Palawan Boat Expedition, 3 days 2 Nights Living on a Boat!

September 1st

Expedition time lets go! I was still welly packed from the day prior, the original departure date, so I woke up later than the day before because I was sorted and ready to go. I was the first to be picked up, then we went to the city and we got a Spanish couple. It was us three waiting in the van forever. We were wondering what the hold up was, apparently the last group of 4 thought they were getting picked up at 9am and they were still sleeping when we pulled up to their hotel. 

I read in the car, chatted with the Spanish couple for a bit, having a feeling I would be doing the expedition with them and it would be nice to get a head start on the introductions. But mainly, it was nice to have some time to read, knowing that I wanted to zoom through my current book so I could start my book club book, Circe.

We chatted and waited almost thirty minutes when the crew of four finally scrambled into the van. You could tell we were a bit frustrated, having waited so long and worried about what that would mean for our expedition timing. But, as soon as they hopped into the van they apologized and that is hard to think that you were getting picked up at 9 and them showing up 45 minutes early.

Our drive was pretty far to the port, we went northeast to get a bit closer to Coron and on the right side of Palawan, a head start so our little boat won’t have to exert more energy than necessary. The drive was about 45 minutes, I read a lot and then also talked to the girl next to me, Noam. She was super nice, I would learn that they were all from Israel and traveling together. It’s so interesting because in their country, everyone has to serve for the military for a few years after high school, which delays their start to college. So, although I was the same age as this group of people, they had not yet gone to college and I just completed it. That was one thing I found so fascinating, meeting people from all around the world and learning how their country does things differently, it being so foreign from your own. We also talked a little bit about the conflict in Israel and how that has impacted their lives the past year.

We finally made it to the port, got dropped off and while the guide was organizing the details of the boat, we were sorting out our luggage. I had my technology bag that I wanted to make sure stayed safe and dry, so I wrapped my waterproof protector around that instead of my bag of clothes. I also had another backpack that would keep my clothes, swimsuit, and bathroom stuff I would need for camp the two nights. So, I was able to stow away the big bag, keep my tech bag inside by the captain, and then have the small backpack nearby and wrapped in a trash bag in case it rained. I also had my waterproof bag next to me. Yes I really packed that many bags, and I have used all of them multiple times. My travel tip for all is to pack extra bags; for me, I have my two ospreys, my foldable backpack, a canvas bag, lulu fanny, a laundry bag, a knit bag I was gifted from a new friend, and a waterproof bag.

After a 20 minute wait for the staff to get the boat ready, we finally hopped on this thing. Let me tell you, it was a small boat. It was smaller than the boat I took out for my day trip. And there was more staff than passengers on this boat, there was 4 roles and a lead and assistant for each one. And there was only 7 of us. We set sail, having a bit of a bumpy ride until our first stop, but we all talked so that we could get to know each other. I really made a point to get the names down because I would be with them for the next three days and the last thing I wanted to worry about was not remembering a name. I learned that the Spanish duo was a couple, obviously, and then the Israeli pack of four comprised of two couples. And then there was me just chilling, single, nothing that wasn’t too out of the ordinary and something I was used to.

The weather was not on our side for day one. It was cloudy almost the whole day, on and off light rain coming from the dreary skies. We chatted during the beginning part, but also never felt like we had to keep talking with all of each other. The Israeli crew most of the time would talk Hebrew to each other and I did not know a single word. Then I would hear the Spanish couple speak Spanish to each other and I could catch about half of that. All the while I would just be chilling there waiting for someone to chime up a conversation with me in english with me because I couldn't simply hear something they were saying and could jump in and ask about it. Noam was so sweet about talking to me when I looked lonely. This was truly an international boat, all of us coming from our different corners of the world.

Our first stop was a island with a sandbar, but it was high tide, just our luck, and so it didn’t have the same effect because there was about a foot of water hiding the beach extending into the ocean. The sky was still gray, so the water wasn't its beautiful bright blue, but I tried to stay positive and note how lucky I was to even be on this adventure.  

I walked the sandbar a few times, down to the other side of the island, and I was just vibing alone because Christian and Claudia went snorkeling, the Hebrew crew were wandering together and I didn’t want to disturb them. Plus, I am at the point in my trip solo traveling that being alone even in the midst of people does not affect me. I don't mind being by myself. But, I think the tour guide, Jerick, felt bad for me so we talked for most of the time walking around the island. I departed from him though so I could swim for a bit, and that was when Christian and Claudia recommended the snorkeling and giving it a chance in an area of preserved nature. Once they said there was a ton of starfish, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to give it a go. They were so kind to snorkel with me, pointing out the best spots and wildlife. It ended up being such a lovely snorkel, I saw a really cool polka dot fish, along with some colorful coral and of course the many scattered starfish like they said.

We got called to the boat for lunch, I was interested to see what kind of food we would be served and how vegan it would be. But, they did me well and had a few tofu and veggie dishes, bless. We were a particular crew about our food, except for the spanish couple and Guy, we all had some sort of restriction. Me being vegan, Noa was pescatarian, Noam didn’t eat pork, and Jonathon didn’t like seafood. So over half of us had some protein qualm, but it worked out that we all had something to eat each meal. 

We ate on the boat, and once we were done we were back in route to our next stop. We boated not too far to a snorkel spot, stop 2 for the day. It was also a great viewpoint, but the plankton were out for us. I don’t think it was as bad as the El Nido tour where you were literally drowning in them, but I stayed out of the areas that they were grouped up and heavy. I also kept close to the boat because my daily allowance of snorkeling was coming to its end. Plus, it was a very deep area so it wasn’t super easy to see and with the plankton I didn’t want to journey farther to the island we sort of parked near. It was a decent stop but not a top one. When we got called in to get going again, I was totally ok with that. 

Next we had a long leg of boating. Some napped, read, chatted, but I wanted to soak in my last moments in my dream country. I sought to enjoy the views while we cruised, doing so while getting in some more reading. I would glance up every so often and let myself stare and leave my book open on my kindle until I was content I had this view seared into my mind and back to reading I would go. I was zipping through the book. I didn’t get any coffee this morning because I just couldn’t stomach the hostel's black coffee, so the reading and fatigue from the day drew my head down and I nodded off. Waking myself every so often with my kindle in hand, so I can look at the view again, but then heavy eyes claiming me back for a longer rest. 

I got in some sleep no doubt, as much as I tried to resist it, the reading did me in. But, we were getting to our last stop so I knocked myself out so I could be ready for our last stop. 

We finished our last stop by going to this nice beach with tons of shells. Again, I was alone as the couples did what they wanted to together, no worries. But this time I got pity from the assistant tour guide, Jonathon, and he chatted with me most of my time on the island. We walked around, staring at the sand as we sorted through all of the different shells that we could have for takes. I love a good puka shell and I took so many with the hopes of making a bracelet out of them. 

The water was gorgeous there, even with the clouds still covering the sun, if you looked in front of you, the blue was prevalent enough to make me content with this stop and despite the weather, still finding the beauty in the place. 

Our campsite was very close to the last stop. We boated about five minutes to it, it was low tide so the boat could get close to the beach, and we had to wade through some murky brown water, me not thinking too much about it because it was just something we had to do. I got my own room and bed to myself, it was actually so nice. I waited for a while to let the people shower. I finally went in after about 30 minutes, and I had my bucket shower. You heard that correct, there was no water running from a shower head, instead, you scoop from the bucket of cold water and dump it on your head and body. It definitely saved tons of water and made it a true camping experience, another time Asia humbled me and made me grateful for warm running water. As I walked out of the shower area, Jonathon and Jerick, the tour guides, had Despacito on karaoke and I tried my hand at singing but it was way too fast for me to sing on my own with no lyrical assistance. I dropped my shower stuff off and went back to our picnic table, chatting with the crew until our food was served at 7pm. We got to the campsite around 5pm, for the first hour I journaled, walked around a bit, hoped for a sunset, but otherwise was just listening to music and vibing. 

Before and after dinner we played cards, Presidence was the game of choice, but to do something with all seven of us was wholesome and I enjoyed the night very much. We talked into the night, chatting with each other and it was really sweet. I called it a night around 10:30pm, them doing the same and to get ready for the next long day ahead of us tomorrow.

September 2nd

I woke up around 6am to the rain pouring on the roof of our cabin area, it was coming down hard. I really had to go to the bathroom but that was interrupted by the fact I refused to walk out in the downpour rain, so I waited it out, praying it would stop so I could use the restroom and the for the sake of the expedition.

The rain lightened up a bit around 7am so I got up, went to the bathroom, and thought I’d just get ready for the day. I was all ready to go, and thought I’d just wait at the picnic table. We mentioned that we would be ready by 7:30am and I was early on that. I was joined by the Spanish couple and with the food in front of us we waited for the Israeli crew before digging in. But, when we saw the first come out with squinting eyes as he made his way to the bathroom at 8am, he told us we could eat without them because they just woke up, lol. I guess they thought they would sleep more and just skip the breakfast, but they didn’t realize that we were waiting for them to eat. I ended up having three cups of coffee that morning because there was nothing else to do while we waited. 

I ended up spending about three hours at the breakfast table because after we got a late start to eating, we were further delayed by the weather. The rain that woke us up at 6am still persisted, not as hard but the wind was still pretty bad that the boat crew didn’t know if it would be safe to go. Plus, we didn’t have any cell service on the island so the team was struggling to contact the coast guard to know whether or not it’s safe. Just our luck! So we were sitting ducks, bummed that yesterday we had pure clouds and now today we were getting a late start because of the stormy skies. 

Finally at 10am we got clearance and we assembled our stuff and gave it to the boat crew for them to pack up and get ready to take off from our camp site. Thankfully, it was only a bit drizzly so it wasn’t downpour rain which is nice, but the conditions were still poor. 

We actually had a lovely first stop, it was this nice beach with a volleyball court. The rain was gone at this point, and the crew brought a nice volleyball for us to play. I told Jerick that I used to play the sport, but they still wanted to do filipinos vs. foreigners. I took the whole back row and Guy and Jonathon were up at the net. This was definitely our best set up, even though there were a few balls pushed to the corner that got away from me, I was able to serve the whole time and pass the ball right to my hitters up front. 

We were just playing for fun at the start, already doing a bit better than them during that, but then the boat crew said that they wanted to make the game a bit more serious, and the loser would have to do the punishment where you have to crawl under the legs of the winning team. I really didn’t want to crawl, the same punishment as the El Nido Boat tour game, so I kicked into my competitive gear. My team let me serve, and when I went on a 10-1 run, that's when I earned their respect and awe. We were playing until 12 points, and my team won 12-3 for the first game, mainly because I was not nice with my serves. I did feel bad just getting a bunch of aces because then we actually aren’t playing any volleyball, I especially didn't want to bore my teammates, but the guys were loving what I was doing and didn’t want me to let up on it. 

So, we won, we crushed them, more so I demolished them with my serve and no guilt because they were the ones that wanted to play against the foreigners and add a little wager to it. Their fault for not recruiting me, extra credit for being the only girl on the court too.

We played one more game, again we started with a huge lead, but then with just a few more points left for us to get, we let them come back and they got close, but we still beat them 12-10 and again they had to crawl on their way through our split legs as punishment for their loss. 

We called it after those two games, mainly because I wanted to just chill on the island, so my team hopped in the water for a swim and me and the two Israeli guys and I had a conversation about American sports. I think they were quite impressed with my skill level, and were asking about sports culture in America and compared it to how it is in Israel. The girls joined us and we all swam in the water together, talking, and it was really nice. We were at this stop for a while, the whole time just chilling in the water because the air was still slightly cool and being in the water was warmer. 

Because of the weather, we could only make two stops today, having to pass up the cliff jumping spot which was a bummer for me because that is something I am more interested in, and instead we went straight to our last stop, turtle finding. 

Another unfortunate stop sadly, as the plankton filled the bay where we were meant to search for turtles, so no one but Christian hopped into the water in hunt for one. At least the first stop made the day worthwhile. With the cold weather and plankton, and I just stayed in the boat wrapped in the driest towel I could find to stay warm. I saw a turtle on Tour A and called that good. We ate at this stop and then we concluded our island hopping for the day, but we had a lot of progress we needed to make on sailing to get to our next camp site. We had over three hour straight boat ride to get there, so it being 1:30pm, it made sense for us to get going before the sun set. 

I kid you not when I say that everyone on the boat passed out except for me and Christian. So we enjoyed the view, him more than me because I was reading the whole time. I would look up often though, and keep my eyes up when the view was extra exceptional. I was zooming through my book with hopes of finishing the 700 page saga on this expedition.

It was a beautiful three hours. I pitied the people that slept that they couldn’t see these views because this was my highlight of today's boat day. Sometimes you forget that you can enjoy the journey just as much as the stops, and I was happy that I had those three cups of coffee to keep me attentive, and my book to keep me company when needed.

We finally got to our campsite around 5ish, it took us over three hours of cruising to get there. We had to kayak in as well because the tide was low, and the staff member paddling the kayak was the oldest crew member. He was a saint for paddling us all in along with all our stuff. The guys did swim into shore because they felt so bad for him, but us girls did take the ride. Because going back and forth with the kayak took so long, we were delayed on getting our stuff and showering up. I waited yesterday for a shower, but when I was one of the first to get my bag and my stuff in order, I booked it for the shower and felt no guilt for snagging that early and getting it out of the way. 

I was showered up, and I sat outside my hut, writing before dinner. We had dinner around 8pm just because the crew got behind with hauling everything to shore, but we had such interesting discussions on the war in Israel, Spanish politics, and other serious topics of the sort. We also raided the sweets, we all were dying for a sweet treat because they don’t really do desserts here, and the watermelon wasn’t cutting it anymore. We talked the whole night together going to bed around 11pm in anticipation and hope for a beautiful day tomorrow.

September 3rd

Again, we woke up to the rain. This time it was a bit earlier so by breakfast it had cleared up. We said that if the weather was good we would wake up at 7am. And so I and the Spanish couple were up and ready to eat breakfast and the Israeli crew was still fast asleep. Jonathan said that he would wake us up in the morning depending on the weather, and he just didn’t wake up them. Another morning us three were waiting for them to get our adventure going for the day.

Jonathan didn’t wake them up until past 8am, and the weather was nice that us three were just ready to go. Apparently the cooks slept in and the food wasn’t ready which was why he let them sleep, but we were saying that we should’ve just had breakfast at our first stop and enjoy the good weather while we had it. Another morning of spending more time at breakfast than I should’ve. I was past the point of niceties and just asked for what I wanted, and that was some music. So I auxed up the speaker with some soft morning music, finding the hits that I know would please the people and the table. I picked up from my time in this country that everyone here loves Coldplay, and so I put on a lot of their songs. Little did I know my group members were massive fans and I was the new loved DJ.

When we got on the boat, of course the sun went away and it started to rain. We were crushed, especially the Spanish couple and I as we saw the sun come and go already today. We were up early, waiting in the good weather ready to get the day going because we were robbed yesterday. But, thankfully the rain didn’t last too long, just the duration of our boat ride to the first stop and then we got to spend the first beach with a few clouds and some sun peaking out at the end of our time there.

I don’t understand how we got unlucky again that when we go to the sandbar the tide is high and therefore didn't get to experience the cool effect of having a long beach in the middle of the ocean. We were shin deep in water and it didn't have the same effect as what I'd imagine. When the first glimmer of sun appeared, we rejoiced as it was the first ray that we saw in the past three days and we couldn’t let it slip from our fingers. 

I didn’t have anyone to talk to for most of the island, and I think Noam noticed so at the end she talked to me and again she was so sweet for doing that. I walked around a little but spent a lot of time in the water enjoying the view because there were some mountains from a nearby island that made the view magical. With the lush tall green hills next to the ocean, I relished in the beauty around me. I had to treasure this nature while I was still in it, and really focus on my appreciation for it and not let my mind wander to other things that were in the future or the past.

The lovely sun stayed out for our second and third stop. The second stop was my favorite from the whole tour and probably all of my time in Palawan. We had a hike, it was really a flight of stairs to the top of a hill that had a nice look out of the water. Seeing the bright blue water from this perspective was beautiful. I am a sucker for this stuff, just staring out at a view I adored. So while everyone went back down to swim, I stayed up so I could savor the view I craved the past week, the bright blue ocean. I was up there for so long that Jerick was worried and joined me. My thought was that I did a lot of swimming already but not this, so I was just balancing out the experiences. 

I finally went down to join the group for a swim and five minutes later we were called in for lunch. The view was better from above so I didn’t mind, but it was also nice there as well. I could only imagine how amazing this expedition would be if the whole time the weather was like this and I was with a group of people that were down to socialize. One last meal on the boat, it was mango tofu and thankfully there were a lot of options for the others so I got most of that dish to myself. I overate though lol and was stuffed to the brim for the rest of the trip, but it was worth getting the last bit of free food.

We cruised for a while, along the island of Coron which had the most beautiful mountain scape that I just couldn’t bare reading and had to put my book down to enjoy every second as this as my view. We had this lovely ride for about 45 minutes and I think it was my favorite part of our cruise. I also really liked the first 2 hours of yesterday's long cruise, but this for sure topped it. We boated until we got to our last stop, which was a snorkel spot at a sunken Japanese fighter boat from WW2. I didn’t dive under the water to see it and instead I just floated from the top with my snorkel gear. So, I couldn’t see everything, and after doing it for ten minutes, I was content with what I saw and just floated in the water with Claudia as we waited for this stop to wrap up. 

The timing was wild because we had sunny weather for this snorkel but as soon as we hopped in the boat and got going to the port, we boated into a torrential downpour. It was so bad. My stuff got soaked. And it was so cold. We mustered through this weather for a good thirty minutes that it took to get to the port. The weather was so bad our captain had to stick his head out of the inside to get any sort of additional visibility.

But, when we got to the port it lightened up and stopped for a few minutes, the time in which we brought the bags out and I hauled them to a nearby tuk tuk to take me to my hostel. I was so happy with how today turned out with the weather, it’s unreal the impact that some sun can have on your travel experience. It was something I already knew but this really emphasized that. But, I understand that is the nature of traveling during rainy season, I think because I escaped a lot of it during my trip it took me by surprised when I actually did get caught in it. I said goodbye to my fellow boat members, people I very likely will never see again but were so perfect for the time we did share together.

I made my way to my hostel, Hop Hostel. Probably the most beautiful place I've stayed, I was sad to only have two nights there. I was hoping that I would run into Liv and Grace (my friends I made in El Nido) when I got there, and sure enough I saw them in the cinema that our room was across from! Yes, they were in my room. Finally some good luck! I showered up and joined them in the cinema, finishing the movie Horrible Bosses with them and watching two youtube videos until it was time for our free mini dinner, rice porridge. Then, us three went to dinner and I was so full from the huge lunch and two servings of rice porridge that I only ordered a mango shake. I was bummed because they did have some veggie options but I was not hungry enough in the slightest. 

We made plans to watch Seven for our movie night, so when we returned from dinner we snagged the cinema, a guy was in there just chilling and he didn’t mind as we turned on the TV and put that on. It was such a good movie. I was enticed the whole time, and I wasn’t the only one, the guy in the back put down his phone and was fully engaged in the film as well. He along with Grace were rewatching it, it was a very serious but really good movie. It was quite gory more so than horror, it was the perfect amount of scary but still good for me. My mind was blown by the end of it, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, but we all good.

A nice three day boat trip and making it to my last stop, Coron, to have some immediate friends there was a relief and ease for my last stop. I had one adventure left in me, a Coron day tour to share in the next blog post, stay tuned!