Vietnam from Jennever Pelaez on Vimeo.

It's already April, and I only have 9 posts, including this one?? And two of them are videos, so do they really count?

For some reason, I am having a hard time writing about this trip for Skyscanner. I love looking through the photos and videos but it makes me so selfish to just reel in that moment, that I don't want to share with everyone else how wonderful this trip was, and how it contributed to my being. (It was a relatively short trip compared to everyone I have met during this period but I still got a lot out of it.)

I would love to blab some more but I cannot seem to write coherent words right now.

Anyway, a more fun video is coming out soon because I have a LOT of clips dancing all over Vietnam that I didn't include here. So just watch the video for now, and I hope you like it!

I need to come back and edit this post sober. I hope I don't get lazy.

For Palaweños currently based elsewhere except Puerto (as what we, the locals, lovingly call Puerto Princesa City) it is imperative for us to visit our favorite Chaolong-an place before going back again out into the wild. However, during my surprise visit in Palawan two weeks ago, I was so caught up with family and friends (a good problem to have, btw) that I forgot to include eating the local Vietnamese food into my itinerary.

Onok Island: Checked! In a perfect world, after a nap you could just go down a ladder and swim in the ridiculously clear sea.

A little over three months ago, I crossed off an item in my travel bucket list-- Onok Island. Being there was so surreal. Half the time, I couldn't believe we actually made it. (Related: Road To Onok: The Nitty Gritty) And the other half, I spent napping on a hammock in a stilt cottage perched on the beach. Easily the best nap I have ever had in this lifetime!

Onok Island is a privately owned small piece of land situated within the Balabac island municipality in Palawan. The island came out in public light when a shot of Onok by George Tapan won National Geographic's Best Photo of 2011. Since then, a lot became interested to go too, including me. This post is an attempt to give you a guide on how to get there using the same itinerary my best friend, G, and I did.

Sample Itinerary



Important: Before hauling your backpacks to Balabac, make sure to ask for permission from the owner, Mayor Astami and his family. I won't put the contact number of the tourism officer here because we had a bad experience dealing with the officer. I wouldn't want to put you in that position, if I can help it.

Edit: Contact Ate Beth instead at +639494241605. She's a newly appointed tourism officer and she's very nice. Ask her for the Mayor's permission to go to Onok.

(RELATED: Onok Island Itinerary)

The road to paradise is not always glamorous. I have always known this, but the idea kept on reinforcing itself during that trip to *Onok Island with my best friend, G.

Port of Rio Tuba. Some of the boardwalk planks felt like they would give in at any moment.

I am only posting about Onok now because I have reviewed the photos and videos from my camera just last night, for the first time! Why I waited for so long, I don't know. Maybe I just didn't want to get lost in its beauty all over again?

But this post is not meant to gush about how wonderful the road to Onok was. Because in reality it was not. It took a total of 20 hours to get to Balabac island municipality from Puerto Princesa, including the waiting time for the daily ferry from the port of Rio Tuba. And that was not it. After reaching Balabac, we had to wait until the next morning before we could take another boat ride to Onok Island.

Port of Rio Tuba: Shanties on Stilts. Photo taken from the ferry.

Politics and local corruption made it so much harder too. I didn't mind the wait and the lengthy travel time, but when we were already being conned for our money outright, I was fuming mad. This is my home province, and you are making me pay that much?! My pride (and sense of entitlement) almost had me catching the next ferry ride back to the mainland.

To reiterate what I said after that trip, I am glad I went through with it, with all of it--not just the good, but also the not so good. It was a great exercise in practicing grace under pressure. And at the end of it, I got to go home with photos and anecdotes, too.

It's nice to be part of the generation that wants to explore every inch of the world. Airfares are cheaper, travel guides are more extensive. We are in a travel revolution after all, as they say. This generation's so into the wanderlust lifestyle and for whatever reason we may have, too -- may it be soul-searching, meeting new friends or plainly just to have something breathtaking to Instagram. It's a generation that inspires friends, and friends of friends to move.

But why travel alone when you can do it with people you already know? Below, I have listed seven reasons why you should never ever travel solo.

1. It could be scary and unsafe. 

Going on your own means you have no one checking on you to see if you have been abducted like what happens during your Taken nightmare. The worse part is you don't have Liam Neeson as your dad, who will give your abductors this speech. 

Kota Kinabalu Fishermen's Port. Every local I ran into before going here said "Be careful! There are many thieves there!"

Traveling alone will require a great deal of courage and willpower. You need to always be doubtful of too-good-to-be true moments. You need to be alert at all times. Do you really need to prove to yourself that you can do it on your own?

2.  No one to look after your things. 

Whether you need to pee, order at a fast food restaurant, or try to look for the nearest money changer, you will need to lug your bag/s all around with you. There's no one else you could tell, "Please look after my stuff so I don't have to carry them all the way to the women's restroom!"

Airport Nomad. Those on the left were my bags. I brought them everywhere with me, even when I had to go pee.

And when you're out of luck, the restroom stall won't have a hook to hang your bag on. Sorry girl, you will have to carry all that weight on your lap while you squat to pee! (Because you should never a. put down your bag on the bathroom floor, and b. sit on the toilet seat, especially when traveling. You don't wanna risk catching anything and then consequently ruin your travel plans.)

3. No one to share the nice view with. 

So you saw the magnificent sunset over where Survivor Borneo was filmed. It was glorious and it was a dream come true for you. But guess what, no one really witnessed you saw it. You will immortalize that memory in your brain and bask in its realness at that moment... on your own. 

Sunset at Pulau Tiga beach. I had this whole beach on my own. Took a quick snap before I let my camera retire for the day.

The screaming sound of serenity will be too loud. Can you handle it?

Scenario: I'll arrive in Puerto Princesa City before noon and I wanna catch the last overnight bus that leaves for El Nido at 9PM. How can I maximize those 10 hours without tiring myself? 



As a born and bred Palaweña currently residing in Metro Manila, I get this question a lot. Not the same 10 hours, the what-to-do questions whenever friends will be in Puerto Princesa for only a short period of time before they go off to wherever. Of course, if you're not staying overnight, the options will be lessened as well. Through the years, I have made myself some sure-fire itineraries that kept my Manila friends more than happy.

In this blog post, which I'm planning to do as a series, I'll let you know about insider information on how to DIY Puerto Princesa like a Palaweña would for her Manileñan friends.


Puerto Princesa's public beaches are stunning. Emphasis on stunning because you can't really see anything like that near Metro Manila. And by near, I meant this specific white sand beach is only 30 minutes away from the airport, 10 minutes away from our home. The entrance fee costs Php 10 per person and if my memory serves me right, the stilt cottages at the beach can be rented for Php 100 for one whole day.

For this trip, I took my friends to BM Beach, located in Brgy. San Pedro and nearby Robinsons Palawan. You can reach this place via tricycle or you can do what we did; rent a private van that can take you anywhere. The going rate for a half-day van rental is around Php 1000.

Intro to Seafood Coma. What better way to introduce friends to Palawan than eating seafood by the beach with bare hands?

The first meal my friends will eat is usually my family's treat to them. Mama will go to the wet market for crabs and prawns and cook them buttered-garlic style. I call this the Introductory Palawan Experience for my friends, because this usually sets the mood and the seafood benchmark for the whole trip.

[Slideshow] Lush greens, white sand and the blue sea. I can live here forever. (OK, maybe a month because I'll miss the internet!)



*Screensaver moment - What I call the moments that leave me speechless in awe. I have a short list, and I should probably write about it too.

To set your expectations on this post, let me start by saying this is meant to be a wordy and picture-heavy travel diary of what went on during my first solo travel abroad. If you need tips, I'll be more than glad to answer your questions in the comments section. :) 

Introduction
It has been about a month and a half since I went on this trip. Work and other trips aside, I have been procrastinating on writing about what was the best travel experience I've had so far in my life. It's not that it's a requirement that I write about this, but if you crossed off something really big from your bucket list, wouldn't you want to document it in photos, along with your feelings, for all the world to see? No? Okay.

I wanted to edit the photos first to give it a coherent feel, but that was not happening. I'm too lazy and I apparently don't have time for it because in a few days. I'll be off again to another adventure. Just so I can get the ball rolling, I'll just be using the raw photos from the trip.

Of Airports and Airplanes
If you have read what I have written here, you'd already know how much I love airports and airplanes. During this trip, it wasn't any different. I arrived in the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKIA) Terminal 2 past 1AM. Due to the excitement from it all, I actually forgot to eat dinner back in Manila. I saw only one convenience store open in Terminal 2 and they didn't sell heavy meals so I decided to try my luck at Terminal 1, where I was going to catch my flight to Miri.

What You Should Know:
Airport taxi transfers from one terminal to another cost a lot. During the day it would cost you RM30, while during graveyard hours, it would cost you RM45. Of course, you can always take the airport bus for only RM5, but it has a schedule that starts from 8AM to 8PM. 

An hour and 45 Malaysian Ringgits (RM) later, I was already in Terminal 1. It took that long for me to decide whether I really wanna spend that much money on a short cab ride to the other airport terminal versus looking for potential cab-mates that I could share the cab fare with. Na-da.

Short sad story
Me: Hi. Do you sell rice here?
Cashier: No.

Being that it was the only open food establishment in BKIA Terminal 1 around 2AM, I had no choice but to eat from McDonald's. Why the Happy Meal? Their chicken meal had two pieces of chicken. I was hungry but not THAT hungry. The only option for a 1-pc chicken meal was to get the Happy Meal. I got to take home a toy so win-win!

The part of the airport near my boarding gate was pretty much deserted. I tried doing jump shots for my collection using a remote control shutter but the timing was off. I was already wasting precious battery life so I eventually decided on just taking a video instead. It is that same clip you'd see on the first few seconds of my video diary.


I had a lot to complain about BKIA Terminal 2. I could go as far as saying it was worse than any Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminal here in Manila. (We have four terminals and one has been dubbed as the worst airport in the world. IN THE WORLD. I silently wondered if the panel who ranked the airports have not been to KK.) On the other side of the spectrum, Terminal 1 was nice. The check in/departure floor looked like our NAIA Terminal 3 and Singapore's Changi Airport, minus the lack of food choices 24/7. But what took my breath away was the atrium where Gate A11 was located.

What You Should Know:
If ever you get to board from Gate A11 onwards, set extra time for the long walk. It is quite far.