'It's More Fun In The Philippines'

The tourism board of The Philippines were tasked with coming up with a catchy slogan to lure more holidaymakers to their country and 'It's More Fun in The Philippines' was finally considered the best choice. I am not entirely sure what the 'It' in the sentence refers to but if it means travelling solo, they might be on to something. Surprisingly (and pleasantly), even with their slogan, I have found that the country is far less touristy than I had expected. This could be down to the fact that it is currently the rainy season (although I could easily count the number of rainy days I have had in my month here on one hand) but I still find it surprising. It offers many of the worlds top beaches, incredible dive sites, rock climbing, interesting wildlife, cheap food and accomodation and best of all a whole country full of extremely friendly, helpful and happy people. The places I have visited in the second half of my time here are all perfect examples of why I am glad that this gem of a place is still relatively low on foreign tourism (it is actually the country that I have met the most tourists who are citizens of the country we are in). 

After leaving Panglao and Alona Beach behind, with a very stressful and long journey over land and sea, I arrived on Malapascua Island. I got to Maya, where I could catch a boat over to the island and, just like I had been warned about on the internet, the captain of the small boat told me that there was a problem, there were no more people coming for a long time so if I paid 500pesos (about £7.50) we could leave the port and head straght to the island without waiting for AGES for more people to arrive. Thankfully, with my prior knowledge of this scam I held my ground and told him I was happy to wait. Who would have guessed it! Only a few minutes later another coach full of people arrived at the port and the boat soon filled up which meant I only spent 100pesos, a fifth of the price.

When I arrived I found a motorbike taxi (there are no other vehicles on the island) and was taken to Thresher Cove Resort, which I had found online and which offered cheap dorm rooms and a good dive centre. When I arrived, exhausted, I was really happy with my choice. I instantly met other travellers, the staff were really friendly, the resort itself was beautiful and there was a HUGE selection of DVDs! 

That evening I booked myself onto the following early morning dive, skyped home, with the first reliable wifi I had had for a while, and sat and talked with the other people staying there (and yes, watched a couple of films). That night, sleeping in a dorm room again, I felt a overwhelming love for what I am doing. Every so often it will hit me how lucky I am and what amazing opportunities travelling has offered me and I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

The next day was an extremely early start with my alarm rudely waking me at 4:30am. We left from the resorts private beach at about 5:30am in their dive boat. One of the top reasons people visit Malapascua is for the diving, especially to dive with the rare Thresher Sharks who come up to shallower waters in the mornings. This is what I was hoping to see and as we got all of our gear together I started to feel butterflies in my stomach. I was about to dive with sharks! It was another very surreal moment, the type if moment I have been having a lot of since leaving the UK. We descended down to about 30m and went to the first shark spotting site. The visibility at this site was pretty poor but it actually made it more exciting. I kneeled on the sea bed and looked in the direction of my dive masters pointing finger. Slowly, emerging from the misty water I saw a shadow move towards us. It became clearer as it approached and finally revealed a graceful, beautiful (slightly scary looking) shark. The shark was making loops away and then towards us and it was really mesmerising. We saw a few more sharks swim near us, and I suddenly realised that I was actually sitting 30m under the sea, watching sharks swim around me. I would have had the biggest grin on my face at that moment, if my regulator would not have popped out by doing so. 

When we were ascending we saw a very friendly eagle ray, pipe fish and a huge jellyfish which had small fish living inside it! I have never been a big fan of jellyfish but seeing one when you are underwater next to it shines a whole new light on how rhythmic and beautiful they are. The boat ride back to the shore was spent talking with the other divers about how amazing what we had just done was. When I got back to the resort I lay in the beach for a short while until the winds really picked up and it started to rain. I hide in the common area and watched another film before having a quick siesta. That evening a few of us from the resort went, by motorbike taxi, to the main area of the island and had a few drinks and a couple of rounds of pool in a bar. 

One of the motorbike taxi drivers was also the tour guide on a boat tour around the island and so the next day I jumped on a boat with some people from the resort (an English family, a Welsh girl called Monica and three Danish backpackers) and spent the first half of the day sailing over clear blue sea, snorkelling and catching the sun. One snorkel spot was at a ship wreck and I enjoyed free diving down to the wreck and exploring the sealife there. I managed to spot a huge school of cuttlefish, sea snake and a small incredible looking noodie (sea slug).

When we returned I relaxed at the resort and then me and Monica went to a restaurant called Ging Gings, where I had a delicious fish coconut curry and a rum cocktail for 150pesos! We then walked to the main beach of the island, Bounty Beach, which you could imagine would get quite busy during high season, but was eerily quiet. We were about to give up and go back when we heard a lively bar on top of a dive centre. Upstairs they were hosting a pub quiz and the bar was full of divers and holiday makers laughing and talking. We sat down at the bar and ordered a cocktail each and were very happy when four cocktails arrived (apparently, they had extended happy hour so cocktails were all two for one). We listened and laughed at the pub quiz and when it was finished the winning team bought everyone in the bar a shot. It was the worst shot I have ever had, there was a shot of cheap vodka but before drinking it you had to fill your mouth with this sherbet-like energy boost thing, which foamed aggresively in your mouth and made everyone in the bar look rabid. We spent the rest of the evening talking to people from all over the world and dancing A LOT. We found one dive instructor in particular who was an very energetic dancer and even got to dance behind the bar with the brilliant bar staff!

On the 29th it was time for me to leave Malapascua, a very sad occasion, and while I was on the beach waiting for the boat I met Dave, an Aussie diver who I had spoken to the evening before.

We got on the boat along with some Israelis who had been in my dorm and travelled back to the mainland and then on a very long bus journey to Cebu. That evening Dave and I checked into a dorm in Cebu and ordered pizza, after talking a lot about how much we wanted a pizza on the bus. I ordered a small, but Dave ordered the extra large. They were not kidding, when the pizza came it was absolutely massive, 18 inches to be exact. He shared it around a group of young Brits who were in the common area with us and then we went to sleep, tired from a full day of travelling. 

Unfortunately, the next day was another travel day as I took a flight from Cebu to Puerto Princesa, on Palawan Island. Palawan is one of the more famous destinations in The Philippines, but by no means does this mean it is very built up. I arrived at the tiny airport and luckily found a group of Spanish people who were getting a private mini van and driving to El Nido, in the north of the island, that evening. My original plan had been to stay in Puerto Princesa and get the bus the next day but the idea of nog having to travel for the third day in a row was much better. After another long drive we arrived in El Nido at about 11pm and I found a dorm room for a reasonable price and collapsed into bed. 

When I woke up I got to see what El Nido really looked like, after only seeing it in the dark the night before. It reminded me a lot of Railay Beach in Thailand and was surrounded by huge limestone cliffs and green vegetation. El Nido beachfront itself was not very impressive as it is used as a port so I hoped in a tricycle and travelled to a nearby beach called La Casabas. 

The beach was very beautiful, with a few subtle hotels and restaurants. I walked along the sandand enjoyed the view of the ominous clouds in the distance. I think after seeing so many beaches, you become less concerned with whether the sky is perfect blue and start to enjoy more exciting weather. Luckily, the weather never broke on the beach and I used the rest of the day to lie in the sun, drink mango shakes and read my book. I met three Irish girls at the restaurant and we decided to go to eat dinner and watch the sunset at the aptly named Sunset Bar. We had delicious tapas and enjoyed a beer while the sun went down.

When I returned to El Nido I said goodbye to the girls and had an evening stroll around the small town. I walked to the beach which was lined with candle lit tables and the smell of BBQ seafood and I had a nose around some shops. One shop I went into sold handmade jewellery and organic beauty products. After a day in the sun, I thought that finally I was beginning to look quite tanned but as I entered this shop a saleswoman walked up to me with a pot of aloe vera gel 'for your sunburnt skin mam'. I left very swiftly after that.

On the 1st of August I had booked onto an island hopping tour but I woke up to very heavy rain. Thankfully it stopped just in time for the tour to start and I got on the boat, which weirdly had no other backpackers on board, mainly Philipinos and two French women. We visited breathtaking lagoons and beaches and went snorkelling and swimming. 

At around midday we had a really really good lunch of BBQed fish, prawns, squid, pork and some salads. While we were eating the heavens opened and it rained REALLY hard for about 30 minutes.

My towel was completely soaked so the best place for me to stay during the downpour was in the warm sea. Even though it was raining, it was still really enjoyable, and I found myself laughing a lot.

Back at the hostel I met some very adorable Philppino children who sang me their favourite One Direction songs and spoke to me in nearly perfect English.

When the children had got bored and wondered off to entertain another foreigner I started talking to some Philippinos who were also visiting El Nido. They were from near Cebu and excitedly invited me to dinner with them. I thought 'why not!?' and after having a photoshoot with every one in the group (they were a large group) we all squeezed into two tricycles and went to a local restaurant where I ate adobo and we talked about life in our countries. They were very interested in my marital status (a subject that seems to be raised a lot when I tell people I am travelling alone) and England, especially the politics and religion there as The Philippines is a very Christian country. They were all very shocked when I told them that I didn't think there was a God but luckily I managed to change the subject pretty quickly and it didn't seem to change how the acted towards me. They were so friendly and funny and I had a really great time.

Back at the hostel I showed them photos from home and then we went down to the beach to listen to some live music and have a beer before bed time.

On the 2nd it was time for me to move on again, this time to a small seaside town called Port Barton. I got into the minibus just past 7am and met a group of British boys. Our 'direct' journey ended up being the exact opposite as we had to get out of the van with our stuff and wait half an hour for an already overcrowded van to pick us up. The last half of the journey was pretty rough as the road into Port Barton is just a curvy, dirt track through the jungle. We arrived and I checked into a cheap but cheerful dorm just in time for it to rain really really hard which gave me a chance to sort through my stuff and recover from the bumpy ride.

While I was having breakfast by the sea in the sun the next morning I bumped into two British guys who had been in my minibus to Port Barton and we decided to do the trek to a waterfall inland. I was excited to do something inland for the first time in what seems like forever and we set off with a flimsy set of instructions from the tourism office. After we had been walking for a good while I was convinced we had turned the wrong way so we head back to the fork. Thankfully we bumped into Matilda, a solo Aussie traveller who was also going to the waterfall and she assured us that in fact we had been going in the right direction (a surprise since it had been me who was in charge of directions). We walked in the heat, which was much less bearable away from the sea breeze, through the jungle, across rivers and finally to the waterfall. It was a really beautiful spot and after being warned by another tourist who was already at the site that the water was "way too cold" we jumped in. It was soooo refreshing especially after building up quite a sweat from the walk. 

We stayed in the natural pool for a while until big grey clouds started to gather overhead and, after experiencing the downpour the previous day, decided it would be better to get back to the accommodation before the rain started. 

We arrived back at the town and chilled at the boys hostel on the beach and watched the rain over the sea. It really is an extremely relaxing destination, maybe the most relaxing I have been to so far. There are very few tourists, it is so quiet and there is only electricity available between 6pm and midnight. We had some really good food and a couple of beers and even showed off a couple of magic tricks. That evening we went for dinner at a really beautiful little beachsude restaurant with fairy lights everywhere. There were also so very friendly dogs there who we seemed to adopt for the evening.

My last full day in The Philippines was very bitter sweet. I have had a brilliant time here, diving, pub crawling, relaxing, and meeting new people and, although The Philippines had begun as a place that I had randomly chosen to fill a gap, it has actually turned out to be one of my favourite destinations! I relaxed in town for the morning then got a very uncomfortable minivan to Puerto Princesa. The rain started again as we were driving on mud tracks which winded through jungle, this did not make for a very relaxing journey and my jaw still aches from all the tension. But I made it, and now I am sat at the bar in my hostel preparing for another full day of travelling tomorrow, BUT, there is a massive light at the end of the tunnel as by the end of the journey I will be in Indonesia with my amazing friend Jess, who I met at uni and is just as passionate about travel as me! The fun we will have!

Thank you for reading,

Emma x