Back in Asia again: Kuala Lumpur and first 10 days in the Philippines!

We have been already for three weeks in the Philippines, without updating you on our travel adventures via our blog! Unfortunately, the WiFi is very slow and unreliable in all the guest houses and ho(s)tels where we were staying. We were not even able to open the blogspot webpage, let alone uploading the pictures we would like to share with you. ;-) However, today we arrived back in Manila after an amazing journey visiting several islands and luckily we have a good internet connection in our hostel. We really enjoy the Philippines so far and we are so happy that we choose the Philippines as one of our travel destinations! In this blog, we'll update you about the days we have spent in Kuala Lumpur and our first 10 days in the Philippines. The map below illustrates where we have been these 10 days.

Our first 10 days in the Philippines

In a nutshell, we started in Manila, traveled by bus to Batangas and took the boat to Puerto Galera, where we stayed for a couple of days. Then we took the boat back to Batangas, took the bus to Tagaytay and climbed the Taal Volcano before we headed back to Manila to catch our flight to the island of Palawan. In a couple of days time, we'll write another blog to update you on the past 10 days of our travel in Palawan (which was really a paradise!).

But first things first. ;-) The 31st of January we flew from Perth to Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia. It was a 6 hour flight, but very comfortable since the airplane was only half full. As a result, we had three chairs for ourselves which was so nice.

Bye bye Perth 

Ready for our 6 hour flight from Perth to Kuala Lumpur

As I wrote in one of the previous blogs, I worked on my PhD thesis while we were in Esperence, Australia. In the mean time I had sent my book to the publisher and they had sent the proof of my book to our Airbnb host Dane in Kuala Lumpur. I followed the package with track and trace and I was so happy when I got a WhatsApp message from Dane confirming that he received my book - just two days before we arrived in KL! As you can imagine, I was very excited...!! Although it was already 1 o'clock in the night, I have spent half an hour checking my book. It was so nice to see the result of 4 years of work in my own book! I can't wait to share it with you. The books have been printed last week, and the invitations for the defense will be sent by my lovely paranymphs next week. :-)

Checking the proof of my dissertation

The next day our Airbnb hosts Dane and Musa (and their son Adam) took us to a museum at the Bukit Melawati at Kuala Selangor (about an hour drive from Kuala Lumpur). Dane and Musa are extremely nice, and every time they say: "You are not Airbnb guests, you are now our family!" We stayed at their apartment many times and it feels a bit like coming home, since Kuala Lumpur is the city from where we flew to Australia and to the Philippines. Since it was a public holiday the 1st of February, both Dane and Musa had a day off from work and they decided to take us for a day trip. We visited a museum and a fort. The fort was build in the 1780s to fight against the Dutch. However, the fort felt to the Dutch and still many cannons with "VOC" could be found there. Crazy if you think about it!

Fort at Bukit Melawati Hill overviewing the straight of Melaka

VOC cannon 

Museum at Bukit Melawati 

A real fort with many Dutch cannons

Dane feeding the monkeys

After our visit to the museum, we made quick stop for a pure coconut juice and sugar cane juice. It was very hot and the cold natural sweet water was very refreshing!

Cutting the coconut 

Kuala Selangor

Chinese shop with dried fish

It's almost Chinese New Year!

We had lunch in a nice seafood restaurant in Kuala Selangor and we decided to eat crab, since that was the speciality of the house. Wow, indeed, it was super tasteful! Our Airbnb hosts took us out for dinner (to have the best sate of KL) two months ago and we promised them that we would take them out next time. And so we did! 

Holy crab!

Nice lunch with great company 

How we left the table... ;-)

After our lunch we had a coffee at Dana and Musa's house and watched pictures of their visit to Holland. So nice! We'll see them one more time when we fly back from Manila to KL, before we go back to the Netherlands in the beginning of March. Their apartment is just so comfortable, we like it very much. And we could leave one of our bags with them as well, which was great (now we don't have to carry that all the time in the Philippines).

The 2nd of February we flew early morning to Manila. Our flight was at 8 am, so we woke up early to take the taxi at 5am. We had breakfast at the airport and had a very relaxed flight to Manila (four hours). We were picked up from the airport by a taxi that we arranged with our Airbnb host. The apartment where we stayed in Manila was really nice. Very centrally located in a quiet neighborhood, which was very pleasant in the super crowded, chaotic and busy city of Manila. After a short power nap, we decided to explore the city. We walked around and took our first tricycle ride (not knowing that sooooo many more would follow). ;-)

Arrival at Manila by plane

Our Airbnb in Manila

First tricycle ride!

After a few hours in the middle of the city we decided to look for a quiet place where we could watch the sunset. We ended up at the five star hotel where we crashed in their gardens, enjoyed an ice cold beer and relaxed for a while. We also started to make plans for the rest of our trip in the Philippines, since we didn't really had a clear plan at that time. Although we have five weeks - and this is quite a lot - we quickly found out that it is way too little to see the whole of the Philippines. Therefore, we had to make decisions which islands we really wanted to visit (and which not).

Nice place to watch the sunset

Cheers!

Making plans while reading the lonely planet

Beautiful sunset

The next day we further explored the city of Manila. Many people told us that they did not like Manila and in many travel magazines they tell you that you should avoid this chaotic city as much as you can. However, although it is crowded, the air pollution is quite bad with all the jeepneys (which we loooooove by the way!), we really enjoyed the time that we have spent in Manila. We walked around in different neighborhoods, came across a local food market, had some fresh fruit on the way, visited the old city (Intramuros), had some dim sum in China town, and enjoyed the sunset our dinner at a rooftop terrace of one of the hotels in the middle of the old city. It was a perfect day!

Tricycles: the main mode of transportation in the Philippines

We felt in love with the jeepneys, they are so beautiful!

Buying fresh pinapple, jummy!

Local market

Local market

Local market

Yes, it's a very chaotic city ;-)

Pedicab driver taking a nap

Some jeepneys are really pretty!

Aren't they?

Walking to Intramuros: the old city of Manila

Taking a padicap 

Police officers having a break

Statute and colonial buildings in the old city

Manila Cathedral

Inside Manila Cathedral

Entrance to Fort Santiago

Amazing atmosphere

Nicely decorated streets in the old city

Entrance to China Town in Manila

Yes, it's quite hectic in Chinatown too... ;-)

Enjoying the view and sunset at the Bayleaf Hotel

Manila by night!

Beautiful church by night

After two days in  Manila we took the bus to the port of Batangas. It was only a two hour drive, and although the buses are not as comfortable as in Malaysia, it was a very pleasant ride. In Batangas, we took the boat to Puerto Galera, a town at the island of Mindoro.  

Bus to Batangas

Buying a ticket for the boat to Puerto Galera

On the boat to Puerto Galera

Boat to Puerto Galera

Nice views, so many islands!

We stayed for four days at a nice guesthouse where we had a simple, but very nice room with sea view! :-) In the afternoon, we decided to explore the town Sabang and we found a nice little restaurant via tripadvisor. The food was delicious and we enjoyed the view over the bay. However, we were quite shocked by the prostitution in this area. We already sensed it while taking the boat to Puerto Galera, since there were many old grey 'Western' men with very young Filipino girls. Although we have experienced this before (for example in Senegal and in Kenya), this time it was very different. The main reason is that there is no taboo here at all and really happens out in the open. Also when we were in the plane from Perth to Manila, two men in the seat behind us discussed together the girls they were going to have or their 'projects' as how they called it. These men do not feel ashamed at all. The same applied for the restaurants and cafe's where we had our dinner or had a drink in the night where you could all see it happening...

View from our room

We stayed at such a lovely place!

Bankas at Sabang

Enjoying a nice meal in Sabang

Beautiful view from the restaurant

Watching the sunset, what a beautiful bay!

The next day we took the jeepney to Sabang and rented a motorbike for the day to explore the island of Mindoro. We found out that there was a Swiss bakery on the island, so we first made a quick stop there to buy some delicious bread rolls. Afterwards, we took the road in the direction of Calapan and we stopped at a mangrove project where we made a short boardwalk. We continued to the Tamaraw Falls but before we reached the falls we had lunch at a very nice local restaurant with a great view.   

Taking the jeepney: cheap and so much fun!

Our motorbike!

Life at Mindoro island

The road from Puerto Galera to Calapan

Visiting the mangrove project

Boardwalk at the mangrove

Beautiful views

Enjoying a cold fruit juice

Having a local Filipino dish for lunch

Tamaraw waterfall

After the waterfall we drove back in the direction of white beach. We enjoyed the ride on the motorbike and passed small villages, many basketball playgrounds (the national sport in the Philippines), churches and beautiful beaches.

Basketball field :-)

Nice views on the way

Beautiful beach where we relaxed for a while

Road close to Puerto Galera

Love the driver;-)

Enjoying a cold drink after a day at the motorbike

The town Sabang where we returned our motorbike

When we arrived in Puerto Galera, the weather was very nice: the sun was shining and there was a blue sky. However, the following days the weather changed and our last two days it was raining all day. Never mind, we made the most out of it. Luckily our guesthouse had a pool table and we spent many hours playing pool. ;-) I also worked a couple of hours and we went on a snorkel trip. Even though it was raining, the visibility was not too bad and we enjoyed the beautiful coral, giant clams and nice fish.

Leaving Sabang with our bangkas

View from the cottage where we had lunch

Nice barbecue lunch prepared for us!

Ready for the next snorkel!

So many fish!

View from the boat

Beautiful coral

Erik snorkeling

Blue star fish: my favorite!

Coral

It's raining, but still having fun!

Playing pool at a rainy day in Puerto Galera

After a couple of days in Puerto Galera, we took the boat back to Batangas and took the bus to Tagaytay. It was quite a hassle to get from the port to the bus terminal, since all tricycle drivers asked ridiculous prices to bring us to the city center (which was only 2 km away). Therefore, we walked together with a couple from France to the main entrance of the port to take a tricycle there (for a fair price). All four of us, including our backpacks, fitted in one tricycle! :-) From the bus terminal we took a bus to Calamba and from there a minivan to Tagatay. The view on Lake Taal and the Taal Volcano was really amazing from Tagaytay. Tagaytay is famous for its delicious food (according to the lonely planet 'a foody haven') and we decided to eat sushi at a Japanese restaurant after a long day of traveling. We had almost all different kinds of transportation in one day: tricycle, bangkas, bus, minivan and jeepney. The sushi was really good!

Our boat (bangkas) to Batangas

With the French couple in one tricycle

Having sushi for dinner!

Delicious!

The next day we booked a tour to go to the Taal Volcano. Early morning, we were picked up by a tricycle from our hostel. The driver brought us to Lake Taal, where a bankas was waiting for us. According to the guides the crater lake on Volcano island is the largest lake on an island in a lake on an island in the world. 

Lake on an island in a lake on an island. ;-)

Lake Taal - view from Tagaytay

We are ready for the hike!

Our bangkas to cross Lake Taal

We were so happy that it was a beautiful day again!

We reached the top after an easy hike

The path we took

Nice views from the edge of the crater

Hiking to the other side of the crater

Here you already see the red sulfur

We are there! 

Sulfur gas

On our way back

Beautiful views

When we hiked down the crater, the bangkas was waiting for us. We crossed Lake Taal again and the tricycle driver brought us back to our hostel. In the afternoon, we walked around in the city center of Tagaytay and we enjoyed a nice cup of coffee (not so many places unfortunately where they have good coffee in the Philippines - most of the time it's nescafe...). 

Enjoying the view from one of the lookout points at Tagaytay

From Tagaytay, we took the bus early morning to Manila and flew directly to Puerto Princesa on the island Palawan.

So, this was Part I of our travel in the Philippines. Very soon we will (hopefully) update you on the next 10 days of our trip. The island of Palawan was really a paradise, but more about that (and our amazing pictures!) in our next blog. ;-)

Big hugs and kisses,

Erik & Annemarie