Showing off my dress like a little girl :)

Film moments by Youn ♥︎

February 27, 2018

How many photos do you need after your trip is done? It's a hard question to answer because with digital cameras it's so much easier to press a shutter button and don't care about the actual count. But film is different. I love to see film photos after the fact. It seems that they captured the spirit of the moment, it also feels more romantic and more special. Maybe it's just me, but take a look at these photos taken by Youn.

Our morning view in one of the first places :)

Two happy birds in their net on a beach ;}

The most iconic Duli beach .

January 7, 2018

Before leaving to Philippines we had dreams about secluded beach, riding a bike on a beach, mangos for breakfast/lunch/dinner, surfing, massage during sunset. Believe it or not we found everything possible in Duli Beach Resort. We had the most magic time there. No lies! Where time stoped and seemed that we are there for forever. 2minutes felt like ten and one hour felt like it's been 5hours. Time lost it's regular fast life frame. We would have Wifi only in the morning and a reception was pretty weak so I stopped using it. We would have breakfast on a beach and I would watch local workers building a new bungalow or just waves going back and forth.

I will tell you what happens next -> you start talking with your neighbours. Ask about their trip, what they tried before, what are their plans later and you actually have a conversation without phone. You agree to meet after dinner to play card games. Everyone knows dinner is served after 7 pm and you just wait for your new friends to come. No rush, no text message.

I found it very funny because while being there I took so little photos I can't believe. It's raining like crazy now in Vancouver so it's really nice to remember these warm November days in Philippines :) Enjoy!

We took surfing lesson and I did so much better then in Tofino.

Isn't this amazing?? Guess who took a photo? ;}

Just a simple net to protect you from all the insects. We also had at least one geko in our bungalow who kept eating all bugs who made into our room by accident.

P.S. resort is owned by a couple from Netherlands and you can book your own bungalow via airBnB.

Bike ride to TAYTAY .

January 1, 2018

Find your own road and follow it. After spending two days and doing traditional touristic stuff we got tired and rented a dirt bike to travel around El Nido and to have our own unique experience. First day we rented a little bit too late and got to enjoy it only for couple hours and a very short sunset time. Next day was way much more fun!! A full day trip to Taytay :)

So here we are on a bike heading towards a small town in Palawan. The only thing I knew about it that there is an old Spanish fort and for a small fee you can visit it. We were lucky because it was a cloudy day so we didn't get sunburn. The road was going up and down, left and right, getting closer to the water or away into the forest. We got to enjoy every little bit of it. Passing little villages next to the road, seeing kids going back from school and waving to us with the biggest smiles ever!! No smartphones in their hands just silly talks while going down the road.

One turn and it changed our ride. I think it happened in the middle of our trip when we saw an accident. The car hit a girl. She was laying down on the road and I saw a blood around her head. We stopped and some other cars stopped. I think at that moment we both realized how useless we are, we don't know any emergency phones nothing. Local people started to come around and they call ambulance. I think we watched everything for about 10min and decided to leave. I still remember how shocked I was. There was no reception for our cell phone and hospital might be 50km away... who knows... That's where I felt a huge difference between Philippines and Canada or any other poor country. People are dying because they don't get help right away.

We continued our trip in silence for a while.

The fort itself is pretty small, but if you go up it's a very nice green garden with a secret abandoned chapel. There is also a very small museum room with some exhibition. Nice little stop overall :)

That kid was there when we got on the top of the fort, stayed there for the whole time looking down and even when we were walking back he was still there.

We stopped to eat lunch at a very small place next to a bus station. Drivers already were eating there and couldn't believe that two tourists stoped at the same place to eat the SAME food as they!! They kept turning around to see if we like it or not. It was really funny;D

Our goal after trip to Taytay was to stop at Las Cabanas beach and just enjoy sunset at this nice beach. It's pretty crowded with tourists and I personally liked Nacpan beach more but we had a really nice sunset that evening :)

My dinner and delicious drink after all day was a perfect combo to finish a day :)

Happy Birthday in a yellow canoe .

December 18, 2017

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