February 29, 2020

Leaving Malaysia for the Philippines

February 29, 2020 we flew from Georgetown, Penang Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur. We stayed at Rumah Putih Bed and Breakfast (Click Here) which was close to the airport. The next morning, March 1, we flew to Cebu Philippines. We spent the evening at our favourite high end Cebu restaurant Scape Skydeck. While walking back to our hotel we enjoyed the smells of sidewalk local food stalls with bbq chicken, satay and all kinds of things we couldn’t identify. Great smells none the less. The next morning, March 2, 2020 we boarded a flight from Cebu to Busuanga Philippines which is the home to Coron town. We checked into Pirates Diving Resort, Coron. This was our second stay here in as many years. In fact we are officially the resorts first retuning guests, 2 years in a row.

March 16, 2019March 16, 2019

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Coron - our last days

Thursday, March 14

Thursday we had another boat day trip booked. We left Pirates earlier this time hoping to get a jump start on the day. While we were early, we had to wait for the boat which Bart kept telling us was 10 minutes or just a “few” more minutes! We did finally get on the boat, the captain did what he had to register us and we were leaving the jetty just after 8. Our first stop was the Siete Pecados (seven islands) Marine Park where we snorkelled for quite awhile. The coral and marine life here is very nice. The water was warm and clear.

From the Marine Park we headed off to the Skeleton Wreck. The wreck is a Japanese ship from WWII. It’s a small 25m long wreck, with the top 5m deep and going down to 22m at the stern. The ribs of the wreck are covered in coral and there was lots of small fish. We really enjoyed this site.

From the wreck it was a short boat ride to Atwayan Beach where our boat crew prepared all our fruit that we’d bought. It was just after 10 am but we were hungry and the beach was totally empty so we got to enjoy the place to ourselves. Being early is advantageous. We hung out on the beach for two hours or better and then our time was up! It was off to Cap’s Point where we were snorkelling again over corals and large clams. It was a bit rough but we spent quite a bit of time exploring and swimming around. We were back in Coron Town after 2 pm and finally found a trike that wasn’t trying to charge us inflated tourist prices. We headed back to our room and showered and cooled off. We enjoyed a few beer and then walked into town for supper. We had supper with Paul and Janeth at Buzz Express. We are still struggling with our colds so it wasn’t a late night.

Friday, March 15.

After two days of boat trips we were exhausted. We were pretty lazy for the day. Walked down to the Summer Cafe and had breakfast. We walked into town later and were going to try a mini Mexican restaurant but it was closed contrary to what their operating hours sign said. We finally ended up back at the Trattoria Altrove and had salads. Then we walked back and had a massage at Kalipay Spa. It was an amazing 90 minutes massage! Supper was back at Buzz and from there we caught a trike back. Sat around and visited and then called it a night.

Saturday, March 16

Our last full day in Coron

We got up and had a quick shower, coffee and then headed off for breakfast. Linda had muesli, yogurt and fresh fruit, Gary ordered an omelet. It took over 45 minutes for Gary to finally get his breakfast which put us a bit behind. We hurried back to our room to lather with sunscreen and get our swimsuits on. We had a trike booked for 10:30 to head back to Cabo Beach. We had the trike take us by the laundromat and dropped off laundry to have done. From there it was off to the beach where we stayed until 2 then took the trike back and picked up our laundry and went back to our room. Once showered we sat in the tavern and had a few drinks. We have to get our stuff sorted and packed as we will get picked up tomorrow morning for our flight to Manila/Hong Kong. Sadly today was our last day at the beach for quite sometime! On the bright side temperatures at home have moderated somewhat. We are hoping for highs in the double digits once we are home.

March 13, 2019March 13, 2019

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Coron

Tuesday we took it easy. Our big accomplishment of the day was climbing Mount Tapyas to watch the sunset. It was a ton of steps to climb, our guide today said it was 900 steps and our legs certainly felt like it. It took us about 1/2 hour to climb up with a number of stops. We had also walked there from the dive centre so it was a good work out. The view was good and the sunset was okay. It wasn’t as good as some evenings as there were some clouds but this was a one time adventure – we aren’t climbing all those stairs again.

Today, Wednesday, we had a private boat tour booked. We were up just after 6 and lathered in sunscreen, had a quick breakfast and cup of coffee and walked up the hill to the main road to catch a trike. We went to the public market by the boat jetty to meet our tour guy. We had to buy food at the public market for our lunch. The trike driver dropped us off at the one end of the market. It just happened the section we entered was the meat section – pigs heads, and other cuts, chicken, fish, they had it all on wooden tables and hanging. We made our way part way down and found a spot to cut over to the fruit and vegetable section to buy fruit for our lunch. We ended up with a small watermelon, two mangos, and 3 oranges, 3 bottles of water and a small mesh bag to carry everything. We met up with our tour guy and he introduced us to Bart, our tour guide for the day.

From the market we walked through a big dirt lot towards the boats. We could hear a pig squealing. Our first thought was they were hauling it in to slaughter which we really didn’t want to have to watch. As we got closer we see pigs loaded in a big crate on the back of a trike and then realize that they have several pigs on a boat that were transported to the jetty. They’d tie a rope on the pig and wrestle and drag it up the steep concrete embankment and then shove it into the trike crate. And these were not small pigs!! First time we’ve ever seen pigs come to market by boat!

We had to wait for a bit once on the boat for the captain to take our names and info to the harbour master. Every boat before they leave has to register all their guests names, ages and nationalities. Once that was done we were off. We headed to Kayangan Lake. The boats dock at a wooden pier that runs along the edge of the cliffs. From there you walk up and down 360 steps to arrive at the lake. The lake is a mixture of salt (70%) and fresh water (30%) and some of the clearest lake water in the world. We went for a swim and snorkel although there wasn’t much to see underwater.

Then it was back on the boat for a short ride to Twin Lagoon. You can either swim under a small opening in the rock or take the steps up over the rock and back down. We’d had enough of steps and were comfortable swimming thru the opening into the lagoon. Once inside the lagoon it is pretty neat. It’s much larger than a similar one we were in when we visited El Nido. The cliff walls and the blue green water is all very picturesque.

After Twin Lagoon we headed to Banol Beach. We were fortunate to arrive ahead of many of the other boats so got to enjoy the beach before it became busy. The boat guys cut up all our fruit and brought it to the thatched buildings where they have benches and tables for people to sit in the shade and eat. Then we had a couple of hours to swim and enjoy the beautiful sandy beach.

Coral Garden was our last stop of the day. There were gorgeous corals and lots of fish to see. We even saw a good sized turtle which was pretty exciting! The one time we didn’t have the GoPro along with us! Again we beat the crush of boats at this stop. I’m sure we’d never seen the turtle otherwise. Just after we were getting ready to pull out a number of tour boats were pulling in and it was going to be crowded.

We were back to Coron around 2 pm which was fine with us. You can only take so much sun in one day. We headed back to our room to shower and have a cold drink. Supper was back at La Sirenetta. We picked up a few supplies for tomorrow and booked another day trip on the same boat. We’ll head out to see some different sites tomorrow.

March 11, 2019March 11, 2019

Monday, March 11, 2019

Coron, Palawan, Philippines

We arrived in Coron 2 days ago. 2 things, we are both feeling under the weather, and the island only has 3G to LTE data for everyone here. There is no landline internet so consequently the internet is a bit unreliable. Typical for Philippine standards. Back to number one, it sucks to have a rotten cold and cough but cold pills are available here and we are not the only ones we hear coughing.

We flew into Busuanga airport. It was reminiscent of some of the smaller PH airports we flew into a number of years ago. Very small and the luggage was brought over and the worker carried it in and set it on a raised platform where we could retrieve it. Once we had our luggage it was out to the parking lot where based on where you are staying they assign you to a 12 passenger van. Once loaded with people and luggage, there was even luggage strapped to the roof, we were off. It was a 30 – 45 minute drive to Coron town and Pirates Dive Centre where we are staying. Paul, the owner, was frantically putting the finishing touches on the little bungalow we are staying in. We are the first guests to use it! They have tree house room that they just finished construction of as well. It is built in a massive tree set back a little on the property. It is quite unique. They have also built a small tavern and dive shop at the front of the property on the street. They have done a nice job so far and were busy buying plants to landscape around our finished bungalow. There are more bungalows under construction and also a swimming pool so once completed it will be very nice.

We got settled and had a beer and visit with Paul. We then headed off to find a restaurant for supper. We ate at Trattoria Altrove. It’s a popular spot and we actually had to wait about 15 minutes to get seated. From there we found a small shop where we bought almond milk, cornflakes, some little bowls and spoon. We brought them back and put them in the bar fridge. Then it was off to bed as neither of us felt great.

Sunday morning we had our cereal for breakfast, found the coffee and made some too. We ended up back in our room after breakfast and lay down for a bit as we still felt crappy. Linda slept until almost noon. We got up and visited with Paul for awhile and then walked into town to explore a bit and had lunch at Buzz Express. Coron town is not the most attractive town, it’s got lots of windy streets that go up and down in elevation. There is concrete on some streets and a mix of dirt and rocks on others. Most everything is covered in a layer of dirt. We did note there are a number of car washes, ie: a garden hose and manpower. We ended up buying a couple of beach towels as we never packed any for the trip and Paul hasn’t bought any for guest use yet. We lay around for a bit and after dark caught a trike to the La Sirenetta restaurant. Don’t think we’d have ever found it if the trike driver hadn’t stopped on the right street and pointed and told us to walk down the little street to the restaurant. It is actually out over the water and you walk over a rickety plank pier to get there. You wouldn’t want to have too many drinks and walk across it as it is very uneven and the boards are all different shapes and sizes. The meal and view was great.

Monday we managed to get organized enough to have an electric trike pick us up to take us to Cabo Beach which is a 35 minute drive out of town. The trike has 2 batteries, part way into our trip the driver explained the battery was low and he had to stop and switch the plug over to the second battery. We then started to worry if we’d have enough “juice” to get there and home, he seemed to thing we would. However, then we got lost! We went miles down this rough, dirt road. Gary finally said think we are going the wrong way and showed him the map on his phone, he said no we need to keep going. He finally asked several motorbikes going by and they all told him we’d gone too far. We finally turned around and bumped down the road to get back to the correct turnoff. We finally arrived at the beach. We had to pay an entrance fee of 50 PHP each. The beach was ok. They had little bamboo huts with tables you could sit in and have a picnic if you wanted or sit in the shade. The beach had trees along the edge but there wasn’t much shade. We did go for a swim and the water was considerably warmer than in Boracay. They even had two guys raking along the water’s edge and picking up all the garbage so that was nice to see. We hung out at the beach for a few hours and then took the trike back. We did make it to town and stopped at the battery shop on the edge of town where he exchanged his two batteries for newly charged ones. Once back at our accommodations we had a nice cold beer to wash the dust out of our throats! We showered and walked into town. Picked up a mango smoothie on our walk and ended up back at La Sirenetta for supper. Gary had fish and chips which he really enjoyed and Linda had ginger chicken. The portions here are plentiful! We walked back home and showered again to get off the bug spray and dust. We have use bug spray here as there is a risk on Dengue fever and also Malaria. Linda did get one or 2 bites, but there are not many mosquitos due to the very dry conditions.

We haven’t booked a day trip yet, we’ll likely book one for Wednesday and hope we are both feeling better. Doesn’t look like Gary will improve enough/fast enough to dive which is disappointing. Hopefully we will shake this bug soon!

March 9, 2019March 9, 2019

Saturday March 09, 2019

Cebu City

Lapu Lapu, Mactan Island , Cebu PH.

We arrived in Cebu from Boracay Friday afternoon, checked into the hotel and did a bit of touring around. Unfortunately the site nearby, Lapu-Lapu Monument and Magellan Marker were closed for renovation when we arrived by (Grab) taxi. The taxi had dropped us off by the time we saw the closed sign! We walked for a bit and then called a Grab. We ended up at the Scape Skydeck for supper. Had a great view of the bridges and city. Supper was good too. From there we had about a 15 minute walk back to our hotel.

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019

Friday March 08, 2019

Bye Bye Boracay

Our time on the paradise island of Boracay has come to an end. We are now sitting in the Caticlan airport killing time. We are waiting for our flight from Caticlan to Cebu City. We finally have access to some real internet with actual capacity to upload and download pictures and files. The airport here is different once again from the last time we were here 4 yers ago. In fact it seems like the same building (at least location) alongside the runway where you can see the aircraft zooming by as the take off and land. This building is where the original terminal was located when we came to Boracay 8 years ago. It is way too small and I think a temporary place until the new terminal is built.

We had a great week on Boracay with lots of renewed acquaintances and a few new ones. The beaches on the island are the best in the world. We sampled a few restaurants during our visit that we enjoyed. Our new adventure begins on Saturday afternoon when we are scheduled to arrive at Busuanga Palawan airport (Coron). If we have any internet we will have some great pictures in the next few days.

Gary is still suffering from a nasty cold and it’s starting to really drag him down. Hopefully it will be history soon.

March 6, 2019March 6, 2019

Wednesday March 06, 2019

KL Tower Photo Above

We are still in

BORACAY

We bought pictures at the KL Tower. They were supposed to be available within 24 hours. It took over a week to receive the email to download them. The internet is so slow in Boracay that we will have to wait until we get to somewhere with better internet to get all of the pictures downloaded.

Since we haven’t had many photos to post lately, we thought we would post the one from KL Tower.

We spent 4 hours at the beach, by 2 PM the shade from the palm trees has vanished, by 3 PM we were showering off the salt and sand at our room.

Gary’s cold is still hanging on, its not really bad just a bit of a cough and sinus congestion and sore throat. Hope it’s gone by the time we fly on Friday March 8.

March 5, 2019March 5, 2019

Tuesday March 05, 2019

Boracay

with laws for everyone

This morning we are once again sitting on the patio of our hotel drinking coffee, eating breakfast and enjoying the coolness of the morning wearing tank tops and shorts. There is no shortage of roosters crowing. Roosters are everywhere we have been in Asia.

Since Gary got his cold we haven’t done much but lay around on the beach and read. Hopefully it is a short lived bug and Linda doesn’t get it! She had a cold when we were in Koh Lanta and luckily Gary didn’t get that one.

We were visiting with one of the hotel owners here last night about the changes and various properties in Boracay. Specifically one property by Station 1 which Korean & Chinese investors bought into before the island closure. They built a high rise hotel on the beach and shortly after opening, the Philippine government decree to clean up Boracay forced them to close the hotel and they now have to tear it down. Definitely not a good investment, sounds like Walton International.

We ate at the Subo Restaurant again last night. Our petite little waitress, Eden, asked if we knew about TripAdvisor and if we’d be so kind to put on a review and mention her she would provide us with a complimentary item that turned out to be mango sorbet with fresh chunks of mango on it. It was the best part of the entire meal! Ya, our glowing review hopefully keeps her boss happy. The restaurant is beautifully decorated with ornate large wood tables. Smaller tables use treadle sewing machine frames as their base. There are several places that we have seen the re-purposing of singer treadles once used by tailors now used to hold table tops in restaurants. A super cool idea for recycling and a bit nostalgic.

Its now 8:44 am and time to get off the patio. Too warm already.

March 3, 2019March 3, 2019

Sunday March 03

Boracay gestapo

Yesterday we went to a few different beaches to see how the closure of Boracay has changed things. Our second favourite spot was Puka Shell Beach. It’s still beautiful but there are not any places left for shade. They have some shops to sell things along the road but the ones on the beach are gone.

Today we got up to a thin overcast of cloud. By the time we finished our breakfast coffee on the patio the sun was poking through with the intensity we have become accustomed to.

Gary is feeling under the weather, he seems to have caught a cold bug. There are people from all over the world here and likely there is no better place to catch a new bug from the far reaches of the earth. So far the cold has only prevented diving. Hopefully it doesn’t last long but he’s pretty much written off diving again in Boracay. Our next stop is Coron where he hopes to be able to dive some WW2 wrecks, some of them rather shallow too.

Yesterday we saw a Chinese family get busted by the Tourism Regulatory Enforcement Unit (TREU). The TREU team consisted of 3 guys with forms dressed in uniform golf style shirts and one officer with a machine gun in battle fatigues! It is now illegal to drink alcohol on the beach in Boracay. No smoking, no alcohol, no littering of food and no glass containers. Here’s the deal, the Chinese family were sitting under the palm trees (Grandma, Mom, Dad, Kids). Apparently the fine is 2500 PHP (Philippine Peso) about $70 CAD. Next thing, the guy is on our case for carrying 2 corn on the cob (on sticks) to eat on the beach. He said throw the cob in the trash! Gary said I haven’t even started eating it! The officer says ok, when you are done. Gary said OK. Then Gary watched the whole procedure of the Chinese getting fined. He asked the TREU officer where exactly where are the garbage containers on this area of the beach? We could not locate any trash bins! He looked around (we think all vendors need to supply trash containers). Finally he asked a lady at a small stall and she points to a plastic bag hanging on the side of the building by a nail! We said OK. Thanks! When Gary went to deposit his cob, the lady said 5 peso please! WHAT? She just laughed, as she had witnessed the whole conversation with the TREU officer. We laughed it off but didn’t think is was so funny. If Boracay’s enforcement doesn’t want people eating on the beach, they should have signs everywhere to alert the tourist to these requirements! News flash, eating is OK, littering is not! Now in Boracay no beach beds, no umbrellas, no drink, no SMOKING, no garbage cans on the beach! But, they sell food, drinks and cigarettes right on the edge of the beach!

March 2, 2019March 2, 2019

Saturday March 2, 2019

Boracay

(newly improved)

We have been unable to post blog updates due to bad internet. That has not changed. The only way to get online is via our mobile phones, even that is very slow.

March 1 was our 39th anniversary. We had drinks at the local Dive shop with the staff and friends. A couple from Saskatoon, Ken & Muriel Ziegler, that we know joined us and the four of us later went out for supper.

Gary took a dive refresher on Feb 28 and then a more shallow dive. March 1st he did a deeper dive at the sunken ship Camia II. His maximum depth was 28 metres and dive time was 34 minutes. He got cold and shivers on both dives. The water is a bit cool at 24°C. This is quite a change from Thailand. Hopefully our next and final resort stop at Coron, Philippines will have warmer water!

Today March 2, we are going to spend time at the beach and look around at the changes on the island since we were here 4 years ago. There have been many changes as the island was closed to tourism for 6 months to remodel the infrastructure, water, sewer and move buildings back into compliance. Many buildings, hotels and storefronts had encroached onto the right of way along the beach front. Many hotels had placed beach beds, umbrellas, tables and chairs on the public beach. All of that has ended. What a different it has made to the beach! There are no more hawkers pestering you to buy their “stuff”! That is a huge improvement alone. The waste water disposal system has been improved which will hopefully decrease the environmental damage from tourism on this beautiful (and tiny) paradise island.