Philippines – Travel Younger

Chapter 189: The Philippines: Finale

Norm Bour — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 06:55:25 +0000

01.23.24

The Philippines: Finale

We’re on to Vietnam after 30 days on Palawan, and overall we give it a thumbs up. After our less than impressive start in Puerto Princessa (for two weeks), El Nido wowed us with the beauty of some nice beaches, some decent meals, and townspeople that made us actually feel welcome. THE thing to do there—and a few other places—includes island hopping, and El Nido has it down to a science. They offer packages A-D, all priced the same, so there is no undercutting, and everyone pretty much offers the same experience. Granted, luck is involved, including weather (which was good), lunch (ditto), and the unpredictable winds and waters.

Our “A” tour was pretty awesome except for some high winds which made the water rough, and I stupidly got my phone so wet it quit on me, one pixel at a time. A common thing from what I saw at the phone repair store! One beach, Nacpan, was a 30 minute ride north of town, and it was one of the nicest I have EVER seen. Wide, sandy beaches, just enough swell to make it challenging, but not dangerous; half a dozen islands off the coast, no rocks, vendors selling food & brew, plus available shade. I liked it so much that I talked Kat into a return trip through 15 minutes of SEVERELY rutted roads the next day! But, once again, she rocked the challenge. We enjoyed El Nido so much we stayed two extra days and cut our next spot, Port Barton, short by the same.

Port Barton was a really small town, just a few streets, but actually better than I expected. Good food options, and we stayed at probably one of the most primitive places ever! A bungalow with no AC, minimal wifi and water pressure, but run by the nicest people. Overall the locals there, along with our El Nido experience, overcame my initial criticism of the entire country.

Sorry…

Now it’s on to Vietnam for 38 days, all in the south, mostly on yet another island, Phu Quot. This will be our first non-island since September, and from there, Malaysia

Chapter 187: Palawan Island: El Nido Has Redeemed Our First Impressions of The Philippines

Norm Bour — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 01:17:22 +0000

01.12.24

The Philippines, part II… A semi retraction! (kinda, sorta…)

A few days ago I lamented that our first impression of the Philippines was not that good, and especially of the town where we stayed, Puerto Princesa. We recently left there on a 4.5 hour shuttle ride to the north end the island, El Nido, and what a difference, like night and day.

The town is vibrant, energetic, and the people are genuinely welcoming. They seem to really enjoy the tourist activity. This whole process brought up three important things to share when planning your travel agenda.

1. Research

2. Location

3. Luck

– As full time travelers, we do a lot of Research, both online as well as reaching out to others with experience. But no matter how much research you do, there are still many ways to do things wrong!

– Location is vital, and once you center on a country, then the question is, “Which part of the country?” There are different temperature zones, different size cities, and a host of other things too long to mention. We are water people, even though we normally don’t dive. As long as we are near some type of nature, that works for us, and sometimes instead of oceans, we have the mountains or lakes. We were “told” that Princessa was the place to go, but we question that.

– And then we have #3: Luck. You can do all the Research, you can pick the best Location, but sometimes things don’t work out. Maybe the weather is particularly bad, or maybe there’s a transportation strike, or maybe it’s just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no way to know, and the odds are pretty good that if you do this long enough you will have your share of not so good luck…

With all that said, my view of the Philippines had leveled out by our experience here in the north, and we have been seduced by El Nido. The islands just outside the harbor are magnificent, and the water is comfortable and easy to manage. And we have not even done the island tours yet, which look to be world class.

One thing that truly HAS made us happy about this country, as well as Bali, is that mosquitos and bugs have not been anything like we feared. What the rest of the country has to offer I cannot say, but all that matters is that we will enjoy the balance of our stay here before we move on to our final location, Port Barton

Chapter 186: Palawan Island: The Philippines Have Been Tough!

Norm Bour — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 01:05:34 +0000

01.08.24

The Philippines have been tough! Over the 5 years we’ve been traveling, usually we rant, and sometimes rave, about the places we’ve been. But every once in a while we find a place that does not quite resonate with us, and that is what’s happened over the last few weeks in the Philippines.

Sometimes it’s hard to compare apples with oranges, but after spending 7 weeks in Bali, which we truly loved– full of lovely, friendly, welcoming, and kind people– and finding all kinds of amazing foods that we enjoyed, unfortunately we have not found that to be the case here in the Philippines. As we planned our trip, we looked at all the different places we could go within the country. And there were lots! Neither of us are big city people so we dismissed those, and scores of people told us about this island or that island, but the island of Palawan is what jumped out at us.

We are about a 90 minute flight south of Manila, and even the day we got here things went awry. The flight we were supposed to take at 1:30 in the afternoon kept getting delayed and delayed to the point of where we had to cancel it and get a new flight with a different airline. That flight eventually took off at midnight! Our first room was not what we thought either. The pictures were great, but it was very small, very dark, and felt uncomfortable. Rather than stay there for 2 weeks we left after one night and found another place which was quite attractive.

We’ve been renting a room in a beautiful one story large ranch home, with a terrific bedroom, lovely outside patio eating area, great Wi-Fi, hot shower, and daily access to the entire kitchen and house, plus we have our motorbike. So on paper everything worked. We’re about 20 minutes from the downtown area of Puerto Princesa, but there is not a whole lot here for us. This island supposedly has some beautiful beaches, but most of them are up north in an area called El Nido, which is where we are heading.

One thing that was a cool was a little botanical garden with a display of native wildlife and a cultural visit with some indigenous natives. Where we are staying, in the center of the Island, doesn’t offer much. Our small town is very primitive, and I mean very, and finding something is easy as a cappuccino machine is not easy.

We will be leaving for Vietnam in 2 weeks, and have high expectations. We’ll be in Ho chi Minh City for a few days, then on to another island, with a two-day stop at a luxury resort on the way as part of a writing assignment.

Kathleen and I are usually on the same page as to whether we want to return to different places, and we both agree that this is a one and done.