David and I went to the Philippines for our summer vacation. As I have mentioned before our Korean boss likes us to write a report about what we done and where we went. I am not sure whether is it because he is interested or nosy! LOL David wrote the report this time and he mentioned that we got engaged. Whoop! We were expecting our boss to read the report and ask us all about it. He didn’t. Is this proof  that our suspicions are correct and that the dozens of reports we write are never read?! (or maybe he just doesn’t care! LOL)

Changnyeong English Village

Vacation Report 2013

David Moxon and Rebecca Rhone

The vacation finally arrived and was very welcome after a long spell of teaching since the winter. We took a bus to Seoul on the Friday night directly after we finished work. It was nice to be in Seoul early so we could do some last minute vacation shopping. We spent the Saturday shopping around Myeongdong before taking a bus to stay closer to the airport for the Saturday night. After checking in we had an early night as our flight was early on the Sunday morning.

          We awoke early and checked in with no problems and not before long, we were airborne. Our first flight was five hours. We had to transfer to a different terminal in Manila for our second flight. Our next flight took us to Puerto Princesa. This was around an hour and went by quickly. We arrived at our hotel at around 8pm and went out for some dinner. It was a great chance to try our first taste of Filipino food.

           The next morning a minibus came to pick us up from the hotel to take us on a trip to our final destination, El Nido. The bus ride took seven hours including a lunch stop so we were relieved to get to our final destination. Again, we unpacked and headed out to explore the town. There was a power cut so we headed to one of the few places I town that had a generator. Here we ate dinner and made a few friends.

           The next morning we awoke early and decided to visit a local beach, Las Cabanas. It was really picturesque and it was nice to relax after two days of travel. We spent the day lounging on the beach and swimming. We were lucky enough to see our first sea turtle.

           One of the main attractions of El Nido is the oceanic park. We spent the next few days exploring the area via boat. The boats, called Bancas, take around eight people to visit the different beaches and interesting rock formations. It was stunningly beautiful.

           One day we decided to hire a kayak for the day. Becky and I paddled to a deserted island and spent the day paddling from one beach to the next. We took all of our supplies and had snacks and picnics as we went. It was a glorious day. I had secretly booked a romantic meal on a private beach for that evening so I told Becky we had to go back to the hotel to get ready. At 5pm a private boat came to pick us up and take us to a special beach. A chef prepared our dinner and we ate as we watched the sunset. Before dessert I asked Becky to marry me, I was relieved when she said yes. This was a very special day indeed.

           Our final day was spent learning a new sport, Paddle boarding. It is similar to kayaking but you stand up with a long paddle to propel yourself through the water. It was great fun but I fell in a few time, all part of the fun.

           All too soon it was time to head home. We took the journey in reverse order, this time there were a few complications. Our airline, Zest Air was not allowed to fly, so we had to be transferred to other airlines, which resulted in a few delays and a little stress. We were lucky though as some other passengers were highly inconvenienced, to the tune of being delayed for five days. We had a night in Manila where we stayed in a very nice hotel and managed to go to the giant ‘Mall of Asia’ in Manila before heading to the airport. At this point we didn’t know how we were going to get back to Korea so we were really happy when we were able to board our flight home. We took a bus from Incheon directly to Masan and took a local bus from their back to CEV. We had a great holiday but were excited to get back to CEV and conclude our Korean adventure.

Filed under: Korea Tagged: El Nido, Palawan, Philippines, Puerto Princesa