Perusing Palawan

From Hong Kong I flew into Manila for a couple nights before jetting over to Coron on a little prop-plane, on the northern tip of Palawan island (the Western-most island of the Philippines).

Coron itself, while a relatively popular tourist destination, is just a tiny little port town without much to offer. It's streets are few, and hostel life is almost non-existent. Seahorse, where I stayed however, had a spectacular view from the rooftop.

It is known for its island hopping and shipwreck diving... and the diving did not disappoint!

Home to a bunch of WWII Japanese vessels, there is a lot of underwater history going on here. 

To get myself back into the swing of diving, I chose to do three reef dives before tackling the wrecks. The first dive was to Barracuda Lake, a thermocline'd lake made up of 30% salt and 70% fresh water. As you descend down into the water, at about the 20m mark, the water temperature changes from 29c on the surface to a bath-water-like 38c below!

The dive site gets its name from a lonely barracuda that hangs out here. I managed to observe him cruising past, as if to check us out, before a few minutes later swam right through the dive master's legs!

The other two reef dives yielded the usual suspects - colourful corals, angel fish, clown fish and good visibility.

The next day I began my wreck diving with Irako and Kogyo Maru.

Being an SSI Advanced Open Water diver I am certified to depths of 30m and have done the shipwreck diving speciality, allowing me to explore these vessels. They push that to the limit in Philippines ...

... penetrating the ship to depths of 38 metres!

Outside the ship you can see the surrounding marine-life and coral growing on the seventy year old wreck...

... while the inside is darkness requiring a torch, save for the various portholes and windows scattered around the hull. 

Kogyo Maru was my favourite of the wreck dives I did, for the fact that it had very impressive coral growth across its portside. Huge cabbage coral and schools of yellowtail snapper cruising about. 

The next day we headed across to the other side of Coron via bus to dive the Kyokozan Maru wreck - the biggest ship in Coron. In the region of 180m long, the wreck requires two dives to explore it!

The dive was a fun test of buoyancy, featuring a few rather narrow doorways and spaces we had to swim through!

Inside the ship you could see old remnants of wartime transport... (if you look closely you can see the wheels and engine block of a car)

While the ships humongous masts had some beautiful marine life hanging around, like the lethal lion fish below.

===

After these dives it was time to leave Coron and head over to El Nido. I was accompanied by an American couple I met in Manila, Alex and Jaime, on the six hour ferry across, along with an Aussie guy we met at the hostel the night before. Luckily the waters were relatively calm, but the boat sure made a hell of a noise!

After finding a place to crash, the four of us jumped in a tricycle and headed to Las Cabanas beach...

... to have a couple beers and watch the sunset.

Later on I found a dive shop to continue my diving holiday that is the Philippines!

The dive sites in El Nido easily had the most spectacular visibility of anywhere I have dived to date. Easy 20-30m, clear blue water. 

The highlight of any of my dives in El Nido was seeing my first sea turtle! The way they move through the water so gracefully was amazing to see.

But the incredible diving didn't stop with the turtle. Another cool creature I can add to my list was the cuttle fish we spotted!

As well as another massive school of snapper...

===

I took a break after the days diving to go stay at Nacpan Beach, a small town 45 minutes ride away from the main El Nido centre. It was just a quiet beach with not many people around, and a small hill that offered some nice photo opportunities!

===

After Nacpan I headed back into town for my last day, and more diving.

This dive we spotted an octopus hiding in a crack in the corals...

And even more huge schools of fish!

Swimming right up close to this school made me realise how much attention the fish pay to divers. Depending on how you act around them, they will either let you get really close, or just turn as one pack and swim away from you. Very calm and steady movement and controlled exhalation meant that you can get much closer than I'd been before. One quick exhale and they'd react immediately, it was very interesting!

After the diving I checked into my new hostel, one of the more social hostels in El Nido called Hakuna Matata. There I met a bunch of people and we ended up going out for dinner together to a local restaurant that served fresh seafood!

The place had a huge tray of ice and fresh fish of all different varieties. I ended up sharing a huge tuna with one of the girls - this thing would have had at least two kilos of meat on it and only cost $20AUD! 

To accompany the fish, we got a few plates of fresh mussels (14 for a mere $5AUD) which were beyond incredible. Melted cheese and garlic sauce baked mussels. 

This meal more than rounded off my last night in El Nido and Palawan, a much needed dose of meat! We later went out to the only bar in town and partied well into the night.

The next morning I jumped on the six hour minibus to Puerto Princesa to fly over to Cebu, ending my time in Palawan - and what a time it was!

Highlights of Hong Kong

During my short few days in Hong Kong I checked out a few of the major attractions, including both the Peak and the big Buddha (Tian Tan Buddha) statue on Lantau island.

To get to the big Buddha, you must catch a cable-car to Ngong Ping - an experience in itself as it soars over the water and cuts through the mountains.

The island itself is full of tourists but makes for some pretty spectacular photos. 

Rather than waiting for hours to catch the tram up to the peak, I took the option of the bus. By sheer coincidence, I chose to go on a Sunday, in which an extra bus leaves from within 50m of the hostel I was staying at!

The peak is a mountain overlooking the majority of HK island and Kawloon and is another popular destination for locals and holiday-makers alike.

The hostel that I stayed at was very social, featuring a rooftop lounge where most people hung out at night, making it easy to strike up a conversation. A bunch of us decided to try to head to the popular expat/party area Lan Kwai Fong or LKF, for the Halloween night celebrations. It was chaos.

The streets were fenced off preventing people from walking down them, only along the narrow walkways. I felt like a sheep being herded. After thirty minutes of walking like a zombie and getting nowhere near where the clubs were, we all bailed and headed to another area and found a packed out bar to spend the night!

My last night in HK was spent enjoying the local cuisine, Dim Sum at a nice restaurant. I do not have a habit of taking photos of food so nothing really to post here, just believe me it was tasty as hell!

Overall, Hong Kong was a city worth visiting and I wish I had more time here. It is however more suited to a holiday rather than a tight-arsed backpacker - its expensive! It's costs are on a similar scale to Singapore, much more than even Japan to travel through!

The European Conclusion

I am not going to try to write a summary in the same fashion as I did for South East Asia, for Europe. It doesn't make as much sense given how much I moved around and how little I saw of some countries - often only the capital city!

Instead I will just reflect on the places that stood out for me and for what reasons. Obviously I can't comment on the countries I didnt make it to - the most notable I missed out on were Italy, Greece and Croatia - but based on what I did see, here are my thoughts.

Best Party - Budapest, Hungary

Budapest has got to be one of the top party destinations in eastern Europe, and it is definitely on the Australian backpacker radar. Fuelled on by Sziget and huge crowds of internationals coming in, my time in Budapest was a whirlwind of fun.

The party hostels here are crazy, the town is beautiful and the festival was insane. It is a city not to be missed if a good time is to be had.

Best Architecture - Ghent, Belgium

While I consider that Krakow, Poland, deserves an honorary mention for its stunning city centre and beautiful buildings, Ghent held the candle for me as the best medieval city. The three towers clustered closely together in the city centre make for brilliant viewing, with its gothic architecture really standing out to me. 

Ghent is also a city that I don't believe is on enough people's radars. Most in Belgium go to Brussels, Brouges or Antwerp, skipping the little one in the centre in their planning process. I spent a day in Brouges as was thoroughly underwhelmed in comparison to Ghent! And you cant forget the Belgian beer...

Best Food - Granada, Spain

Tapas. Enough said. 

Granada is the only town left in Spain still widely offering free tapas with their meals. Virtually any drinking establishment you visit will include a portion of food along with your drink - which generally only costs around 2 euros!

It's also a vibrant student town, playing host to both Spanish students moving from their hometowns and European exchange (ERASMUS) students. This fact both drives prices down and ups the competition - gotta fight for those poor students!

Food often includes bread based dishes - long rolls sliced thin topped with salsa and hamburgers - up to fish and seafood! Unfortunately I don't generally take photos of food so have nothing to add in here... just take my word and experience it yourself!

Best Backpacker Vibe - Porto, Portugal

Atmosphere is a big thing for a solo traveller. I cant even begin to count how many hostels I have stayed at this year but I'd be surprised if I hadn't hit 100! Some cities just do not have a solid backpacker vibe about them, usually prices have an impact on that fact. Paris was the stand-out worst for me in that respect. Similarly Madrid attracts a lot of weekend tourists in groups, making it hard to mingle with other solo travellers. 

The hostel I stayed at in Porto, Pilot Hostel, had a solid feel, despite being pretty quiet there at the time. Porto has quite a few hostels all near by with very good ratings which probably adds to why it stood out for me. 

Other cities worth mentioning are Prague - Hostel Elf was great - and Barcelona.

Best History - Berlin, Germany

Nothing compares to Berlin for its history in my opinion. World War II effectively shaped what Europe looks like today - some cities remained intact while others were bombed to the ground and rebuilt - and Berlin was the epicentre of this. 

The walking tour I did in Berlin was a stand-out as the most interesting and well thought out of all the tours I did. The English PHD history student as our guide had a serious passion for German society and reflected on it very critically - often praising the German attitude!

===

All in all, backpacking through Europe is vastly different to backpacking in South East Asia.

What I liked and grew used to about SEA is how essentially everyone is a dirty backpacker - unkempt hair, dirty clothes, wearing flip flops all day ... Europe is a polar opposite. Everyone looks respectable, dresses well, wears nice shoes and generally looks less scruffy. It doesn't help by the fact that there are so many weekend tourists, people from around Europe travelling for short periods of time.

Through SEA you get a lot of Canadians, Germans, English, Kiwis and Aussies. Through Europe, the main people travelling for extended periods are again Canadians, Kiwis and Aussies, but I was surprised to see so many Americans!

I didn't get to make it to Croatia and Greece unfortunately so missed out on the (probably comparable) beaches and natural beauty that SEA has in spades. Europe for me was more about history, architecture and culture - in particular food and drinks.

The hostels in Europe are also quite different to SEA. Often they have much nicer amenities, but I found to lack the same social atmosphere of a good SEA hostel. Given the restriction on having big buildings in historical old cities, often the hostels lacked a good common area - they have to make do with what they had.

While I did really enjoy my time in Europe, I was damn well keen to get back to SEA and enjoy the sunshine and natural beauty that makes SEA the beautiful region that it is.