Kayangan Lake in Coron Islands, Palawan, Philippines: Cooking on a Banka

If you ever have the chance to visit Coron Islands, you'll most probably end up in one of the area's most popular tourist spots: Kayangan Lake.

After spending days diving and having boring food (the island resort which we were staying at didn't provide breakfast nor lunch and seeing it was a self sufficient island resort on its own, the food was mediocre at a price); our dive instructor Mike (personally hired by the resort for us) decided it was high time we get some wholesome home cook food on a boat.


Mike, the most awesome dive instructor.
In fact, in my history of diving, he was one of the two best dive instructors I've ever had. I based this judgement on dive experience, helpfulness, friendliness, generosity and knowledge.
Is it a wonder that both of them were of extreme humble origins and possessed incredible modesty?

So he befriended the assistant boatman/dive guide and have him borrowed some basic cooking utensils from his village across the island and then dropped us off at the main island of Coron to do some shopping at the wet market.


A local water village across the island.



After withdrawing some money from town, we proceeded to make our way out to do a couple of dives. Coral diving, which was something different to the many wreck dives we've been having the past couple of days.

Upon surfacing, the boatman brought us to the harbor where we were to trek on our own to Kayangan Lake itself, leaving them to prepare for the meal.






No edit whatsoever on all the photos. Water here was clean as heck.




See how the water color changes in the photos as we got to the shallower part of water. It was emerald, then turquoise blue, and then completely baby blue.

The trek up to Kayangan Lake was a steep one, I regretted not wearing better shoes and instead sticking to my rental booties which was quite painful when stepped on sharp rocks.

And here's the famous view taken FROM the trek on the way to the Kayangan Lake. lol. It's not the lake itself, but the view of the sea from a higher pov.




It was, still, rather breathtaking.


I used Portrait with Scenery mode on my Casio ZR700 for the shot. It would have been a better shot if I were to use flash, but I was getting used to using the many functions of the camera. I tried to take this shot with my iPhone but it was a complete fail, what with the background being too bright and forefront too dark.

With the Portrait with Scenery mode I could have the camera focus on both the near human and the distant scenery. Which has proved to be most useful on my recent trip to Japan. I have used this mode extensively since.



We continued our trek up and then all the way down again towards the fresh water lake on the inland.
When we got to Kayangan Lake, I was instantly pulled in by the immense beauty of the view.









The water was crystal clear, untarnished, a soft cream baby emerald blue and fresh water fish swimming so close and around the rock formation visible from the deck.

The first instinct was to dive in and swim. So I did.










Though soon we were swarmed by mosquitoes. Rainforest, still and fresh water was like a breeding zone for vicious mozzies. We had to hop, skip and jump after surfacing and practically ran back up and down to where our boat waited.

Where our meals waited.
Ah... life.









I also learnt that Mike was not only a great dive instructor, but a great cook. Even given the limited space and utensils to work with.

I've never eaten meal cooked on a banka (crab boat) before, this was definitely a first.





All the photos above were taken with Casio ZR700 with not a single photoshop, straight out of camera and on to the internet. Hence no watermark as well. Most of them were taken with Pop Art mode. 

Sunset in Palawan: Getting to Coron Island

Getting to any island in the Philippines is never a straightforward undertaking. Sometimes you would need to book your flights on separate airlines with extremely inconvenient timing, especially if you're on a budget, just to reach your designated island.




I heard about ZestAir promo to the Philippines (which would turn out to be the biggest mistake of my trip, read on) and went online to check the price and found the rates extremely attractive, and then I got greedy and saw another promo flight from Manila to Boracay under RM200 return all-in fare and booked that too (again, biggest mistake).



My objective of the trip was to visit famous jewel of Philippines - Palawan and do some diving there; so Boracay came as a bonus trip. But since there was almost no direct flight between most islands in Philippines, to get from one island to the next would require travellers to fly back to Manila and out again.

And yes, I've searched, that is the fastest cheapest method you could go for. Unless you're rocking a 13-hr (to 20 hr) local ferry ride idea which has been rumoured to have stopped operating since 2012.

So basically my travel itinerary to the Philippines went like this:

Kuala Lumpur -> Manila          (via ZestAir)
Manila -> Coron, Palawan       (via Philippines Express Airlines)
Coron -> Manila                      (via Philippines Express Airlines)
Manila -> Boracay                   (via ZestAir)
Boracay -> Manila                   (via ZestAir)
Manila -> Kuala Lumpur          (via ZestAir)

That's six individual flights on a single trip!

And out of the four ZestAir flights I took, all FOUR of them were DELAYED! Every single time!! For more than 1 hour, sometimes up to 4 hours! One time I even had to wait till past midnight before I could board the plane.
Never taking ZestAir again.

Palawan has several places you could visit:
Coron being the best island, followed by El Nido.
Forgo the more visited and commercialised Puerto Princesa which could be easily accessed from Boracay, but will take up to 12 hours just to travel to El Nido from there and then another 13 hours on a local ferry (if you can find one) to reach Coron.


Coron Island, taken with my Casio ZR700 (no edit).


Casio ZR700, Art Mode, HDR Level 1.


Art mode -> Toy Camera

It's my first time bringing my then brand new Casio ZR700 on a travel so I was fascinated with the different mode this camera could do. 

But there you have it, once you arrived at Busuanga Airport, get a local taxi to Coron Town or have your hotel fetch you to your hotel. Mine was located on an island away from the main island, which required a boat transfer to complete isolation.


Banka (or crab boat)


Sunset came early so it was golden moment to play with our cameras before dinner time by the sea.


Art mode -> Pop


Art mode -> HDR


Best Shot mode (this displays the image in its most natural colour to the original scenery)


Best Shot


Art mode -> Pop

Day 1 in Philippines - Manila: Testing out New Casio ZR700

This post has been long overdue, it was my trip to Philippines to dive. I opted to visit two islands, one for diving and the other for leisure.

But the problem with travelling in Philippines was that if you want to travel to any island at all, you would most likely have to by pass through Manila, which means getting several flights in this trip.


Taken with Casio ZR700 in Art mode.

I have flown 6 times on this trip alone. 2 to go Manila from Kuala Lumpur and back, 2 to go Palawan from Manila and back, and 2 flights to go Boracay from Manila and back. Tedious, I know. No pain no gain. The best jewel is discovered via the toughest journey.

So since I was dropping by Manila and the connecting flight missed my arrival flight by an hour, I had to stay one night in Manila to catch the morning flight out to Palawan the next day.


Testing out different Art mode.

Stayed in the best rated hotel in the city according to tripadvisor: Bayleaf hotel, which was located within the old city wall, an incredibly easy access to walk around the wall.


HDR setting under "Art" mode.

Honestly speaking, if I could skip spending a day in Manila, I would. There's absolutely nothing in the city that travellers can do, or see. There's an old city wall which nothing of the old city remains, a ruin or so not too far from the old city and a cathedral in the city.

What's Manila famous for? Malls, copious amount of massive malls. That's where most families, teenagers and school kids spend their entire life in.

If you must and absolutely have to put Manila on your travelling list, I'd say spend no more than a day here, if it's to me, I wouldn't need more than half a day in this city; why would you spend any of your precious travel time in a mall-infested city but instead visit the main jewels of Philippines, its gorgeous wondrous islands.

It did, however, gave me a first try out of my new camera walking around Manila testing its different mode I have been meaning to try on my travels. And I was fairly impressed with the ZOOM capability on this camera.


The clock tower from where I was standing (on the wall) at 18x zoom.

Now this was the icing, this was shot at 72x zoom.


A bit noisy and unmistakeably visible. The camera captured the speakers on the clock tower that my eyes could not visibly see from where I was standing. I know I've tried the zoom before but never on a travel and believe me, I have tried zoom shooting from many high places since then, especially when it gives me great view access to a city. It's a dangerous tool for peeping toms. lol

And the art mode was rather fun to play with.



This was the first time I uploaded photos straight from my camera without editing them, I didn't even bother to resize or watermark just to prove my point.

Afterall, how else can I show you the real quality of the camera if I were to edit the photos.




Enough of Manila. Let's see what I have shot in Palawan.

to be continued...

How to Travel to Ubud via Public Transport in Bali

Now this was a fairly common question among travelers who visits Bali. Most of the locals wouldn't even know this answer and would suggest the only option to travel up north to the beautiful padi field-filled landscape is to take a taxi, or rent a bike (if former option is too expensive).


Ubud

But what if said person doesn't know how to ride a bike? Like me, per se.

Well, never fear. After much research, I have found the answer.

There are two options (free and paid).

Let's talk about the free option. Every one loves an FOC choice.
It's how I did it.

1. Couchsurfing
Now most of you may know https://www.couchsurfing.org/ is a website that allows travelers to find a free couch/bed/accommodation in other traveler's home across the globe. But that they don't know is that it is also a platform for travelers and locals who happen to be in the same city to catch up, have coffee, go sight-seeing together, find a clubbing partner, OR, this in case, car pool or hitch a ride to the destination of your choice.



On the main page, click "current location" to look at the conversations and news feed happening on the main page posted by various travelers who have landed and are more than willing to meet up, have a coffee, looking for a travel buddy or even seek for help from people who are well associated locally.

You never need fear travelling alone in a city or a foreign country again. Because you can meet solo or small group travelers like yourself to be part of the adventure!

I posted a statement asking for people who are interesting to join me for a trip up north to Ubud. Within few hours to a day, I have many requests flooding in. Mostly from active CS locals who happen to be travelling to Ubud and wouldn't mind me tagging along.

If safety is your concern, read reviews of said couchsurfer profile and see what other travelers have said about this person. Go for people who have been vouched or been sung praises for, especially those with lots of recent reviews.

I have met quite several wonderful CS people on my one week trip to Bali: Javanese, Balinese, Taiwanese, Chilean, English, etc.


Adi, my new Balinese friend who showed me the best place to eat ikan bakar at a warung only known by locals in a small neighboring island not far from Bali.

I even managed to hitch a ride up north to Ubud and been offered to sight-see places like Sukawati Art Market and Tanah Lot.

Believe me, it's not just about the free ride, it's the company and the fun you'll have.


2. Perama Tour

Now if you're not interested to meet new people and would prefer to travel alone or in your own small group, but not willing to fork out 400,000 - 500,000 rupiah to hire a driver and car for the day to bring you to Ubud.

Check out http://www.peramatour.com/ for a local shuttle that connects all the main locations in Bali.
Click here for its shuttle services and departing point and time schedule.

Look for the office located in your area: Sanur, Kuta, etc, or call the local number provided on the page: +62361751875 or +62361750808 and ask for the address of the office where the shuttle will depart.


From Sanur to Ubud, cost 40,000 rupiah one way.
Departing from Sanur to Ubud 6:30am, 10:30am, 2pm, and 5pm.
Departing from Ubud to Sanur 8:30am, 1-:30am, 12pm, 3pm, and 6pm.



From Kuta to Ubud, cost 50,000 rupiah one way.
Departing from Kuta to Ubud 6am, 10am, 1:30pm and 4:30pm
Departing from Ubud to Kuta 8:30am, 10:30am, 12pm, 5pm, 8pm and one journey that heads to Lombok via Kuta at 7am.

Painting in Bali: Tanah Lot, Ubud, Money Temple

I am back from Bali!!!


Painting on the pool deck was such a surreal feeling. Gin and tonic was the perfect companion. Next time I would like to try shrooms while painting, the outcome would be interesting.

In the span of one week I have finished 2 and half books, painted 15 baby pieces of artwork and 5 small ones. Though halfway through I ran out of red paint so technically out of the 5 I really only managed to finish one, whereas the 4 was left half done.

Met a lot of new local friends along the way and seen beautiful artifacts and decorations and scenery for inspirations.


Ubud

Productive!

I brought back a few souvenirs to decorate the house. Now my house is messier than ever with all the things I brought back from around the world! LOL. Okay, I will clear it up eventually then the decorations will look amazing!


Padi field on the way to Tanah Lot


I waited for the wave to hit before capturing this photo of Tanah Lot


The rice on my forehead was part of a Hindu blessing at Tanah Lot.


Trees in Monkey Temple, Ubud


Monkey Temple


Oh, and this is one of my finished painting in Bali. It's not the whole painting, more like the middle-ish section, just snapped with my camera phone.


This is sold. btw.

Those who are interested to consign a piece, or two, please email me at nicootan@gmail.com