Our flight from Osaka brought us directly to Manila, where we booked a budget hostel in the city center for three nights. We quickly learned that this was not the best idea…The room was in a quite poor neighbourhood, very small and had no window. On top of that, all of our taxi drivers there told us that they felt unsafe in the hostel area…So we left the hostel after the first night and moved out of the city to a very nice apartment with a gym and an open air swimming pool on the top floor, for only 5 € more per night. That’s how we learned that a small price difference can make a huge difference here 😉
On our last day in Manila we got the chance to visit the SPECS foundation. We heard about it from our friend and landlord Joachim and since then were interested in the work and projects in Manila. We were warmly recieved by the whole SPECS team and shown around the Home for Boys and different neighbourhoods of some of the foundation’s scholars. The poverty we saw shocked us! It was clearly visible that the foundation’s work is deeply needed and that they all put a lot of love and effort into every project. They are doing a great job in providing kids with basic needs and scholars with higher education to improve their overall situation. The photos below show some of the impressions we got during of our visit.
On that same day we headed back to Manila Airport to welcome some eagerly awaited visitors – Brian’s family. We spent a total of 10 days together and first headed to El Nido. Our plans here included two island hopping tours and some relaxation at the beaches. We took a private boat (Island Tour A) instead of the standard one as you have more flexibillity, can avoid the crowds and pay more or less the same depending on your group size. We enjoyed roughly 10 minutes at the first stop before it started to rain. The tour spots were gorgeous, but unfortunately it continued to rain here and there throughout the whole day. On the second day we visited Las Cabañas beach. The day was mostly cloudy but dry and we could enjoy the nice landscape.
Unfortunately, the weather got worse with every day that passed and we had to cancel our second island tour. We even ended up being stuck in El Nido for two additional nights, as all ferries to Coron were cancelled due to the nearby typhoon. So we made the best out of the situation and booked our last night in a nice Beach Resort to at least enjoy the swimming pool and some sun inbetween the clouds there.
We could finally make it to Coron then and directly hiked up the island hill to enjoy the beautiful view over the bay, before heading on a private island tour the next day. The surrounding islands and lagoons are breathtaking, but unfortunately we were caught by heavy rain on the tour and had a somehow rough ride back to the port. As we did only have one full day left and it was raining again, we visited the nearby hot springs. It is one of the few salty hot springs in the world and a perfect spot to relax on a rainy day. We headed down to the city afterwards to join the celebration of the town fiesta and had a great time there. In general, the people here show heartwarming hospitality to foreigners and did all happily greet us at the fiesta’s market. They even wanted us to join them for some beer and snacks. A great experience!
The 10 days went by flying and we had to say goodbye at Coron airport, when Brian’s family headed back home and we continued to the Visayas islands.