10 Days in the Philippines

The hardest part about going to the Philippines was deciding where to go! SO. MANY. ISLANDS. I bought a book, read online, polled family and friends, and asked colleagues from the Philippines. I’m following up last week’s post (see Philippines in pictures ) by writing more on where I went and what I got up to.

Where to Go

Palawan took on the title of most beautiful Island in the world from Boracay, and the images…wow, see mine here! When I decided on the Philippines, Palawan was a certain destination. I was between two islands (Coron and El-Nido) in Palawan. Both looked stunning in all of my research. I can’t tell you how much I scoured the Internet searching for reasons to pick one over the other. From what I learned, it turns out Coron is easier to get to (town is about 30 minutes from the airport), while with El-Nido I’d need another 4-5 hours on a bus from Puerto Princessa to El-Nido. With my trip being so short, I went with Coron. Regardless of the decision, I was going to be visiting one of the most beautiful islands in the world and certainly one of the best I’ve seen.

Aside from Palawan I wanted to go to a second more-developed Island so this time I was torn between Bohol and Boracay. Bohol has beaches but it also has Tarsiers, chocolate hills, the Loboc River, and it is a bigger city. I decided on Boracay to see what the hype is all about.

Getting There

My trip started off with a little change in plans before I left the UK. I was to spend 24 hours checking out Doha before heading to the Philippines. Hotel was booked and my activities were scouted out but my visa never came. I applied online since Qatar started the new transit visa that was supposedly available to everyone. They never gave a reason for not approving so two days before my flight I had to pay to change. It stung and I ended up in transit for 15 hours in Doha.

 

Homeless in Manila?

The flight into Manila from Doha arrived late and I’d booked a room close to the airport. I arrived at 11:30pm and they said they had no rooms open; pointing me to a neighboring building where someone might be able to help. Say what? At this point, I didn’t even have the energy to get feisty, it was late and I had been travelling for 30+ hours. This girl just wanted to take a shower and sleep. I ended up in a decent serviced apartment. I was only there for 7 hours so I went to bed and got on with it.

 

Coron, Palawan – Philippines

I had an uneventful  9am flight to Coron. When flying out of Manila, be sure to know your terminal so you get dropped off at the right place. There are four terminals there.

Upon arrival you can tell it’s a small town as there’s no conveyor belt to bring in the checked luggage. Our bags were brought in by hand. They say there’s been a lot of development specifically over the last decade in Coron, but it still is relatively untouched. Go now if that matters to you! I had arranged airport picked with my hotel and I was greeted with a sign and escorted to a car park where I got into an air-conditioned minibus with a few other travellers. I spent 3 days in Coron staying at a hostel, here’s a summary of what I got up to in Coron:

Coron Day 1

On Day 1, I met the roommates and we checked out Mount Tapyas for best views of the town. The hike was hot and quite the uphill climb but the views were amazing! Afterwards, we hopped onto a tuk-tuk and went to relax at the Manquinit hot spring, which was great, until my cell phone fell into the water during a selfie attempt.

We  headed off to dinner, this was where I tried Crocodile, it was tasty albeit a tiny bit chewy. If I had to liken it to something else I’d have to say pork, maybe? I also tried Calamansi juice, Adobo (of course), Sinigang, skewered pork intestines, and more. My phone was still on but it was being a little cray, so I was in denial.

Coron Day 2

I went on the Coron Island Tour with Calamian Island Tours & Travels. There’s not much to Coron town itself the beauty is in the surrounding waters. This tour was perfect for an overview of the islands. The characters on my tour included two sets of Filipino families and four Spanish go-pro happy guys (half the gang was cute). This tour stopped at unique lakes and lagoons (Twin Lagoon, Barracuda Lake), perfect turquoise waters, beautiful beaches (Beach 91 a private beach for lunch), a sunken trading ship, great snorkeling (Siete Pescados and Skeleton Reef), and amazing towering limestone formations rising from the sea. If you can only do one tour in Coron, this is the tour I’d recommend.

Unfortunately, the tour did not go to Kayangan Lake as it was closed due to a recent drowning by a diver. It was a picture of this lake that first turned me on to Coron. We had a fabulous day on the water. Lunch, snacks, and soft drinks were included but we paid 300 pesos (4.5 GBP) to rent fins and masks.

After the tour, I returned to find my phone dead (with my over 6,000 pictures)! I was not a happy camper. My roommates got a great restaurant and we hopped on a tuk tuk, but not before we tried some street food like pig’s face. Dinner was a hit, and then we went out for drinks at the ‘No Name’ bar. At drinks we were looking for rice to throw my rice in so my roommate asked the waitress. It turns out the waitress’ husband fixes phones (Look at God looking out for me in the middle of nowhere). Apparently, I’d done everything wrong i.e. keep the phone on and try to charge (aka fry it). She made no promises but asked me to give her the phone, which I did but after getting assurances that she was legit. At this point, what did I have to lose?

 

Coron Day 3

This day, I went on the Island Escapade tour with one of my roommates. This tour goes further from the town by boat and takes you to three islands/beaches for the day. Malcapuya, Banana, and Bulog Dos. The boat left late, but we had a captain and his assistant. We finally left and got word of stormy waters but the group wanted to carry on. Other boats turned around, and soon we were one of only two boats in sight. The boat rocked with each wave and we all got drenched. We arranged our seating to distribute the weight and even the cocky (cute) Spaniards realized that this was no joke. I’m so glad Karina was there because I was borderline fainting with fear. I can be a ‘G’ sometimes but not this time.

We changed course, and our captain was a total BOSS at this gig. His eyes were trained on each wave as he met each one with the perfect maneuver. I’d give him an honorary PhD. I posted on instagram about the perspective I gained from this ride so I won’t bore you with it again. Let’s all just collectively say, thank you Jesus! 1.5 hours later, we ended being the only boat at the most beautiful island and boy were we rewarded for our trouble!!! I would have been happy to set foot on any kind of ground but nah, this was EXTRA! I’m fortunate to have seen a number of special islands including the Maldives, Thailand, Vietnam, Culebra in Puerto Rico but this one, I’ll never forget.

After having lunch on a second island, my camera somehow fell off its strap and into the beautiful blue sea, I know!! We made our way to the third island, had coconuts and chilled!

We got back into town and ran over to the phone shop. The owner was sweet in expressing his regrets. The 50/50 chance did not work out in my favour…kidding, it did! I almost hugged him like… new best friend do you know how much of a hero you are right now?

With that, I realized how tense I had been meanwhile I’d been fronting tough girl, phew! We went out to a nice massive last dinner with the roommates. I mean, this was overkill! We went out to Karaoke with locals, it was hilarious as they watched us singing like…who are these ones? I finally went to bed at 2am and left for Boracay in the morning.

Boracay – Philippines

I spent 5 nights in Boracay and I didn’t do much honestly, and that was always the plan. One day I went out on a day trip that took us snorkeling, to Puka Beach, Crocodile Island, Crystal Coves, and we have a huge lunch at another island. With rice, crabs, chicken, fresh coconut to wash it down.

I had days where I just chilled on the terrace, napped, went to the beach, window shopped, had a drink or a smoothie, napped at the beach, ate, watched the beautiful sunset on White Beach.

I checked out at least 3 different beaches, because why not? White Beach, Puka Beach, and Balinghai Beach. I don’t remember the names of the others. The most crowded of the lot was White beach  as expected, especially at sunset but then you see why. Balinghai was perfectly secluded and I totally enjoyed just hanging out with less than ten other people on the beach. I took an epic nap here. Of course I had a spa day on one of those days because … I always do that in SE Asia. On the last night I went on a 30-minute sunset sailing trip on a Paraw (local wind powered sail boat) from white beach.

Back in Manila

With 8 hours to kill in Manila, I hired a taxi to see the main sights. I saw the cathedral and checked out the Intramuros neighborhood that I’d heard/read about. He dropped me off at the Mall of Asia (largest in Asia) where I did last-minute shopping and got a Mani Pedi for 6GBP.

Overall

Philippines is an underrated tropical destination, and the people very kind (I have a short post in my head on random tips). Boasting world-class beaches, it is also one of the best places in the world for diving. There’s so much that I see. While I had great food there, I loved the food in Thailand and Vietnam more. It’s great for solo travelers, friends, couples/honeymooners, and families. If you love the sea, it should be on your list. Take a go pro with water proof casing while you’re at it!!!

 

Have you been to the Philippines, or are there other places that you think are underrated? If you want to know specifics on where I stayed or my opinion of different local airlines, comment below or send me an email.  Either way, I’d really like to hear from you!