The Philippines: Palawan, Puerto Princesa and El Nido

We arrived in Puerto Princesa and found a great little hostel overlooking the coast. Hannah's friend Georgie was flying out to spend the week with us so we picked her up from the airport and then headed out to dinner. The first thing we noticed about Puerto Princesa was the amount of street cats! While we ate dinner in an outdoor restaurant, no less than 7 cats were wandering around our table waiting for any scraps we might give them! The next morning we got on a 7 hour non-ac bus up to the small town of El Nido in Northern Palawan. On the bus a baby took a special liking to Hannah and played peek-a-boo for around an hour with her. To show his affection even more he toddled over and gave her 1 piece of corn from the corn-on-the-cob he'd been eating!

After a long and quite cramped trip we reached El Nido which is the hub from which to explore one the Philippines' most beautiful attractions: The Bacuit Archipelago. The tiny town is wedged between huge cliffs and looks out over a stunning bay. As it was off-season, we managed to get a great deal on a room for 4 of us overlooking the bay at a hostel named 'The Alternative'. The first night we had a long stroll along the beach and got a beer and some fresh seafood at one of the many restaurants just metres from the sea.

The view from our room!

Sunset over El Nido

The lovely restaurant above our hostel

Some locally brewed San Miguel on the beach

On the first day we rented some kayaks and paddled out to Cadlao island directly opposite the bay. From the beach it didn't look too far but it became quite clear that it was a couple of kilometres! We eventually arrived and found it to be completely worth it. We had the entire beach to ourselves so we parked our kayaks on the beach and went out snorkelling. The coral was untouched and really healthy so we saw loads of fish including Clown Fish, Moorish Idols, Christmas Tree Worms and many more. We then kayaked to the next beach over and did the same thing! We spent the whole day exploring, kayaking, swimming and snorkelling before heading back to El Nido. By the end of the day we were really tired and majorly hungry so we headed to a restaurant named 'Squidos' whose speciality was, as you may have guessed, squid! It was delicious!

We found a decent parking space

El Nido town

We found Nemo!

Our delicious stuffed Squid

One of the best things to do in El Nido is to go on an all day boat tour around the islands of the archipelago. There are 4 tours which you can choose from so we decided to do the two most popular ones, Tour A and Tour C. We decided to do Tour C first which concentrated on the Matinloc and Tapiutan Islands. For around £8 each, you could have a full 9am-5pm tour on a small catamaran including lunch! In total there were 10 people on our boat: A guide, the boatman, 4 other Filipino tourists and us. Our first stop was Hidden Beach, which as the name suggests, cannot be seen when approaching it. From afar there looks to be no gap in the rocks on the side of Matinloc Island but as you get there a small cove appears which reveals a paradisical hidden beach. We watched another boat about 100 metres in front of us completely disappear before our eyes. When we got there we hopped off the boat with our snorkels and had a swim around with all the different fish. The next stop was the Matinloc shrine on the other side of the island. On the way we passed some spectacular scenery of small islands with jagged cliffs and thick jungle. At the shrine there was an amazing viewpoint where you could look out into "the heart of palawan". After the viewpoint we made our way to a deserted beach on Tapiutan Island where we had our lunch stop. While waiting for lunch to be made, we went snorkelling again and found a huge drop-off filled with loads of tropical fish. The guide and the boatman cooked us up one of the best meals we've ever had. There was fresh fish, grilled pork, rice, vegetables and for dessert we had the most delicious mangoes!  It was so nice that I had 3 whole fish, as well as 8 slices of watermelon and 2 mangoes.

The next stop after lunch was Secret Beach where the boat had to anchor while we jumped off and swam through a small cave into a lagoon with a "secret beach". As the tide was out, we found loads of interesting rock pools and there was even one full of the fish that are used in the fish-foot spas. We decided to have a natural foot spa. As i'd cut my heel on coral the day before, the fish were having a field day! The last stop of the trip was the beach on Helicopter Island. This was yet another beautiful deserted beach with amazing snorkelling. On the beach we were talking about what a great day we'd all had, and we all agreed that the only thing that could improve it would be to see some dolphins. Lo and behold, on the way back we did! We got back to El Nido a little bit sunburnt but having had an amazing day. In the evening we went out to a beach restaurant and met up with some of Georgie's friends that were also in El Nido. Georgie had also lost a bet which required her to sing karaoke. Luckily the restaurant had a live band and she did a (slightly dodgy) rendition of 'Sex on Fire'. We ended up having a few drinks and going to one of the bars along the beach too for a bit of a boogie. Making our way back to our hostel in the early hours of the morning we realised that we'd forgotten the key. Hannah tried to climb in through the back window while Nina and I tried to wake up the guy who was asleep behind the desk. After actually shaking him without success, we decided that he was making a conscious effort to stay asleep and not help us. Nina eventually had enough and found the master key in the front desk. We finally got into our room and could go to sleep!

Just chilling out

Our natural foot spa

The beach where we had lunch

Georgie on our catamaran

The "Heart of Palawan" view from the Matinloc shrine

On Secret Beach

Crystal clear waters

The following day we decided just to chill out and spent most of the day playing cards and lounging around the beach area. We'd booked a table next to a TV in a restaurant for the night because Andy Murray was in the Wimbledon final! However when we got there the owner decided that he would rather watch the Grand Prix. We were pretty annoyed so quickly finished our dinner and went to another bar that was also showing it. We were some of the only British people in the place but the atmosphere was great and we had an awesome night celebrating his win!

On our final day in El Nido we went on Tour A. This time we were with a Korean family of 3 who took absolutely hundreds of selfies! The first stop was the 'Small Lagoon' on Miniloc Island. This time we had Kayaks as well so we paddled through a small gap in the rocks to find a beautiful secluded lagoon. The water was a beautiful bluey/green and we were surrounded by looming craggy cliffs. From there we were able to kayak a little big further around the island to imaginatively named 'Big Lagoon'. This was possibly one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen. As the water was slightly more shallow, the colour was an amazing turquoise and it looked so inviting. We all jumped out of the kayaks and went swimming and snorkelling around the incredible lagoon. We didn't want to leave but the boatmen said it was lunch time so we got back on the catamaran to go to our lunch beach. This beach was possibly even better than where we'd had lunch on Tour C. Ours was the only boat and the coral was so healthy and home to so many fish. After another delicious lunch we made our way to an area of coastline that was famous for the amount of fish that live there. The boatmen have been feeding the fish there for a long time so hundreds of Sergeant Majors surrounded us while we were snorkelling. The final stop of the day was 7 Commando Beach which had a really lovely swimming area where we chilled while the sun went down. It was a pretty amazing end to El Nido and we'll always remember it.

All the Sergeant Majors!

Paradise

Lunch is served

Big Lagoon

Small Lagoon

A nice place for some lunch

Han and Georgie

By the time we got back to Puerto Princesa after the 7 hour bus, we were pretty tired and hungry. In the Lonely Planet, they recommended a restaurant that was "possibly the best seafood restaurant in the Philippines". It did not disappoint! It was called Ka Lui and was decorated with lots of bamboo and small gardens throughout. We all had the set meal which included tuna, seaweed, prawns, fried aubergine, curried white fish and rice. For dessert we got a fruit salad served in a coconut! It was a lovely way to say goodbye to Palawan.

We flew to Manila the next day where we would spend a couple of days before heading to Bali. We were not very impressed by Manila. A lot of the accommodation we looked at was overpriced and not very nice. We finally decided on the Malate Pensionne. It was at least clean but the rooms were still boiling without air-con. The manager was quite a funny man who seemed to pop up all over the hotel to offer us advice and kept saying that we needed to stay "street smart" in Manila because "thieves can be friendly too"! He also recommended a restaurant for dinner that did a nightly traditional dance show while you eat. We decided to go along and because Nina had lost a card game earlier in the day, we forced her to join the dancers on stage! The food was quite suspect as well. Nina and I shared the 'Fisherman's Delight' which was a big mixture of seafood in a basket while Georgie accidentally ordered ox-tail curry without realising what it was.

The following day we said goodbye to Georgie and then got ready to go to the airport to make our way to Bali! Unfortunately Nina came down with a bug so once again she had a long travelling day feeling absolutely rubbish!