Sailing into paradise

Sailing in paradise
I was feeling less excited about the 5 day sailing cruise with Tao Philippines with a 39 degree temperature and a throat feeling like sandpaper. But hey it was still going to be an adventure.
The group we were with seemed fun and friendly and there seemed like a lot of crew. Things got off to a good start when 5 minutes after leaving El Nido tropical fruit was produced and animated chatter amongst the travelers got underway.

There is nothing for me like being on the water to clear the head. And there is a lot going on In my head right now - two jobs across two time zones, theoretically a move in the new year to Miami and lots and lots of work bloody emails waiting for my return. The lack of wifi appealed the most about the sailing trip. So I did the sensible thing - swallowed my bio-flu tablets and got mesmerised by the South China Sea. It didn't take long for our first stop - I was expecting great things under the surface of the water. I wasn't disappointed - over the 5 days I discovered a huge love for snorkelling. So easy when the visibility is often > 15 metres over here. You don't need to dive when the coral, fish and even turtles come so close. The point that I was completely in underwater heaven was on the 4th day. Roy said that we didn't want to miss this stop - so I followed him - wonderful pancake shaped corals presented themselves and I swam through hundreds and hundreds of fish. I couldn't stop smiling. Paradise.

The day before Sarah spotted a turtle - we all remembered the diving sign for turtle and I swam my socks off swimming alongside the beauty for a magical 5 minutes. Wonderful.

I was hoping to see a shark underwater - oddly when you were in water this wonderful - the sense of fear seems to disappear. Sadly I didn't get my shark but I did have a surreal moment seeing a whale come to the surface when we were sailing. Surreal because it was totally unexpected and also because only 1 other person saw it. Was it real? Did a huge whale just appear or did i imagine it? It was real, and very rare. My nickname became ' Gemma Doolittle'.

When we weren't sailing our homes were rustic little huts - Maartje and I were spectacularly bad at putting up mosquito nets - and I would be totally lieing if I told you I was at home with this level of roughing it. I'm not. Give me a 5 star with Egyptian cotton sheets anyway. But if this is the way you discover beaches with no other tourists, Seas with no other snorkellers - then I am happy to rough it for a few nights. My eye mask, sleeping pills and ear plugs all helped 😉

I think the only downside to doing a trip with Tao is that beaches, snorkelling, and in fact islands in general are never going to be the same again....

Travels with a nurse

I've been very lucky throughout my life to have a varied and large group of friends. People who make me laugh, buy me groceries when i break my foot (!), enquire about my disastrous love life and put up with my stressful work life etc etc. My best guy friend is a doctor, Jamie is an expert with cars, John helps me negotiate at work etc etc. I also have a group of wonderful friends I've met travelling and who I often meet up to discover new countries. One of these friends happens to be a nurse. And this seems to be coming in increasingly handy.

In Japan, on a remote island, Naoshima, I got a large fishbone lodged in my throat - Maartje was on hand to help with the drama that ensued. Here in the Philippines it's also come in handy. After Bohol we were due to be on a 5 day trip of a lifetime. Sailing on a gorgeous wooden Palaw with a Philippine crew and group of intrepid travellers. We were due to sail from El Nido to Coron - staying in beach huts by night, snorkelling with turtles by day. Awful!

Unfortunately I got firstly a very high temperature and secondly a severe bout of hypochondria. Initially I was self disagnosing Malaria, then the symptoms of dengue fever sounded much more like what I was experiencing ( awful cough, sneezing, temperature of > 39 degrees and hot sweats). I had visions of cancelling the trip ( I felt genuinely terrible) and heading back to Manila for 10 days of incubation - nothing like an overactive imagination.....

Fortunately the local pharmacist diagnosed local flu - some magic blue pills were prescribed and off on the Tao boat we went.

My private nurse is going to get sick of travelling with me soon 😷

Tarsier time

Tarsier time 

Often what happens when booking a big trip is we decide on the destination and the specifics tend to happen a month or so before leaving. So when we decided to go to the Philippines we weren't exactly sure where we were going when we got there. We formed a loose plan of going to both Palawan and another island called Bohol. 

So after a brief stop over in the fun seeming Manila, we headed out on an Air Asia flight to Tagbilaran - the capital of the island of Bohol. It quickly became apparent there wasn't going to be too much to do in Tagbilaran - the town centre appeared to be a set of dusty huts with the odd 'tasty chuck' fried chicken shop. Fortunately our hotel ticked the boxes - quiet, sea view, two gorgeous swimming pools. We ordered two mango juices and settled into a lounger. That evening the fun of Asia came flooding back to us - we got a tricycle into town - the Philippine equivalent of a Tuk Tuk and basically laughed all the way there.  

Day 2 involved a trip to nearby Alona beach on neighbouring Panglao island - stunning spot - and we spent an easy day cooling off in the turquoise ocean. Tricycle trip to dinner followed at an incredible Philippine restaurant Gerarda's. 

Day 3 was a busy damn day in paradise - after a breakfast of a truly terrible Philippine attempt at eggs benedict we hired a car to take us on the chocolate hills loop. First stop was to the far more environmentally sensitive Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella - the other sanctuary nearer the chocolate hills gets bad reviews for how sensitively they treat the tarsiers. The sanctuary is small but perfect - Maartje and I were walked around by a volunteer who showed us 4 tarsiers all sleeping in nearby trees. I didn't imagine we would get to see them as well as we did - tiny but incredibly cute. They are an endangered species and come from a primate group > 45 million years old - the sanctuary has a breeding programme - fingers crossed they make it.

From the sanctuary we wound our way through the jungly interior up to the chocolate hills. So named because in dry season the grassy hillocks turn from lush green to burnt chocolate colour. For us they were the green hills but I get how the transformation would look. The locals amused us with their worried looks that we didn't have litres of water with us for the climb of 240 steps.....I'm unfit but blimey 240 steps is not a big deal even to me......once we reached ' the summit' we breathed in the fresh air and laughed about how the alternative reason the hills came about was that they are tears from a heartbroken giant. 

Our final stop on the chocolate hills loop was a stop into the butterfly sanctuary - there we got shown living cocoon's of various butterflies and moths ( creepy) -  we consoled ourselves with homemade ice cream.

Next stop : Palawan

We stayed: Ocean Suites, Tagbilaran

We ate: Philippine family restaurant 'Gerardas', the bee hive cafe on Avalon's beach but I wouldn't recommend it