Palawin Philippines

We had arranged for a rental car and a driver to met us at Puerto Princesa International Airport. This was a great choice as they were waiting when we arrived even though our flight was late. The first night we stayed in Puerto Princesa as we knew that we would have a five hour drive to get to El Nido at the northern end of the island. 

Taytay Bay

The drive is slow and we were happy that we had arranged our own driver as the passenger vans were packed. It also allow us to stop when we wanted. El Nido is a tourist town with lots of young backpackers. People come to this municipality for it's white sand beaches, coral reefs and to see the Bacuit archipelago, a group of steep karst cliff islands.

At Taytay we stopped and visited an old fort.

We chose to stay out of town on a section of beach that had numerous hotels and eating establishments. Our room had a fantastic view of the karst islands and China Sea. Each night we were provided with a wonderful sunset.

Our Hotel Stunning Republic Beach from the water.

Most people come to El Nido and take a boat tour our to the nearby islands. You can connect with a group tours and visit several islands on a day trip, book a private boat, or chose to stay overnight on several islands.

A standard tour might take you to Secret Lagoon, Small and Big lagoons, Shimizu Island and Seven Cammandos Beach. Because the large tour usually have booked up all the spots so you might not be able to see these areas on a private boat but there are lots of islands to chose from. Be prepared to board the boat from the water and be packed in like sardines. They do not provide snorkel equipment or water shoes which you might consider renting on the beach before boarding. This is a great area for the diving enthusiast.

Entrance to Secret Lagoon

Seven Commandos Beach

There are also a couple of beaches outside of El Nido worth exploring. The best beach is Nacpan Beach but closer to town is Vanilla Beach which is very commercialized. You can rent a chair, get a beer or food and relax for the day.

Nacpan Beach

After enjoy our rest and beautiful sunsets we were back in the vehicle heading south back to Puerto Princesa.

Sunset from our hotel

On the drive back we stopped to purchase Buko Pie from a local vendor which Adam our driver recommended. Buko is coconut and the pie is made form coconut milk and coconut meat. That evening we enjoyed our Buko pie.

Back at Puerto Princesa we stayed in town and did day trips. The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park is a protected area and is about 80 kilometers for the city on the west coast (China Sea).

We did not have a lot of information about how to make arrangements. If you do not want to pay for a private boat then you have to try and find someone else that will go with you to make a boat of six people. This can be very difficult as most people come by tour and have full boats. It might be better to pay for a private boat instead of waiting. Once you pay for the park fee and boat then you wait until the boat with the number you are assigned returns to the pier.

Getting ready to enter the underground river.

Once you get to the park and have a beach landing you need to prove you have paid the park fee before proceeding. Our boat man helped us with this part, arranging to pick up the tape recording devices and getting us on a river boat. It can be all overwhelming.

Inside the cave.

The beaches in of Puerto Princessa are not spectacular so we took another drive back northwest to Nagtabon Beach. This is a long white sand beach on the China Sea side of the island. There are a few service available but limited lounge chairs.

You can also take a trip to Honda Bay and tour the islands.

After experiencing Puerto Princessa we took Cebu Air back to Manila.

Bohol Philippines

The island of Bohol is located south of Manila. You can reach the island by ferry or plane. We chose to fly from the domestic airport in Manila to Tagbilaran airport. This airport was brand new and is located on a small island called Panglao Island attached to Bohol by two bridges.

When we were reading about the islands Panglao Island seemed to be the best place to stay as it had a beach area and reasonable tourist accommodation.  We stayed at Alonaland which said it was located close to the beach.  We stayed in a attached bungalow with two bedrooms and had a kitchen so we could prepare meals. The room was very quiet and there was air conditioning in the bedrooms.

The property was quiet but access to the beach was not that easy. It was a fairly long walk via the road. If you were lucky enough to get access passes that allow you to walk through the property across from Alonaland then it is a short walk. Unfortunately they only have a limited number of passes that were not always returned daily.

Having chosen to cook meals access to groceries was very challenging. The closet large grocery story was located in Tagbilaran on Bohol and took an hour by bus. There are to taxis on the island so your choice for transportation is tricycle (similar to a tuk tuk in Thailand but smaller), private car with driver, scooter or bus.

There are a lot of restaurants in the area so access to meals is easy and very reasonably priced. They do a lot of grilled food chicken, pork belly, and fish. Every meal comes with a cup of rice and very few vegetables.

Paglao Island is mainly set up for diving. Our accommodation had diving classes daily in the hotel pool so access to the pool was limited. The beach area was also the marina. If you venture into the water you were warned to be careful of the spiny sea urchins. The sand on the beach is white and very fine and you can find shade if you do not want to spend all your time in the sun. There are also lots of restaurants located along the beach if you are looking for a view of the water.

Dive Boats

We did get to do some sightseeing on Bohol. One day we booked a car and driver and we went north to the Chocolate Hills. During the summer the hills in this area are brown. We visited just after the rainy season so the vegetation is still green.

To get the view of the whole area you need to climb to the top of the hill.

The chocolate hills are conical karst hills made of limestone. There are at least 1,260 hills but there may be as many as 1,776 hills spread over an area of more that 50 square kilometers.

This is a very busy tourist area.

We also visited the Tarsier Sanctuary. The smallest primate in the world can be seen at the sanctuary.  Tasiers measure only about 85 to 160 mm in height.  They are about the size of a human fist. Tarsier are nocturnal each morning they return to the same location to sleep during the day. This allows for visitors to have the opportunity to see these tiny creatures.

Large eyes fixed to their head.

The bamboo bridge is used by locals to cross over the river so that they can access transportation on the island. This was also a very busy spot. Walking across the bridge is challenging because of the uneven surface, low guide line and it is a suspension bridge.

Another popular activity is lunch on the Loboc River on Bohol Island. You board one of the many boats that serve a buffet lunch. As the boat travels down a quiet river you are entertained by the on board musical or a group of singers on the shore. If you don't like activities that cater to the masses this would not be for you.

Boarding the Boat

This concluded our tour of Bohol Island.  From Bohol Island we decided to fly to Palawan Island on the western edge of the Philippine Islands. To reach the island we had to fly back to Manila and catch a second flight to Puerto Princesa on Palawan. We flew Cebu Air which is a no frills airline. The seats are very close and you do not even get a glass of water unless you have paid for the please of being served. Manila airport is extremely busy that most flights are never on time make sure that you give yourself plenty of time for connections and try not to book the last flight of the day. Flights can also be canceled.  There are lots of services in Manila's domestic airport so take advantage before you get on a plane. When we traveled the exchange rate was better at the airport than on Paglao Island.

Mumbai

Gateway of India

Mumbai is the financial capital of India and the home to Bollywood. It is a modern city that was once the gateway to India. Mumbai is located on the western coast of India with the Arabian Sea on the west side of Salsette Island. Mumbai was once known as Bombay when the British were in control.

The Gateway of India was built to welcome the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911.

Narrow gauge train to reach the Elephanta Caves

Elephante Island holds ancient cave temples dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. You take a ferry from the Gateway of India to reach the island, then a small train before climbing about 100 stairs. If you can not climb the stairs there are porters who will carry you up for around 2000 rupees.

Shows the height of the caves

The caves were carved from the top down using wedges to separate the rock.

The area is dedicated to the Lord Shiva

There are several art galleries and museum that you can visit in Mumbai. We visited the Prince of Wales Museum and the Gandhi Museum.

Victoria Train Station

The markets are also a great place to bargain.

Choosing Spices

Crawford Market

Chowpatty Beach South Central Mumbai

At 5:30 AM Sassoon Dock is a busy place with the fishing boats arriving. People are buying fish, shrimp, crabs and other seafood. Women carry the purchases in tubs on their heads to the warehouses or storage bins.

Fish are sorted on the deck of the boat before being auctioned.

We spent five days at the Trident Hotel on Naranhi point. This was a great place to stay. This hotel was one of the places that the Pakistan terrorist attack Nov 26, 2008.

Our last day we were sent on our way with a wonderful message from the staff in the Frangipani Restaurant at the Trident Hotel at Nariman Point.
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Alleppey Backwaters

Rice barge now a houseboat

Our experience with the Alleppey backwaters was on a houseboat that was used to bring rice from the fields to Kochi for export. This was not a luxurious cruise as described in the travel information. Having come from the dry dessert atmosphere of Northern India to the humid south we were all very hot a sticky. There were four rooms on our boat with a common sitting room open to the elements. The bedroom did have air conditioning but there was little in the way of controlling the temperature. The walls were paper thin so you could hear everything going on in the next room.

The rivers and channels along the backwaters are quite large which allowed for a freeway of boats traveling between places. People could also walk or drive along the shore with the aid of bridges to allow for boat traffic to pass.

We saw locals carrying on with their daily life from fishing, preparing food, washing clothes and repairing boats. Below are a few picture from the area.

Local Transportation

Washing Clothes

Fishing for Dinner

Boat Repairs

Rice Field

The rice fields are often lower than the height of the waterways which allows for the fields to be easily flooded.

The boat was parked overnight facing a raised strip of land overlooking a rice field. They connected all three boats to a power supply on shore for the evening.  The open area was closed in with netting so that the mosquitoes and bugs would not use us as their evening meal. After dinner there was not much to do, the boat staff encouraged us to go to bed as they slept on the floor in the common area on a foam mattress.

The next day was a short trip back to the jetty where we boarded and the back on the bus for our transfer to the airport and on to Mumbai.