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Philippines April 2014, El Nido (2026)

18/05/2024

Day 30 - left at 6.30am Friday and got home at 8.30am Saturday - with the time difference that’s around 33 hours all told ! Etihad Airways was excellent and worth the £60 odd for the extra legroom.
So I reflect on yet another amazing trip :

Flights taken ✈️ - 8
Hotels/beach huts 🏨 - 10
Boat trips ⛵️- 6
Ferries taken ⛴️ -2
Scooters ridden 🛵 - 4
Motorbike ridden 🏍️ - 1
Motorbike pillion - 1
Tuk Tuks taken 🛺 - lost count
Beaches visited 🏖️ - lost count
Best beach - 7 Commandos
Happiest memory - 3 day boat trip from Coron to Palawan
Worst moment - landing in UK 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Red Storm beers drunk - countless 🍺

Although the Philippines is one country it is made up of thousands of islands and I only visited 6 of them (plus quite a few uninhabited ones) so only really scratched the surface. Exactly the same as Thailand/Vietnam, it’s the people that were so lovely everywhere I went. Always smiling and happy even though many have very little and live very poorly indeed. Their attitude to life is so amazing, it’s so infectious and makes me want to spend more time with them. As I usually travel alone, I must say the 3 day/2 night boat trip with 22 others all under 30, was the highlight of my trip. Being the boat “dad” was so great even though it took a good couple of days to recover from the copious amount of beer, gin and rum we drank !
All in all, another fabulous trip with no negatives at all I can think of. Time to start planning my next trip - thinking about India + in November/December 🍺😂😎🌞🏖️

16/05/2024

Day 29 - last day in the Philippines 😢😢. I decided to spend it on a boat trip around the islands starting with 7 Commando island which was amazing in turquoise sea and white sand. Then onto Miniloc where we were served a really nice lunch before heading off to the Big Lagoon where, unfortunately as I had forgotten my dry bag, I couldn’t take my camera/phone so added a stock photo on here to remember it - amazing place. A terrific/long day of snorkelling, swimming and lazing ended around 6 pm when I popped into my local for a couple cold ones. Walked back to the bike to return it to the rental shop and tuk tuk’d back to the hotel via a street vendor barbequeing pork skewers. Finished off with a couple of cans on the balcony overlooking El Nido bay contemplating the last month travelling round this gorgeous place - start the long haul home tomorrow 😢

15/05/2024

Day 28 - my second to last day and an omelette with toast and coffee was served up at my last hotel. Great views of El Nido bay from there. Jason who runs the place suggested the El Nido beach club (about 10 miles south) so I rode there to find the most horrendous “road” off the highway. Then came to a sign saying “better walk from here” as the road is bad ! The photo does no justice but it was seriously steep and rutted so I left the bike and walked down, but not before hiking up to the viewpoint. Wow what a place ! I had to pay an entrance fee of 70 pence and I literally had the place to myself. Warning of incoming paradise beach photos 😂😂. It was possibly the most beautiful of all the beaches I’ve been to with wonderful hills/rocks jutting out of the sea, little white sand bars and shades of turquoise. Spent about 4 hours there wandering up the beach where you can walk for ages, chilling out with tunes and swimming in the tepid water. Then eventually took on the hill climb back to the highway and back to the hotel for a nap before venturing out for dinner. Popped into town to my favourite haunt where they have live music from 5-11 and had a chicken burger plus 4 times 2 for 1 G&T’s. Such a fun time with a great little band who I chatted with for ages during their break. Bit pi**ed tonight but it’s my last day tomorrow and have to be up at the crack on Friday so this was my last proper night - what a day 👍😎🏝️🌞

14/05/2024

Day 27 - my usual breakfast was brought over to my balcony after which I packed all my stuff ready for my last move. The staff were amazing at this place so I gave them a nice tip each - turns out they earn 250 pesos per day so that’s what I gave them (about £3.60) and they were so happy - the Filipinos are amazing people very similar to what I found in Thailand and Vietnam. After saying my goodbyes (they’re still doing karaoke) I was back on the bike for the 20 mile run back down to El Nido for my last 3 days. Took a while to find my accommodation but found it eventually - a little hut up on stilts - good for my step count and has a lovely view of El Nido bay. Later I went for a ride and ended up on Vanilla Beach although it was a bit cloudy today it was still nice. Then into town for a Nasi Goreng and mango smoothie for lunch followed by a couple of beers and some live music on the beach. Hoping the weather is going back to normal tomorrow 🤞

14/05/2024

Day 26 - not much to say today really. After breakfast with Max the dog, spent a few hours in Duli beach - another absolute beaut 🏖️ then it actually came over cloudy so spent the rest of the day my beach here reading my kindle and napping until the sun went down then I had a nice light chicken Caesar salad and just the one gin. So tired today I hit the sack at 10.

13/05/2024

Day 25 - Woke up to this amazing place in the sunshine and had a little breakfast on the beach before setting off down the treacherous ‘road’ back to the main highway to visit the beautiful twin beaches at Napcan - another absolutely gorgeous one - there’s so many to choose from on this lovely island of Palawan. On the way back there’s was a huge load of noise and people gathered on the local basketball court so of course I popped in. I was literally the only non Filipino there but as usual everyone just smiles 😎. It was a kind of show for ‘souped up’ motorbikes - all of them tiny little 150cc machines but blinged up with all sorts including some fairly serious straight through exhausts which were SO loud ! Then back to the hotel where I had a spicy beef soup which was delicious and a couple of gins and another amazing sunset. Another great day and moving on tomorrow back to El Nido for my last 3 days 😮‍💨😮‍💨

12/05/2024

So I normally travel alone and meet people along the way which has been brilliant so far. It’s rare that I get to actually hang out with a group of people for a few days and this trip has been made more special because of the 3 day boat trip we all did. I was so touched that all these youngsters with their own travel and other stories embraced this old guy so much - some of the messages I got last night sums it up - I won’t forget them xx

12/05/2024

Day 24 - after breakfast rode the bike down to Coron Coron beach to meet up with Caitlin, Farish, Giorgie, Julia and Sam to go kayaking. Stopped off at various lovely beaches for rest and swimming. The kayaks were ok but zero back support and was seriously uncomfortable. Luckily my 6’4” 20 year old Dutch mate took pity on the old codger and did most of the paddling. Afterwards we went for drinks and some spring rolls before finally having to say goodbye to my new friends who are all departing for other islands or Bali. So then I packed up my stuff, jumped on the bike and rode the 20 odd miles up to my new home for the next 3 days. Towards the end, the road turned into gravel, then rocks, then a steep downhill through a river, avoiding the piles of buffalo s**t (and the actual buffalos about 2 feet away) before arriving at paradise. I have a small hut about 20 feet from the sand with the most amazing beach. Sipping a cold beer I was invited to join a couple of locals (Alfonso and Melvyn) who were great company and wanted to know everything about the UK. The people here are just so warm and friendly (and although many have very little, they are grateful enough if they have education, health and food and always so happy it’s infectious). The staff, food, vibe etc are all top drawer and I’m just to to relax here for a bit -

10/05/2024

Day 23 - took it easy this morning after another evening of too much beer so I ambled off after a late breakfast to Lio Beach for a few hours and it was an absolute stunner. Probably one of the most beautiful I’ve seen. The rest of the gang were so hungover I don’t think they even woke up until lunchtime but met up with them later for zip lining followed by sunset drinks and burgers at Corong beach. Then everyone headed back for an early night for a change. A nice quiet day for a change.

10/05/2024

Day 22 - after an ok breakfast at the hotel, I then popped across the road to drop off pretty much all of my clothes to a laundry place and then negotiate a bike - treated myself (after a trip to the bank with security guards with big guns) to a 200cc bike then later on met up with 12 of my new boat mates for coffee then we all went on a road trip - not everyone fancied riding so I took Caitlin from Scotland on the back of mine (her and her friend Farish are both nuts but so much fun to be with). First we went to Nacpan beach and it was truly stunning. Spent a few hours there before heading back down to Vanilla Beach for a wonderful sunset. Met up later for pizza and copious drinks at a couple of different bars - I reached the end around 1.30 am but a few were still going. It’s a nice (unexpected) bonus to have a few days together here before most depart for home or other destinations. Added some more photos including some great drone shots shared in our WhatsApp group from previous days. Another great day 😎

08/05/2024

Day 19/20/21 - so this was all about a 3 day/2 night island hopping boat trip from Coron in Busuanga to El Nido in Palawan. The boat was great, the journey and scenery were epic, the snorkelling was amazing, the food was brilliant every day, the 22 others on the trip averaged about 26/7 (so I became the boat dad) and they were so much fun, the staff were absolutely brilliant and they work pretty bloody hard, that’s for sure. Both nights we spent on remote islands sleeping in little bamboo huts on the beach - far too much beer, rum and gin were necked and bed time was 3/4 am. Kareoke and sing songs etc were such great fun and on the second night 4 of us slept on the sand woken up by the lapping ocean - the stars gave us such a wonderful show that night. Finally got to Palawan at 5pm on the third day and a rough old bus journey down to El Nido. Denise from Austria set up a WhatsApp group and so a bunch of us met up in a local bar where they had a little 3 piece band - after chatting with the bass player, he let me play ‘play that funky music’ with the other two - my boat mates were very supportive 😂. All in all it was one of the best things I’ve done and as said, the staff at Keelooma were amazing ! Time to chill in El Nido for a bit 🏖😎

05/05/2024

Day 18 - up early for breakfast then caught the courtesy boat into Coron town as need to buy a towel, dry bag etc ready for my 3 day boat trip tomorrow. Also sussed out tomorrow’s meeting place and met a couple of the guys from Keelooma who are running the tour. You can see by the photo how pleased the shopkeepers were with my purchase of £12 😂. Coron is a maze of dusty little ‘streets’ much like many others with little shops everywhere all seemingly selling the same stuff. But the surrounding countryside is the best I’ve seen anywhere out here. Boy is it hot today - think it’s close to 40 so sunning myself for 15 mins then pop to my room for a cool shower as the pool is ridiculously hot 🔥. Spent the afternoon chilling by the pool, nice little salad for lunch and watching the snooker semi while the wi fi was good. Couple of cold beers from my favourite bar girl then down for dinner. Nice simple chicken with spices and rice and a couple of gins. Nice relaxing day 😎🏖

Philippines April 2014

18/05/2024

16/05/2024

15/05/2024

14/05/2024

14/05/2024

13/05/2024

12/05/2024

12/05/2024

10/05/2024

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08/05/2024

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