Before India, we were not able to cover the Philippines on our trip so far. Therefore, the Philippines was our next target before it is time to leave Asia after more than 3 months on that continent. At the same time, my two best buddies got some time off at work and were interested to join us on our Philippines trip. This was awesome news and I was looking forward seeing them again after more than 3 months and of course travelling again together as we did several times in the past.
We made a stopover in Bangkok as the Songkran festival was starting at that weekend (14. / 15. April). One of my favorite festivals which I attended already multiple times. As we had good flight connections from Chandigarh to Bangkok and my friends flew in from Bangkok, this was a perfect fit. We met at the hotel as we stayed this time all together at the Salil hotel Thonglor Soi 1. We needed a bit time to relax and as we arrived at Friday evening, we not really stepped out on that day/evening.
Songkran BKK 2018
Silom street
At the next day, it was time to head into the city. After lunch we were complete as one of my friends arrived on Saturday morning. Dress code was pretty much clear. Whatever you want to wear but as light as possible as we will get fully wet. With our phone and wallet secured in a Ziploc bag we were ready to go. We were heading to Silom. This is the street/area where the big water battle is taking place. We bought the biggest water gun that we were able to get and let’s go. After passing a security check and filling up our guns with ice water, we were in the middle of the battle. Left, right or from the front and back, everybody was shooting at you with a water gun or even with buckets filled with water. It felt like a bit a death match in a computer game just not that serious ???? We had a lot of fun and after 1-2h walking down the street we were completely wet but more than happy as we had tremendous fun.
Sofitel & RCA
It was time to head back to the hotel to get a bit of rest and specially to put some dry clothes on. The day was not over yet and as next the Sofitel Songkran pool party was on our schedule. With us of course always the water guns. If walking on the street or driving in a Tuk-Tuk, you always had to be prepared to get attacked with water. Of course, we did the same too. Shooting out of the Tuk-Tuk, shooting at other persons at the side walk, it was like a big battle in the whole city.
Anyway, after a short drive and more or less dry, we arrived at the Sofitel in Bangkok. It was pretty busy and so we enjoyed the party until closing time 10pm.
The night was not over yet and so we decided that it is time to head direction RCA. RCA is a street where two of the famous clubs are located, the Route 66 and Onyx. In addition, the party is mainly also happening on the street in front of the clubs. Therefore, an absolute place to be at Songkran and also famous for their big water battles.
We took a taxi which was able to bring us as close as possible to the entry not that we get already fully wet before we are arriving. After the entry we decided to go to Onyx and enjoyed the awesome EDM party. It is always a blast to go there as also a lot of locals are partying at RCA.
Again, we stayed until it was closing time and after a long and “wet” day it was time to go back. Of course, with a scooter taxi as there was absolutely no Taxi available at that time. Another fun trip at that stage ????
Let’s try to keep it dry
With that slogan, we approached the next day. It was a quite wet Saturday and we were not ready to go through that again. We decided to go to the MBK mall. We made a pretty relaxed day out of it and we ended up at the iron ferries bar in the evening. We had an early flight to Manila on Monday and therefore we took it easy for a Sunday.
Time for the Philippines
Our first target was to go to Boracay. The island was recently present in the media as Mr. Duterte decided to close the island at the end of April. We wanted to see the island in the present form and decided to take the chance to go there before the island closes. Not only because of that but also as the island is named as one of the most beautiful island in the Philippines and we wanted to make an own judgement on that.
We had to do a transit in Manila. This is where the adventure actually started. It was not possible to check our luggage through Manila until Boracay. This must have some country specific rules but we thought this cannot be a big thing. Pick up the luggage at the ramp and right away check it in again just next door like it is if you arrive in the US. Wrong, we had to carry our luggage all along the way as we also had to do a transfer to the domestic airport. The gate transfer was done by normal buses which was not specially configured for that amount of luggage. What happens if approx. 20 people try to enter a bus like this with a certain amount of luggage you can imagine what’s going to happen. Anyway, after an exhausting transit of at least 1h, we arrived the Terminal 4 and were able to check-in our luggage again. Our flight to Boracay was at least on time and off we go.
One last thing, Manila’s airport Ninoy Aquino gets from me the award for the worst airport I’ve been so far. So just as a reminder, if you have to do a transit in Manila look that you have enough time.
Boracay
We booked the Henann Lagoon resort in Boracay to be able to relax a bit. Our plan was to stay around 3-4 days until our next target destination, Palawan. We didn’t book the flights in advance to be able to shorten or extend our stays as we prefer. We had a nice pool at our hotel which we straight away used to get a quick dip into the water. We explored a bit the white beach area which was just around the corner to get a flavor of the island. It had a lot of bars & restaurant straight at the beach. They were only divided by a beach-path from the actual beach. We found some good restaurants and the target for the day was to go out.
The next days we mainly were relaxing at our hotel area or at some beach bars at the white beach station 2. We also explored the island a bit. It was not possible to rent scooters on that island or let’s say we didn’t really see foreigners on scooters. They had like scooters with side seats as Taxis and with them we drove to the north part of the island, Puka beach.
We enjoyed our stay on Boracay but it was time to find something more remote and less touristy. Our target was Coron island. Unfortunately, we were facing some issues to find cheap flights and a lot of flights were already sold out. Maybe the reason was that a lot of people wanted to leave the island as it was closing soon or in the Philippines it is just not possible to book flights last minute as it is usually the case in Asia. Anyway, we found finally a flight via Clark international airport to Coron.
Coron Islands
Coron, a bit north of Palawan, is famous for their dive spots. We booked at the Corto del Mar hotel for two nights. We were able to rent some scooters in Coron that made it easy for us to get around. At the same day, we tried to find a good dive company. We decided to go with the Reggae Dive Center. The next day we were ready for our dives and I was looking forward as it was also the first dives with my buddies together. First, we did a fun dive in the Barracuda lake. It was different to dive as it was a fresh water dive. Second one was a wreck dive at a Japanese WWII supply ship, Kogyo Maru. Lastly another wreck dive at a Japanese civilian cargo ship, Morazan Maru. It was spectacular as we were able to actually enter into the wrecks. Usually, the wreck dives we did was just around the wrecks. It was an interesting day with some fantastic dives. The rest of the day was relaxing & exploring time as usually after dives you are pretty tired if you don’t dive with Nitrox.
We booked our boat ticket to El Nido for the next day. It was a type of speed boat that will bring us to El Nido within 4h. In addition, we decided to do a little trip the next day in the morning before we had to leave at 1pm. We rented a Philippian boat that will bring us to the Kayangan lake.
The next day, they picked us up at the hotel at 8am. After a 40min boat ride we arrived at the pier for the lake access. We had to bring a life vest to enter the lake but this life west was off fast as soon as we arrived the lake. It looked like they mainly care about that you more or less follow the rules but if you think doing it another way it is okay too. That’s what we Asia love for, right? ????
It was a nice lake but to be honest not as spectacular for me as we have plenty of lakes in Switzerland. Therefore, we have seen it after an hour and headed back to Coron to pack and proceed to the port.
El Nido, Palawan
After a quiet ride in the speed boat, we arrived in El Nido. You have to picture El Nido as a small village that faces the sea in the front and has big mountain cliffs on the back. We checked in at a small B&B. El Nido didn’t really have big resorts or hotel as it was mainly a backpacker village. Nevertheless, it has its own charm and I felt that I will enjoy it here.
First action was again to find a bike that we were able to explore the island. It was already evening and after renting bikes and getting a decent dinner, we were ready to go to bed.
The next day, we explored the island with our bikes. We drove first to the closest beach called Las Cabanas beach. It was just 15min south from El Nido. We enjoyed the clear blue water. After a walk a the beach we realized that they actually have a zipline from the mainland of the beach to the little island just in front of the beach. This was something we had to do. It didn’t take long until we purchased the tickets and made our way to the top where the start was for the zipline. It was a lot of fun “flying over the beach & sea to the other side. It was a pretty rough stop tough, Asian style ????
Later that day, we drove up north to some stunning beaches. My favorite was the Duli beach (see drone video here). It had just 2-3 bars/restaurants and beside of us there were maybe 5 other tourists. We stayed there for a while. We enjoyed the blue sea with a cold beer in our left and were watching the sunset. Before the sun was fully down we drove back to El Nido. We didn’t want to drive on the dirt roads in the dark.
Duli beach, El Nido, Philippines
Boat day trip
Nothing else is better than renting randomly a fisher boat at the peer and just driving out into the blue and exploring islands. We were not fully successful with that but we found a shop that offered private boat trips with a typical Philippine fisher boat on a more or less fixed route. Better than nothing we thought and it was booked for the next day.
Next morning 9am it was time to enter the boat. We booked the A & C route as a combination. Don’t ask me what were the highlights or what the name of the island were, we just wanted to go exploring. Pretty fast we found out that we will not be the only boat on that routes but anyway we enjoyed being on our own boat with a box full of beer & food. The captain and his two helper drove us around and we stopped at awesome beaches, their famous lagoons and other hidden spots. One thing I have to say, so far, I haven’t seen such clear and clean blue water than here in the Philippines. Wherever you jumped in at the coastal areas, you were able to see down to the ground. We had an awesome trip with a couple of beers, sun in the face, and cooked fish by the captain with rice and fruits. We were more than happy with the trip. I mean two of us were eating watermelon that was not really that fresh as we thought. Of course, we found that out later that day as these two had a light food poisoning during the night.
Luckily, the next day both were feeling a bit better and as we anyway planned a relaxing day at the Doublegem beach resort where we finally had a pool it worked out. It was the last day for one of my friends and all of us realized that holiday time has unfortunately an end date. It was sad that he had to leave already but the trip wasn’t finish yet as my other friend still had some time left before he had to go home.
Cebu to Oslob
Our next target was to fly from El Nido to Cebu with Air Swift. We were lucky to get one of the last seats. The next day, we flew to Cebu. Our target was the whale watching activity in Oslob. We had limited time in Cebu and therefore we decided to transfer straight from Cebu to Oslob. We took a taxi at the airport which brought us to Oslob within 4h. It was a long journey from El Nido to Oslob and we were tired as we arrived in Oslob. The ride was also not the most comfortable as you can imagine. We checked in at the Ging-Ging hotel and resort and we informed ourselves about the whale shark trip. We’ve got told that it starts at 6am and that we should be there on time as we will not be the only ones. Alright, let’s prepare ourselves for a big tourist attraction and especially get some sleep before it starts at 6am.
Whale watching, Oslob
Our tuk-tuk driver was ready to pick us up at 5.30am at the hotel. Half asleep, we jumped on his bike and than we drove around 30min until we arrived at the pier especially made for the whale watching/snorkeling/diving. The receptionist wasn’t wrong. The set up looked like as they are ready for a lot of tourists. Therefore, it was not surprising that the process was efficient. Our tuk-tuk driver was guiding us through the different checkpoints from the pay station, to the info station where they told us the rules, until to the beach area where they gave you a snorkel and a life west. Still not fully up to speed and we got already called by the speaker. “Number 13, 14 & 15 please hurry to the boat”. This was us and before we even realised it, we were on a small longtail fisher boat with another 3-4 boats. The boats stopped after 30-50m. All on the boat not really knew what’s going to happen until the first tourist pointed into the water, WHALE SHARK. On that point everybody realised what was going on. Snorkel on, life west off and jumping into the water was the case. 10m away from us there were locals who throw food into the water. Now it was clear why the whale sharks were that close. There were a lot of people in the water at the same time. It was pretty good organized for Philippine style but overall it was another mass tourist attraction. Nevertheless, we were now here and we wanted to see whale sharks and they are now just a few meters away from us. It was impressive and absolutely a highlight seeing such creatures that close. The time was running and after 30min watching, swimming and making pictures/movies of the whale sharks it was time to go on board again and to go back.
As it still was early in the morning, we went to a small island close by and stayed there for another 1-2h to get some relax time. Oslob had not really something to show beside of what they are famous for, the whale watching. Therefore, we decided to head back to Cebu at the same day. This time we took the coach. Surprisingly, the drive was more comfortable and we had not more than 4h.
Back in Cebu
Our trip was close to be over and we decided to stay for our last two nights at the Marco Polo Plaza hotel. It was a bigger resort with multiple restaurants & bars. We enjoyed a last drink at the pool bar before my friend had to catch his flight which will bring him back to Switzerland. The trip of us four ended on that day and it was a sad day. We had a lot of fun during these two weeks and it was great that my buddies found the time to visit us on our trip and spared some days off at work to travel two weeks with us together.
After another night for Alisha and me, it was time to fly to Manila. We stayed for additional two nights in Manila. We used the time to see few things of Manila and mainly used the time to work on a plan for our next adventure. So far, I can tell you that the next spot was not on our hit list. But that’s why we are travelling to see new places and surprise ourselves by selecting random places.
More about that, next time!
Cherio,
Ueli
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