Southeast Asia: The start!!

Jan 10

Flew out of Vancouver to Manila in the Philippines!

Bye bye canada and families!

Super long flight - 18 hours? A 3 hour stopover in Korea and then on to Manila, philippines. It was good though! Kaila's first flight out of the country.

Seoul, Korea!

Arrived 11:30 pm and had our first southeast-asian taxi experience - they are supposed to be metered but they all seem to "turn them off" or state that the meters are "broken"? Anyways long story short we learned to not take the yellow airport taxis! (a big tip: head to the departure gates where people are LEAVING from the city you are coming to and catch a cab from there! in manila the white cabs are the ones to take -- not yellow!) $35 dollars and 15 mins later (Sooo expensive!) we arrived south of the airport, safe and sound, in Paranaque, Manila. (Aka the ghetto of manila!) We ventured outside the next day in our jet lagged states and wandered down the street. We felt as if we were animals in a zoo being stared at! No other tourists in sight... We only stayed in manila one night and at $6 each for our hostel (nevermind the cab ride!) we couldn't complain.

Entrance to Happy Coconut Hostel, Manila

Paranaque, Manila, Philippines - our first venture outside after our flight

The next evening we flew out of Manila to Puerto Princesa, Palawan Island.

Manila at night, flight to Palawan Island

In Puerto Princesa we stayed at Manny's guest house (a small, lovely guest house run by a local family that lives on the main floor. it was cute and we highly recommend it. Home to many little gecko friends!) Lived off of mangos and hard boiled eggs for breakfast and "canteen" street food. The canteens consist of pots that have different Philippine dishes and are served with rice and cost about 1$ per meal! Most were delicious and curry chicken was our go to. Some were a little too... Fishy?! The Philippines love their fish-everything!

View from Manny's Guest House

Manny's Guest House main area

Manny's Guest House Kitchen/Bath area

Keith at Mannys Guest House

Manny's Guest House - 3am, jet lag!

Little gecko friend!

The fisherman houses along the water were neat - simple shacks built on stilts. Children running, playing laughing, ownerless dogs running in packs, families washing their prized cock-fight roosters.

We walked along the boardwalk that is a more recent addition to the harbor. Sadly they are tearing down a lot of the fisherman houses and moving them to extend the boardwalk.

Fishermans villages

Boats down by the fishermans villages

View from fisherman's village towards the church

Kaila at a park on the way to the boardwalk

Boardwalk

Boardwalk statue

We headed by trike to a market and bought papaya, mango,durian (really weird texture, but tastes like candy so Kaila and Mairi ended up hand juicing it!) We also some buns called 'Pan-coco' (sweet buns filled with coconut - our favourite snack in the philippines!)

Downtown Puerto Princesa

Schoolgirls in puerto princesa

Durian Juicing

Then we to the closest beach to Puerto Princesa called Pristine Beach - where apparently all the locals go. Pristine beach wasn't really so pristine, but we walked for a little bit and found some clean beach and water in between the mangrove forest. It was such warm water but still a nice, refreshing swim. There were lots of crabs, hermit crabs and mudskippers hanging around the mangrove tree roots that shoot in and out of the water.