3 days in Palawan

Photos from our Palawan trip

With a Filipino public holiday falling on a Friday (often they fall midweek), we thought it was too good an opportunity to miss going somewhere like Palawan which needed more than a weekend, mostly because of the long journey.  We took the Thursday off work, so had 3 nights away.

We had heard that El Nido is the highlight on Palawan, and one of the highlights of the Philippines, so that's where we headed.

To get there it is a bit of a trek... an hour's flight from Manila to Puerto Princessa followed by a 6 hour road journey to El Nido.  The last 1.5 hours is on dirt road!  We had heard some horror stories about the minivans; mostly to do with them being completely packed and the roads being really bumpy.  We were very lucky both ways - on the way North to El Nido we had a row of seats to ourselves and on the way back we booked onto a 'daytripper' minibus which has very comfortable seats, and only 9 of them (not 14 or 17 as on the others).  And the journey passed quite quickly - lots of lovely rural scenery to look at (including countless carabao, or water buffalo, lounging around in big muddy puddles) and a few comfort stops along the way.  The minibus dropped us right at our accommodation too, which was an added bonus.

We stayed at Treetops in Corong Corong, just south of El Nido.  It's a very small B&B, with only 2 rooms.  The rooms are more like mini-cottages, built all out of local lumber on a platform so you really felt like you were in the treetops!  It's run by an English gent and his Filipina wife.  Fresh fruit and juice when we arrived, a clean comfortable room and very peaceful.  The breakfasts were superb, and Dave (the owner) cooked us a Thai meal one night.  Delicious.

The weather wasn't amazing whilst we were there, but it is the rainy season after all.  We arranged an island hopping / snorkelling trip (Tour A) for our first full day there.  There were only 4 of us on the boat and we visited 5 or 6 sites including a small lagoon, a big lagoon and a secret lagoon (obviously not so secret anymore).  The sun came out for our first stop; it really made it feel like paradise with swimming-pool blue water.  Stunning.  We are so lucky to live in a place where we can escape to gorgeous beaches so easily.

We had a barbecued lunch on the beach - freshly caught white snapper (not caught by us!) and meat kebabs with rice, salad and mango for dessert.  It's the stuff that dreams are made of.

The rain really came down at our last stop and by the time we got back to El Nido we were soaked.  The only answer was a cup of tea.  Well, for the girls anyway.  Beer for the boys.  A great day.

On our second day we decided just to go for a half day trip, mostly so we could have some chill-out time in the morning.  Again the weather wasn't amazing, but it didn't rain until we got back so we managed to stay fairly dry.  Until we had to get off the boat back at El Nido and the water came up to our waists!  Mr H had changed into a dry pair of shorts so he was less than impressed!  Oh well.  The islands that we visited were gorgeous - Helicopter Island with a long beach and Paradise Island which we had all to ourselves.

El Nido is a small town, but due to the number of tourists there are lots of eateries and shops selling souvenirs.  We ate at Altrove, an Italian restaurant run by a Czech guy.  It has great promise (a wood-fired stone oven cooking the pizza), but perhaps because it was the low season it didn't quite deliver.  The food was ok, but they didn't have a lot of the more interesting options on the menu.  On the second night we ate at a French restaurant - La Salangane.  The service and the food were excellent.

What it does lack though is an ATM.  There are 2 establishments which take credit cards, and for the rest you have to pay in cash.  Luckily our B&B would accept a PayPal payment otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford to eat for half of our trip.  I had totally underestimated the amount of cash we would need!

We had a bit of a wait for our flight in Puerto Princessa, so we stopped off at Cafe Itoy.  A great place serving many varieties of coffee, cake and food.  An unexpected find in a provincial town.

Definitely a recommended trip if you have a few days to spare.

A daytrip to Villa Escudero

Just less than 2 hours away (by car, on a Sunday) from Manila, just inside Quezon province, is a place called Villa Escudero.  Previously a coconut plantation, it is now a bit of a tourist attraction.

For PHP1400 (about £20) you get to see the museum, the grounds, ride on a carabao cart, have lunch, swim in the pool and watch a cultural show (at weekends).

Was it worth it?

Yes.  It's always worth getting out of the city and being able to breathe some fresh air.  It was also a fun day, spent with friends.  But actually, it's a pretty decent place to visit too.

The museum is housed in an old pink church (see picture).  It contains a broad assortment of artefacts - christian processional carriages, furniture, souvenirs from the Escudero family's travels, ceramics, war memorabilia, stuffed animals, dried insects and even a shrunken head from the Amazon.  A weird and wonderful collection.  My only criticism would be that there wasn't really much information about the artefacts, so you were left guessing about a lot of them.

From there we rode the carabao (local water buffalo) cart to the 'resort'.  At the resort there are hotel rooms, a swimming pool, a river where you can bamboo raft and an open air restaurant.  Just along from the open air restaurant is the hydro electric plant.  And this is where you have lunch.  With your feet in the water, which is pounding down the hydro from the river.  Certainly a unique experience.  Lunch was a buffet of Filipino food and was really delicious.  Plenty of dishes to choose from, including salad and dessert.  No complaints.  Other than our prune-like toes after lunch.

Following lunch was the cultural show.  I didn't have high hopes, but actually it was excellent.  It was a series of dances, with music and song highlighting Filipino history and culture.  Really well performed and choreographed.

And then it was time to head back to Manila.  Other than along the driveway on the way to and from the plantation house, we didn't see many coconuts.  It really is just a tourist attraction now.  But definitely one worth seeing if you find yourself with a spare day whilst in Manila.

We hired a car and a driver from Viajero car rental (about PHP2500).  It was definitely easier getting there via car than it would have been via public transport.

What to blog about next...

It's interesting (to me at least) - this blog is attracting readers from all over the world.  Especially Russia for some reason.  'привет' if you're reading this from Russia.  (Hopefully Google translate has translated that properly, otherwise I may be offending a lot of people).

So, what would you like to be reading about?  If you have any suggestions for topics, please use the 'Comment' feature built into the blog (if you can figure it out - I think it's something that Blogger needs to sort out) or drop me an email (if you have my email address).

Today we're out and about exploring Villa Escudero.  I'll blog about the experience, perhaps next week.

Long weekend in Singapore

Photos from our Singapore trip

When we were considering moving to Asia, one of the places on our hitlist was Singapore.  Neither of us had been there.  Now that we're in Manila, it's only a short flight to Singapore, so we decided to go for a long weekend.

We loved it.  It is so organised, so efficient and so clean.  There is so much to see.  And so many eateries to choose from for every meal.  We had a great time.

We arrived very early on the Friday morning and took a cab from the airport to our hotel.  Inside all the cabs, there is a big screen indicating the driver's name, the taxi's registration plate and the time that your journey started.  We noticed, on subsequent taxi journeys, that this screen is also used to convey messages to the driver e.g. if they go over a certain speed they're told to 'Drive Carefully!'.  The cabs are all metered (no questions asked).  And the drivers don't expect, or even rarely (in our experience) accept tips.  They will give you the exact change even if it means emptying their pockets onto the seat to find the precise coin required.

After a good night's sleep in a very large and comfortable bed we headed out for our first meal.  I'd done a bit of reading before we came and found that there are a lot of cafes serving breakfast and brunch.  There was one a short walk away - The Book Cafe.  It was fabulous.  A great menu, and we ate outside in European fashion, people watching.  A good start to the day.  From there we wandered along the Singapore River to Clark Quays and then down to the harbour area where you get great views of the CBD and a lot of the other landmarks associated with Singapore (Marina Bay Sands hotel, the Art Science Museum, Singapore Flyer etc.).  We stopped for a drink at Harry's Bar, part of the Esplanade.  After almost choking on the cost of the beer.

For our first touristic (oh, it is a word.  I was expecting it to come up with a red squiggly line underneath it) activity, we boarded the Singapore Flyer.  A bit like the London Eye and the first ferris wheel I remember ever being on.  It was a very clear day and we had great views of the Grand Prix track and all over Singapore.

In the evening, Mr H had booked us a table at Raffles Grill, for my birthday meal.  What a treat.  The service was impeccable, the food scrumptious (although Mr H would have liked a slightly bigger portion for his main) and they surprised me with a lovely birthday cake complete with candle.

Day 2 started with a trip to the Botanic Gardens.  Oh, after breakfast - this time at an Australian bar at Robertson Quay.  Also very good and luckily a bit cheaper than yesterday.  The Botanic Gardens are free to wander around, which was a pleasant surprise.  They are vast and a great way to pass a few hours.  We couldn't help lamenting 'if only there was something like this in Manila'.  A great place to go and get some peace and quiet, or even go for a good run.

From the Botanics we headed to Orchard Road, famous for its shopping malls.  There are countless malls selling everything from expensive designer wear to knock-off electronics.  We didn't stay long - neither of us is a good shopper.  It was getting close to lunch time, so we hopped on the MRT to Little India.  Predictably the MRT is quick and efficient.  We found a busy little restaurant, full of Indians so we decided to try that for lunch.  Some Paratha, curry and dhal filled our bellies.  So good.

The evening highlight was a trip on the Night Safari.  Hundreds of people queued up to board a series of electric trams to be driven through the safari park, with a guide pointing out the various animals.  It's obviously not quite the same as a night drive in Kruger National Park, but it was fun all the same and good to see lots of Asian animals including the Asian varieties of lions, elephants and rhinocerous.

It was 10pm before we could get some dinner, so we decided to hit one of the famous 'Hawker Stall Centres', this one at Newton Circle.  Mr H had been told to try chicken rice, but unfortunately the 2 stalls selling it had closed - they  must have sold out earlier on.  We settled for some Sweet & Sour chicken, fried rice and satay.  Very good.

Our last day again started with breakfast.  This time at Epicurious, also at Robertson Quay.  I had, perhaps, one of the best breakfasts ever.  A nutella and banana toasted sandwich served with strawberries.  So good.  We then headed down to China Town.  If only we hadn't eaten - there were so many hawker stalls selling such an array of delicious smelling food, but we just couldn't fit anything else in.  We'll just have to go back.

All too soon it was time to get a cab back to the airport and head back to Manila.

Frozen peas and other miss-cellaneous

Like any big decision, the decision to move far away from home involves a lot of thought, discussion and thoughts of 'what if'.

Before Mr H even had his confirmed job offer, we were playing through lots of scenarios in our heads related to 'if we moved' and 'if we didn't move'.  A lot of the 'if we moved' centred around being so far away from friends and family.  When we lived in England, we were about 2.5 hours away from Mr H's family and about 4 hours (if we flew) away from mine.  It wasn't as if we could just nip round for a cup of tea.  But being on the other side of the world, 15 hours minimum flying time, is slightly different.  You can't just nip back for a weekend.  We rationalised it based on 2 key factors: 1) we wouldn't stay away forever and 2) technology is so good these days that it's easy to see each other via e.g. Skype.

When we first arrived, we had a really shoddy internet connection.  This made Skype calls, with video at least, nigh on impossible.  A big priority for us, when we moved to a more permanent abode was to get a very decent internet connection.  It was such a relief when we did - we managed to have decent conversations with our families for the first time in about 3 months.

My other big considerations in the 'if we move' category were the availability of food I liked to eat, or ingredients for baking.  Would there be decent flour so that I could make bread?  Would we be able to get cheese easily?  When I lived in China back in 1999/2000 I would wake up dreaming of macaroni cheese or beans on toast.  Both bread and cheese were very difficult to come by.  Where you could get bread it was inevitably sweet.  And where you could get cheese it was processed.

It turns out you can get flour here, but it tends to be very white all purpose flour.  I have yet to find any wholegrain flour.  Or self-raising flour.  I have been able to find recipes where I can use all purpose flour e.g. to make pizza base or cinnamon buns, I guess because it's a common flour in the USA.  But it is just SO white.  But you can buy bread here, which isn't sweet.  And I even found some decent-looking wholegrain bread the other day at The French Baker.  I didn't buy any (I had too much shopping as it was), but I will venture back out to try it at some point.  You can also get cheese in many varieties.

But I hadn't considered missing the British countryside.  Or a good British pub (granted, Mr H had mentioned this a number of times before we left.  I just didn't 'get it', according to him because I had spent so much time outside of the UK already.)  Or the big sporting events (Wimbledon and The Ashes).  Or having a car and the freedom that brings with it.  Or the convenient banking hours.  Or the reliable postal system.  Or the reliable public transport system in the bigger cities (and the amazingly awesome journey planner).  Or the clean, fresh air of little Wokingham.  Or being able to see independent cinema (I don't know how many more action blockbusters I can stomach).  Or being able to listen to decent chat and music on the radio (at least I'm getting to fulfill my guilty power-ballad pleasure during every taxi journey I take I suppose).  Or being able to kick back and watch something decent on TV (which is not Asia Food Network).  Or frozen peas.  

Beautiful Bohol: Part 2

It's been a while since we were in Bohol, and a while since I blogged about the first part of our stay... but I should finish it off.

Day 2 started again with breakfast at Arts Cafe.  Delicious, freshly prepared food.  

We hadn't quite finished eating when I saw Ramon, our driver, waiting for us outside our hotel.  I ran down to ask him if it was ok to wait 15 minutes or so.  He was so punctual the whole time we were there.  It may be because his watch was set at a time about 15 minutes ahead of the actual time.  Later on in the day, we asked him if he'd take us to the airport the following day at 1pm.  

He said: "What time is it on your watch?"  

Mr H looked at his watch and read out the time.

Ramon looked at his, read out a time about 15 minutes ahead and said "Ok, they're roughly the same time, that's fine.  See you tomorrow."

So Ramon took us on the 'Countryside Tour' of Bohol.  The full tour includes 9 stops:

1) Blood Compact Shrine

This is the site where the Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi and Datu Sikatuna the chieftain of Bohol performed a blood compact, on March 16, 1565, to seal their friendship as part of the tribal tradition.

It's marked by a monument.  A lot of the other tourists didn't seem to have any qualms about climbing all over it to have their pictures taken.

2) Baclayon Church and Museum

The second stop was this church, which is considered to be one of the oldest churches in the Philippines.  Ramon told us that it's built from coral.  It was really impressive.  We didn't look around the museum, but did wander into the church.

3) Python Sanctuary

And then it was on to meet Prony, the the longest and largest snake in captivity.  I think it's the longest and largest because it gets fed pretty big meals (a pig every few months) and doesn't have very much space to move around.  A sad sight to behold.  There were other animals in the sanctuary, also in pitifully small cages.

4) Tarsier watching

From Pythons to Tarsiers.  Tarsiers are one of the world's smallest primates and are indigenous to Bohol.  I'd been worried about the conditions the tarsiers would be kept in, but I was pleasantly surprised.  There was a really big enclosure, full of jungle where the tarsiers seem free to roam around.  I was a little concerned that there were paper markers pointing out where a tarsier was sitting.  I looked really closely, but couldn't see anything tying them to the spot.  I spoke to one of the rangers who told me that they sit so still during the day because that's when they're resting.  It's at night that they come to life and move around.

Other than some really inconsiderate tourists who were intent on waking the tarsiers up by blowing on them, speaking to them etc. it was really pleasant to see these cute bug-eyed beasts.

5) Man Made Forest

After the tarsiers we drive towards the Chocolate Hills.  Our route took us up 'chicken intestine road' (so called because of all the sharp bends) through the Man Made Forest.  Essentially just a standard forest with lots of tall, straight trees planted in nice straight lines.

6) The Chocolate Hills

Other than the tarsiers, Bohol's other big tourist attraction is the roughly 1200 Chocolate Hills.  They have a very distinctive shape and apparently look at their most beautiful at dawn and dusk.  We arrived in the middle of the day, in the rain.  They were still really impressive.  We were driven to near the top, and then could walk up some 200 odd steps to the top of one of the hills to get a great vista of some of the other Chocolate Hills.

There were 3 other things on the tour, but we didn't do them:

Loboc River cruise

Butterfly Conservation Centre

Hanging Bridge

Instead, we stopped at another church this time on Panglao island - Dauis 'Our Lady of Assumption' church. It is famous for a well that is at the alter.  Another beautiful church.

We arrived back at the hotel at a reasonable time (mid afternoon) thinking that we'd be able to enjoy a cocktail or 2 during happy hour, only to be met with a sign on our room door saying that no alcohol would be served until midnight Tuesday!  All because of the election.  So we had to make to with enjoying some sunshine as we lay by the pool.

We did manage to find some alcohol later that night at a hotel bar along Alona beach.  Phew.

On our last morning, again we enjoyed an Arts Cafe breakfast before getting in some last minute pool time.  The sun was out in full force and it really felt like we were on holiday.

I'd definitely recommend a trip to Bohol.  It's an hour away from Manila, by plane, but feels a whole lot further.  It's quiet, clean and beautiful.

Walking to work

I've probably said this a few times on the blog, but I love being able to walk to work.  No more being at the mercy of other drivers on the road, and it's so close that I don't spend hours of my life commuting.  I thought I'd put a few pics up of the walk itself:

1) The first crossing from our apartment block

 2) Left turn onto Gamboa

3) Right turn to walk through Washington Sycip Park (one of 4 parks in Makati - really pretty and quiet).

4) Across the road and another right turn onto Thailand (Rada) Street

5) Left turn onto Dela Rosa Street (see the elevated walkway to the right of the picture)