Palawan, The Philippines

21st May – 26th May 2018

After getting dropped off by Greg at Manila domestic airport, which was more like a hut next to the international airport, we made our way inside. We checked in, and made our way to the departure gates, but as it was a tiny place, with lots of flights leaving from the same area, there were lots of people all crammed in, looking for seats. We were lucky enough to find some, but we were soon surrounded by a large Filipino family and it felt very overcrowded as the baby and children were passed around, over our heads.

After waiting for a few hours, and getting delayed again (I don’t think we’ve been on one AirAsia flight that’s left on time yet), we finally boarded the plane. We sat next to each other again, and it was only a short flight, so not really any time for napping. We landed in Puerto Princesa at around 7.30pm.

When we got off the plane, we waited for our bags, which didn’t take too long, before leaving the terminal. There were no Grabs available in Palawan, so we had to figure out a different way to get to the hostel. Luckily, I had had an email from the hostel owner, explaining how to get there, as well as telling us how much it should cost. We went to the taxi/ tricycle stop (a tricycle being a motorbike with a bit of a shell over it and a side car for us to sit in). There weren’t any tricycles at first, just lots of taxis quoting two to three times the amount a tricycle would cost. We decided to wait for a tricycle and it was worth it – it was so much cheaper.

Although the driver hadn’t heard of our hostel/ homestay, he found it anyway, and we were there in no time. The owner was waiting for us, and took us straight to our room, which was handy. As it was late and dark and we didn’t have any idea where we were, we stayed in for the night, even though we got pretty hungry. We did some organising and booked a bus trip for the next morning, to head up north to El Nido. We wanted to go straight to Coron, but there was no way to do that, without going through El Nido, and there were no boats in the afternoon, so we had to book a night in El Nido.

After doing bits of planning and organising, we eventually went to bed, to get ready for the trip the next day.

The alarm was set for 7.30, and it was a struggle to get up. We were being collected at 8, so we didn’t have much time to waste, but fortunately we had packed everything the night before. We were ready and sat on the porch for 8, but the driver was a little late.

After being collected at about 8.15, the van drove round the corner and parked up there for a while, while the driver ate his breakfast – I’m not sure why he didn’t have this before. We waited in the van, before he told us that as the van wasn’t full, he would pick up people along the way, if they needed a lift.

Just after 9, we eventually began the long drive up to El Nido. As warned by the driver, there were lots of stops along the way to pick up locals who needed to get further up north. They didn’t stay in until El Nido, so there were extra stops to drop them off again, meaning it was adding time onto our journey. We had a rest break at about 12.30, at a café, where we shared a sandwich and some crisps.

After getting back on the road, we had multiple stops for the locals before finally arriving in El Nido at about 3.30. When we got out of the van, our bags were already being loaded into a tricycle for us, which was ideal as it was too far to walk in the humidity, plus it only cost us PHP50, which is about 70p.

Once we had checked in at the hostel, we didn’t really want to waste much time, so we went out for a walk. We needed to book a boat to Coron for the next day, but when we saw how expensive it was for a one-way ticket, we had to re-evaluate our options. As nothing was set in stone for the next couple of days, we took some time to weigh up our options and see what was best for the money we were going to pay.

While having a think, we sat in cafe, looking for wifi, but got drawn in by the cheap cocktail offers instead and forgot to check if there was any. Once we had ordered our drinks, we found out there wasn’t, but it was too late, so we sat and planned and priced up different options, as best we could without the internet – the wifi in El Nido was poor overall anyway, so we weren’t really missing out on much.

Once we had decided on a plan, we went back to the hostel to get wifi to transfer some money, before booking our boat to Coron for the next morning. There were lots of options in El Nido, but for me, El Nido wasn’t as beautiful as I expected, so we decided to try Coron instead.

After the boat was booked, we went to get some dinner. We found a little Mexican place down an alley way, which led onto the beach. We went in there and sat on the beach, watching the boats come in and out. We ordered tacos and nachos to share, but they didn’t have Joe’s first choice, which is becoming standard procedure in South East Asia.

When we had finished eating, we still weren’t quite full, so we took a walk along the beach, before going down another alley way and making our way back to the streets. Coincidentally, we found ourselves at an ice cream shop, as soon as we made our way out of the alley, so it would have been too rude to ignore it.

We ate our ice creams in the shop, before walking back to the hostel. At the hostel, we got chatting with a guy in our room. He was telling us about his trip and showing us photos from his drone, which were amazing. He recommended a café to us, which apparently had amazing wifi. We didn’t really feel like going out again, but as the wifi in the hostel wasn’t working, and we needed to book accommodation for the next night, we decided to head there.

When we got there, we ordered a drink and a cookie, but soon came to learn that the wifi wasn’t working – typical. We sat and tried for a while and asked the staff if they could restart the router but they couldn’t help. It was another example of wasted time and money.

As the wifi wasn’t working, we decided to just head back to the hostel. After lots of perseverance, we managed to get it working there, and booked our bed for the next couple of nights. I was a bit sceptical when I booked though, as it said it was for two people, but then said it was one bed, in a dorm, so we were a bit confused so I emailed to confirm.

Once we were sorted, we decided to go to bed, ahead of the early start the next day. We watched an episode of a new series, before falling asleep.

As we had the boat to catch, to Coron, we were up at 6.30, to make sure we had time for breakfast first. Breakfast was included, so we made our way upstairs to the café area to put our order in. It was a much bigger and nicer breakfast than I expected, so that was a good start to the day. Once we had eaten, we grabbed our bags and made our way to the port.

At the port, we had a little bit of queuing in the heat and humidity, but we were soon making our way to the boat.

On the boat, it was really busy. We found two seats though and tried to make ourselves comfortable, ready for the boat journey ahead of us. We didn’t set off on time, as usual over here, but once we did, we both managed to get some naps in. The girl behind me had her legs up, digging into my back the whole way which wasn’t very comfortable.

Almost four hours after setting off, we finally arrived at Coron port. It was extremely hot when we stepped off the boat, but we found our bags and made our way to the town. We were offered tricycle lifts, but the price was four times the amount of the ones in El Nido, to go a much shorter distance, so we decided to walk. It only took us twenty minutes to get to where the maps said the hostel was, but actually finding the hostel was a struggle.

After walking up and down alley ways, we finally found ‘The Hub” which is apparently run by the same man who owns ‘The Flat’ where we had booked to stay. I was already a bit sceptical about this booking, and this wasn’t making me feel any better. When we arrived, there wasn’t anyone around to check us in, there were just four other backpackers with the same problem as us. Once of the other backpackers said that he had met the owner earlier that morning, when he had checked in, and that he had gone out for the day, but that the flat was already full!

The others, who were waiting, decided to go out for lunch, but we thought we would wait for the owner to come back. As they left, three more people arrived to check in as well! We all sat and waited and eventually the owner came back. He explained that he only had one bed spare as he had overbooked – apparently a normal procedure in Coron as lots of people get sick in El Nido and just don’t turn up for their reservations. It was kind of understandable but the terms and conditions of booking.com are that the owner gets paid anyway if there is a no show, so it’s a little bit greedy.

As we were travelling together and there were two others waiting, who were travelling together, the guy who was travelling alone got the remaining bed, and we had to find somewhere else. The owner was nice enough about it, and had some recommendations for us, but it was a lot more money than we were expecting to pay. He also had lots of discounted tours on offer, so before we left, we said we would be back to take advantage of those.

One of the places that was recommended to us, was more of a hotel, but the man said if we went down as a four and asked for a room together, it would be cheaper, so that’s what we did. It was cheaper than staying just the two of us, and we did get discount, but it was still pricier than ‘The Flat”, although it looked an awful lot nicer!

Once we had seen our room and checked in, me and Joe walked back up to the original hostel, as we had left our big bags there, as we didn’t want to carry them about while we looked for somewhere to stay. At the hostel, we got chatting with the owner, who offered us some discounted tours for the next day, which was handy as we wanted to do a tour, so the discount was welcome.

After booking our tour, we walked back down to our new hotel, to drop off our bags in the room. Our new roomies had already gone out, but we had agreed to leave the key at reception to make it easier for us all.

From the hotel, we went for a walk around the market, which was just in front of the hotel. It was a local market, so not the best for souvenirs and it was very smelly, so we didn’t stay for long. After the market, we walked up into the centre to check out some places for dinner. We wandered around for a little bit and grabbed an ice cream from an ice cream shop, which was a nice little break from the humidity.

After a little walk around, we headed back to the hotel to cool off. While we were there, we got a bag ready for a sunset walk, up the hill, to see the views of Coron.

We set off at about 5.30, and after tackling the 725 steps up the mountainside, we made it to the top at about 6ish. We were very proud of ourselves, as we did it all without stopping, even though it was very hard work.

At the top, we took some photos, tried to cool off and had a walk around, before we started to make our way back down. On the way back down (about one hundred steps in), I remembered we hadn’t done the polaroid, so we climbed back up again – and it wasn’t any easier!

Once the polaroid was taken, we went back down the hill, but my legs were so weak at this point, it was hard to walk – I looked like a chicken they were shaking that much! At the bottom, we went back to the hotel, to shower and rinse off, before heading out for dinner. We had got that hot and sweaty, that we decided to rinse our clothes too – it was needed!

After we were clean again, we set off out for dinner. It was quite late for us, and we were getting very hungry! We head to a place that was recommended on trip advisor – it had great reviews, but they said there were always queues, so we weren’t really prepared to wait too long if we had to.

When we got there, there was one couple in front of us, but they were soon seated. The food looked good, so we decided it was worth the wait. We were able to sit at the bar and get our food order in, which was good, as the food queue was big, so at least it was cooking while we waited.

After waiting about thirty minutes for a table, and a little bit longer for our food, we were glad we did, as the food was so tasty! Our eyes were a little big bigger than our bellies (or my belly) and I couldn’t finish my dinner. It was okay though, as I could get it to take out, for the next day.

Once we had finished eating, we made our way back to the hotel. We hadn’t seen our roommates since checking in, and they still weren’t back when we got back. This didn’t bother us though, it made it easier to get ready for bed. We chilled out and watched a gecko run up and down the curtain, jumping on and off my bag, before it disappeared.

We finally settled in bed and put on an episode. We were calm and relaxed when our roommates returned, quite loudly and drunk. It wasn’t too bad, and the guy was much more drunk, but he soon settled, and we continued with our episode, before falling asleep just after 11.

The next morning, I was very excited to wake up, as it meant that it was finally a day we could do something other than travel! Although I was excited, it didn’t make it easier to get out of bed, but we did just after 7.30. We got dressed and ready for the day, before setting off to the original hostel at 7.45, as we had to meet there for the tour, at 8.

Although we arrived at 8, I wasn’t expected to be picked up straight away, as we were warned that the pick-up time can vary. However, we didn’t quite expect to wait for an hour, which we were in the end. There was quite a big group of people going from the hostel, so once the driver arrived, we all piled into the van.

Once we were collected, we were drove down to the market, where we had to pay up, before we could board the boat. This was a little annoying, as it was the same market that was in front of our hotel, meaning we could have easily had an extra hour in bed, but oh well! With our group, there were two people who had tried to tag along, but there wasn’t room for them on the boat, so the office tried to get them on a different boat. The girl didn’t like this, so walked off, and in the end, the guy ended up being able to squeeze onto our boat – I can’t imagine she would have liked that when she found out! We had to hire snorkelling equipment at the office too, because we got a discount, which ended up meaning that we didn’t really have a discount after all!

Eventually, once everyone was sorted, we could board the boat, where there were already a huge Filipino family waiting for us. We got seated and had a little welcome brief, before we were on our way.

The first stop on our trip was to Twin Lagoon. This was something that I had seen on Facebook a while back and it looked beautiful! We arrived at the larger of the two lagoons, and were able to jump off the boat and have a swim. It really was beautiful, but I was excited to swim under the passage in the rocks, to see the other lagoon. Unfortunately, the other lagoon was much smaller and not as beautiful, but the experience was good fun!

After an hour, we were back on the boat, and after nearly leaving a passenger behind, we were on our way. The next stop was a snorkelling stop, to see Skeleton Shipwreck. This was something that we really wanted to see too, as there are apparently loads of shipwrecks around the island of Coron, from the war. We ideally wanted to do a dive, but we didn’t have the time available, as it took us so long to get to Coron, so we were happy with a snorkel. We had a look at it, which was pretty cool, and I tried to dive down, but it was so busy, so it wasn’t easy.

From the shipwreck, we had to swim around the island, to where the boat had moved to. We swam over some coral beds, but the coral was mostly dead, so it wasn’t too impressive – the views around were something else though!

When we arrived back at the boat, it was lunch time! The crew had put on an amazing spread for us, which looked so tasty. We had to wait for everyone to arrive back at the boat, before we could enjoy it. There was lots of fish and veggies and salad which all tasted great.

After lunch, we carried on, on our trip. The next stop was Cyc beach. This was an optional snorkelling stop, or just a relaxing stop. As the snorkelling wasn’t great, apparently, we decided to use it as a chill out stop, so walking from the boat, onto the beach, especially as we had just eaten. It was extremely hot in the sun, so we found a shady spot and took rest under there.

From the beach, our next stop was to Kayangan Lake, which was on the island of Coron itself. We had to do a little walk to get to this bit, but it was beautiful. We had to climb 163 steps, which were easy in comparison to the night before, to a lookout point. We started to queue to get a good photo, but the queue was very long and it wasn’t moving, and we didn’t want to miss time in the lake, so we decided to carry on instead.

When we made it to the lake, it was so crowded! We found a little free spot and slid in, making our way to a quieter bit in the lake. We had brought our life jackets with us, meaning that we didn’t have to put any effort in, to stay afloat, although mine wasn’t quite tight enough and kept coming up. We stayed in the water for a while, and chilled out, until it was time to go back to the boat.

On the way back, we managed a quick stop off at the photo spot, as it was much quieter. We took some photos, before walking back down to the boat.

The last stop of our trip, was to Siete Picados, where we could have one last snorkel. It was apparently the most beautiful coral site on the island, according to our guide and it was pretty. We were told that if we went in, there would be pizza for us when we got back on the boat. We were going in anyway, so didn’t need this persuasion but it was a nice thought to come back to.

In the water the coral was beautiful and there were lots of big, colourful fish. Joe spotted his first starfish too! We swam around for a bit, looking for turtles and cool things, before we got tired and made our way back to the boat.

Back on the boat, we were all given a donut, but there was no pizza! It wasn’t a funny joke, I was looking forward to that treat, but oh well. We made our way back to the town of Coron, where we were dropped off at the boat port.

As our hostel was so close, we walked back, instead of waiting for a transfer – it made sense. We got back and showered, before our roommates came back too.

Once we were clean again, we discussed what to do for dinner. We ate my left over burritos from the night before and chilled out. Our roommates came in and went back out again, and as we couldn’t decide what to do, and we couldn’t be bothered getting ready to go out, we decided to get a take-away. There was a pizza hut around the corner, so we walked around and ordered, and while Joe waited for it, I went back to the room to sort our things out.

When Joe got back, we enjoyed the pizza, before packing up our things, ready to leave the next morning. We packed up, and Joe nipped back out to find us an ice cream, before we got into bed to watch an episode before falling asleep.

The alarm went off at 6.30 the next morning. We got up, and got ready, knowing we had a big day of traveling ahead of us. We packed our final things together, before setting off to the port at about 6.45.

It was a relatively long walk to the port, but it wasn’t extremely hot, as it was still early, but it was humid enough to make it a hard walk. We stopped for some snacks along the way, as the boat wouldn’t get back to El Nido until the afternoon.

We arrived at the port at about 7.20, and once we had checked in, we were soon able to board the boat, ready to set off, just after 8am. We had booked the slow boat return, as it was so much cheaper, and we weren’t in a rush to see El Nido again. It was a much smaller boat and didn’t have the engine that the ferry had, hence why it was slow, but it was so much quieter, meaning that we could lie down and rest.

Throughout the journey, we both slept for the majority of it, which was nice. We were woken up at about 11.30, with some food, which was a welcomed surprise. We ate that, before chilling out and enjoying the rest of the ride, with an extra nap or two squeezed in.

Probably because of how much sleep we had, the journey went by so quickly, even though we didn’t arrive back in El Nido until almost 3pm. When we got off the boat, we walked up to the café that supposedly had great internet, as we needed to transfer some cash over, and figure out how to get back to Puerto Princesa, as we were staying there for the night.

Despite the wifi being poor again, we kind of got ourselves sorted. We couldn’t find bus times on the internet, so decided it would be best to just go to the terminal. We set off walking, hoping to find a tricycle along the way, but we got further than expected before one pulled over for us.

When we arrived at the bus terminal, we were ushered straight into a van and quoted the same price as it was to get up to El Nido, plus they offered to take us straight to our accommodation which was a bonus.

After getting into the van, we noticed lots of people getting into another one, so Joe went out to question when we could leave. The man said it would be about 5 o’clock, but as it was only 3.45, I wasn’t thrilled to hear that. As the other van seemed to be getting fuller, we went out to ask if we could be moved to that one, but it was too late, as it was already full and leaving, which was a little unfair as we had arrived earlier than some of those people.

Fortunately, our van was full within the next half an hour, so we could set off, without waiting until 5. We had a long drive ahead of us, back to Puerto Princesa, but as we had both napped for the whole boat journey, we weren’t particularly tired.

Along the way, we stopped off for some dinner, so we grabbed another rice and meat dish which was tasty, although a little cold. We didn’t pay much for it though, so didn’t expect much. We also stopped multiple times along the way to pick up and drop off locals, which was expected after the journey on the way up.

When we finally arrived in PP, there was a bit of confusion with finding our hostel, but we got there eventually. We checked in and got discount, as the flush on our toilet didn’t work, so had to use the shared bathrooms instead, which was fine.

Once we were checked in and settled, we spent the rest of the night planning and organising things for the rest the Philippines trip, before finally getting to sleep just after midnight.

As our flight from Puerto Princesa wasn’t until 11.50, we could have a little lie in, but ended up getting up at around 8. We got ready and packed our bags, before heading out to try and find some breakfast.

While we were out, we also wanted to figure out how to get to the airport, as the woman had said it was a ten minute walk, but Google maps said otherwise, so we went to investigate and found Google maps was more accurate. We couldn’t find a bakery for breakfast, so instead settled for a sandwich from Dunkin Donuts, which we took with us for later on.

Back at the hostel, we gathered our things together and checked out, before walking down the lane to find a tricycle, as we weren’t prepared to do the long walk with our bags. We didn’t have problems finding a tricycle and it only cost PHP30 (50p), so it wasn’t too bad.

When we arrived at the airport, we went through security, before joining the long line for checking in. While we were queuing, Joe felt ill, so went off to be sick, while I carried all four bags to the desk. Luckily he felt better after being sick – we think it was from taking the anti-malarias on an empty stomach.

Once we were checked in and through security, again, we sat by the gate, waiting for our boarding call, which was delayed, again.

Our time in Palawan was spent mostly on different modes of transport, rather than enjoying the beauty of the place. We ideally needed more time, so that we could travel and see places at a more leisurely pace, but we didn’t have that option this time – it’s been another learning curve. Our time in the Philippines continues, as we hop over to Mactan-Cebu to explore that part of the country.

To travel is to live, Katie x