27th July 2019
Puerto Princesa

Had a few hours sleep on some chairs in the airport.

Woke up with a girl called Yasmine on the last seat, but found out shes doing a very similar route, shes heading to South America August time until December, almost exactly the Sam’s time as Harry and I.

I left the airport to get some breakfast, attempting to find a bakery however after walking for 30 minutes I decided to just stop at a McDonald’s. People say it’s bad to have western food when you’re abroad, however even the fast food chain’s have such a different menu wherever you end up visiting. I ordered a peppered steak in rice and a wintermelon float. The wintermelon float tasted like sweetened cold tea just with ice cream on top, and was absolutely delicious.

Really trying to take my time to do anything today as I’m just waiting for my flight. Yasmine commented on how she should have arrived a bit later as she had to wait an hour to check-in, and we laughed when she realised I had to wait 15 hours.

Got a jeepney back from McDonald’s as it has started to rain, but the driver didn’t have change and so offered me the ride for free. But due to his kind gesture I allowed him to keep the change, it was only 20 pesos and I appreciated his kindness.

At the airport I met Kris, he was on his way to Taiwan so we chilled together before his flight at 1535.

As Kris was off to get his flight I met another guy, Dede, who’d missed his flight to Bangkok and was needing to plan his options. We walked to the bakery to get some food.

When I got back Harry had arrived at the airport so we shared some donuts, made some more plans about the countries we wanted to visit.

Watched Spiderman the spider verse on the plane, wasnt the best movie, but was only a short flight so was saving the good ones.

Arrived in Manila with missed calls, messages about earthquakes and a 12 hour wait in Manila for my flight to Tokyo. So once again, I’d be sleeping in the airport. This time I decided to go for a proper sleep, so made a nice little bed.

Slept surprisingly well, woke up at 0400, flight at 0615, so headed to minimart to grab a warm chicken ppastrythen headed to the check in desk. I personally thought I had plenty of time, but was told I could skip the queue, so I did. At the boarding gate I tried my luck going through priority, and they didn’t even check 🙂 Now 0530 on the 28th and about to board the plane to Tokyo!

Travel from Coron to Puerto Princessa.

Had to say my goodbyes to Ari after what feels like a month of travelling together. 

I got the 1200 ferry from Coron to El Nido, the ferry got in at 1700 on the 26th and my flight from Puerto to Manila wasnt until 1940 on the 27th. As I had so much time I decided to try and hitchhike. The journey was much longer than i realised, almost 8 hours of driving. I hitched a few lifts and got almost 30 minutes into the journey before it started to get dark, and no one picks up strangers in the dark.

So I made it to a little home no where close to Puerto, and was told there should be a bus soon for only 200 pesos, compared to a van for 400. I’m currently sat under a cover out of the rain and have waited almost 2 hours for this bus that was supposed to be here an hour ago. I’m starting to get hungry and losing hope of the bus ever coming.

There’s also only one moped here with the key still in the ignition, at this point it’s quite tempting to just drive myself.

The Filipino family invited me into their home now its 2000, and said the last bus is at 2100 and to just wait for that one. I had a shot of gin and some jack fruit while I wait.

The bus came at 2020, but the cost to Puerto was 370, so I pretended all I had was 245 pesos (£3.80) and at that point I was already on, and the driver seemed to accept that. Can’t complain paying less than £4 for a 6 hour journey.

Tried to sleep on the bus, however the driver doesn’t exactly take it slow, so every 5 minutes I’d be flying out of my seat.

Got off at the bus terminal which isn’t as close as I was hoping to get to the terminal, but walkable. It’s 0245 and I’m in Jollibees eating a 2 piece burger steak. The menu has it prices at 93 pesos but I only got charged 53, so may as well treat myself to an ice cream before heading to the airport, I reckon still an hours walk, but no rush as the flight isn’t until 1940 and I’m only going to sleep at the airport.

Arrived at the airport at 0350. Apparently the airport doesn’t open until 0400, currently sat with the security guard and another girl but the guard said you can sleep there.

25th June
Coron,

Last day here, really feel just like chilling today.

My smart sim stopped working, despite adding another GB of data, so went on a drive to get some wifi, ended up being tempted into a butter and syrup waffle for 100 pesos at the Touchwood cafe. I was just about able to message Harry and sort the flight out, despite Corons awful wifi. Then went out to buy some bananas, eggs and bread. Got back to the hostel and made fried egg and fried bananas on toast, and it was delicious.

Might add some more sugar to the banana next time though.

Ended up sunbathing on the rooftop until it started to rain at about 1200. Made myself an omelette and began to appreciate having a kitchen again.

After lunch, Ari and I watched Crazy Rich Asians in the Hop Hostel’s cinema room, then drove to the Central Plaza in the rain as we couldn’t resist another mango and coconut ice drink. I also tried almost every dish there, having no idea what any of it was :).

The Hop Hostel offers a free light dinner every night, and before today Ari and I took turns having the meal as it requires a room and bed number (and we were sharing), but today we decided to just use another empty bed number and put both our names down. It worked without any issue and also while I was eating another guy named Jay was there and he had just been to the hot springs. He said you can reuse tickets if it’s on the same day and as the plan was to go to the hot springs later I took his ticket to give it ago.

Around 1800 Ari and I took the scooter over to the hot springs, a fair few people from the hostel had left in the minivan for 300 pesos extra but fuel is so cheap it cost maybe 10 pesos to get there and back. I gave the ticket to the office and said I’d been there this morning and was let in with no questions.

We all left the hot springs at 1930, I grabbed some rum and coke for the games night in the evening, packed my bags and started drinking about 2000. The games night was good fun, Ari and I drank plenty of rum, played some beer pong, table tennis, flip cup and limbo. Charlie also showed up. We all had a chat and there were no grudges, did some shots together, partied and headed to bed around midnight. Ari and I slept in the cinema room due to the man above our bed snoring so loudly the night before.

24th July 2019
Marcilla, Coron

Went to sleep about midnight after watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, as Ari said the movie reminds her of me. Woke up after the comfiest nights sleep in a while, headed to the bakery to get 10 peanut and sugar coated soft pastry buns for 50 pesos, they were delicious.

Met up with Bronagh, James and Anna for breakfast and decided to head to Marcilla beach. Most of the others, including some tag alongs from the hostel also wanted to join however were told the roads were a bit funny so all but Ari and I opted to take the boat there due to a couple people mentioning the roads not being drivable.

The ride was long; about an hour at least, and it started to rain heavily. When we got close we asked locals for directions and they all were saying different things, and eventually we realised the beach was not as nice as we thought, or we’d come the wrong side or the main area just wasn’t accessible by moped.

The rain hadn’t stopped and the roads had gotten worse since the journey there, so after Ari had a quick swim we headed back. It was a cold ride back luckily we returned to the hostel quickly and safely, despite being desperate to jump in the warm shower and rest our sore bums after almost 4 hours of driving.

Finished the day with some table tennis, which I very much missed playing, and the flight for the 26th being cancelled 😬 and after running out of data and the hostels wifi being appalling I wasn’t able to rebook until I could get to a cafe with wifi.

Also, Coron island and Coron are not the same place. You must take a boat from Busuanga Island to Coron Island. Busuanga island doesn’t have the pretty beaches or views you’ve seen on Coron island.

23rd July 2019

Coron,

Second day of volunteering.

Yesterday, I only spent about 2 hours working, and also spent barely anytime with anyone speaking english. As soon as more than one Filipino was in the kitchen they would speak Tagalog, which after a few hours made me miss home a lot. Speaking with my family, some friends and eventually to Ari when she arrived really helped.

Last night, me and Ari decided to finish the rum and coke that’d been in my bag for a few days and had a really nice talk about our lives, art, family and a bunch of other stuff.

This morning, I used the bamboo shower made by previous volunteers for the first time. They did a great job and it was not only cool af but actually had a decent flow to wash in.

Started working at about 8am, continued with the hole digging and was much more relaxing have Ari to work alongside, someone to share your thoughts with and listen to ideas, especially about this ‘sustainable community organic farming’. We had a lot of thoughts on how the experience isn’t at all what we thought it’d be.

From ‘sustainable community organic farming’; a lot of terms used today to promote environmentally friendly projects, we thought that this work would be helping a wider community, but currently it feels as though we’re just doing the family’s farm work which feeds themselves. Also the fact that Ari got to do this through workaways, which is where you work in return for food and a bed, so instead of being paid you live for free. However, the living accommodation is hardly work worthy and the food also not very substantial, so both feeling a bit bummed out by the situation.

But, at the end of the day, we’re still out here helping people even if it’s not for as many people as I’d hoped. And I have managed to dig all of the holes for the camotes to be planted in 🙂

77 holes, time to plant the seeds! Ari doing some weeding in the background.

Went to ask Naani if I could plant the seeds and she told me to rest because she needs to show me how but she’s cooking lunch right now.

Plan for later is to go to Marcila beach on the north of the island to go swimming, hit up the hot springs in the afternoon and climb a mountain or go to a rooftop bar for sunset.

About this volunteering. I’m not entirely sure how much good we’re doing for the locals besides Charlie’s family. It’s nice to experience living like a local. But despite me saying and thinking how lovely and welcoming Filipinos are, the Filipinos here just don’t seem to match that. Charlie was talking about building a dog sanctuary, mentioning while he was drunk it would be his ‘army of dogs’, despite this all of the dogs around here run away from people and dislike being stroked, not a good sign😬 Not sure Charlie’s family here have quite the same outlook on life.

It started to rain, heavy. That’s rainy season for you! Earlier, about 10am it was crazy hot and I felt the need to go in the shade.

Not sure this photo justifies the amount it just poured down.

After a nap through the rain, Ari was upset about the living conditions as she woke up with bugs and spiders all in her hair, most likely arising from the gaps in the floor. And after a chat together we decided to leave the Filipino lifestyle and booked 1 room in Hop hostel hoping to sneak in together, being £10 a night, and us both being broke🙂.

As we began to leave, the river you drive through had flooded over and it was impossible to drive the moped through it. We considered building a bamboo bridge but Naani said to wait an hour for it to go down. The husband, June, suggested lifting it through the water, so that’s what we did 🙂 We left without our bags at first to avoid confronting Naani and the others about our plans, so drove to the road and snuck round the back over the tree bridge to get our stuff. Squeezing 2 people and 3 bags onto a moped wasn’t the easiest but we managed to get here with no issues

Got to Hop hostel, Ari waited in the parking area while I checked in with her bag and mine. After I got shown the room I left to tell Ari and then we went in one by one to the room. Without wanting to waste the day, we joined an invitation from Bronagh and James to visit the hot springs. When we got there Anna was also with James so we all sat together in this hot spring which such a perfect temperature and so relaxing, exactly what we needed after the long day.

On returning to the hostel, Ari and I had been bombarded with messages and calls from Charlie wanting an explanation and being overly keen to meet us this evening. He desperation was very off putting so we decided to ignore it tonight and potentially see him in the morning.

22nd July 2019
Coron

Last night, me and Charlie went out, turns out he knows a lot of people around Coron from the work hes doing. Had a nice little road trip with 5 people and ended it was a shawarma, annoyingly the shawarma in the central plaza closed at 9pm and we got there 9:15, but there was another one which was a shop, so more expensive and not as good

Went to bed early to start work this morning. But, my phone died and of course there was no electricity in my room.

So I woke up about 630 according to Naani, which wasn’t too bad. Sat in the kitchen for about 30 minutes while she kindly cooked my eggs on toast.

At about 8am Naani began showing me what she wanted doing, and it seems most of the work is just gardening to help her grow vegetables and other plants.

For an hour and a half I was digging small holes in the ground to plant some camote plants, which is what sweet potatoes grow from. Stupidly, I didn’t ask for gloves until I started getting blisters, so now I have 3 on each hand which made it painful to dig. I finished the holes and came back to the kitchen to ask Naani for the next job, she told me to rest as it was beginning to rain and will can plant the camote after a short break.

We ate again at 1030am, Naani kept calling it breakfast but it was tuna, rice, fish soup and some salad with tomatoes, onions and cucumber (all home grown), and was our second meal this morning, so felt more like a lunch. At 11 a girl from California joined us, and Charlie said there will be two more Spanish girls arriving tomorrow.

Naani left the kitchen, Charlie also left, so been sat in the kitchen for a few hours not sure what I’m supposed to do, had a little catch up with Polly, gonna go on a ride now, 2pm.

Drove to the hot springs, but decided I’d wait for people to join me before going in, so drove back to Hop Hostel to meet Harry and to watch up in the hostel’s cinema room.

21st July 2019
Coron

Just arrived in Coron with James and met another girl called Bronagh on the ferry ride from El Nido.

As this is the first time exploring on my own I’ve decided to try a few things differently. I’ve messaged some people on couchsurfing, one guy asking for volunteers to do some community work and another just to have a bed. But, as I wait for his reply I’m going to try and get a free bed by asking to volunteer to work in a hotel/hostel. I’ve just emailed one nice hostel, printed off a CV and heading to another hotel. Might as well start with the nice places if I’m going to be working 🙂

The manager at Vienna Hotel had just gone to Manila, so I asked for his email and have sent him a request to volunteer. Time to find some more hotels….
Same thing happened at mountain view garden inn….
And again at blue waves…
Just as I was grabbing food the couchsurfing guy wanting volunteers called me.

Update: found the guy to be volunteering with, Charlie, he has 4 projects around Philippines which involves building sustainable farms for his family and the wider community. The work includes building gardens to grow vegetables, chicken houses and a bunch of other stuff! I’m the only volunteer today so I feel like I’m fully immersed in Filipino living. However, there are two Spanish girls coming tomorrow 🙂

If anybody else wants to help with Charlie’s projects in Coron, let me know, he has big plans for the future and could do with all the help he can get.

20th July 2019

Nacpan

Today is my last day in Nacpan and it’s been so much fun. The people I met in Where 2 Next have made the last few days unforgettable. Last night, the 7 of us bought some chicken, rice and some salad bits and used the bbq at the hostel to have a delicious dinner, luckily I had soy sauce in my bag which made a few people smile. After the dinner we ran to Mad Monkeys to grab the free drinks, had to run cuz we only left the hostel at 1930, and time is money at that point. When we got there most of the people were crazy drunk as they’d been on a party boat tour and been drinking since 9am, Harry was asleep on the bar floor when I arrived. So I carried him to bed, started drinking, and then 5 minutes later he was dancing on the table and rubbing someone’s burger on his face😅. As Harry made me down a lot of drinks, by the end of the night, about 2am, I had to crash in Harry’s bed because I couldn’t be bothered to walk back to the hostel to grab my hammock.

In the morning, I walked back to the hostel and was told off by the reception lady as she wanted me to stay for free in the hostel, Filipino’s are too kind. And she’s offered me a free bed again tonight😊. I was told that I can get a jeepney at 6:30am to El Nido for 50/100 pesos, when it would usually cost 600 pesos for a tricycle.

These are the jeepneys and for sure the cheapest way of travelling if you can find the right one.

Also, I found a cool water slide that has free entry before 1pm, so have spent a lot of the day there with James, Anna and Sara.

Here’s James living his best life haha. It was surprisingly empty as it’s almost a 20 minute walk from Mad Monkey’s, which is where everyone stays.

Current plans are to catch a ferry to Coron tomorrow morning from El Nido after riding the jeepney from Nacpan. James and Anna invited me to tag along with them as they’re also travelling to Coron.

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19th July 2019

Nacpan, El Nido, Phillipines

Woke up in a hut on the beach, thoroughly took advantage of the 30 minutes of free drinks in Mad Monkeys. It was gender bender night, so guys and girls swapped clothes, was a very funny night…from what I can remember.

Nacpan is a small place and almost all of the crowd is around a hostel called Mad Monkeys, I’d say at least 75% of tourists stay there. My plan was to hammock on the beach but there was a typhoon the day I arrived and most of the Philippines had been hit with extremely heavy downpours, so I opted to get a room in Where2Next as it was only 300 pesos a night, but they went to 250 quite easily. Yesterday the weather cleared up a lot so tonight I’ll hammock. The hostel here also allow you to put up a hammock for a small fee and then you still have access to their showers, drinking water and shelter if you need it, plus the travellers staying here are really friendly, so I could hang out with those guys a lot easier. But for now I’ll hammock on the beach as I’ve showered already and I enjoy saving money for other things, such as a boat tour!

The boat tours look fun, and for what you get are reasonably priced, 1500 pesos (£23), you get taken to 4 or 5 beautiful hidden islands, go snorkeling, and get lunch. However I enjoy finding the cheapest way to do things, so the guys I’ve met in W2N and I have decided to try and find a guy with a boat and offer him some money to take us to some of the islands.

Yesterday I took the opportunity to learn to surf 😁 had been wanting to learn to surf for so long and originally I thought I’d wait until Australia. I met this guy called Kris in W2N, also a keen hammocker, and he had friends at Dohi beach, known to be the surfing place of El Nido. He wanted to go there as he had friends down there who had some information we needed and Kris needed to pay his bar tab, so we headed down on a scooter (the roads were like rivers of mud and we skidded all over the place, at one point drifted 90°) which took about 30 minutes. Once we were there the surfers were all talking about how perfect the long small to medium waves were to learn to surf, so I started talking to them and couldn’t resist but to have my first lesson. It was surprisingly easy as I felt it wasn’t too dissimilar to snowboarding, also my instructor was really good. The hardest part is reading the waves and timing the swim, and I got told off for trying to surf a huge wave because I had to ‘master the small waves first’, which I took onboard right away as the huge wave just swallowed me up and it was an awful attempt to surf it, he even had to check I hadn’t broken the board😅 oops

Didn’t actually ride this board, I had the pink one on the rack, but the lady said to take a photo with this one because usually the smaller the board, the better the rider 🙂 also the little kid in the photo, lil Timmy, is the surf shop owner’s kid, the surf shop owner was also my instructor.

14th July 2019,

Kalibo Airport

The previous night I’d gone to bed early as I had a flight to catch from Kalibo airport, and zero pre booked plans of getting there besides a little slip of paper given to me from the hostel. I was leaving Harry and Liv as the flight I was catching didn’t allowed checked baggage, but I only have 10kg of hand luggage, so opted for the cheaper flight.

So at about 5am I woke up to catch my flight at 11am, with the intention of avoiding taxi costs by hitchhiking.

After rejecting 4 offers to drive me to the port, a guy on a motorbike offered to drive me for 80 pesos. Originally I was going to hitch hike, but a lift for £3.40 was crazy cheap.

I then boarded the boat by following a Filipino, which turned out to be the right way to board, avoiding additional fees.

Next was the big one, a 3 hour journey from the port to the airport. But, after making good time so far, I was in no rush. As soon as I left the boat a man offered to take me for 1000 pesos, 5 times more than the hostel have even priced it at. I told him to do one and found a bus that looked as if it was ready to leave.

Here was the time to use my fathers sales advice…I asked if I could get on, and the men at the front said it was a pre-book company. He told me a ticket would be 200 pesos, but I said I would pay him 150, he had spare seats and had no intention of waiting for them to be filled anyway. The man was surprised by my response and insisted the bus should be pre booked anyway, and that prebookings cost 200. I gave him the offer of 150 again and he didnt approve, and pointed towards another bus company. I didnt leave and presented him the money. He told me to wait and went onboard the bus to speak to the driver. After a short conversation the man introduced me to the bus driver who happily accepted my offer….and I was on my way. 150 pesos, less than all these other customers who’d actually pre booked there tickets haha.

However, by being so fortunate. I ended up being a little too well off. I got to the airport and as it was so small, your booking must only be 2 hours before the departure or you have to wait outside. I was 5 hours earlier than my departure.

I was able to find a cheap local shop with a Filipino lady cooking dishes for other Filipinos, always the best/cheapest places for food. However, after some eggs, bananas and rice I still had 3 hours to kill. There was a beach about an hours walk away, but as the sun was so bright and the temperate reaching 35°C plus I wsdny keen on walking. I headed in the direction on the beach until I reached a straight road where cars had to be heading in the same direction. I stopped a car and told him where i was going, and at that point it’s impossible to say no, so I hopped in.

At the little beach was a few local children and that was it. So different to Boracay. It was actually peaceful.

Peaceful until the friendly Filipinos want to have a chat anyway. This man with his family swam over and we had a long chat.

Eventually he needed to leave. Which I was grateful for…..until I realised I needed to get back to the airport. I shouted over to him and I asked him how he was travelling. But, like most Filipinos, he had him his brother and his brothers son all on one scooter. I asked anyway.

His brother was driving to scooter and as Filipinos are always so kind he said yes, he ditched his son and brother for 20 minutes as he drove me to the airport.

The flight was on time and arrived at the airport roughly the same time as Harry and Liv.

We met at the airport and got a taxi to our hostel in Cebu.