PalawanPalawan

We began the last leg of our Philippines trip in Palawan's tourist hotspot, the village of El Nido. Pumped full of antibiotics after two weeks of coughing and fevers, we finally decided it was time to keep going, #pomalydalej. So on one hot January morning we pulled our bikes out of the local hotel's basement, where they'd been fermenting for the past two weeks, and started putting them back together with great enthusiasm under the watchful eyes of the locals.

As we've already mentioned, the Philippines is humid. Constantly. If you ever decide to explore this country from a bike saddle, think twice before leaving that saddle, or the whole bike, for that matter, in a damp Filipino basement for two weeks. Because in those two weeks, our saddles had developed a fairly sophisticated form of life. If we'd waited just one more week, that mold might have managed to grow its own tongue and politely wish us good morning (see photo).

After the necessary decontamination and successfully reassembling the bikes, we started pedaling toward Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan island. According to the map it was only about 300km, but after being sick we felt every single turn of the pedals, every even slightly steep bit. Luckily the weather was on our side the first day, so we made it all the way to the town of TayTay, about 60-70 km away.

The next day we planned to stay at a remote guesthouse a bit past the town of Roxas. We slightly underestimated just how remote it was, and so once again we found ourselves trekking through the jungle at night on an unpaved road. Compared to last year's Laos it was obviously a total highway, but even so, it's hard to stay completely calm when you're cutting through a dark jungle to the sound of things you can't identify at all.

The guesthouse was absolutely worth it, untouched nature and a beautiful beach convinced us to stay one more night. During that night we took a boat out to the mouth of the local Rizal river, lined with half-submerged trees full of fireflies. We do have a video, but it doesn't really show much, some things are apparently just meant to be remembered (and that makes them all the more beautiful).

Our last stop before Puerto Princesa was the village of Port Barton, where we also spent two nights. Definitely one of the most beautiful places in the Philippines, mainly thanks to the gorgeous beaches and the overall very relaxed atmosphere.

After arriving in Puerto Princesa, we managed to order two cardboard boxes for our bikes at a local bike shop. The next morning we picked them up, packed the bikes, and flew out on an evening flight, first to Manila and the day after to Singapore. In Singapore we'd planned to see the city, but since it rained heavily all day, we just wandered around the airport and caught up on sleep as best we could. In the end, there's no better airport to spend a day in than Singapore's, where we caught a light show, took on a spicy ramen challenge (finish it all and it's just a dollar), and even went to the movies (Dune 2).

We landed in Italy on Monday morning at 7:30, a friend jump-started the car battery that had died in the meantime, and we spent that very Monday straight back at work.

That's the end of our trip, thanks for experiencing it with us, and see you next time 🙂