It was around 10pm on Friday 1/2/20 when picked up my bags and headed to the Bangkok airport for my 3:30am flight to Manila. I don’t know why I booked this redeye, perhaps I’ll die. Actually it turned out alright, except for one stressful moment. At about 1am, when at the counter to drop my baggage and get my boarding pass, I was asked when my flight out of the Philippines was. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly, “I’ll figure it out once I’m there.” The agent responded “no, you cannot enter the Philippines without [a pre-arranged visa or] your next flight leaving the country. Buy your ticket out of the Philippines now.” So there I was, standing in BKK, forced to decide how long my yet-unplanned Philippines excursion would be. I wasn’t even completely sure where I wanted to go next. Japan? Indonesia? Laos? Taiwan? Angola? Mozambique? South Africa? So I booked a flight from Cebu City to Tokyo for January 16th, restricting myself to just two weeks – too little! During those two weeks I hit three islands, Luzon, Palawan, and Cebu:
I had heard and read that Manila should be skipped. I had also read about the burgeoning restaurant and bar scene there, so I booked two nights. I now agree, Manila should be skipped. There wasn’t much to see and much of it felt unsafe. Having taken a redeye there, fortunately I was able to sleep well because I spent most of my time in my hotel room. After traveling alone for a couple of months and then with friends for nearly a month, this was ok, but time I could’ve spent recharging on the beach rather than indoors in Manila. I did some some stuff. Lots of newish white skyscrapers, and the old Spanish fort.
modern tall white buildings 
modern tall white buildings 
modern tall white buildings 
Manila sits on the west coast. Oh, how I would’ve liked to see the sun set here. But I wasn’t interested in being here once it got dark 😦 
old forty mcfort fort 
old fort gate 
old church 
old bascilica 
modern tall white buildings
From Manila I booked a flight to El Nido, a big town in the northern part of Palawan, the largest westernmost island of the Philippines. From the airport I took a tricycle direct to Nacpan Beach, about 45 minutes up the coast. The ride wasn’t comfortable but it did the job, somewhat scenic through scattered villagey areas and lots of farms.
No tuk-tuks here, it’s all tricycles. Motorcycles with one-wheeled shells welded to them. 
trike ride to Nacpan 
Lots of cows on the way 
Some tricycles transported very many people (I think I saw a 7)
I trudged through the sand in Nacpan Beach to get to my hostel. I was already happy to be here, and I was lugging all my gear, sweating profusely, tired, and with sand in my shoes.
Nacpan Beach was glorious 
So pretty 
However disappointing I found Manila was immediately wiped out by how perfect this spot was. After quickly getting situated I headed out to the beach where we had full sun yet were treated to a rainbow along the clouds in the distance. Just sublime.
The hostel, Mad Monkey, was recommended to me by a local (Miki’s soon-to-be-brother-in-law Gani if that means anything to you) was another party hostel, not as hostile as some, but a good social atmosphere. Despite facilitating parties, Mad Monkey (a chain of hostels throughout the hemisphere) works to be environmentally sustainable. We did a beach clean up which some locals kids were excited to help with.
I had booked 2 nights here and was convinced by some people to stay a third and go on an island hopping boat trip run by Mad Monkey on the final day. I had to thank them, as the boat took us from one paradise to the next. We hung out on deserted beaches, snorkeled above luscious corals with as many fish as I saw anywhere, and headed to cathedral cave.
When the boat trip stopped for lunch on another beach it looked like a scene out of Jurassic Park. Everyone agreed that it was a perfect day. I tried hard to commit it to memory knowing that my trip was nearing its end and its not often I get to be that carefree and in awe of my surroundings.
We had one last snorkel stop before heading back to Nacpan Beach.
Back on the beach we were treated to a good sunset.
One of my favorite parts of Nacpan was Twin Beach. At the north there’s a calm bay to the west and the heavily waved ocean to the east, with two shorelines close together. A glorious three days were spent here, and I would go back in a heartbeat.
Twin Beach! 
I concur.
From Nacpan I headed back to El Nido town, which I had bypassed after landing in the El Nido airport so I could work my way from north to south on Palawan. El Nido is a busy town with lots of tourist oriented shops. I stayed near the northern beach, which was good but not great.
If I had been keeping up with the blog all throughout, I would’ve likely done two posts for the Philippines. Thus, I feel it’s only appropriate that my one post has two tracks. One dedicated to my experience of the place (more about that later), and one about my trip. In my original draft itinerary I was supposed to be home by now. Thailand was the end, with New Years maybe spent in NY, maybe in Bangkok. But I can’t seem to find my way home just yet.
After hanging around the heart of town I went to the southern beaches, which were the optimal beaches of El Nido if you ask me. I ran into some Mad Monkey alums. Everyone I met there who went to El Nido split between Frendz hostel where I stayed and Outpost. The Outpost crew won out. I walked past Outpost down to Las Cabanas Beach.
I didn’t do too much in El Nido. The big activities would’ve doubled up on the island hopping I did with Mad Monkey. So after a couple of quiet beach days where I recovered somewhat from the evening parties of Mad Monkey I headed to Port Barton. I had read that Port Barton was far less developed and a perfect quiet beach getaway. It was less developed, but not so much that it didn’t still feel to me like a tourist town. As a tourist myself I can’t complain, but it wasn’t quite what I pictured. Also, I was not impressed by the beach here – it was lesser than Nacpan and Las Cabanas.
Port Barton was my last true stop on the island of Palawan. After that I went to the islands main city of Puerto Princesa and spent one night so I could be close to the airport for my early morning flight.
Mostly what I saw in Puerto 
I flew from Puerto Princesa to Cebu City on the island of Cebu. From the airport I headed to the bus station and went southwest to the town of Moalboal, known for its beaches and daily sardine run. Again I stayed in a good, social hostel. Made some friends here while hanging out and doing activities such as canyoneering. There are a lot of nearby waterfalls, some of which are in a long canyon, which has become a big tourist attraction. So my first full day I did the canyoneering tour…
we drove along the coast to get to the canyon 
At the start of our hike in we saw palm trees as far as the eye could see 
In the canyon 
Some San Diegoans 
Stalagtitey 
The big allure of canyoneering was the jumps. We started with two at six meters, with an 8, 10, and 12. They were fun. The 12 meter (40 feet) got my knees a little wobbly. I’m working on a video for this day, so stay tuned.
Too shallow to jump 
so they slid us off backward 
Kawasan Falls, the biggest waterfall here, where there was no jumping, only swimming 
the 12 meter (40 foot) jump at the second biggest waterfall
UPDATE 2/4/20… Video available:
I got my fancy GoPro for this trip and for whatever reason never had it with me. I regretted it each time but stupidly never amended my behavior and took the darn thing with me. Instead I used my waterproof phone case for Nacpan Beach island hopping, canyoneering, and snorkeling to see the sardines. Therefore the underwater photos aren’t great, but they get the point across. The sardines looked like a big gray mob until they would shift and their silver bodies would reflect the sun and there would be flashes of brilliance throughout the school. It was neat. This was all about 50′ from the beach, where the sardines swam along a drop off / shelf.
A turtle! 
My days in Moalboal were dominated by the canyon and the beach, while nights were spent at Chili Bar, the local latenight spot. While there, the Taal Volcano near Manila erupted. Fortunately this was over 500 miles away and did not impact anything I did or saw.
My last night on Cebu I had booked a hostel in Cebu City, again for an easy airport dismount the following morning. Mike, the owner of the hostel, a Canadian peer of mine, was driving to Cebu City that day so I hitched a ride with him and some other folks. We spent the afternoon in the mall before I headed to my hostel. As he said, the air is actually clean there, there’s plenty to shop for, air conditioning, and good cheap food. On my ride to the hostel I saw enough of Cebu City to agree that this new mall was a nice part of town.
port, seen from the highway 
mall inside 
mall outside
And there you have it. Three islands, 13 days, and some glorious times in the Philippines. My only wishes are that I spent no time in Manila and maybe another 3 weeks in this country, to see more islands. After a busy itinerary with friends, this was a great place to unwind. My step count suffered, but everything else soared. And after so many beach days,
I’m now relatively caught up on the blog… Stay tuned for adventures from Japan, coming soon (I hope)!
Widdershinning Weiss 