What happens when you spend a whole day in a water? Your fingers get soaked sooooo (so!) much that you don't understand if the thing you are touching is wet or dry, but besides that it means that you probably had lots of fun. And that was the case for me :) Plus I almost turned into a crab, because my pale skin got so much sun (in November!!) and I was putting sunscreen non stop to prevent it :) as one person I know would say - cr-aaaa-zy :))

On my birthday morning we had a wonderful breakfast and a Golden Monkey staff brought me flowers and sang a 'happy birthday' and it was really cute :) with this spectacular view to mountain and water and ofcourse delicioussss mango ;)

Around 5am because you know jetlag.. why to sleep?:)

After that we walked to our 'tour kiosk' for a day trip. I can't call it agency because it's a tiny shed. We met our companions from UK there and we had a nice little chit chat with them. We were on time but our tour guide was late so the tour kiosk lady took a selfie with us :) After almost an hour we got a ride to a main point and appareantly everyone was already in a boat (around 25 people). Waiting for us?? People from around the world so you could kinda feel that they were not super happy to wait for us. Oh well, but we were on time. So after all mechanical issues were solved with boat we finally moved to our first spot.

Could it be more magical? With little boats attached to a shore, palm trees, adults playing like kids - snorkelling, enjoying swings, taking photos and having a nice cold beer. Little heaven, right? :) that's also a place where for the first time I've tried snorkelling. Gues what did I say after I took my mask? AAAAAAA-ma-zing!!! To see underwater world is really impressive especially when a water is clear and you can see lots of small colourful fishes around you.

After this stop I was so impressed with underwater creatures that I didn't even care where we are going next the most important question for me was if a new place will have a snorkelling spot ;) Is it a Big Lagoon, Hidden Lagoon whatever(!!) haha :) After third stop we reached a very small open area surrounded by tall rocks where our boat crew made us lunch. Wow!! That was so delicious and ideal until someone saw this huuuuuuge reptile. He looked like a komodo dragon, but I'm not too sure. Luckily he stayed away from us and probably just waited for us to leave and enjoy our leftover.

In one of our spots we rented canoe. Yes, the same one that's in top image. Of course local person in a boat came to us asking if we want beer. Who would say no when beer is refreshingly cold and it's 30+. Of course I did, but!! We are rowing and suddenly the wind blew away my new hat so Youn was trying to catch it with paddle but it didn't work. I was busy with holding camera, beer and my paddle when suddenly it felt into the water too. My hat is getting further and further from us so he decided to jump into the water and save everything, so he is trying to swim meanwhile I'm trying to turn the canoe around and get closer because Youn got frustrated and he can't really swim with both hands occupied. And then I asked him to stand up... What do you think?? It was shallow water bearly reached higher then his belly button ;} I wish I had gopro rolling at that moment because his face was so funny and we couldn't stop laugh from all this situation :)

Birthday spent in yellow canoe, filled with lots of amazing activities, new connections and unforgetable memories

I haven't seen so many palm trees in my life. Only when we landed in El Nido it seems it's all they have plus a super dense forests covered with bindweeds. Which will try to catch your leg if you will enter it's green sanctuary. haha, kidding :)

Philippines was my first visited country in Asia. Even though I live in Vancouver and it seems that Asian culture is all around you, it's different in a real life when you can experience all little things at the same time. Like coconuts laying on the ground, humid air, bustle of traffic, noisy ocean or a little gecko in your bungalo catching it's own dinner (and saving me from unknown insects).

We landed in a very (very!!!) small airport in El Nido and took a tricycle to get to our hotel. I remember sitting inside this tricycle and I felt like I'm in a movie scene. Everything looked so unusual, all the action was happening on the road. Locals selling products, contsruction workers fixing something, goats chillin, kids waiting to get to school, etc.

Our first day goal was to book a tour for the next day and after that we decided to contact our first tricycle driver and asked him to get us to Nacpan beach. I guess I don't have to convince you that the beach looked fantastic/beautiful/stunning/perfect but the trip we experienced was way more interesting and memorable. As we took a side road to go the beach it became more and more muddy and you could easily see how good our driver is to get through all this 'mess'.

Our first breakfast was a disaster for me, I had a Filippino dish with eggs, mushrooms and onions... I thought someone made a bad joke :) But mango shake was de-liiii-cious!!! So when I tried fish in Nacpan beach I felt like someone just served me my moms cooked 'stinta' or European smelt. It was unbelievable!! To taste something that you grow up eating was the best win for the day.