When we left Naonao beach, our last hotel (Sunset Colours) organised a small boat to take us to Port Barton in the afternoon free of charge, this took about 15-20 minutes and it really was a lovely little journey.

Our accomodation in Port Barton was about a 15-20 minute walk from the jetty, it was mid afternoon, the sun was beating down and our backpacks felt very heavy, very quickly. By the time we got to our accommodation we were both pretty much hanging.

We stayed in a place called Parrots Boutique – for my thoughts on the Parrots Boutique as a place to stay please see the ‘Accommodation Review Posts‘ section for the Philippines.

My research into Port Barton indicated that compared to many other places in the Palawan islands it had relatively few tourists and the tours and beaches were less crowded. However, it was starting to grow very quickly with many restaurants, bars and homestays frequently popping up. I was particularly looking forward to vising the Reggae Bar…  recommended to me whilst I was in San Vincente and offering live music and a fun time.

Unfortunately, as with Naonao beach, Port Barton was pretty much devastated by the super typhoon. I reckon about 90% of homestays, bars and restaurants were closed – either damaged by the typhoon or were owned by Europeans that had decided not to re-open yet… including, the Reggae bar – shame!

We were both very keen to get out on a boat trip and crack on with some snorkelling but we decided that we would wait until we were in our next port of call El Nido. Mainly because we had heard that the snorkelling was better in El Nido and also El Nido had been pretty much untouched by the typhoon so there were a lot more trips to choose from.

We struggled to find any restaurants that we fancied to eat in so, as our accommodation also offered some excellent cooking facilities with our room, we bought some supplies from the local food stalls and prepared our meals ourselves for the both nights we were there – basically, packet noodles, shrimps, calamansi (lime), eggs, garlic and ginger… the meals turned out pretty good in the end.

We also tried out some barbequed chicken and pork with chilli dip from one of the small food stalls, which were pretty delicious.

The weather was not great so we did not do a great deal for our couple of days in Port Barton. Spent some time relaxing by the pool, wandering the streets, walking the beach and I spent quite a bit of time practicing my drone flying.

Once again, it was heart breaking to see the results of Covid and the typhoon, I would love to have been here pre-Covid, I bet it had a great vibe to the place. I only hope that the tourists start returning, the businesses start re-opening and the locals are able to start re-building this wonderful place.

On December 16th 2021 Tyhoon Rai, a category 5 super typhoon, hit and devastated western coasts of the Palawan Islands causing heavy rainfall, strong winds, flooding and mass damage to buildings. Noanoa beach was hit particularly badly and as I walked the beach and reviewed the damage I guess about 70-80% of the beach houses had been destroyed. Sunset Colors, where we were staying, sustained considerable damage and there only appeared to be four beach huts out of about twelve that were were in a good state to rent – they had been damaged by the storms but had been repaired.

It was heart breaking to think that the locals, who rely on tourism for their livelihood, had first been hit by almost two years of Covid and then had to contend with the devastation caused by a super typhoon… needless to say, as I was to discover in my travels through the countries of South Asia, the locals kept smiles on their faces and rocked on into the future… such resilient people.

One thing I did notice on our last night was that I had been bitten quite a bit by mosquitos, or at least that’s what I thoughT. It turns out that I had been bitten by something other than mosquitos, which resulted in me visiting a health clinic in El Nido and being tested for blood poisoning – more on this in a later post.

All in all it was a very relaxing two days in our beach hut on Noanoa beach, but now it was time to move on and spend a few days in Port Barton.

 from the long journey from the UK. We stayed in a place called the Panja Resort in Barangay Tagburos… a little far out of town but we were dropped into town by the nice guys at the hotel whenever we wanted to go… for my thoughts on the Panja Resort please see the ‘Accommodation Review Posts‘ section for the Philippines.

For the rest of our arrival day we chilled, swam in the pool, had supper at the hotel and enjoyed the feeling of starting our six month adventure in the Philippines. I also tried out my new drone and took aerial shots of the hotel and surrounding area. Before I left the UK I bought a lightweight DJI Mini 2 drone (perfect for travelling) to try my hand at taking some aerial shots of the places I visited on my trip.

On our first day in Puerto Princesa we had a cheeky lie in and then an okay breakfast of omelette, toast and coffee… I always like to have a couple of eggs for breakfast when travelling for the protein and energy. Also, if I’m staying in a cheap place where perhaps the quality of the breakfast is not great I’ll usually ask them if they can boil me up a couple of eggs for breakfast… can’t go wrong with a couple of boiled eggs and some toast to start the day.

Our first excursion was to Plaza Cuartel. It’s an outdoor park and a landmark in Palawan that used to be a penal colony during World War II. Initially it was built by the Spanish as a garrison to protect the country from invasion.

During the Japanese Occupation in World War II, it was turned into a penal colony by the Japanese to hold hundreds of American prisoners of war. Towards the end of World War II, when the Japanese knew that they were on the brink of defeat, they decided to execute the prisoners. An air raid warning was sounded to get 150 prisoners into the shelter trenches and then the Japanese soldiers set them on fire using barrels of gasoline. Prisoners who tried to escape the flames were shot down by machine guns. Other prisoners attempted to escape by climbing over a cliff that ran along one side of the trenches but they were then later hunted down and killed. Only 11 men escaped the slaughter.

The remains of the American soldiers were brought back to and buried in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Missouri, United States.

This is just a summary of this terrible act but I’d like to suggest that you read an excellent account of it that has been posted up on Wikipedia.

Just opposite the Plaza is a cathedral called ‘The Immaculate Conception Cathedral’. Unfortunately, there seemed to be an event going on so I was not able to go inside and check it out. I suggest that if you ever find yourself visiting the Plaza Cuartel then it may be worth checking out the cathedral.

MAfter visiting the Plaza we wandered the streets for a while soaking in the sights, sounds and smells and then made our way to the Baywalk – everything in Puerto Princesa seems walkable and getting to the Baywalk is pretty straightforward… just ask a local.

Puerto Princesa Baywalk is a long stretch of a well-paved promenade on Sandoval Street and is a popular hangout spot for both locals and tourists alike.

Locals and tourists come to the Baywalk to relax and enjoy the view of the bay. You’ll see many locals jogging, brisk walking, strolling or just hanging out. There a wonderful  cool breeze that flows into the bay making it perfect for relaxing and unwinding at the end of the day.

We had a delicious meal of  chicken satay sticks, calamari and like a prawn spicy mix with rice from one of the restaurants right on the front… it was delicious. We also had quite a few bottles of Red Horse beer which was very good and very cheap… I say we had quite a few but we did actually end of getting very, very tipsy. It was great fun.

On our second day we pretty much wandered the streets of Puerto Princesa taking in the unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells. Whenever I visit new places I do like to spend a lot of my time there simply walking the backstreets watching the locals getting on with their lives. I seem to get a much better feel for a place doing this than arriving, zooming around the usual sights and heading off to the next place… something I’ve never been keen on… spending time in a place walking the backstreets and people watching seems to help me connect with a new place.

In the evening we did some research on where to eat and headed to a place that served traditional Vietnamese dishes called Pham Chaolong, where we had a deliciously authentic chalalong –  a Filipino version of ‘pho‘. I took some video footage of our supper so please find a short clip below… this is my first ever proper travel video so let me know what you think, with suggestions, in the comments

We took a tricycle back to our hotel each night but unfortunately our journey on the second night did not go to plan. Our hotel was about a 15 minute tricycle ride from the Baywalk area and the last ten minutes or so was over a dirt track full of massive potholes,.. It was petty much the bumpiest ride of my life. It got to the point where the tricycle slid off the road and into the ditch by the side of the road. The poor driver struggled and struggled but it was plain to see that he could go no further, so h told us that our hotel was up ahead and left us to it. We walked on ahead only to find that our hotel was nowhere to be seen. Once we kinda realised this, we retraced our steps towards a light that we thought was our hotel, it was and we managed to get back there safely. However, not before I twisted my ankle in a pothole. Needless to say my foot ballooned up the next day and caused me quite a few problems over the next month or so.

I did take some footage of the tricycle ride back to our hotel, if is interests you please find a link to it below for your entertainment, hopefully it captures a little of what it is like to take a journey in a tricycle… for those of you that haven’t

After two days in Puerto Princesa it was time for us to move on to our next port of call, a beach hut on the coast of San Vincente, Palawan Islands – via Port Barton

At last, after a long 39 hrs and 50 mins travelling, including 4 flights and 15 hours hanging around with layovers and delays, I am sitting here by the pool in Puerto Princesa in the Palawan Islands writing this post.

We arrived here yesterday so I thought I’d take some time out today and tell you all about my journey here from the UK.

1.30pm – picked up at home by my good buddy Shaun who took us to Bristol airport- 1 hour
2.30pm – arrive at Bristol airport and check in
5.25pm – flight takes off to Amsterdam on time
7.45pm – arrive in Amsterdam – 1 hour and 20 minutes
7.45pm to 8.55pm – layover – 1 hour and 10 minutes
8.55pm – flight takes off to Bangkok on time
1.15pm arrive in Bangkok – 11 hours and 20 minutes
1.15pm to 2.30pm – layover in Bangkok – 1 hour and 15 minutes
2.30pm flight takes off to Manila on time

6.50pm – arrive in Manila – 3 hours and 20 minutes
6.50pm (Wed) to 6.55am (Thu) – layover in Manila airport – 12 hours and 5 minutes

6.55am to 12.55pm – flight delayed – 6 hours
12.55am am take flight to Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines
2.20pm arrive in Puerto Princesa – 1 hour and 25 minutes.

I’m going to start this post thanking my good buddy Shauny Baby from Cirencester for taking us to Bristol airport… you’re a legend mate.

We flew with KLM airlines and our check in was very quick and smooth. However, they did thoroughly check all of the required documentation for entry into the Philippines and I think that having print outs of the relevant documents helped speed the process up – check out my ‘Entry Requirements‘ post for details on the required documentation for entry into the Philippines.

To some, a journey lasting over 39 hours and involving 4 different flights may sound like a bit of a nightmare… but not to me. I absolutely love the whole experience of travelling to my destination. I fully sign up to the old  cliche “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey that’s important”. I love spending time in airports, train stations and bus stations people watching, seeing a whole variety of people making their way to different parts of the globe – families going on holiday, business travellers, solo travellers and gap year friends taking their first steps into a new world of adventures and experiences.

The journey from the UK to Manila went swimmingly with two short stopovers of just over an hour each in Amsterdam and Bangkok. It was a weird stopover in Bangkok as we stayed on the aircraft for the whole time and the cleaners came onto the plane and cleaned around us – first time that’s happened to me.

We arrived in Manila on time at around 6.50pm on Wednesday evening where we collected our backpacks from luggage control and began our 12 hour wait for our domestic flight to Puerto Princesa in the Palawan Islands.

Just before the start of Covid-19 I registered for an American Express card with a plan to use the card as much as possible for my everyday spending in the UK, clear my balance off each month and accumulate lots of airmiles and a few complementary airport lounge tickets. Then, we were going to spend a good few hours in the airport lounge at Manila airport relaxing, stuffing our faces and using the internet. Unfortunately, I had overlooked the fact that our connecting flight to Puerto Princesa was a domestic flight and there weren’t any airport lounges – slight oversight on my part.

So here we were, feeling pretty shattered with only a few closed food shops around so our options for killing time was pretty limited and the worst thing of all was  that all of the seating had permanenty arm divider so we couldn’t even stretch out and have a kip – I hate those things in airports and stations. Then I spotted something that looked kind of interesting, so I went to investige. It turned out to be a transit lounge called The Wings that offered a bed for us to put our head down for a few hours… at a cost of course.

After a good hearted discussion with the friendly lady on reception, which included us walking away twice to think about it (cunning eh!) we managed to negotiate a cost of £12.00 for 6 hours for the both of us. For that we had our own private room with quite a basic but adequate bunk bed, power points, showers and access to a communal kitchen that included free water, coffee and a selection of teas. I know what your thinking and you’d be quite right in your thinking… such extravagance when travelling on a budget. We were however pretty knackered and as it turns out our flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa was delayed for about 6 hours so we were glad of the 4 hours or so solid sleep and a hot shower.

Nothing really to comment on the flight to Puerto Princesa it took slightly under an hour and a half and we arrived in Puerto Princesa at about 2.20 in the afternoon.

After picking up our luggage we made our way to the outside of the airport where we hopped into the pre-arranged ransport we had organised with he hotel. Again, not the best way to travel on a budget but I like to arrange transportation to my first hotel when I start a trip, especially if it’s lomg haul as I’m usually shattered… and I was.

After putting off our trip for just over two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic here we were in Puerto Pirncesa in the Philippine Palawan Isalnd… our trip had finally started!