Philippine

Philippine is a beautiful country with kind people and beautiful islands. There are more than 7000 islands consist the country. Traveling around Philippine isa little bid hard because of islands; there is not much transport options. Flight is the cheapest and fastest but mostly it has to via Manila.

Boracay

Shit shit shit, I was totally frustrated on the bus from Yangshuo to HK. I was supposed to arrive in the airport six hours before the flight. So I was relaxed. But it was the Chinese long holiday, there were massive traffic jam and my bus was stuck in it. I was hoping something miracle like shit weather or even terrorism to stop the flight but nothing happened. Bus was late about six hours and flight has gone. I went to the airline office, fortunately paid only extra fee but they found I didn't have return ticket. They forced me to buy return ticket otherwise they don't let me go, but I didn't want to. I had six more hours for the next flight so I was running around the airport finding Internet to book a return flight then I had problem with my credit card via internet so went back office without it. Well, the way I took was I bought an expensive return ticket with insurance and refund in Philippine. I got back the refund three month later though all of it. Anyway, I managed to take the flight but of course I missed the connect flight to go to Kalibo, then I had to wait six more hours in the Manila airport. I was hanging out with the airport security and played guitar together. And I slept at the airport till dawn and flight to Kalibo. I took a mini van and boat to go to Boracay. Boracay is expensive. It is a massive tourist destination. Beautiful white sandy beach, well organized diving shops and five star hotels and amazing restaurants with seafood buffet. Took me more than 30 hours to get there and decided to leave next day.

Manila – Kalibo - Boracay – Ilo ilo – Cuyo – Puerto princessa – Sabang – Roxan – El Nedo - Coron

Thats the way I took and I just kept on moving. That was stupid. Travel with no plans often fail badly but this was just ridiculous . I kept on going for seven nights. This was the biggest traveling (?) shit I ever did. Well, I had an experience also it was not only bad but also I had some fun sometime as well.

Boracay to Ilo ilo

Mini van, 8 hours about

Ilo ilo to Puerto Princessa via Cuyo island

Night boat, two days on boat. Four hours break in Cuyo island. Lovely little town with lovely people. The beach was nice and cozy.

Puerto Princessa to Sabang

Jeepney, 8 hours about. Riding on the top of the Jeepney. Met English couple. Stayed in Sabang for the night. Visit the under ground river with them. Lunch on their yacht.

Sabang to Roxan

Jeepney 6 hours about. Missed the jeepney to go to El Nido. Attempted to hitch hike, there were no traffic. Waited for hours and found a jeepney to go to Roxan. Stayed in the Roxan city due to there were no more traffic.

Roxan to El Nido

Jeepney 6 hours about. Met a Spanish guy that I have met in Lao. Surprised. I wanted to stay in El Nido but there is only one boat go to Coron once a week. Of course there are more but the price was three times more. So, I took the night boat straight. El Nido is lovely town reasonably everything is cheap. I should have done the island hopping tour that I regret.

El Nido to Coron

Night boat. 9 hours. Many travelers on that boat. Found that quite lot of them did the same thing that I did and caught up in that boat.

Coron

Me and the spanish guy (sorry but I don't remember his name) decided to share the room and headed to city together. We went to market and bought some massive prawns and asked a shop to cook it. That lunch was great. And booked diving for next day. We went up to hill looked down the town. I met a French girl that I met on the night boat and asked her to go to Hot spring in the mountain. That hot spring was huge and nice and warm. We were swimming around in the dark hot spring, there weren't much people around. In the moment of breathe, we started kissing in the steamy bath with reflection of moonlight.

Next day, I had diving. Coron is famous about the wreck diving of Japanese wreck ship from the WW2. There are so many to choose. I really wanted to do more but it was bit out of my budget. But the wreck diving was awesome. I did twice that day and we went to place called twin gate for snorkeling. In that place we could see the layer of the sea water and fresh water in the sea. The phenomenon is that; when you are swimming there will be another layer which appears to be like a another surface. When you go down the layer, it feels like a different level of something. It is hard to explain. And you can feel the temperature difference; cool and warm. Nice.

The Spanish guy left next day, and the french girl moved in to his spot, we booked the flight to Manila together and chilled out in the bed for next couple days till the flight.

We flow to Manila together. There was a free wine night in the guest house where she staying so I joined in. I got drunk but I had a flight to go to Naga so I had to leave that night. Said good bye to her and I went to air port. The traffic was crazy but I had five hours before the flight.

Naga

The days with typhoon. The reason that I went there is to go to a place called Donsol. That place is famous about snorkeling with whale sharks. Around from November till March, it is pretty sure that you can catch up with whale sharks while you are snorkeling. Some of my friends told me that they swam with whale sharks within a meter. Unfortunately, a massive typhoon hits the island while I was staying there. Some were dead, some lost their houses and I lost my days in hotel because of the typhoon. Natural disasters is just inexpectable and also irresistible. I did wake boarding, it was harder than I thought. It was fun but I was just slummed my face in the water so many times. And I went to a beach, which is filled with rubbish but I met a lovely Philippino family. They treat me well and welcomes me into Philippine culture. Gave me some traditional food and some beer. They even gave me the lift back to the town. I appreciate that so much. I watched so much TVs while I was there. National geographic, madventure and like all those traveling documentaries. I ate chicken head on BBQ. It was quite nice. I went to hot spring in Naga which is shit. And a week has past so fast.