Back in Asia: Philippines

After freezing temperatures in Korea, we were really looking forward to the sun in the Philippines after a week.

Here we had already planned a lot in advance, but spontaneously changed our route and stayed in Manila for a few days, then flew to El Nido on the island of Palawan and from there took a boat tour to the northern island of Coron. We stayed here for almost two weeks to dive and enjoy the beaches.

Our first stop was Manila. We had heard a lot about the Philippine capital, unfortunately often nothing too positive. The city is chaotic, poverty is omnipresent, some parts of the city are very unsafe and there is little to see anyway. We therefore didn't have particularly high expectations and were very positively surprised.

After arriving at the airport, we were caught up in traffic and it took us about an hour to get into the city, but we were then able to stay in our beautiful Airbnb in the heart of the popular Makati district. Here we were surprised by very good restaurants and wine bars.

In the following days we had even more highlights, including lunch with Kati's colleague Viktor and a visit to the Spanish district of Intramuros with the Adriatico restaurant. Here we got the Filipino national dish Adobo. What we also noticed in Manila was how pleasant it was for us that most Filipinos spoke perfect English and how nice and open many of them were. This is mainly because it is officially the country's second language, a lot of teaching is done in English and English series and films are not dubbed.

From Manila we continued to Palawan and to El Nido for one night. We were surprised at how small the place was, which was actually just on a main street that wasn't paved. Even though the landscape was very beautiful, it was a bit of a culture shock for us. However, we continued almost immediately on our boat tour anyway. This was the highlight of our trip so far. In five days we visited several beautiful sandy beaches and islands and spent our days with wonderful people, both the guides and the other tourists who traveled with us. After these days of isolation, good food, snorkeling and relaxation, we had to get used to the urban corona again and missed our new friends a lot in the first few days.

Another highlight of the trip was on the agenda in Coron, as Philipp had given Kati a voucher for an exchange pass in advance, which was to be redeemed here. So we spent the next few days underwater and explored some of the 12 Japanese wrecks that were around Coron. Here too we met incredibly nice people, whether Kati's diving instructor Jason (Philip's AJ was a bit stricter) or Philipp's diving friends with whom we spent an evening in Coron.

After a few days, we went to the north of the island of Busuanga, where the town of Coron is located, to the Ocam Ocam beach for a short break. Here we booked a room in a hotel that was right on the beach and was incredibly peaceful. Here too we had a great evening with two tourists from Germany and the Philippines and had great, in-depth conversations and also got to know Artur, who owned a restaurant next to the hotel where he conjured up what was probably the freshest and best lobster of our lives for very little money. In addition to the wonderful stay, the transport to and from Ocam Ocam was also an adventure, because we decided to cover the almost 2 hours on a scooter and were rewarded with beautiful landscapes along the way.

On the way back we spent another day in Coron and then looked forward to settled Singapore, our next stop on the way to Borneo.