Bayley, Michael (Hickel), and I headed out to spend Chinese New Year in the Philippines right after school got out on Friday afternoon February 13th! We landed in Manila at midnight and had to wait until 5am on Saturday for our next flight to Puerto Princesa, which is on the island called Palawan in the west. Once we landed we took a tuk tuk to get our permits for the underground river later in the week, then we took a van to make the four hour drive to El Nido (it should have taken about 5 hours but our driver was crazy fast making for a bit of a scary drive). We arrived in El Nido mid-afternoon and I went straight for the beach. After enjoying my first of many mango smoothies, I walked around the town to check out a small market and get a massage. We went out for dinner the first night and waited an hour before they told us that the dish that Hickel ordered they did not have tonight. Then we waited another hour to finally get our food. It was very slow service, but an enjoyable night and eventually very good food haha!
On Sunday, we walked along a path where a lot of locals lived and then walked along the beach for several kilometers. We stopped along the way to take in the view and get in the water. On our way back into town we found a few locals playing basketball and we challenged them to a 3 on 3 game! We had an incredible view for dinner that night, sitting on the second floor of a restaurant overlooking the ocean! Bayley’s friends from Colorado, Carina and Adam, met us at the hostel that night to join in for the rest of the trip.
Monday morning we rented kayaks and ventured to other islands. It was a lot of fun and you do not have to paddle for very long before you get to very nice beaches with few or no other people on them. I got a little burned today as we were in the water all day. We all got massages and had dinner and drinks in the evening.
I woke up pretty early on Tuesday morning so I went for a walk. We switched hostels this morning and then had a tuk tuk take us to a nearby waterfall. We had to walk for about 30-45 minutes to get to the waterfall. It was not very impressive, but it was nice to cool off in the water and the scenery in the tuk tuk and on the walk was beautiful. Next we went to a nearby hot spring (not the kind for swimming as it is extremely hot). Again the scenery on the way here was worth the trip. We saw a lot of carabao (water buffalo) today. In the evening Bayley, Hickel, and I ate sushi, Indonesian noodles, and curry for dinner and listened to live music by the ocean.
Wednesday we rented a private boat to go island hopping. First we went to Snake Island which is a small skinny island shaped like a snake and only appears at low tide. This island was extremely beautiful with very clear water. I saw a sea urchin, jelly fish, and mangroves. While we were pulling up to Snake Island I think our boat propeller hit the bottom and something broke so while we walked around the island the crew temporarily fixed it. Next we went to another island for lunch where we had the entire beach to ourselves. I laid on the beach for awhile and went snorkeling while the crewman prepared lunch which was fresh fish, squid, salad, rice, and fruit. While we were here another boat came for us to take for the rest of the day as ours was out of commission. Our next stop was Cathedral Cave which we were able crawl through a small hole to get into it. Then we saw Cudugnon Cave which we were only able to bring the boat in a bit as the base of it is water and it is not large enough for the boat. Next we went snorkeling at a very beautiful spot. I saw numerous neon blue fish, multicolored neon fish, and I even saw a clown fish hiding in sea anemone! Our last spot was another beautiful beach, where we enjoyed the scenery before heading back into El Nido. Bayley, Carina, Adam, and I enjoyed awesome Mexican food tonight, but unfortunately Hickel got sick so he stayed in tonight. Bayley and I visited for quite awhile outside the hostel before heading to bed.
On Thursday Hickel still was not feeling well so he stayed in El Nido while the rest of us took a van to Sabang. It was another long windy and bumpy ride. We arrived mid-afternoon and found a place to stay right away. We stayed in a hut right next to the ocean for very inexpensive (you could even stay at a fancy resort for anywhere from $50-120usd a night; which is really cheap compared to many other resorts). Everything in Sabang was much cheaper than El Nido. I think Sabang was my favorite place that we visited as it was less touristy and the people were very friendly. We found fresh mango smoothies and then walked around the town (it is a very small town). We heard music playing so we followed it. It turns out that there was a festival that just started today and happened every night until March 21st. There was a bunch of children playing gambling games (I think since it was early in the night all the children were playing with coins but later in the evening it would be more for adults) and others chatting. I was not completely sure what would all be happening, but we talked to one guy who said there will be cock fights later on in the week. I watched a group of kids playing one of the games for awhile and figured out how to play. You put money on one of six colors on the table, then three color die were rolled and if you had money on one of the colors that was rolled you got twice the amount of money that you put on the table. I put some money on the table and had the kids help me pick out which color to place it on; it was fun. We had dinner at a restaurant next to where we were staying and had a few drinks.
Friday morning we took a boat to the Subterranean National Park and then got in a smaller boat to take a tour of the Underground River. This is an 8.2km underground river (although we only saw about the first 1.5km as you need a special type of permit to see the entire river and only 4.3km are accessible via boat). There were a lot of cool rock formations inside and tons of bats. Right outside the Underground River we saw two monkeys and a monitor lizard (very large lizard). After we got back to town we walked to a nearby waterfall. This was a nice waterfall and scenic walk along the ocean over many rocks. Next we took a paddle boat tour of the mangrove forest. Mangroves are helpful for preventing erosion, blockage from bad weather, a nesting place for many fish, and a home for many critters. We saw a baby rattle snake and a poisonous yellow and black snake (I forgot the name) curled up in a tree. The yellow and black snakes are nocturnal and our guide told us a story about how one time one fell in their boat but since it was during the day it was still sleeping. They had to pick it up with their hands and put it in the river, but it stayed asleep the entire time. Woodworms are destructive towards the mangroves as they eat them. Filipinos eat woodworms as a type of delicacy. Our guide brought back a piece of wood with us and chopped it in half to find a woodworm for us to try. Our guide washed it, took out the head and tail, and put vinegar on it to prepare it for us to try it. Bayley and I ate it and it was quite disgusting. Not my favorite dish to eat that’s for sure! After this, I got a massage and explored around town a bit. I tried eating a fried banana which was pretty tasty. At 6pm when we took a van to Puerto Princesa. We were in a 12 passenger van and kept picking up more people along the way. At one point we had 19 people in the van and there were 4 people in the front row (where the driver sits). The driver actually shared his seat with a woman and he had to lean way to the side to drive, it was pretty crazy. We arrived at our hostel in Puerto Princesa at around 8:30pm and Hickel met us there.
On Saturday morning the owners of the hostel made us breakfast and drove us to the airport (they were extremely nice). We arrived in Manila at about 8:30am and had about 12 hours before our next flight. Bayley, Hickel, and I took a taxi to the Mall of Asia in Manila and we spent the day walking around, eating, and we even watched a movie. I even tried ice-cream in a crepe cone, which was very good! We took the taxi back to the airport and flew to Taipei making it back to Taichung at around 2am.
Food: I had numerous mango smoothies, avocado smoothies, crepes, sea food, and mangos (really mango flavored anything as this is my favorite fruit including: crepes, pancake, dried mangos, and fresh mangos)!
Here are a few things that I noticed in the Philippines:
- They used recycled coke bottles and other glass bottles to put gasoline in to sell to people.
- When getting a hand shake, the person who grabbed the hand would bring the other person’s hand up to touch their own forehead (this is difficult to describe without showing you).
- Food and activities are very inexpensive compared to America.
- I saw children using a bamboo tree sort of like a teeter totter/bouncy swing.
- Children seemed to go from house to house and everyone in the community seemed to keep an eye on them.
- There seemed to be a lot of drum line type groups. I saw these in several places (they were always all male groups).
I thought of my Grandpa Nels a lot on this trip as he was in the navy (he became part of the Sea Bees) and stationed in the Philippines for a year in 1945-1946, right after World War II. He stayed on the island Samar which is in the east. He had a buddy on Calicoan Island and he went to visit him a few times. My family came across a bunch of the letters that he wrote to my grandma while he was living in the Philippines. He wrote about seeing lots of banana trees and palm trees which there definitely is a lot of. In the letters he wrote that it rained a lot and was very hot there and that he lived in a hut. He also wrote that there were natives that lived in the camp where he stayed and that they would have markets everyday selling things such as grass skirts, knives, and jewelry. Children would come up to them and pick up things from their G.I. cans. Locals would also want to buy mattress covers from them to make clothes out of. He wrote that there were shows every night that he would go to often (I think these were musical performances, maybe some comedy, but not 100% sure). Grandpa Nels did various jobs while stationed there including drilling holes in a rock quarry for the dynamite crew, operated a steam shovel, was put in charge of the steam shovels and was a mechanic, and he also ran a side job as a photo developer to make some extra money. It was nice knowing a little more about Grandpa Nels’ experiences in the Philippines when I traveled there; it made my experience more meaningful.
Overall this was an amazing adventure and I really like the Philippines. I would love to visit again sometime!
Rachel Belinda Gulbranson 