains an 8.2km long underground river. The highlight of this subterranean river system is that it flows directly into the sea, with its brackish lower half subjected to tidal influence, distinguishing it as a significant natural global phenomenon. The river’s cavern presents remarkable, eye-catching rock formations. The property contains a full mountain-to-sea ecosystem which provides significant habitat for biodiversity conservation and protects the most intact and noteworthy forests within the Palawan biogeographic province. Holding the distinction of being the first national park devolved and successfully managed by a local government unit, the park’s effective management system is a symbol of commitment by the Filipino people to the protection and conservation of their natural heritage.” (UNESCO)

Our tour went more like this:

“That rock, up there, looks like the Virgin Mary”

“That formation ahead looks like carrots”

“If you look to the right, you’ll see it looks like garlic”

“Again, that to the left looks like the Virgin Mary”

“Up at the top, those formations, they look like the Last Supper”

So, not very scientific, but quite entertaining. The caves were really stunning; also, filled with bats. I did get some bat poop in my hair but fortunately none in my mouth – apparently that actually happens to people sometimes.

This video does a pretty good job of showing what the canoe right into the caves looked like:

Below we have photos of Kevin playing with Mimi the cat at our hotel, the scenery on the way to the Underground River, and photos of us at the Underground River with our friend Breann (who we met on our crazy van ride). Check it out!

Looks like a face!

With our new friend Breann from San Francisco

August 19, 2014

Part 3 of our Philippines Trip: Nacpan Beach

Towards the end of our time in El Nido, we spent a day out at Nacpan Beach, a remote beach 45 minutes north of El Nido. We went to buy some coconuts, and the lady at the kiosk told us we should check out some rentable cottages further down the beach. So, coconuts in hand, we did just that. Nacpan beach is pretty spectacular, and the cottages were also pretty cute, so we changed our travel schedule, and decided to leave El Nido a day early to spend 2 nights at “Jack’s Place”. Getting there is pretty harrowing 45 minute tricycle ride, but it’s well worth it. Even Kevin says it’s the best beach he’s ever seen, and this guy knows his beaches.

First, we spent a day there before heading back to El Nido and checking out of Golden Monkeys. That day was amazing, and for the first time ever we saw cows on the beach (see photos below).

We returned the next day for two nights. That first afternoon was incredible, though that first night was a bit messy. Kevin and I set up the mosquito net completely wrong, and it ended up laying directly on top of Kevin for most of the night. This meant that he was bitten by mosquitos all over this body, and after he woke up realizing this around 3am, that was the end of sleep for the both of us.We spent the next few hours curled up in awkward positions with a way-too-hot blanket on top of us for protection. When the rose and the bugs subsided a bit, we headed outside to sleep in hammocks near the beach. A couple of hours later, we grabbed a bit more sleep back in bed. So, that was an awful few hours, but being in paradise more than made up for it. Lesson learned? When it comes to setting up mosquito nets, always ask for help.

We spent our days on the beach and in the ocean. Not having spent much time in the ocean as a kid, I had a lot to learn. Like, how to jump into waves. How not to get knocked over. I did lose my sunglasses, but other than that I’ve adapted well.

Jack’s Place only had power from 6pm to 9pm, so we took advantage of that time to hang out in a common area with a wonderful Swedish couple who were traveling in the region. There’s something interesting about living by the natural sunlight, and that something includes going to bed earlier than usual. In spaces like that, the company of other people felt especially valuable, and we welcomed gladly their conversation and card games.

Check out the photos below! There was more nature than we’ve captured here (chickens, dogs, ox, pigs, running around all over the place), but Nacpan is so lovely that even our photos can show it.

Cheering on LP and the WeatherTech Car from the beach!

Inside our cottage

Our new cottage

The view from our cottage – yes, that’s an ox pulling a cart in the distance

tanning away – can’t you tell how tanned I am??

we couldn’t get enough of this.

Me, sunscreening before continued suntanning

Again, Kevin making wacky jokes to crack up my brothers

These cows peed beside our towels, and then headed to a little pool for a drink

Beach Selfie, no #selfiestick needed

Nacpan beach – the island in the distance is owned by Manny Pacquiao

The view on our ride to Nacpan

Some kids, helping push along our tricycle

the road to Nacpan

The view from our tricycle

Our ride

One of many semi-scary bridges

August 19, 2014

Part 2.3 of our Philippines Trip: Island Hopping Tour B and Selfie Sticks

A couple of days after Anne had left us for Manila, Kevin and I signed up for a big group tour through Art Cafe. This time, we embarked on Tour B. The food wasn’t as good with the Art Cafe tour as it had been with the Golden Monkeys Tour, but the content of the tour was similar, as it’s a standard experience.

I think we preferred our smaller tour with Anne and Loc, but being in a big group had its own advantages. For one, we got to check out how some other experienced travellers did things. Apparently everyone except us got the memo that it’s essential to have a waterproof travel bag to hold all your stuff on the boat. Kinda like this version from MEC. It’s not really essential, but it definitely would’ve been nice, and would’ve kept our stuff a bit drier/sand-free.

We had expected Tour B to have more beaches, but instead it was heavy on snorkelling. Kevin’s not really into snorkelling, so he worked on his tan from the boat, while I snorkeled around looking for cute fishes and what not. Our photos really don’t do justice to the reality of how beautiful El Nido is. The highlight for us was Snake Island, of which Google has lots of great shots.

The video does a pretty good job of showing what it was like to snorkel there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jreYq3hXjvU

Aside from the natural beauty, we were pretty infatuated with the #selfiestick. You can read more about this phenomenon here and here, but essentially it was something we’d only heard about until the tour. Then, as we arrived at our first stop for a bit of snorkelling, Kevin and I turned around and watched in awe as the 5 other couples on our tour pulled out their Selfie Stick/GoPro combo. What’s a Selfie Stick? It’s a stick, with a camera on the end of it, that you use to take photos of yourself or your travels. From what we can tell, it was invented by GoPro, which makes a lot of sense, because I’m sure it didn’t take long for them to saturate the Extreme Sports Athlete market, and there’s nothing people love more than taking photos of themselves. It’s a handy camera for making underwater videos, but we also saw it used to take all kinds of other photos, including selfies. After that day, we saw them everywhere – I’m sure it won’t be long before they’re everywhere in North America. I’m expecting there to be a serious uptick in selfie-related injuries in the coming years.

Check out our photos below, taken with the traditional human arm/hand combo:

This little plant is shaped like a pepper, and it eats bugs that fly inside of it.

Standing on the sandbar leading to Snake Island

Some photos of Cathedral Cave

Kevin being a comedian. All such photos are staged with the purpose of making my brothers giggle.

Big shell!

Again, giggling.

the thinking man

August 18, 2014

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:

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

August 18, 2014

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).

August 15, 2014

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

August 15, 2014

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

August 13, 2014

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!!!

August 11, 2014

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.

August 9, 2014

Tag: Philippines