Next planned stop – The Philippines
We were in the late stages of planning a Philippines when COVID shut the world down, so it had to be on our itinerary. As a country frequently hit by typhoons, timing of travel is key, so this needed to be our next destination after a brief return home to meet the new (first) grandchild, see the parents and (hopefully) get our China visas.
UK nationals can have a 30-day visa-free stay, and that fits nicely with the weather window, so a month in the Philippines it is then. We are honestly only going to see a tiny part of this archipelagic nation consisting of 7,641 islands and home to 110 million people, but hope we have chosen some good parts. The focus will be on diving, which is meant to be amazing given the location in the Coral Triangle.
April 16th – afternoon Emirates flight from Manchester to Cebu via Dubai– arriving on the afternoon of 17th April – it’s a bloody long way to the Philippines!
May 16th – morning Philippines flight from Cebu to Tokyo – bargain price of £120 each for a 4.5 hour flight
The provisional plan is..
Cebu to Malapascua Island – a 5 hour bus and 45 minute boat ride so it’ll take us the best part of the day to get to this little island. Hopefully it’ll be worth it as it’s the only place in the world where you are guaranteed to see Thresher Sharks each morning when diving.
Retrace our steps to Cebu, then another 3 hour bus journey to Moalboal, famous for the Sardine Run where you can dive or snorkel with millions of fish
Bus and a couple of ferries to the island of Siquijor (pronounced seek-ee-hor), known as the island of witches due to traditional healing methods. It’s apparently stunning, beaches, waterfalls and access to some great diving (including the famous Apo Island)
Another ferry to Bohol – the island of the unique Chocolate Hills and cute tarsiers (tiny primates with massive eyes).
Ferry back to Cebu & internal flight to Palawan. We could’ve flown directly from Bohol but on a tiny plane and limited to 10Kg of luggage – even backpacking there’s no chance of us travelling THAT light!
El Nido – often named as the best island beaches in the world with white sand, turquoise water, vibrant coral reefs and stunning limestone cliffs. We’ll see – it’s very much on the ‘must-do Philippines’ list so probably rammed with tourists!
Ferry across to Coron Island – supposedly some of the best wreck diving there is
Flight back to Cebu and then on to Japan
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