Philippines - Coron

Sunset over coron

Unfortunately for quite a lot of our time in the Philippines it rained! And our next and final stop was no exception. We took a little boat from El Nido to Coron, accompanied by a group of hung over, English uni students and a very eccentric 36 year old Dutch guy, Egor.

Wreck diving - very dark & claustrophobic

The main highlights of Coron were another island hopping tour where we saw some more amazing lagoons. One place called the twin lagoons had two adjacent lakes that at high tide you had to swim down and under some rock to go between the two. We also did some wreck diving! There are 24 Japanese war ships located in the vicinity of Coron that sunk during WW2. We were able to snorkel above one, and dive down to three others. For the first wreck dive we swam around the outside of the wreck that was covered in beautiful coral, admiring both the wreck and of course the abundant marine. The second dive we swam inside the wreck, going to the engine room and swimming between the different floors of the ship. To be completely honest although cool afterwards, at the time I found it really scary…the visibility was very poor, maybe 1-2m, so we were literally on top of the wreck before we realised it was there. Equipped with our torches we then swam into the pitch black hole on the side of the ship and into the claustrophobic unknown. I spent the first part of the dive so anxious that I was basically swimming on top of the divemaster…particularly embarrassing when he leisurely turned around to point out something of interest and I went colliding into him, scaring myself as much as him and probably using half my tank at the same time! Once I had calmed down a little I then spent the remainder of the dive worrying that I’d used so much of my air already that I was going to have to signal to the guide and we’d have to finish the dive super early…luckily everything was actually fine and I conquered all my fears to thoroughly enjoy the next dive! Mike loved it…every so often I’d hear him banging into the side of the ship somewhere behind me as he concentrated too hard on a particular photo and forgot his surroundings, but no major problems.

  On our final day we took a sea kayak out and kayaked around the islands to a couple of good snorkeling spots. After a total of about 7 hours kayaking we returned home, exhausted and thoroughly sun burnt but having had a great day! We had planned to spend our last evening planning Indonesia (where we were heading the next day) …but instead were once again coerced into shots at the bar by the English uni students and Egor. There was quite a group of us in the end but no one was allowed near the bar as Egor was proudly supplying the demand. When one of the English guys offered to buy some drinks his reply was simply “NO! YOU are student…I am EGOR!” and I think that summed him up really J

Next stop Indonesia….

Egor - at the back right - shirtless
Suprisingly good a table football

The famous Kayangan Lake

Soft shelled crabs

Coron rained alot!

You can see Katy's head in the distance

Scorpian Fish

Philippines - Palawan

Very cramped bus & sleeping drunk

From Cebu we flew to the island of Palawan where we were hoping to see the underground river near Sabang. Straight from the airport we got a taxi to the bus terminal on the other side of town, realising Sabang had no ATM and we had no cash we then spent 20 minutes going back into town before heading back to the bus terminal. We waited for 2 hours for the bus to fill up and then sat cramped on the bus for 6 hours until we finally reached Sabang. It was only then that we found out that actually we couldn’t go to the underground river because although you access it from Sabang, you have to buy your permit from Puerto Princessa from where we had just come!!!I guess that’s what happens when your lonely planet is…6 months old! With the count down on for our remaining days in the Philippines we decided instead of trying to retrace our steps and getting a permit we would save the couple of days and head north to El Nido. Another wonder of the world slipped unseen through our fingers…

Sabang beach was deserted as everyone
was at the underground river!

Another long Journey

El Nido

El Nido is a very picturesque little town surrounded by beautiful islands. We spent a day island hopping, snorkeling in various different lagoons and relaxing on amazing island beaches. Unfortunately after the day of island hopping Mikes leg went a bit ‘gammy’ and much to his frustration we decided it was probably best to keep it out of the water a little longer. Subsequently the following days were spent relaxing in beach bars, playing chess and drinking fruit shakes. We had dinner one evening with an American guy we’d met on the island tour and his very young Filipino girlfriend! (middle aged white guys with young Filipino girls seemed to be a bit of a running theme around the Philippines!) We had a fun evening though, in a little local bar listening to a live band and eating pizza.

Island hopping with tubigrip on leg - Kind of works

Next stop coron....

Philippines - Bohol

The diving spot we had favoured over Moalboal was Bohol and we had to travel back to Cebu and then get a ferry in order to get there. We arrived at Alona beach mid afternoon and it took us ages to try and fail to find the hostel we had planned to stay at. As the sun was beating down and we were exhausted from our dancing the night before, we decided to check into another cheapish option for one night and then continue our search without our bags for the following nights. We set off to explore the bay a little bit and to find the mystery hostel. On the way we also stopped to sign ourselves up for some dive courses starting the following morning – for Mike his advanced diver and for me my open water PADI.  The events that followed are probably best described first hand by Mike!

Watch out for motorbikes!

''Walking up the road towards the hostel I saw a break in traffic so went to cross the road. As I stepped out I heard Katy shout! I looked to my left and there was a moped speeding towards me. In less than a second it crashed into to me and the moped, the driver and I went skidding along the road. Coming to a stop I looked up to see Katys worried face! I jumped up to show her I wasn’t hurt… then she pointed to the pool of blood on the floor! I looked down and there was a hole in my left shin about 1 inch wide by ½ inch deep pouring with blood. The bewildered teenager on the moped was unhurt and apologies were exchanged on both sides and he drove off.  I was helped limping into the actual hostel we had gone to check out. Luckily there was an off-duty lifeguard who saw the crash and he proceeded to find a medical kit to clean and dress my leg, while I rolled around on a sofa trying to play down the pain. Unbelievably I had my camera strapped round my shoulder which only suffered a small crack to the lens filter. 

I also had my netbook laptop in my hands, which had gone flying across the road. Despite some blood spatters and some superficial damage it was working and intact! A taxi was called and I was taken to A+E. The first hospital I was taken to was a private hospital, which insisted I needed to be admitted overnight for insurance reasons. Fearing a costly medical bill I declined and was taken 5 minutes down the road to what turned out to be another private hospital. After a short wait and a clever bit of suturing I received 6 moderately painful stitches. The wound while looking fairly unpleasant and lumpy was a vast improvement and I was pleased with the outcome. Overall it had been an easy process definitely due to the helpful lifeguard who travelled with me to both hospitals and managed to negotiate my care in Filipino which made the process go a lot smoother…what a guy! We rewarded him (and Katy) with a trip to McDonalds and a tip. In McDonalds he still insisted on ordering rice and chicken in true Filipino style.''

Waiting in the hospital for my leg to be stitched

I returned the next day and for an xray. After a 6 hour wait for the radiologist I received an ambiguous xray report suspecting a fracture! I was then transferred to the public hospital where apparently the eminent and only orthopaedic consultant currently working was doing his rounds. After waiting outside A+E for 2 hours he sauntered over in his jeans and polo shirt only to hold the xray up in the air and say there was no fracture and therefore no problem. I inquired what the small chip on the tibia was and he dismissed it a small piece of periosteum (outer surface of bone). He then proclaimed I was fine to go diving or basically do whatever I want and to get crutches if required. All this was over in a matter of seconds and in standard orthopaedic style he sent me on my way slightly bemused. I purchased a pair of crutches and copious amounts of pain killers and headed back to bohol confused and very frustrated as what to do next. Back to Katy…..

So the following days for Mike were spent sitting at the bird watcher bar (understandably) feeling very sorry for himself, surfing the slow wifi. Meanwhile I continued to do my open water PADI qualification  with the Philippino fun divers which I really enjoyed over 4 days – I even bought their t-shirt at the end which I’m now proudly parading around IndonesiaJ Not satisfied with the first opinion we then headed straight to Cebu for Mike to get a second opinion on his leg. Leaving Bohol early enough that we arrived mid afternoon to Cebu, we checked in to the hotel nearest the largest hospital. Luckily for us we found out there was an orthopedic clinic that afternoon and we headed to the top floor of the mall opposite to find it! When we got there it was actually a whole private orthopaedic centre! We registered and Mike was seen by a very nice Filipino doctor who confirmed that there was a chip on the tibia but no fracture. Mike was able to fully weight bear and instructed to leave one of his beloved crutches behind. The progress was slow and very painful but eventually (2 weeks later) he achieved the crutchless gait! 

Katy does like her sweetcorn

Tarsier - smallest primate in the world
 and a bit funny looking! 

Walking through the jungle in crutches
was harder than I thought!

Philipines - Cebu

Morning sunrise over the Philippines

Our first stop in the Philippines was Cebu and we were on the quest for whale sharks. Having heard that there was a place in the south of the island where you could swim with the sharks as soon as we landed we headed off to the bus terminal, and on to Oslob. We arrived about 2pm to a normal residential stretch of road with only a couple of whale shark pictures to assure us we were in the right place. A friendly fisherman met us from the bus and ushered us towards one of the local houses. The whale sharks were only discovered in Oslob in October 2011 and as before then it was just a small residential fishing village, subsequently it’s not really set up for tourists. In the last couple of months one or two small guest houses have opened but with a lack of places to stay some of the locals have also opened up their homes for guests. 

Katy and the Whale Shark

We stayed with an old American guy who had moved to Oslob 20 years ago and married one of the local girls. He was a great character and had lots of never ending stories about obscure parts England that he loved to recount to us. Every so often he would remember something else and come and find us to ask if we had heard of it, or seen it or if we still did things a certain way. When it was time for us to come down for dinner or breakfast he would call up the stairs ‘Hey London… BBC calling!’ which he thought was hilarious. Another time we were sitting on the pier and he crept up behind us and started singing… After we’d been awkwardly listening to him for a couple of minutes unsure whether we should be joining in or just enjoying the recital, he stopped and asked us if school children still sang that song. He was sad to hear that unfortunately no they don’t.

The whale shark trips happen first thing in the morning when the fisherman, slightly controversially, feed them. We got up at 6 and walked 20m along the beach to pay our 1000 pesos (15 pounds) and listen to a talk where we were told not to go closer than 5m to the sharks…easier said than done! We then got into a canoe and rowed literally 50m off shore to the snorkeling spot. We saw about 10 sharks over the half hour we were swimming and it was impossible to keep a 5m distance! You would be intently watching one when another would silently swim up behind and past you, missing you by inches, scaring the life out of you at the same time!!Although not as big as whale sharks can be they were still huge ranging from 3m for the babies to about 8m for the bigger ones. The experience was amazing and every bit as exciting as we’d hoped it would be. Mike loved it so much he even went back for a second day…it was like watching a small boy at Christmas.

Whales sharks feeding

After Oslob we moved up the west coast of Cebu to Moalboal where we had planned to do some diving. For various reasons we decided to move straight on the next day to an apparently better place for diving but not before a crazy night out at the local Philippino disco!! I think it’s probably fair to say we were bullied into partaking in rum and coke and then practically forced to attend the disco by our crazy, party loving Australian friend. We were also joined by a very nice, slightly reserved Swedish guy. Slightly reserved that is…until we reached the disco! He was like a machine on the dance floor and the four of us had a great time, much to the amusement of the locals who mostly sat around the edge watching!

Philippines BBQ streetfood is very tasty

Lechon - roast pork is a speciality. Fatty but fantastic!