We completed our advance open water which allows us to go to 30m deep! We did navigation with compasses underwater, buoyancy skills, 30m deep dive, a ship wreck dive which was awesome (wasn't a real sunken ship but one that had been sunk on purpose to be a dive site) and lastly - a night dive!! The night dive was awesome... We sort of saw a sleeping turtle...Wel didn't know what it was til we surfaced! A blue spotted sting ray, some huge hermit crabs and lots of nocturnal and sleeping fishies.
It felt as if we were floating in space. Blackness all around and sometimes the light of the boats shining down like in an alien abduction! Super cool. Its hard to keep ones bearings in the dark.
The day after our advanced ended we decided to say goodbye to koh tao and our awesome instructor Skui and friend Ben. It is such an awesome little island but we have so many more adventures to go on! We were thinking maybe of coming back to do our dive masters!
Took a fast ferry boat this time on the way to ko phangan, it took only 1:30mins! (Compared to the songserm slowboat that always takes double the time of the fast boat.)
We met up with Kaila at cookies bungalows, just north of thong sala where the ferry comes in, where we found some sweet new digs with beachfront! 550 baht($18)split between 2 people isn't so bad... Probably the nicest spot we've stayed in Asia yet! We rented motor bikes @ 150 baht a pop and off we go!! Drove across the island to the east coast to swim in the deep, crazy cerulean waves. The west coast ,where we are staying, is much shallower and better for snorkeling.
Kaila has been going to monte vista yoga centre for a workshop and daily yoga and meditation and Mairi is committed to go too for the 5 days we are staying on ko phangan. Except for today of course
because today Mairi and Keith are going for 2 dives at sail rock!!
Super stoked - this is a small rock/island, off the northern tip of ko phangan between koh tao, where tons of fish and other creatures gather. There are massive schools of mackerel and barracuda so thick all one can see is fins and flicks of colours and silver.They say there's a higher chance of seeing a whaleshark at sail rock! We chose sail rock divers to go dive with and our dive leaders name is "blue".
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
March 11 - certified open water divers!
Today Mairi and Keith completed their 4 day open water diver course at big blue 1 in koh tao, thailand!
We can now dive to 18m and have completed 4 dives. Our very first was called mango bay and we did see some cool fish but most of our time was spent adjusting our breath and buoyancy vests (BC) as hovering in the water takes a bit of getting used to!
Big blue was our dive resort choice, some other nelsonites had done their OWDs there and recommended it. Super awesome, helpful, witty staff! Skui, a girl from Finland, was our instructor and she was great! Our other dive sites were : twins, chumphon, white rock.
Today we explored the latter 2 dives and saw so many kinds of fish! Banner fish, moray eel, angel fish, triggerfish, yellow tail barracuda, clownfish (aka nemo!) , butterfly fish, urchin clingfish sea cucumbers, cleaner wrasse (that eat scabs..) and so many more. Tomorrow we have decided to go ahead and do our advanced open water as we get a discount and t enables us Togo to 30m and do 5 dives total! 2 technical : navigation and 30m dive enablement, and 3 elective courses which we think we will pick: buoyancy, night dive, and a ship wreck dive!
Tonight we watch our open water film as we had a camera guy on us all day!
We can now dive to 18m and have completed 4 dives. Our very first was called mango bay and we did see some cool fish but most of our time was spent adjusting our breath and buoyancy vests (BC) as hovering in the water takes a bit of getting used to!
Big blue was our dive resort choice, some other nelsonites had done their OWDs there and recommended it. Super awesome, helpful, witty staff! Skui, a girl from Finland, was our instructor and she was great! Our other dive sites were : twins, chumphon, white rock.
Today we explored the latter 2 dives and saw so many kinds of fish! Banner fish, moray eel, angel fish, triggerfish, yellow tail barracuda, clownfish (aka nemo!) , butterfly fish, urchin clingfish sea cucumbers, cleaner wrasse (that eat scabs..) and so many more. Tomorrow we have decided to go ahead and do our advanced open water as we get a discount and t enables us Togo to 30m and do 5 dives total! 2 technical : navigation and 30m dive enablement, and 3 elective courses which we think we will pick: buoyancy, night dive, and a ship wreck dive!
Tonight we watch our open water film as we had a camera guy on us all day!
March 8 - Cambodia, Angkor wat ad Keith's bday!
Made it to siem reap to explore Angkor wat! Such an amazing land of temples. The first day we pedal biked to and around the large loop of temples in the heat of the day for 60 kms total! got our workout for the day... Our friend Julia from Nelson met up with us for the adventure. There is a lot of work being put into restoring the temples as a lot of them have been destroyed in bombings, been beaten down by the weather, and maimed or stolen by humans. Mairi and Keith went to the siem riep museum the day before to learn more about the temples and it was a really nice, large, and informative museum. Mairi found a pottery place where they have kick wheels and you work alongside the Cambodians spinning huge master pieces in minutes! She made a nice little cup and the company glazed and fired it for her and then sent it to the hostel the next day.
We went to see more temples the day after meeting up with some more friends, Eva from Nelson and 2 Aussies, joel and matt, and a German, Chris. This time around we all took a tui tui! We saw tah prohm - the temple where they filmed a lot of the tomb raider movie. The trees are huge and grow all over the temples! Everywhere on all the stones there are amazing carvings of so many different scenes. All the stones were hand carted from 50km away, and most were carved in the 16th century!
Later we found a pool and had some nice cool brews and a chillout from the hot sun. We all had a cambodian BBQ - it's at a restaurant and there are holes in te table where the waiter puts a metal upside down bowl and lights coals underneath. A large piece of lard is put on top to keep the meat from burning and then you pick the meats you want and BBQ them yourself! It came with unlimited rice and veggies/noodle soup. We ordered kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich, frog, and pork.
Kangaroo was a favourite, tasting lean like deer.
Crocodile was a bit like chewy old chicken.. Almost wouldn't be surprised if thats what it really was!
Ostrich turns grey as its cooked and is delicious.
Frog is yummy , have to pick the bones away from the meat. Sorta like a small chicken.
And pork was.. Pork!
Super delicious food....
Mairi and her friend Julia did a Cambodian cooking course and it was pretty good. We did it at the paper tiger cooking school which was a bigger school in siem reap. The course Mairi did in pai, thailand with charlie and leks restaurant was much tastier and enjoyable!!
For Keith's birthday we all hung out and had a mini party in our hostel rooms ( siem reap central hostel was awesome $6 each with air con, and super clean! Thanks for finding it Matt!) for his birthday keith got: snake whiskey, soft lush man undies (he hadn't worn any this whole trip!), a negro doll keychain, and a breast pump. Such nice gifts!!! ;). We went to temple bar after and then made it home for some zzzs.
We went to see more temples the day after meeting up with some more friends, Eva from Nelson and 2 Aussies, joel and matt, and a German, Chris. This time around we all took a tui tui! We saw tah prohm - the temple where they filmed a lot of the tomb raider movie. The trees are huge and grow all over the temples! Everywhere on all the stones there are amazing carvings of so many different scenes. All the stones were hand carted from 50km away, and most were carved in the 16th century!
Later we found a pool and had some nice cool brews and a chillout from the hot sun. We all had a cambodian BBQ - it's at a restaurant and there are holes in te table where the waiter puts a metal upside down bowl and lights coals underneath. A large piece of lard is put on top to keep the meat from burning and then you pick the meats you want and BBQ them yourself! It came with unlimited rice and veggies/noodle soup. We ordered kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich, frog, and pork.
Kangaroo was a favourite, tasting lean like deer.
Crocodile was a bit like chewy old chicken.. Almost wouldn't be surprised if thats what it really was!
Ostrich turns grey as its cooked and is delicious.
Frog is yummy , have to pick the bones away from the meat. Sorta like a small chicken.
And pork was.. Pork!
Super delicious food....
Mairi and her friend Julia did a Cambodian cooking course and it was pretty good. We did it at the paper tiger cooking school which was a bigger school in siem reap. The course Mairi did in pai, thailand with charlie and leks restaurant was much tastier and enjoyable!!
For Keith's birthday we all hung out and had a mini party in our hostel rooms ( siem reap central hostel was awesome $6 each with air con, and super clean! Thanks for finding it Matt!) for his birthday keith got: snake whiskey, soft lush man undies (he hadn't worn any this whole trip!), a negro doll keychain, and a breast pump. Such nice gifts!!! ;). We went to temple bar after and then made it home for some zzzs.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Feb 23 - Vang vieng
We bussed down 3 hrs to cang vieng where Keith promptly fell ill after Mairi. =( we stayed at pans guesthouse. The owners were very nice and there was a decent restauraunt attached as well as fee drinking water supplied! We paid about 25000 kip each ($3)! And had a double bed and bathroom with hot shower... Laos accomodation can be so cheap it's awesome!
Vang vieng is well known for its many caves to explore, rock climbing, biking, and tubing.
Mairi went to the smaller, closer caves with some friends from Nelson and after a couple days Keith was feeling better so we all floated down the river.. It was so nice but apparently it's changed a lot since the party days. There were 2 riverside bars ( we weren't into getting sick again so we didn't stop) and all the water slides had been ripped down. Te night life in vang vieng was still pretty crazy tho. So many Koreans going crazy gangnam stylin'!!
Then we rented motorbikes to explore the much larger and completely dark blue lagoon cave. It was awesome we spent a few hours finding our way around with headlamps and "spelunking" or just climbing through small holes in the rocks...
Didn't do any rock climbing , ran out of time and were scheduled to catch a 21 hour sleeper bus to southern laos... The 4000 islands!
Mairi met up with some friends from Nelson ad went to the closer caves
Vang vieng is well known for its many caves to explore, rock climbing, biking, and tubing.
Mairi went to the smaller, closer caves with some friends from Nelson and after a couple days Keith was feeling better so we all floated down the river.. It was so nice but apparently it's changed a lot since the party days. There were 2 riverside bars ( we weren't into getting sick again so we didn't stop) and all the water slides had been ripped down. Te night life in vang vieng was still pretty crazy tho. So many Koreans going crazy gangnam stylin'!!
Then we rented motorbikes to explore the much larger and completely dark blue lagoon cave. It was awesome we spent a few hours finding our way around with headlamps and "spelunking" or just climbing through small holes in the rocks...
Didn't do any rock climbing , ran out of time and were scheduled to catch a 21 hour sleeper bus to southern laos... The 4000 islands!
Mairi met up with some friends from Nelson ad went to the closer caves
Feb 18 - Luong prabang
The slowboat ended in luong prabang and we ended up staying for 5 days because Mairi got her first bout of food sickness after a couple days. =( we rented a motorcycle and headed 40 mins away to Kuang Si waterfalls. Thy were so amazing... Icy blue waters and about 6 "steps" of waterfalls in total. One had a rope swing and a huge swimming area so we hung out there with some friends for a bit while fishies nibbled our toes. Connected to the waterfall park was a sun bear conservation area where they had 5 different bears with funny shaggy necks chilling out in hammocks. An Aussie lady started the program to save the bears and now they house rescued bears near the falls.
We explored around luong prabang more, made it to Pak Ou caves - otherwise known as 1000 buddha caves as that's what is in them! Utopia restaurant/ bar was really nice and has bamboo, coconuts, and old bombshells as decorations. in the day there is yoga over looking the river and a chillout spot and at night it comes alive with volleyball in the bar (in a court!), music. Bowling is the only thing one can do after the strict Laoation curfew of 11pm kicks in. Most tourists seem to go and bowl and drink all night!
We explored around luong prabang more, made it to Pak Ou caves - otherwise known as 1000 buddha caves as that's what is in them! Utopia restaurant/ bar was really nice and has bamboo, coconuts, and old bombshells as decorations. in the day there is yoga over looking the river and a chillout spot and at night it comes alive with volleyball in the bar (in a court!), music. Bowling is the only thing one can do after the strict Laoation curfew of 11pm kicks in. Most tourists seem to go and bowl and drink all night!
Feb 12 - on to Laos and the slowboat!
So we took a bus to chiang mai and then to chiang kong where we had 1 night hostel included in our bus ticket (650 baht) the next day we paid 40 baht to cross the Mekong river to Laos on a little ferry and got our visas in the crazy small and crowded visa building! Quite fun and a good test of patience for some fellow tourists, always a good laugh watching some people lose their face at waiting for half an hour - we are in Asia people where patience is key! :) next we caught a slow boat for 950 baht (we spent 1600 baht for the total versus 1700-1900 that people pay for a package in thailand so a heads up you can save some money if you do it yourself for those that might be reading this and heading to Laos!) the slowboat was 2 days with 1 night stop in pak beng (another money saver: you don't need to pre book a hotel in pak beng or even when you first get on the slow boat in huay xai where they will tell you you have to and that you will save money - its a ripoff! the hotels are so cheap and so plentiful! And all the hotel guys wait for people at the dock when you get off the boat! Our room was 150 baht for 2 people (that's $5 total!) we arrived in luong prabang and found a nice spot to stay with a family. Kaila left to Vientiane to sort out her thailand visa extension and head to ko phangan.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Feb 5 - I <3 Pai!
We stayed in pai for almost a week it was such an amazing little town! 3,000 people but it felt like more due to the tourism. We all found nicely priced and quaint little bungalows, Villa De Pai and Karkaran?? Kailas had a bird near the entrance that mimicked sounds, it would cough and make motorbike startup noises as well as laugh and speak in thai! We rented motorbikes and checked out a couple waterfalls (more than once!) one waterfall had slippery rock slides and the other was like a cavern. We also checked out the hotsprings which the bangkok government has recently taken over control of (unfortunately) and now charge and outrageous price (in thailand) of 200 baht (about $7) where they used to be free. It was worth the money though, no caves like our home town Nelson, BCs ainsworth hot springs but there were about 8 pools flowing from one to the next and the top most were 38 degrees so hot!
The Chinese New Year also started while we were in Pai and there is a chinese village nearby but there wasn't much going on in such a small town. Keith and Mairi took a cooking course from Charlie and Lek'a restaurant and it was amazing and fun. We learned how to make traditional chili curry paste and made 5 dishes: Spring rolls, Tom ka/Tom yum soup, papaya and banana blossom salads, pad thai, green and red curries. We will be having a thai dinner for our families when we get back!
We all did a free meditation that is offered 3 days a week at a local tea shop/ restaurant, a yoga class with a woman named Vicky. And made a friend from Austin Texas who taught us how to do acrobatic yoga (partner yoga) which was really fun, blessings and thanks eddy!
The Chinese New Year also started while we were in Pai and there is a chinese village nearby but there wasn't much going on in such a small town. Keith and Mairi took a cooking course from Charlie and Lek'a restaurant and it was amazing and fun. We learned how to make traditional chili curry paste and made 5 dishes: Spring rolls, Tom ka/Tom yum soup, papaya and banana blossom salads, pad thai, green and red curries. We will be having a thai dinner for our families when we get back!
We all did a free meditation that is offered 3 days a week at a local tea shop/ restaurant, a yoga class with a woman named Vicky. And made a friend from Austin Texas who taught us how to do acrobatic yoga (partner yoga) which was really fun, blessings and thanks eddy!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Jan 30 - Chiang Mai
Went to the sunday market in Chiang Mai when we first got in on the 27th. It was cool and had lots of art and artisan crafts - it happens every sunday in the main street of downtown Chiang Mai. There are also other markets everywhere around town all days/nights of the week but the Sunday night market is definitely the highlight! So much shopping! We have also discovered that there are so many amazing vegetarian/smoothie places to eat at in chiang mai - $3 for an omelet.. as little as $1 for a full fruity smoothie. Kaila loves her crepes and usually they are about $1! street food is good too, lots of interesting things. The thai's idea of icecream is a bit strange and... buttery? It's the same as the philippines, but they do have normal western ice-cream too.
Keith and Mairi and Eva ( a friend from home) caught a Sawngthaew (red truck)up to Doi Suthep, the hilltop temple above chiang mai on sunday. It was beautiful and such a nice view too! Then we all hit another sunday market. Mairi and Kaila did a 2 day thai massage course which was really awesome and informative. After a week in chiang mai we all headed to Pai by minivan, a small town 3 hours further north.
Keith and Mairi and Eva ( a friend from home) caught a Sawngthaew (red truck)up to Doi Suthep, the hilltop temple above chiang mai on sunday. It was beautiful and such a nice view too! Then we all hit another sunday market. Mairi and Kaila did a 2 day thai massage course which was really awesome and informative. After a week in chiang mai we all headed to Pai by minivan, a small town 3 hours further north.
Jan 28 - Chiang Mai trekking!
Made it to Chiang Mai (northern thailand!) by night/sleeper train -- the best transport ever. You just sleep alll the way through the 12 hours ride and it was great! 22$ = not a bad deal at all! Chiang Mai is awesome. Where bangkok is crazy chiang mai is a bit nutty but much more laid back and the old-city spirit is still existent here and contained within the old brick walls. We left on the 28th morning to go for a 3 day, 2 night trek into the jungle! It was great, so much walking through the jungle and villages (about 14 hours) but a good workout. We went to some hill tribe villages and saw some of the ladies working on their hand looms making lovely scarves and sarongs. We started the trek off with a bamboo raft float down a river which was pretty cool. Then walked for a few hours to the first village where the locals cooked a delicious traditional thai meal with sticky rice, green curry made from small green eggplants , basil, tomato, cauliflower, broccoli, long beans and chicken - all of which were grown in the village. Then we fell asleep in an open bunk house on floor mats with mosquito nets. it was a good sleep but pretty cold (super chilly up north in the tribes!)
The next day we walked through many different dried up rice terraces, saw lots of cows with their metal and wooden bells tinkling away down the valleys. Our main guides name was Nop but on the 2nd day we had another younger guide lead us and he barely spoke english so it was a pretty silent walking day. We arrived at our next sleeping spot... a bunk outside a village right by a waterfall!! So refreshing to take a swim, and then we had dinner and our guide and his friends played guitar and sung some bob marley and thai songs. Then one of the guys disappeared with his headlamp to the waterfall and came back less than 20 minutes later with a large waterbottle full of frogs!! Mairi asked if she could go hunt them and our silent younger guide took her down the river and walked all the way up hunting frogs! she caught a few.. turns out you need a really powerful headlamp to 'blind' the frogs and see their eyes glowing at night and then you have to strike fast to capture them! they also had a weird bamboo noose contraption to catch rats and they caught 2!
The next morning we had our toast and egg (plain jane tourist breakfast) and the thai guys had some fish they had caught that morning and had made a fish + lemongrass soup, rice, pork bits and frog patties - that were herbed and spiced so well there was no way to know there was frog in it! Mairi had some of the thai breakfast and it was delicious.
On our last day of the trek we walked for a while, had some lunch and then went on an hour long elephant ride. It was neat to ride them and scary at times going up and down some steep hills, but it was fun. Some of the elephant 'guiders' weren't so nice though and had these rebar/stick devices they would smack the elepants with.. but some of them were nicer and just nudged the elephant onward using their bum (the guides sit on the head of the elephant, the tourists on a metal seat on the back) Then we were loaded up into a truck to head back to Chiang mai.
The next day we walked through many different dried up rice terraces, saw lots of cows with their metal and wooden bells tinkling away down the valleys. Our main guides name was Nop but on the 2nd day we had another younger guide lead us and he barely spoke english so it was a pretty silent walking day. We arrived at our next sleeping spot... a bunk outside a village right by a waterfall!! So refreshing to take a swim, and then we had dinner and our guide and his friends played guitar and sung some bob marley and thai songs. Then one of the guys disappeared with his headlamp to the waterfall and came back less than 20 minutes later with a large waterbottle full of frogs!! Mairi asked if she could go hunt them and our silent younger guide took her down the river and walked all the way up hunting frogs! she caught a few.. turns out you need a really powerful headlamp to 'blind' the frogs and see their eyes glowing at night and then you have to strike fast to capture them! they also had a weird bamboo noose contraption to catch rats and they caught 2!
The next morning we had our toast and egg (plain jane tourist breakfast) and the thai guys had some fish they had caught that morning and had made a fish + lemongrass soup, rice, pork bits and frog patties - that were herbed and spiced so well there was no way to know there was frog in it! Mairi had some of the thai breakfast and it was delicious.
On our last day of the trek we walked for a while, had some lunch and then went on an hour long elephant ride. It was neat to ride them and scary at times going up and down some steep hills, but it was fun. Some of the elephant 'guiders' weren't so nice though and had these rebar/stick devices they would smack the elepants with.. but some of them were nicer and just nudged the elephant onward using their bum (the guides sit on the head of the elephant, the tourists on a metal seat on the back) Then we were loaded up into a truck to head back to Chiang mai.
Jan 24 - Bangkok
Flew to bangkok in the PM, it was crazy. and once again taxi drivers trying to rip us off ' no english, big van you pay more' but we jsut gave him what we knew we owed and were told to... getting smarter! Thailand was a bit of a wake up call after the sleepy philippines. Philippino people are (mostly) patient helpful and kind, and very foreward when askign for money or food. but thai people we qui9ckly found were more on the scheming side of things... there are lots of nice thais but also lots that are jsut out to get your money!
We went to the biggest mall in bangkok called MBK. It is like the outside markets but inside and airconditioned which is nice. We didn't spend too much time in bangkok, it was a bit crazy. Stayed on Rambuttri Street near Kho San Road (the party/tourist hub of bangkok) it was a good experience, we didn't go out partying at all we just wanted to get somewhere a bit more chill and less expensive! The pad thais and other street food were delicious and cheap but restuarants still ranging 5-7$ and clothes costing more than in other areas.
We went to the biggest mall in bangkok called MBK. It is like the outside markets but inside and airconditioned which is nice. We didn't spend too much time in bangkok, it was a bit crazy. Stayed on Rambuttri Street near Kho San Road (the party/tourist hub of bangkok) it was a good experience, we didn't go out partying at all we just wanted to get somewhere a bit more chill and less expensive! The pad thais and other street food were delicious and cheap but restuarants still ranging 5-7$ and clothes costing more than in other areas.
Jan 23 - Clark City, Goodbye Philippines!
Flew into Clark city, north of Manila (where we first flew into the philippines.) Our flight to Bangkok was scheduled out off clark the next day. We were wondering how to get to our hostel at the clark airport when we met an austrian man and his mom who's hostel was beside ours and knew the way. Armin and Teresa. Armin was a southeast asia veteran, who wanted to plant himself permanently in the philippines or thailand and his mom was retired and just going for some 'fun with the boys!' Armin was very helpful and he gave us a bunch of tips for thailand and where to go, eat , sleep and explore... and wished us well and on our way. His only request was that we help his mom to make sure she made it onto the plane and off (she didn't speak much english and was going ahead to thailand without him) so we gladly obliged.
Didn't see a lot of the city. It is small and doesn't have too much going on.
Didn't see a lot of the city. It is small and doesn't have too much going on.
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| Armin, Teresa, Mairi, Kaila, Keith |
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| leaving princesa heading to clark! |
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| Clark, Philippines |
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| Clark, Philippines |
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| Clark, Philippines |
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| Clark, Philippines |
Jan 21 - Festival in Barutuan
We talked to Rikki our driver and he told us more about this festival taht happens once a year and is a time of blessing and prayer to Sainto Nino and the rice crops/abundance. He was offering a tour for 600 pesos each, round trip in a van and inside views on the town. So we went and it was great! The town is split into sectors and each sector has a dance group (usually youths aged 12-25) they groups compete using their traditional and modern mixed dance style fora winner. The dances are their means of prayer and offereing to sainto nino and the rice crops. Each group is dressed in a different traditional style usign many different natural fibers and objects : coconut fiber, reeds/grasses, banana leaves, chicken feathers, coconuts whole... and more! Rikki led us around to about 4 of the 6 groups to see them before they were to go and dance int eh square. Most of them had black charcoal all over their bodies and rikki told us it was normal for them to come up to us and bless us by putting the cross in charcoal on our foreheads and cheeks. It was really neat and the kids were fun. The dances were pretty amazing, all different beats. Each group had a set of drummers and a small child dressed as sainto nino being escorted in some form or another of a wagon.
Then rikki took us to a real live cock fight... it was interesting.. they attach huge 3-5" long blades on the roosters spurs and they bring in 'tease' roosters to get the fighters agitated.. thent ehy release them. the fights dont usualyl last more then a couple minutes before one rooster is fatally wounded. the pot was about 50,000 pesos and you ahd to put 5,000 pesos in to bet... thats like their whole months wages. the men loved it but the onyl women there were tourists. We headed home and were leaving the next day to go back to princesa!
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| Barutuan Church |
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| Entrance to the city |
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| Our "tour" group |
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| got some warriors to protect us ! |
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| huge rice husk pile! the dances are to pray to sainto nino for the rice! |
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| One of many el ninos... |
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| locals have a good seat for the show! |
Then rikki took us to a real live cock fight... it was interesting.. they attach huge 3-5" long blades on the roosters spurs and they bring in 'tease' roosters to get the fighters agitated.. thent ehy release them. the fights dont usualyl last more then a couple minutes before one rooster is fatally wounded. the pot was about 50,000 pesos and you ahd to put 5,000 pesos in to bet... thats like their whole months wages. the men loved it but the onyl women there were tourists. We headed home and were leaving the next day to go back to princesa!
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| cock fight prize rooster... |
Jan 19 - Motorbikes, Nagkalit-kalit Waterfalls and Beautiful NacpanBeach
Rented motorbikes on sat, 19th. 500 peso's each was the very cheapest we could find through a nice guy named Rikki. We all rode for about half an hour north to Nagkalit-kalit waterfalls. We had to hire a guide for 150pesos each as the El Nido wilderness conservation requires any sort of exploration to have a guide. This is pretty cool as it keeps the tourists safe and the land from overuse and abuse. Our guide was a lady named Marcel and she was really kind. She showed us these strange plants that close their leaves when you touch them! Sort of like a fly catcher plant but they don't catch flies... They are called "Shai?" in english (lady's eye in thailand's english! we found out later because they look lke a ladys lashes closing.) They are used to treat urinary tract infections and insect bites. We made it to the waterfalls and water hole and had a nice dunk. fresh water felt soo good on our sunburns. Then we walked the 40 mins back to our bikes and headed further north to Nacpan beach.
Nacpan beach was pretty far out there but it was the most amazing beach we had all ever seen in our lives so far! It was so clear, no garbage, huge waves almost no tourists... definitely a rare gem. Little village kids came out and started singing "oh holy night" with their missing toothed smiles and asking for food and money so next time I think we would wander further down the beach away from the village... They were cute but there were so many of them! Kaila fed them a mango and mairi let them colour in her book and write words in english which they were suprisingly good at reading out loud, although a bit shy! we went further north on our bikes to Barutuan and found out there was a festival there tomorrow and then we headed home for dinner.
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| Coconut farming on the way to the falls |
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| Mango Tree |
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| Rice set out to dry |
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| frogs! |
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| at the Nagkalit-kalit waterfalls, not too big but a nice swimming hole! |
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| Nagkalit-kalit waterfalls |
Nacpan beach was pretty far out there but it was the most amazing beach we had all ever seen in our lives so far! It was so clear, no garbage, huge waves almost no tourists... definitely a rare gem. Little village kids came out and started singing "oh holy night" with their missing toothed smiles and asking for food and money so next time I think we would wander further down the beach away from the village... They were cute but there were so many of them! Kaila fed them a mango and mairi let them colour in her book and write words in english which they were suprisingly good at reading out loud, although a bit shy! we went further north on our bikes to Barutuan and found out there was a festival there tomorrow and then we headed home for dinner.
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| Nacpan Beach |
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| Nacpan Beach |
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| colouring away! |
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| The "oh holy night" kids |
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| Barutuan, pre-festival |
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| lazy oxen under a bridge |
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| Barutuan streets |
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| Nice sunset after an awesome day |
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| Dinnnnner |
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| Keith Krazy-eyes! |
Jan 17 - The Lovely El Nido!
We left Princesa and headed to El Nido by van. It took about 6 hours and it was an interesting road at the end! El nido is near the northern tip of Palawan island and one of the main tourist desitnations (for understandable reasons!) It is such a beautiful town! Small and nestled in between vast, grey, shaled rock and islands. While in el nido we sampled some slightly better cuisine (but as we had been told the Philippines has the least appealing food out of all south east asia - that warning was really to be taken seriously.) We stayed in Tay Miloy's Inn, a local family off the grid of the normal tourist Inn map. Rodrigo was the head of the house and a very nice and helpful guy he even took Mairi for a ride on his scooter to get some MUCH cheaper clean drinking water where the locals go!
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| El nido exploring! |
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| Keith pondering life, seriously, at a beach about 20 mins walk away |
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| so many dogs... |
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| Mairis special crab dinner! |
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| stoked to finally be in El nido! |
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| Tay Miloys Inn |
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We didn't end up booking a tour (there are 4 a,b,c,d) but instead rented Kayaks for the entire day and headed out to do tour C on our own. We had made a chek friend the day before named Michael so Kaila had a kayaking buddy too! We also rented snorkels and Kaila and Mairi had their first ocean snorkel experiences! It was so amazing, so easy to stay in the water for a long time when you can breath and see all the neat little fishes, coral and other un-named critters! There were fishes of every colour, black silver + yellow fish that looked like two fish cut in half and stuck together, little blue darting fish, slow purple fish, lots of night black fish.
We kayak'd to the closest lagoon through a bit of a rain/wind storm but we made it ok! It was magnificent deep azure blue and so magical. There were little tiny jelly fish all over but we were told that the poinonous jellies are out in the summer months (april-julyish)
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| seabound! |
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| Kaila and our new buddy Michel |
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| stopped at a random beach on the way... Snorkelers! |
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| Helicopter Island! |
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| On Helicopter island as the storm brewed overhead... |
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| but we made it to... Blue Lagoon |
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| Blue Lagoon cave |
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| Leaving Blue Lagoon |
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| El Nido town, almost home! |
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| Much deserved reward after such a hard day... hah! 2 for 1 cocktails Mmmm. |
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