The Philippines Or How To Survive Sea Urchin Attack

The islands of the Philippines: white sandy beaches of Borocay and hidden lagoons of El Nido

You’ve probably seen some amazing photos of small lagoons filled with a turquoise water and lush jungle forest somewhere in Southeast Asia. A lot of them are taken in the Philippines — a country of seven thousand islands! This year I’ve finally got a chance to visit, and it did not disappoint.

If you are flying from California, the Philippines is one of the closest Asian destinations and a convenient gateway to the rest of Asia. Manila airport is the main hub of Philippine Airlines, which offers a lot of reasonably priced flights in that part of the world. So you can either travel to just the Philippines or have it as a first stopover destination before exploring somewhere else.

Lately you’ve probably heard about the Philippines on the news because of their president Duterte, or because it was the first ISIS stronghold in Asia. The Philippines is one of the most populated nations in the world but they consist of several ethnicities, religions and experience a high level of poverty. The south of country is a problematic region with the history of political and religious extremism mixed with criminal activities. As long as you stay from it, the rest of the country seems to be very safe. There is a heavy police presence in tourist areas.

After some research we’ve decided to visit two places: Borocay and El Nido. Borocay is an established tourist destination with famous white beaches and nightlife. El Nido is a tip of Palawan island and a fairly new spot known for its coral reefs, small lagoons and beautiful beaches.

Borocay

Majority of international flights will arrive at Manila airport, and from there you will take a short domestic flight to your destination . When you plan your trip, you might run into the issue with booking all of your flights together, ie there will be a cheap convenient domestic transfer flight, but there will be no way to book them together. Later we’ve learned why… the hard way. Manila airport has 4 terminals, but they are very spread out, and you need to take a shuttle bus from one to another. Now the problem is that the shuttle goes only once in 30–45 minutes and uses local roads, so it’s a subject to any traffic, which can be really bad in Manila. One of our transfers was during the rush hour. We couldn’t wait for the shuttle and called Uber. The ride to the next terminal ended up in an hour and half journey. Your best bet is either to have a connecting flight in the same terminal or add an extra time for a transfer.

Borocay is only 45 minutes flight away from Manila. Once landed you’ll have to take a shuttle and a boat transfer to the island. Borocay has been an established tourist place for quite some time with restaurants, bars and nightlife. We’ve chosen it to balance out the relaxed beach-style vacation on El Nido later. The island itself consists of one main road, which goes from north to south parallel to the main beach with all hotels, restaurants and shops along the sides of it. Northern part of the island is less developed and has nicer hotels, while the middle of the island (near Station 2) is where all restaurants and nightlife are.

There is not much to see on Borocay, but you do get the usual variety of water sports: jet ski, snorkeling, scuba diving, sailing, etc. The highlight of our trip was cliff diving at Ariel’s Point. It’s a full day activity when you will be picked up from your hotel, transferred to the boat and taken to one of the small islands about an hour off the shore of Borocay. The place offers multiple diving platforms ranging from 3 to 15 meters, so you will end up spending your day drinking rum&coke and jumping from different heights. They also provide kayaks, paddle boards and snorkeling equipment.

The Philippines consist of so many islands, and the majority of beaches have very shallow waters. As a result you cannot use the traditional keel boats popular in the west. So local fishermen had to come up with a design for it: a double outrigger boat. It allows them to come very close to the shoreline, all while maintaining the stability in the rough ocean. Usually the boats are painted in bright colors and quite picturesque.

The majority of the Borocay restaurants and bars are located right on the beach. Do yourself a favor and get there a little bit before the sunset. Grab the drink and enjoy the view. Usually it’s the time when locals take tourists on the sunset cruise. There’s nothing better than the looking at the sunrise coming out through their sails.

Keep in mind that everywhere you will be surrounded by a lot of people. Let me repeat: by a loooooot of people. Flights from China, Korea and other Asian countries are short and cheap, so you will see a lot of people everywhere. If you’ve ever travelled in Asia, you will know that the concept of personal space is somewhat does not exist there. You should be comfortable with it, otherwise you might have a hard time enjoying your time there. Don’t expect a lot of alone and self-expression time there.

El Nido

El Nido is the Philippines’ Last Frontier. It’s the most northern tip of Palawan islands. El Nido is usually featured in multiple publications as one of the best beach destinations in the world. It is famous for surrounding islands, which have small lagoons filled with crystal clear water and hidden beaches.

The first option to get to El Nido is to fly directly to El Nido airport from Manila or Cebu City (2nd largest city in the Philippines) on small charter airline AirSwift. The second option is to fly to Puerto Princess (the capital of Palawan province) and take a 6 hour van ride to El Nido. I would recommend flying directly because the vans are usually pretty packed and not the most comfortable transportation option. You should also keep in mind that Filipino airlines are not the most reliable ones, and they tend to use departure time as a recommendation as opposed to a requirement. So you’re always risking to get stuck somewhere, which means you can waste the whole day traveling in or out of El Nido.

Until recently El Nido was considered a backpacking destination. Even basics necessities like electricity and internet were not available 24 hours a day. In the last couple of years, the situation has changed, and the island started to get an influx of developers and new construction. But still you won’t find any major hotel chains there, and finding a good hotel at a reasonable rate might become a challenge. It seems like there were a lot of hostel-like options or exclusive 5-star hotels, but nothing in the middle. I would recommend booking in advance as good hotels are being booked quickly.

The majority of vendors offer the island-hopping tours: A, B, C and D. Each of them takes a day and consists of combination of islands, lagoons, beaches and sightseeing. You can’t really describe the beauty and scenery of the islands. In different spots you will be able to snorkel and maybe even scuba dive. Since El Nido is a fairly new and undeveloped destination, you won’t see as many tourists as, for example, on Thailand’s Phi Phi Islands and will be able to enjoy it in semiprivate environment.

Since all of the islands are located in open ocean, the tours are subject to weather condition. During one of our tours the waves were too high for our captain to get closer to one of the destinations. Be prepared to get wet, if the sea will get rough.

One of the most popular form of transportation in the Philippines is a tricycle. It’s an auto rickshaw similar to Thai tuk tuk. The passenger sidecar is fitted on the motorbike. Usually 2–3 people would sit in the sidecar, and one more behind the driver. Although tricycles are custom made, each municipality tend to have their own style of it, so for example, tricycle from Palawan will look different from Borocay tricycle. Majority of them use a two stroke engine, which causes a lot of noise and pollution, so in some places they’re being replaced by electric motors.

Another option to get around is to rent a motorbike or a scooter. It’s quite affordable and easy to operate. You might not want to do it in the dense urban areas with really chaotic traffic, but renting it on El Nido was a great idea. If you have a bike, you can explore multiple beaches around the island and waterfalls. Drive to Los Cabanas beach and enjoy the sunset at one of the bars on the beach (you’re welcome). Afterwards go up to El Nido town centre, which has several restaurants and bars with djs and live music.

Although the Philippines is a great tourist destination, it is not as tourist-friendly as Thailand. They will eventually get to that point, but it might take some time. In the meantime, you need to keep it in the back of your mind. Majority of guides are past fishermen, and some things might be a common sense for them, but they might be an issue for you. Don’t let your guard down and watch out for sea urchins, snakes, sharp and poisonous plants, etc.

Specifically about sea urchins. As much as I’ve travelled in the past, I did not experience so many of them. They are basically everywhere there: near that coral reef, at that nice beach, near that rock, etc. My advice is to get a pair of those funny looking water shoes if you’re anywhere near the water. Not knowing it we managed to fall in a big sea urchin nest while kayaking in one of the hidden El Nido lagoons. When you step or touch the sea urchin, it uses its spikes to sting you. Did I mention that it’s pretty painful as well? They get into your skin and break off in there. You can’t pull them out as they fall apart and get deeper into your skin. If it’s not treated properly it will cause a severe pain, swelling, fever and redness.

If you’ve stepped on a sea urchin:

• Try to get out as much of it as possible. You can use a knife or tweezers to do it.
• Use vinegar to disinfect the sting area: soak it all in vinegar. Locals recommend peeing on it (not joking), let me know if it works for you.
• If there are any major parts left under your skin, you need to go to the doctor to get them surgically removed. Some people told me that they will dissolve themselves, but after 2 weeks it only got worse. I ended up going to podiatrist in LA to have them quickly removed.
• Order sea urchins in restaurants. It’s a fight: us against them, and only one will survive :)

Bottom line

• I would recommend skipping Borocay all together and spending more time on El Nido. It has just as much nightlife and activities but also an amazing nature.
• Watch out for wild nature: sea urchins, snakes (one guy almost stepped on poisonous one and could’ve died by end of the day), etc.
• Do your research but expect the schedule to go wrong at some point.
• Be careful with food and drinks. Unless you have an extremely strong stomach, do not experiment with street food and choose nicer restaurants. Try to stick to beer, wine or hard liquor. The ice in cocktails is usually made with dirty water. All of us got food poisoning at some point.
• Go to the Philippines before it will become the next Thailand, the country is absolutely beautiful and people are extremely nice.

Paalam!