TVSTRANGERTHINGS
🪼

izzy's playlists!
dirt enthusiast
occasionally subtle

Kiana Khansmith
$LAYYYTER
Show & Tell
Jules of Nature
trying on a metaphor

roma★
Stranger Things
will byers stan first human second
tumblr dot com
DEAR READER
Monterey Bay Aquarium

if i look back, i am lost

Origami Around
sheepfilms
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
seen from Mexico

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Malaysia

seen from Türkiye

seen from South Korea

seen from Malaysia
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Japan

seen from United States

seen from Malaysia
seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom

seen from United States
seen from Australia

seen from Malaysia

seen from Singapore
seen from T1

seen from Canada
@filindipino
PHOTOS!!!
Finally able to post pictures again! Amen for cheap SD card readers 😁😁😍
Friday 18th September
Woke up late (no surprise there) much to the surprise of my Tita Vicky (who woke up at stupid o'clock and stole our clothes to wash them, even though we had said that we'd do it!). After food and being lazy for a while, the whole family, including Lola (grandma) all piled into a rickety old mini van with the world's WORST driver ever! Seriously, I did not think it was possible to be so bad! Every five minutes, or turn, or stoplight, or vehicle wanting to overtake was an accident waiting to happen!
We picked up my other auntie and my cousins along the way, and somehow managed to make it to the place in one piece. I say "place" as I don't really know where we are. All I know was that I was told we should go to Buting Buhanggin, a beautiful beach near Lucena. We ended up jumping on a little boat (about 10 of us), which tilted forward a little, and headed to one of the most beautiful, serene, gorgeous beach we have seen, which is surprising considering the beauty of El Nido! But the waters were so warm and clear and soothing, and the sea beyond so still and peaceful.
The day was spent swimming about and eating until it was time to pile back onto the boat, the clear sea, calm, with barely a wave or a ripple, making our boat ride peaceful and seamless, Mount Banahaw casting the clouds in the distance.
Then we had to pile back into the crappy little mini van, which broke down dropping my auntie and cousins off, with our driver convinced that there was something wrong with the battery, even though the lights and everything electronic worked, not even considering the fact we had run out of fuel. Idiot. We had to commute back in the end, which was an event in itself. It took ages for a bus to come, and the one that did, had to be evacuated as it started steaming and throwing up huge puffs of white smoke and steam, which my Lola frantically dragged us away from quickly... We got back on the bus though, haha, and all was well!
Thursday 17th September
Woke up to 23 missed calls and a load of texts from my mum asking where we were, to pick up the phone, to get in contact. Haha. With no credit and no way of getting credit, it was pointless. She did send me a text telling me that she called my Kuya to come and pick us up and take us to the bus terminal to take us to Lucena to see my family... Not what we had agreed the night before.
So ensued a two hour wait in Manila, hungry and just wanting to leave this polluted city. After finally getting some food and managing to get on a nice air conditioned bus, we were on our way! Seeing the family was nice! Seeing a new doggie was a better surprise! Her name is Jacqueline and she's so cute and fluffy and silly. Ah, I think I've fallen in love with her already!!
We managed to fit in a quick visit to see my Ninang (godmother), who, although she lives in London, I hadn't been able to see for the last two years!! So it was nice seeing her in Fili 😁
Wednesday 16th September
Early start and excited to be heading to Sagada! After bidding Tito Randy goodbye, we were driven up the road to the jeepney terminal, literally a 5 minute walk, and deposited on the Sagada Jeep, where we waited... And waited... And waited...
We waited for at least an hour before one man told us that we needed to wait for more passengers, as there were only two of us, before the jeep could leave. He did kindly offer to let us hire the keep out for P2,500. Of course we said no, and patiently waited. Half an hour later we were told they were expecting the arrival of five tourists from Batad who were going to Sagada... They never showed up. So after a full two hours of waiting and generally getting annoyed and hot in a slowly heating up metal jeep, we were graced with the man from before holding a map. He repeated that they couldn't leave without more passengers, offered again the opportunity to hire the jeep, and then offered us another option when we declined private hire, which was to take us to the main road, by the Banaue lookout point, in his tricycle where we could catch a mini van to Sagada coming from another town. It would only cost us P300.
We immediately smelt a scam. Like Simon had said before, anyone that approaches you with a map is definitely trying something. We also questioned the need to go to the viewpoint to catch the mini van, which we had walked to and knew wasn't that expensive to get to (around P100), which also had no other connecting roads, meaning every vehicle had to pass through the bottom of town to get to. Shaking our heads, annoyed at the waste of our time, we declined his offer and went back to Tito Randy.
He wasn't entirely surprised when we came back, as this had happened the day before with an Italian couple. He recommended catching the mini van from the top of the stairs, where we had to walk to get to the viewpoint and to our favourite restaurant, only a short 5-7 minutes away. It was already 11am by this point, with no guarantee of a mini van until around 1pm, with a long journey before we even got to Sagada. With the intention of only staying one night and realising we would be wasting a lot of time travelling, and then having to come back on ourselves early tomorrow morning, we decided to cut our losses and skip Sagada and head down to Manila in he evening. After buying our tickets and having yet another awesome meal at 7th Heaven, we ended up chilling out for the rest of the day, and I finally managed to get my hands on fresh banana bread!
When it was time, we headed to the Ohayami ticket booth where a jeep would pick us up to shuttle us to the bus further down the road. When we got there, the jeep was already packed full of people, no space to sit inside and the top loaded in bags... The driver was insistent that everyone could fit, which meant 5 of us had to sit up top, with all the bags, one guy clinging onto the back. Definitely a pretty cool experience, full of fresh wind in our faces and fear in our hearts at every sharp turn at full speed!
By the time we finally got to the bus, we were exhausted, falling asleep quickly and completely missing the food stop much to Simon's dismay,
Tuesday 15th September
Batad! After a tedious tricycle journey around the mountains and a steep hill, we arrived at The Saddle, the point of no return for tricycles due to its steepness and non-completeness at the bottom, where it trailed off into a dirt track to the village. This meant we had to walk down the main road, still under construction and witness the cement being put down and smoothed out by the workers. It was amazing to see how they widened the road; hacking away at the side of the mountain, pulling down rocks and trees and carving a path. The walk along the main road took around half an hour, with an extra 10-15 minute walk hiking through the woods.
The views were beautiful as we walked down, and our guide in the village, Kuya Machete, was friendly and easy-going, making those across the rice fields, shaped in a horseshoe with the main village at the bottom of the rice terraces, a pleasant one. We headed on a little path down towards Tappiya Falls, an Amazon waterfall cascading over and into the large pool below, throwing up mist and spray everywhere. It was truly a magical sight. Simon did unfortunately, manage to lose a flip flop which sped down the river, taken by the force of the falls, although Kuya Machete did run to try and save it, bless him!
We realised on the hot, humid walk back, that Simon had forgotten his watch at the falls. We considered going back, but he remembered that he'd gotten it wet when he went into the falls and was convinced that it was probably not worth going back for if it was already damaged. Mourning his watch and hungry, we were glad to get back to Rita's Place where we had a good filling meal (expensive!!). Then back up the winding main road, where we were accompanied by one of Rita's dogs, who became our little tour guide/guard dog the whole walk back. We had to shoo her away towards the end, in fear she wouldn't get back safely.
In all honesty, I think I prefer Batad to Banaue. There's something much more intrinsically serene and awe inspiring walking through these rice fields and seeing a life, a village livelihood springing from rice field to field and being so dependent on themselves. We were surprised to find out that they don't sell their rice in Batad; the rice grown there is purposely for the families that grow them.
We went back to 7th Heaven for one of the best meals we've had in the Philippines so far, which a little kitty seemed to agree with as she leaped onto my lap to try and sample some!
Monday 14th September
5.30am and we finally arrive in Banaue to the most breathtaking sunrise! Words just cannot describe the awe watching this gorgeous ball of reddish orange ascending into the sky between two peaks and gently washing them in colour. Just wow! Although this was ruined slightly when I swear our tricycle driver ran over a little chick 😔
After arriving at the inn, we were quickly ushered upstairs to our room by Tito Randy who insisted that we get some rest first before the day, and that we would talk later to plan our day. This sounded like the best idea to me! We were both absolutely shattered after a long two sleepless days and bumpy, freezing bus rides, and we're definitely looking forward to falling asleep on a comfy bed. When we finally woke up after a restful nap, Tito Randy had breakfast ready for us at the table, and recommendations of where to head to today.
So the world famous Banaue Rice Terraces were our destination for the day; a nice easy walk uphill along the main road. The view was breathtaking and so refreshing. Although the rice terraces weren't in harvest, it was still a beautiful sight to behold. Our wall back down was followed by a warming hot chocolate at the 7th Heaven Restaurant over looking the village of Banaue with great views of the rice terraces from the balcony.
Sunday 13th September
We arrived in Baguio a lot earlier than we were expecting, 5.30am instead of 7am... Which meant we were sleepy and drowsy and without a clue as to where we were, so stupidly agreed to let some guy drive us around to find a guest house for us to stay in for P50 each, which led to dead ends and us being hungry, so we just got him to drop us at the Victory Liner bus terminal to grab some food. We went in search of places to stay on our own, but the cheapest rooms were already gone, so in an attempt to find more accommodation, we went hunting for wifi, which led us to an SM. Unfortunately, being a Sunday, it wasn't open when we rocked up at 7am, with Jolibee being the only place to open early, at 8am, and Starbucks at 8.30am. We ended up camping outside Jolibee, grateful that we could still access their wifi, only to find out that everywhere was really expensive.
Plan B, find a bus out of here! Thankfully, there was a bus heading to Banaue at 9pm, so it wasn't that bad. Once Starbucks was open, we went straight in to charge our stuff and devour a waffle and hot chocolate! Sweet, divine, sugary and much needed goodness!
Sated and happy, but still ridiculously tired, we walked into the main town area, coming across a pretty park area, packed full of people having picnics, strolling around with their kids, cycling in designated areas or in little boats on the lake. It was quite cute. We set our backpacks down and finally relaxed for a bit, drawing and just chilling out, once in a while having a couple of children asking so for money and lingering around for ages. When it started to rain, we set off to find the Ohayami ticket office, which was a ramshackle little shed tucked into the corner of the street, and the guy had gone for lunch! We managed to buy our tickets eventually, happy that they were quite cheap, at only P400 each. We dropped our backpacks off and went off to explore Baguio a little bit, mainly heading to SM and walking around mindlessly, desperately trying not to fall asleep every time we sat down.
After exploring for a little while, we were actually quite glad that we weren't staying in Baguio. Apart from being a nice cool city, there wasn't actually much to do here (turns out all the good things to do happen outside the city).
Tired and falling asleep everywhere, with a minor sugar rush buying J Co doughnuts, it was finally time to board the bus. It was crap. It was packed full of people, with small chairs which barely reclined (not that we could with a family of four squished into the 2 seats behind us), no legroom, grotty strange smell and seats in the aisle, which meant no one could really move anywhere. No sleep tonight! And it was freezing, with the air conditioning blasted up as high as they could manage. It was a bumpy, long and uncomfortable ride, made worse by how tired we were already. Only good thing was that we managed to get in contact with Tito Randy in Banaue, who ran Randy's Brookside Inn, where we were hoping to stay, and he arranged to have someone to pick us up to bring us to the homestay. Yaaay!
Saturday 12th September
Plan: flight to Manila, arrive at 8pm, get to Sampaloc bus terminal before 10pm, catch the over night bus (Ohayami) to Banue. Easy.
Reality: - Flight to Manila delayed by an hour due to lightening storm - Arrived in Manila at 9pm, have to wait ages for bags - miss last bus to Banaue - Mum freaks out and calls everyone she knows in Manila, finally getting in contact with her godson (Kuya Roel) - Kuya Roel arrives 2 hours later at 11:30pm and herds us into a taxi to find somewhere to stay - Guesthouse we wanted is too far away and guesthouse they recommend is P1420 for 12 hours... What?! - Luckily, right next to the bus terminal to take us to Baguio, so forgo the hotel and jump straight on the bus, for the same price as the hotel - note: nicest bus we've ever been on!
Baguio here we come?
Friday 11th September
Nagtabon Beach, a really really windy, super exposed beach on the west coast of Palawan, beautiful despite the wind and clouds and my mood swings. An anxious little dog, who seemed to take a liking to us, fretfully stood guard by our beach hut, jumping out of her skin any time the wind blew too hard or a chicken stalked by. She was adorable though, excitedly coming in for affection and a stroke every time it was offered.
I have to say, Simon is definitely getting better at his flaring. He spent the majority of our time on the beach practising while I slept and was generally a moody grumpstickle.
We managed to watch The Scorch Trials here in Puerto Princesa at the local Robinsons, and jheeze it was bad! It got everything wrong. They changed the plot and nothing went the way it was meant to!! I mean, it would've been a good film if we hadn't read the books already, as it is they managed to butcher the whole thing.
We finished the night drinking Tanduay with Kuya Ray and these two Estonian guys, and later a really softly spoken Filipino (the Estonian guys went out after a bottle of rum). Safe to say at only P85 for a bottle of rum and P35 for a bottle of Coke was more than enough to get us a little tipsy.
Thursday 10th September
We finally packed our bags and left the beautiful El Nido, our cash supplies running horribly low and no ATM to withdraw money from, apart from a restaurant that charges 10% commission. Ha! No thanks! Coincidently, we ended up with the the same driver we had on the way to El Nido and the same beat up mini van which rained on the inside, as the American couple who were also on our tour, found out later (Jessica and Cody). We also managed to get a ridiculously bad flat tyre, which made us realise just how worn out the other three were, especially after the driver fitted the new tyre and we ended up tilting to the side a bit!
We were warmly welcomed back by Kuya Ray at Ezy Stay, which was a lovely touch after a long journey! Yay for Kuya Ray.
Wednesday 9th September
Back on Las Cabanas beach, and we're getting slightly better at this haggling thing! ... as wrong as it feels, haha! Spent our last day with Garie, playing frisbee and being acquainted with the local beach dogs, one ridiculously friendly and another we had seen a few days before with a massive scab on its forehead, now open and gaping and swollen! Oh, it was so bad! The cut was above his eye and so deep and full of sand and gunk, and from the angle it was in, and the depth of it, it almost looked like we were looking straight into its brain! It was definitely really gross, and looked so painful! Apparently the owner was treating it and cleaning the wound, but it's difficult to do when the dog tries to scratch at it with sandy paws. Poor thing!
We managed to escape back to town before the rain hit, before venturing out to get some food and ended up going back to get the best crepes we'd ever had the privilege of eating in south east Asia so far!!
Tuesday 8th September
Finally on a tour! After asking around for a bit, we decided to go for a Tour A, even managing to get a discount! After a quick breakfast of yummy, fluffy pancakes, we headed to the boat, wading waist deep to get there through beautifully warm clear waters. Our guides were all friendly and entertaining, quickly explaining our destinations. So first we set off to 7 Commandos Beach, a perfect white sand beach and crystal clear waters with cliffs on both sides. It was stunning. None of the pictures we got could do it justice.
Our next stop after that was the Secret Lagoon, and this is where things started to get interesting, and difficult. Because of all the rocks and corals and a low tide, we had to jump out of the boat (life vests securely fastened and strapped around me), and wade to the shore, where the entrance was a little hole in the rock wall, water gushing out the bottom, the rock of the entrance all smooth and easy to manoeuvre over and through. It was so cool!
... Then we had to get back to the boat, which was quite far out, waves pulsing strongly now at this point, rocking the boats and splashing against the side of a curved rock face. We slowly picked our way across the stones and rock, which I would soon intimately learn were actually dead coral, attempting to get to the boat, but being pushed back by the waves, and all of sudden getting stuck between the cliff face and another boat slowly creeping towards us in an attempt to get out. Quickly having to back track against the waves and trying not to fall over, I felt a sharp pain slice into my big toe, where I sadly lost a part of it to the sea forever. Sore and achy and annoyed, we finally managed to get back far enough, a group of us holding on to each other for support, before we could finally clamber on board, my toe bleeding sadly along the surface. Little splash of iodine and it was fine!
Next stop, Shimizu Island for lunch and the most amazing snorkelling I've had the pleasure of doing! It was so beautiful, although unfortunately quite damaged. There were so many different types of fish swimming about. I even managed to see a blue starfish, a puffer fish and Nemo!! We did see quite a lot of sea urchins and it was upsetting to see a few people standing on the corals. It was such a cool experience, and definitely out of my comfort zone, but I'm glad I did it! And just off the coral was a massive drop into endless deep blue sea.
It was really upsetting to see so many people stepping on the corals, and it makes you wonder how much of this can be preserved before Palawan turns into the new Boracay. There are already big plans for development, an airport being built in El Nido and the airport in Puerto Princesa being developed into an international airport. I am really glad we had the opportunity of seeing El Nido and Palawan in its prime before it gets too crowded.
The Big Lagoon was our penultimate stop, and definitely the most traumatising experience. We had to swim out to the lagoon area, as the tide was too low for the boats to go over the corridor leading to the lagoon. This wasn't too bad, with the coral being quite pretty and big fishes swimming out of their homes and stopping to stare at you inquisitively before swimming off. Simon was happily have the time of his life floating on his back with his life vest and letting me drag him along backwards, much to the amusement of the massive crowd of tourists behind us! The Big Lagoon was pretty and serene, quiet and so still. We didn't spend very much time here, just floated about and enjoyed the view of the cliffs looming over us.
The wade back was hard, and pretty horrible in all honesty. In the time we spent at the Big Lagoon the tide had gone out even more, and the waves, although small, were strong, pushing you back with every advance you made, and suddenly the coral was everywhere and much too close! Panicking, I tried heading towards the side to find a deeper area, but it was useless and made it all worse. Turning back, I felt the horrible scrape of coral against the front of my life vest! Trying not to panic and make things worse, I tried to be as delicate and calm as possibly, gently frog legging along over the coral, arms wide and outstretched to paddle me along, wincing every time my life vest or legs scrapped the sharp coral. It was horrible! Even Simon had a rough time of it, the guy swimming in front of him full on panicking and thrashing about when he scraped his knee quite badly on the coral, kicking up loads of bubbles and making it harder for Simon to get anywhere. It was such a relief to get back on the boat, the majority of us a little worse for wear and bleeding in one place or the other.
I ended up forgoing the last small lagoon, where you could kayak through a small entrance in the rock, or swim through over coral, and sea urchins as Simon told me later. Instead I happily stayed on the boat, tired and hungry, but content to just watch monkeys running around on the far beach.
All in all, despite the trauma, it was a pretty spectacular trip, and worth the money we ended up paying. It took me way out of my comfort zone and I'll probably never do something like that again, but I'm glad I did it.
Monday 7th September
Early morning start and we were off to Nacpan Beach, a long white double beach further north of El Nido. Our company included the birthday boy, Garie, and a lovely French girl, Anne-Charlotte, who was travelling around for 4 months on her own before her last year of uni.
Along the way, we stopped off at Nagkalitkalit Falls... Which involved an hour trek through the woods, wading through four rushing streams full of stones, and rocky paths, with poor Anne-Charlotte having to go barefoot because of a cut on her foot. When we finally arrived at the waterfalls, it was both beautiful and insanely disappointing considering the effort. It was small waterfall, and a little dirty, with yellow foam bubbling at the edges of the surface. After a full 10 minutes there, we started the hike back when my sandal finally lost the will to live and died a horrible death at the bottom of a stream.
Nacpan Beach, when we finally got there, was absolutely stunning, with a beautiful island looming in the distance, where we learnt was part owned by Manny Pacquiao. We waded into the water after a quick meal, the waves lapping at us, but the water so wondrously clear and warm! The frisbee came out and we spent ages jumping around in the waves, being rubbish, haha, and meeting another Filipina and a Chilean guy.
Finally remembering the twin beaches, we walked over to the viewpoint, which involved a precarious climb up the side of the hill, muddy and slippy with rain, but what a view!! Although it was grey and cloudy, it was beautiful, the wind strong and threatening to blow us over, but we had to take a quick selfie!
Then the heavens let loose and we were drenched within seconds, running off the viewpoint quickly and, after dumping our stuff, ran straight back out into the sea, frisbee at hand and waves slowly increasing in size, easily washing over us! Ah, it was amazing!!
Our evening ended in a videoke bar, requested by the birthday boy, with a rum and coke and us belting out classics, Simon even getting involved at one point! Perfect end to the day!
Sunday 6th September
We woke up to a spectacular view! Who knew after all the rain and the storm and the blackout, that right outside our cottage was the beach, with limestone cliffs lining either side and islands floating out in the distance. What a nice surprise!
We checked out quickly and jumped into a tricycle to the main town centre, finding Austria's Place and checking in quickly.
Starving, we went hunting for food, settling in the first place we found, Mezzanine, a cute Italian restaurant with the best pasta we've had so far, and the most incredible view of clear blue waters, islands and little boats up on the balcony.
I definitely think we're gonna enjoy it here!
We headed out to Las Cabanas, a small clean white beach with serene, warm clear blue waters, and happily relaxed here for the day, swimming about and enjoying the views. Although we got caught in the rain, we had the most amazing day, jumping into the sea when the wind got too cold for us.
Our evening search for food led us to the best crepe place we've ever been to, where we found Garie! Woo! Who happened to be staying round the corner from us!
Saturday 5th September
Early morning start on the way to the Underground River here in Palawan, considered to be one of the natural wonders of the world, so super excited!!
The journey took a while though, and apparently there's always a buildup of boats lining up to get there, so our driver (ER) and our tour guide (Harry) took us to another little tourist attraction, Ubong a Rock where we did a little caving and I did a superman zip-line haha! Definitely one of the best things I've done in a while.
Kudos to our driver and tour guide, but I have to say, our underground river tour guide was phenomenal! He was fantastic, spoke amazing English and was full of quirky jokes and puns. Simon and I were definitely loving it! My all time fav has to be in reference to water dripping down from stalactites, sparrows flying about and all the cute little bats hanging from the cave ceiling; "Don't worry if you feel something cold fall on you, that, we call it 'Holy Water'. If it is warm, then that is bad. That, we call it, 'Holy Shit'"!!
The whole trip through the caves was incredible; the stalagmite and stalactite formations were extraordinary. We were almost plunged into darkness a quarter of the way through our tour, our torch deciding to flicker weakly, which led to a complicated change over of torches between 3 boats and traffic in the caves haha.
I really hope that this place remains preserved! It is such a gem and and a rarity.
As soon as we got back, we had to pack our stuff really quickly, our van to El Nido arriving sooner than we expected. Halfway through the journey, the lightening started in the distance. By the time we were nearly at El Nido it was pouring with rain, our van leaking and we still had no clue how to get to our accommodation! We did end up meeting a really friendly Filipino, Garie, who was travelling and celebrating his birthday in a few days.
Lucky for us, a guy working in the hotel next to the place we were meant to be staying in was in our van, and helped us down in the rain and dark to our place, as there happened to be a complete blackout... Only for us to be told they didn't have a room for us, despite the fact that we had already paid. Crap. It all worked out ok though, as helpful guy had a cottage free and quickly ushered us in, handing us a lamp and bidding us goodnight.
It was a tiny room, and absolutely baking hot, with thin walls where we could hear the people next door whispering!! But at least we weren't out in the rain! Silver linings ☺️
Pristine Beach, Puerto Princesa, Palawan