Adventures with Jack and Julia

Port Barton

This was a place we originally booked out of necessity to break up the travel time to the more popular destination El Nido as it’s about half way from the airport along the island to there. From Panglao, we took a flight at 9:30am, arriving in Manila with a 4.5 hour layover that ended up being 6 hours because our flight was delayed. From there, we made it to Puerto Princesa (on Palawan Island) at 6:30pm and hopped on a van that would drive us to Port Barton. It was only us and one other couple, so the travel company loaded up the van with random deliveries which we dropped off along the way, adding extra time to our journey. We finally arrived around 10pm eager to check in and get a good nights sleep, only to find that there was a mix up with our reservation and we didn’t have a room that night. Thankfully the owner was very kind and found us a room to stay across the street so we crashed for one night and checked into our proper hotel the next morning.

Upon waking up, we were so glad to have added Port Barton to our schedule as the beaches were stunning! We settled in and spent our first day here relaxing on the beautiful beach near our hotel, walking along the shore and stopping for a 2 for 1 margarita special at a bar on the beach.

For our second day, we decided to rent a kayak to get away from the main town. The water is so shallow along the way that you have to be so careful not to damage the coral reef mere inches at times below the surface. We’d imagine it would be a fantastic place to see some marine life but we didn’t see anything other than one tiny little jellyfish.

Getting out on the water allowed us to visit two other gorgeous nearby beaches called White Beach and Coconut Beach which each had its own perks. We visited Coconut first and upon arrival we were greeted by a bunch of wild pigs! They’ve of course come to know tourists as great providers of food and we witnessed them going through people’s belongings. We even saw one take a man’s snorkel gear out of his backpack which was pretty funny. White Beach’s resident animals were a bunch of wild goats and they were also running around behaving equally as mischievous. Overall a great day and the kayak rental only cost $8 so we’d highly recommend it to anyone visiting.

Port Barton is a very small little spot without too too much to do in it. You can visit the beaches, eat at some tasty restaurants and take in the small laid back beach town vibes on your way up to El Nido. Especially when compared to the huge crowds up in El Nido, it is a great change of pace. Although we didn’t get to this time, they also offer island hopping tours off Port Barton that are supposed to be quite nice as well.

El Nido

Next, we headed north to visit the main reason most tourists travel to Palawan – El Nido. It took about 4 hours to get there so we were glad to have broken up the journey. Over the course of our time there, we explored the whole area on foot and discovered a really delicious local spot for dinner called Happy Home Restaurant. We found that the prices in most restaurants were quite high for what they offered and there was definitely a tourist tax in play here, so it was nice to find something more affordable but still really yummy! We had dinner here 3 out of the 4 night we were in El Nido, branching out only once to try a Mexican restaurant (Julia’s choice of course).

While walking around, Julia continued her hunt for the best halo halo in each place we visited and found a very affordable one to try while in El Nido. Each shop offers slightly different toppings so it’s fun to try them all.

For most, the main draws of El Nido are the island hopping tours. There are 4 main tours: A, B, C, and D. We decided to splurge here as we haven’t done any tours in a while and opted for “A” – the most popular tour. Each tour lasts for 6-7 hours and takes groups on different routes by boat, exploring the beauty all around the nearby islands, beaches, and lagoons. For our tour, the boat left the dock around 9am and made 5 stops: Big Lagoon, Twin Rocks, Secret Lagoon, Shimizu Island and Seven Commandos Beach. One thing we hadn’t expected in advance was for all the other Tour A boats to follow the exact same order of destinations as us, though. The locations are all pretty close together so we assumed we’d have some quiet sights but by the time our boat arrived at Big Lagoon, it was completely packed. We were still able to rent a kayak and explore through crystal clear blue water and awe at the towering limestone cliffs and even found a secret pathway hidden in the rocks that was only a few feet wide at times where we were the only boat going through which was peaceful and stunning.

After kayaking for about 45 minutes, we made our way to the next stop to do some snorkelling at Twin Rocks. The current was quite strong so we didn’t find this snorkelling as enjoyable as our previous times. A lot of the coral was dead or damaged as a result of the amount of people passing through there so there weren’t many fish to see anyways. Nice to get in the water, however!

Following this, we stopped at a small beach where our guides set up an amazing buffet lunch for us that included fresh fish, noodles, spring rolls, fruit, salad and chicken adobo. There was another group next to us on the beach and we were glad to have chosen our tour group as the meal we had looked much nicer than theirs.

The next stop we made was to Secret Lagoon. Whoever named it that might want to check the definition on what “secret” means, though, as we were far from the only people there. At least 100 others were also trying to navigate a tiny opening of about two feet in the side of a cliff in order to access it. With the current blasting the water in and out of the tunnel, it was certainly an adventure to get in there. Worth the wait to check it out and we’re glad to have seen it.

Our final stop was at Seven Commandos Beach which is not named for the attire of the guests, thankfully! Here, we relaxed under the shade of the palm trees as we prepared to make the journey back to El Nido. The beach was full of other tours finishing up their days either playing beach volleyball, basking in the hot sun, or snoozing in the shade like us. Such a lovely way to end the day.

Our review on Port Barton and El Nido is that they are absolutely worth doing. Port Barton is a budget backpacker town that is gentrifying rapidly while El Nido is more your classic Southeast Asia beach town experience with the higher prices to match. They both have a ton to offer and we hope to return in the future to see how they’ve changed.

Manila

The one downside to doing Port Barton on the way up was that we didn’t feel the desire to go there again on the way back. So, we were in for yet another long travel day. It was all worth it though as we got to see some fantastic spots here on Palawan. To get to Manila, we returned down the long windy road from El Nido back to Puerto Princesa by van and caught a flight over there.

After so many very budget homestays, we’ve reached the maximum tier of memberships on Agoda and Booking.com. Therefore, we’re getting some pretty awesome deals and our Manila hotel was incredible. We only had to pay $40 a night for a hotel that is usually over $200 for something right the zone that was really comfortable and even had a gym and pool! This was a really nice way to finish off our Philippine leg of the journey and relax in the sunshine before shocking our bodies with temperatures far below what we were now accustomed to.

Manila is a ginormous city. There are so many areas that you can stay and they vary to the extremes so it’s vital to choose the right area. We actually stayed inside Makati City, and not in Manila proper. It’s worth noting that Makati is a very safe area and we never left this bubble, so we can’t say that we really experienced how the rest of the locals live in Manila City. We’d recommend staying in Makati or the BGC if you visit and only venturing outside of those zones if you feel comfortable during the day time.

During our short time here, we explored Greenbelt Mall, watched a movie in the theatre, and met one of Julia’s high school friends Melissa for dinner. It was so nice to see her and to catch up on the other side of the world and made us miss our friends and family quite a bit. To cap off our stay in Southeast Asia, we just spent a lot of time at our hotel decompressing, relaxing and using the facilities. Japan’s going to mean a huge amount of walking through cultural and heritage sites which we’re long overdue for and we cannot wait!

Our time in the Philippines is coming to an end and we’re sad to leave this beautiful country! The beaches have been so beautiful, the people are so friendly and we’ve really enjoyed exploring everywhere on foot. We are now heading to our 5th country, and one that Jack is incredibly excited for. Japan’s been at the top of his list for years and was a lot of the inspiration for this huge trip. Between the history, the cuisine, the modern culture, and how they all intersect still so deeply, we couldn’t be happier to be heading there next. One thing’s for sure, however, and that’s that we’re going to need some warmer jackets! Japan’s forecasting highs anywhere from about 8 degrees to -10 so it’ll be a shock to our bodies which have become acclimatized to a daily humid 30 degrees… Wish us luck!

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