To take nothing but photographs, and leave nothing but footprints.
Palawan: It's More Fun In the Philippines
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El Nido and Puerto Princessa, Palawan
The Stressor
My trip to Palawan was not without its complications. The Philippines was not part of my Southeast Asia travel plans. But when I found a low fare to the Philippines, I decided to add the Philippines to my epic Southeast Asia 2018 trip. El Nido had been on my travel radar for a while. Since there's no airport in El Nido, I booked a flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa with Air Asia and a separate package tour through Asia Travel that included the transportation to El Nido and a hotel. I also booked a hotel in Puerto Princesa through Booking.com. I pre-paid everything that was booked through Asia Travel.
The trip to El Nido from Puerto Princesa was long (6 hours), but not as bumpy as I expected. The road was paved, winding with lush scenery. However, the stop to get food was far in between. We arrived in El Nido tired and hungry to find our pre-paid hotel room not only ready, but the hotel was fully booked. I could tell from the look on the hotel receptionist's face that there was an issue with my booking. She was on the phone for a while trying to find us another accommodation. We then agreed to transfer to another hotel (rather a family-owned dormitory). There was also a mess up with the transport back to Puerto Princesa, but when I called Asia Travel, I was told that everything was non-refundable. Minor setback?
El Nido - the Stress Reliever
When I visited Coron five years ago, I stayed at an island resort, so I did not see a lot of tourists except for the guests at the island resort. In contrast, El Nido is touristy. But it’s hard not to fall in love with El Nido. Spending time exploring the jagged cliffs that jutted out of turquoise to emerald green waters and lagoons, kayaking and swimming in clear sparkling waters take the stress away. Many tour operators offer the same tour category such as Tour A - exploring different lagoons, Tour B - beach and island hopping and the combination of the two. We opted for the combination tour on our first day and did our own beach hopping the following day. We explored a few a lagoons from the small lagoon to the big lagoon, and the most popular one - the secret lagoon. The Secret Lagoon has a very tiny entrance and relatively murky water that comes from the sea and fresh water from the island. It is surrounded by towering limestone rock formations with natural carvings like the twelve apostles, eagle, crocodile, etc.
Visitors waiting their turn to go through the tiny entrance to the Secret Lagoon
Kayaking through the tiny entrance to the lagoon
Exploring caves and lagoons
Snorkeling
Swimming in the sparkling water
Shimizu Island
Commando Beach
Nacpan Beach
The following day, we hired a van to go to Nacpan Beach. Getting to Nacpan was quite an adventure. The one hour ride from the town of El Nido to Nacpan Beach was very bumpy. As soon as we arrived in Nacpan, we rented a cottage and enjoyed some beer. The place was secluded and very quiet. It was a perfect place to do nothing but enjoy the scenery - the beautiful stretch of cream-colored sand lined by swaying coconut trees and on the seaside, the view of smaller islands (someone mentioned that the bigger island of the three is owned by Manny Pacquiao). However, the different shades of the blue sea, the clear aqua waters enticed me to go swimming.
Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR)
The Puerto Princesa Underground River is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited site in Palawan. So there's quite a wait to take a short boat ride to get to the entrance of the underground river and there's another wait to begin the underground river tour. But it's all worth the wait. After seeing it with my own eyes, now understand why it's hailed as one of the Seven Wonders of Nature. Simply amazing. I highly recommend it as a 'must see' in Palawan.
The entrance to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River
The vegetable section features stalagmites and stalactites in the form of garlic and other vegetables
I was writing my blog about Nepal’s UNESCO World Heritage and historic sites very late last night (05-12-15 in Nepal) when I happened to check my Instagram and saw a posting about Kathmandu after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal yet again. I get emotional just by looking at the photos and videos I took from my recent trip to Nepal let alone a video of a chaotic Kathmandu. I must confess to telling a co-traveler on our way to Patan's Durbar Square that I was ‘templed out’ (the term I used to describe how I felt after visiting so many temples). Who would have thought that the visit to that last Durbar Square and seeing all the temples that day was a great blessing. I have said many prayers of gratitude for the opportunity to see and capture in films and photos Nepal’s UNESCO World Heritage sites and the irreplaceable temples and statues before the April 25, 2015 earthquake. The Kathmandu Valley is comprised of three cities: Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan. Each city features
My interest in exploring the northern part of the Philippines started from looking at a piece of art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California. Among the display of ceramics and pottery engraved with gold and other decorative stuff, a wooden carving of a male figure squatting on a platform with the lower arms on top of each other, resting upon his knees, caught my eye. According to the docent, the wooden sculpture was called "Bului" which literally means "granary guardian" in the "Ifugao" tribe dialect. The carved wooden sculpture was set on a platform on top of another platform, a mortar. Our docent explained the significance of the wooden mortar (which was used with the pestle, to separate the husk from the rice, sort of rice mill) and linked the story to the Rice Terraces in the Cordillera Mountains of the Philippines built 2000 years ago by the “Ifugao” tribe. So two years and three hundred kilometers north of Manila later, we explo
One of the most spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Sites I visited this year was the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow, Poland. It was founded in the 13th century to mine the rich deposit of salt. Salt mining stopped in 1996 when the low price of salt on the world market made it too expensive to mine and the mine was slowly flooding. But miners did more than just extract salt. They left behind them a breathtaking record of their time underground in the shape of statues of mythical, historical and religious figures. Part of the salt mine became an art gallery, chapels, cathedral, and underground lakes. Today, Wieliczka Salt Mine is one of the most visited National Monuments in Poland. For safety reason, less than one percent of the mine is open to visitors, but even that is almost four kilometers in length. There are 20 chambers to visit and 800 steps to climb of which 350 at the beginning take you down into the mine. You can’t just visit and wander around on your own. All of the visits
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