Home 2008 - Washington DC 2010 - Cuba 2011 - DR, Bermuda, & Cruise 2012 - DR & Costa Rica 2013 - Cruise, CR, & USA 2014 - SE Asia The Year Off 2015 - 2016 -  Preamble -  Thailand & Malaysia -  Italy -  Germany, Belgium, & Lux -  Czech, Poland, & Germany -  Austria, Slovakia, & Hungary -  Slovenia, Croatia, Austria & Germany -  England & Scotland -  Turkey -  Colombia -  Peru: Lima & Amazon -  Peru: Cusco & Inca Trail -  Peru: Cusco to Lima -  Mexico, Guatemala, & Belize -  New Zealand -  Australia & Thailand 2017 - The Balkans 2017 - Hungary, Romania, & Switzerland 2018 - New York 2018 - Amsterdam, Poland, & The Baltics 2019 - Costa Rica 2019 - France 2020 - Thailand 2023 - Mexico 2023 - Iceland & Cruise 2024 - Philippines 2025 - Japan 2025 - Iceland Short Trips Lists Links	January 27, 2024 - Saturday Manila Philippines Long travel day. Took about 24 hours to get from Canada to Manila on three flights. I can’t really sleep on planes, so this was a bit rough. Arrived in Manila at 10pm. Changed some money, got a local sim card, and then taxi to the hotel. Checked in, then went out to grab some water. Back to hotel to try to sleep. I decided on this trip just to use my phone for pictures. I did not want to take my better camera on all the boat trips. For the most part it worked out pretty well. January 28, 2024 - Sunday Manila Philippines Slept off and on during the night. I hate jet lag. Got up late in the morning. Walked to Greenbelt Mall and then walked around it. Had lunch at a chicken place that was okay. Back to hotel to take the afternoon easy and try to grab a short nap. Went for a massage in the early evening. January 29, 2024 - Monday Manila Philippines Still not sleeping right through the night. Took a Grab (Uber) to Intermuros area. Saw the old Spanish fort. Not that great. Traffic sucks, it took 30-40 minutes to travel about 7 km. In the evening I met the tour group and had dinner with them. This tour is by One Life Adventures. There are nine of us on the tour, plus the guide. So far everyone seems pretty nice. Went to bed early to try to catch up on sleep. January 30, 2024 - Tuesday Puerto Princesa Philippines We had to be ready to check out at 4:50 am so we could go to the airport to fly to Puerto Princesa. I got about five hours of sleep, not too bad. There was a problem with the plane and we were delayed about two hours. It caused us to miss the tour of a local prison which had sounded interesting. Instead we got Jollibee (fast food), went to a place with a dinky zip line (no one used it), and then stopped at a mall for any last minute shopping before we go to the beach tomorrow. We also picked up some school supplies for a school visit in a few days. Back at the hotel I went for a short walk, bought a couple of souvenirs, and then hung out at the pool for an hour or so with the group. Had a group dinner that we went to by Jeepney. January 31, 2024 - Wednesday Port Barton Philippines Great night’s sleep, got about eight hours. We took a van to Port Barton but first stopped to see the underground river. We had to take a boat to a staging area, then a smaller boat that a local man rows into the actual underground river. I enjoyed it, was a different experience than my previous cave visits where I walked in it. Pictures inside the cave did not turn out very well. Got to Port Barton an hour or two before sunset. We setup in front of the hotel on the beach, went for a swim, walked around, and then watched the sunset. After showering we went to a very nice restaurant for dinner. Later, we went to a bar for a drink (I just had a tonic water). I left after about 45 minutes, the rest of the group stayed later. I just can’t do the loud music anymore where you cannot hear the person right next to you, not fun to me. February 1, 2024 - Thursday Private Beach Philippines After breakfast we walked to a local preschool. The kids are so cute. They put on a short dance routine for us and then we got to play with them for a short time. They loved when I would squat down, grab them under the arms, and then stand up and hold them over head quickly (rocket ship). We also gave the school a donation of school supplies we picked up a couple of days ago, and some cash. Back at the hotel, we left our stuff in the rooms and took an overnight bag. We boarded a boat that took us snorkeling to two spots. I saw lots of coral and fish. The coral was dull, but the fishes were many bright colors. We had lunch somewhere in there as well. Then we went to what they call a private island, but is really a private beach/cove that is connected to the main island. Upon arrival one of the other guys went for a shower, and then I went. No one went after me for about half and hour, but when they did they discovered the water was not working. Many people were unhappy people about that! But I was nice and clean. Anyways we had dinner and then got a bonfire started and sat around that for the rest of the night. When I looked up at the sky I could see so many stars. There is no light pollution here and it was beautiful. Been a long time since I had seen the night time sky like that. We had tents to sleep in with air mattresses. It was pretty good. February 2, 2024 - Friday Port Barton Philippines After breakfast we left the private beach and went to three snorkeling spots. All of them were better than yesterday. More coral and fishes, also saw a sea snake. Went for lunch, then to a spot where we left the boat and walked to a waterfall. I found the water very cold at that spot. Back on the boat, our final stop before leaving the boat for good was at starfish island, which was a small sandbar where there are some starfish. We then sat around waiting for the sun to set, which wasn’t anything special because of the clouds. Back to our hotel, we showered and then went for dinner. Again, I left after dinner and the others stayed out to go clubbing/bar hopping. February 3, 2024 - Saturday El Nido Philippines Today was mostly spent traveling to El Nido. Once we arrived I dropped off laundry, walked around, and grabbed a drink with a few people. Had Greek food for dinner which was very good, then we went to Karaoke for an hour or so. Two of the people in our group are excellent singers. February 4, 2024 - Sunday El Nido Philippines Today was a cultural day. We went to a hut/event space in the mountains. There we did stick fighting, coconut tree climbing, coconut shaving (the savings are then used to make milk or oil), decorated a shot glass, cooked lunch (a chicken dish), and tried a Filipino dance. Once that was done we walked for about 10 minutes and took a zip line over to another island and walked back to the mainland on a sandbar, where we found a bar and stayed there for the sunset. This tour seems to like sunsets. We had Korean food for dinner, which was pretty good. The restaurants in El Nido so far have not disappointed. February 5, 2024 - Monday El Nido Philippines Boat day to several of the islands around El Nido. There are four main boat tour routes plus some custom ones. We did tour “B”, which took us to a beach with a small cave we explored, and then we went snorkeling. Lunch was next, with another larger cave we saw. Then to “snake” island (no snakes, it is named for the sandbar that snakes from it). We snorkeled here. Both snorkeling stops were not that great, the ones in Port Barton were much better. Hopefully the scuba diving in a couple of days isn’t to these areas. Finally, we moved the boat to deeper water where we jumped and dove in for a bit, before returning back to the hostel. We had dinner at the hostel, everyone ordered pizza. Then we played Pictionary (my team lost), and then to bed. February 6, 2024 - Tuesday El Nido Philippines We did a canopy walk in the morning. Was alright, but so hot because there was no breeze. Then we took a van to Duli Beach, north of El Nido. We were supposed to surf, but the waves were not really high enough. So we just hung out there for a couple of hours, then went to Lio beach, which was not as clean and much more touristy. Got an included massage before our final group dinner. The tour is basically over now. Overall the tour was very good. Other than the Port Barton accommodation which was poor I have no complaints. February 7, 2024 - Wednesday El Nido Philippines Stored my luggage at the Hostel, and went and did my scuba refresher course. That was two dives with some exercises, and then did another fun dive. Saw two turtles, one of which was quite big, probably 3-4 feet in length. Also saw lots of fish, including angel fish, clown fish, and schools of various types of fish, none of which I know the name of. Our dive master also pointed out an electric clam, which was bright orange and had electricity flowing between tentacle things. It was very cool. Back in El Nido I transferred to a different hotel. February 8, 2024 - Thursday El Nido Philippines Did three more dives. First was a normal reef dive, second was a wall dive, and third was a tunnel dive where we went through a 40 meter long tunnel. We had flashlights for it and it I enjoyed that a lot. February 9, 2024 - Friday El Nido Philippines I did a boat tour booked through my hotel, Tour “A”. It went to the big lagoon, where we took a kayak and paddled around it. It was very pretty but a little crowded. Next was a snorkeling spot, then lunch, then secret lagoon (tiny and not really worth it), and finally a short beach stop. After I returned to town I got a massage. Tonight I had dinner with a Filipino family that I met on the boat. They all live overseas and were visiting as tourists. It was a fish dinner at the hotel restaurant. February 10, 2024 - Saturday El Nido Philippines After checking out of the hotel, I walked around and had lunch. Then went to airport and flew to Manila. That killed most of the day. February 11, 2024 - Sunday El Nido Philippines Fly home. Overall a very good vacation. Manila was nothing special, but I really liked El Nido.
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