#38 A new continent and an unfortunate accident

I arrived in Manila, Philippines on 5th April after a very long journey! Leaving San Francisco at 5.40pm on 3rd April, after a 12hr flight and an extremely confusing time difference, I then had an 11hr overnight stopover in Teipei airport before a quick 2hr flight to Manila the next morning. I arrived in Manila at 11.40pm on 5th April! Thankfully, as airports go, Teipei is pretty good with excellent wifi, plenty of charging points and showers (it's the little things). I also met an English girl called Faye who had been on my flight from San Francisco and was also flying into Manila with similar plans as Amy and I.

We met Amy in Manila airport after she had flown from Singapore and got a taxi to Bahay  kube hostel. We were both totally disoriented and jet lagged but managed to spend the afternoon wandering around the streets with possibly every local we passed saying hello while we salivated and grimaced at some of the street food on offer. I was definitely looking forward to having a bit more spice in my food after a relatively bland diet in Latin America.

The lovely Filipino hostel owner was an amazing source of information about what to do around the country, he promised us an amazing sunset in Manila. So we took his advice and walked the three blocks, running across a dual carriageway to the promenade with the very polluted looking sea below. We waited and watched what was a pretty disappointing sunset.

Chinatown meal 

The next day after a very good sleep Amy and I decided to explore a bit of Manila. I was a bit dubious as Manila didn't have great reviews, many saying it was just another big, polluted city with not much to do...and after our day we also felt one day was enough! We walked from our hostel to Rizal park and visited the free anthropology museum which detailed the history and background of Philippines. After we walked across the pesig river to China town and wandered for ages looking for somewhere to have dumplings for lunch (serious dumpling cravings). We found a small restaurant and ordered a spicy beef laimon (noodle soup) to share...we both suffered with the spice much to the waiters amusement as well as our much anticipated steamed dumplings. After we opted not to walk the seven kilometres back but to take one of the famous 'jeepneys', the equivalent of dublin bus in Manila but a lot less formal.

Famous jeepney 

After nearly two days in Manila we took a Go2 ferry on to Coron one of the islands. I was apprehensive about the boat as I had had a traumatic slave ship Loke experience years ago in Thailand. However when Myself, amy, Faye and a couple Jade and Jack we had met in our hostel arrived at the ferry terminal it looked pretty well organised (for SE Asia standards). There were lines and lines of bunks with screaming children, boxes, crib, suitcases and furniture. We found our bunks and retreated upstairs to the deck where there was a bar and restaurant. We set up camp where we stayed for the whole day (and night) as much to our surprise and amusement there was karaoke from lunch time on into the night disco! We had a few drinks, made friends with some local Filipinos and watched everyone else partake in the karaoke. We managed to find our way back to our own bunks despite the deck being a maze of them and got a few hours sleep before the ferry got into to Coron port at a crazy time of 4.00am (13 hours afer we departed Manila).

Amy and I checked into Coron guapos guesthouse in Coron town and later that day met up with the others to explore the town. We stumbled across a small market where I had a huge portion of rice noodles with plenty of vegetables, pork and shrimp for less than $2!

Later that evening Amy, Faye and I hiked up the 728 steps to mount Tapyas for sunset, sweating by the time we got to the top, it was the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen! We sat there for two hours just looking over the Pacific Ocean scattered with tiny islands, the sunsetting behind it changing its vivid colours every few minutes.

The next day we booked onto to do an boat tour. We ended up meeting an English couple Sally and Dan, another English guy called Kit and a Danish guy Michael so the seven of us booked boat 'Tour B' for the next day. We paid about $20 for the day.  The day was spent visiting six different spots snorkelling and swimming. The first a beautiful turquoise blue lagoon about twenty minutes out to sea, we then went snorkelling in the 'coral garden', had lunch of squid, chicken, rice, vegetables and fresh fruit under a shack on a tiny beach on an island. After lunch we went to a Skelton shipwreck, one of the many shipwrecks left over from WWII and then onto an amazing lake enclosed in the cliff like structures, the water is mostly fresh water however after about 12m down the water turns into salt water! It was so peaceful and the water beautifully clear.

Enjoying the beautiful clear water 

The next day, Amy, Faye, Kit, Michael and I decided to rent scooters to drive around the island and visit a waterfall and beaches. It was my first time on a scooter but thought I'd manage it especially as the others had driven them before. We had been driving along for about half an hour when I approached a corner and realised I was going far too fast, next thing I knew I was lying face down on the road with a local man helping me up. Luckily Kit and Michael were behind me with the two girls in front. I stood up in agony, looked down at my shoulder and quickly realised it was pretty badly dislocated, my head and knees were bleeding. A local woman and her son ran over and Michael got my bike off the road. The local woman was trying to dab cotton wool on my cuts and after about ten minutes an ambulance came (a small mini van) and brought me the ten minutes down the road to the hospital with Michael following behind my on his bike. Kit went on to try and catch up with the girls to let them know what had happened.


By the stage I got to the hospital I was in the most pain I think I have ever felt in my life and knew I just needed my shoulder put back into place. I needed an X-ray first and after that they gave me some pain relief and a lovely doctor finally put my shoulder back in place (needless to say with some screaming and swearing from me)! The whole process of two X-rays, pain relief and a doctor seeing to my shoulder took only about an hour!! Very impressive. This also included the fact that every time I needed some medication, x-ray film and syringes the nurse gave Michael a list of what I needed and he had to run across the road to the pharmacy to buy it as they didn't stock anything in the hospital. I think he ended up having to run across the road about four times. After the traumatic experience (for both of us) and no sign of Kit and the girls, we went and had a few beers with Kit later joining us later not having been able to find the girls. Later that evening the girls appeared back feeling very bad for not having realised what had happened, however I think having a calm Danish man with me was better than the two girls (they also agreed)!

Recovering after the accident 

The next morning in my blue sling and leg full of cuts, Kit, Sally, Dan, Faye, Amy and I set off for El Nido on an 8 hour ferry journey.

Stayed: BohayKobu hostel in Manila $6 per night for dorm. Coron Guapos guesthouse in Coron, $10 per night for a private room.
Food and drinks: fresh mangoes (so fresh you can peel them yourself), noodles for $2 from the market in Coron. Spicy beef laimon and steamed dumplings from China town in Manila ($2 each for a beef laimon and dumplings). Master siomai - 4 dumplings for $0.70.
Street food in Coron - skewered BBQ chicken intestine, marinated pork - 10PHP per skewer (about 20c).