50 Shades of Blue- Island Hopping in Palawan, Philippines- April 26 - May 13 2015

From the beautiful green hills and cool mountain air of north Philippines we sharply transitioned into the scorching sun and deep blue waters of the island of Palawan, voted best island in the world by Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards for 2014. We boarded an Air Asia flight (75$ per person return flight) in Manila landing in Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan and stayed the night in the friendly Dallas inn (600PHP tiny room). We had dinner at the recommended vegetarian  Ima's restaurant but we found the food only average and a bit overpriced.

50 Shades of Green in North Luzon, the Philippines, April 17-25 2015

While planning our month-long trip in the Philippines we decided to limit, the number of our destinations so we can really enjoy the places we visit and not spend our time running around, and also save some money by avoiding too many domestic flights. This proved a difficult task considering the 7000 (!) islands that comprise the Philippines. We eventually decided to first head up north to witness the famous rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995.

The Hardships of a Vegan Traveling in the Meat-lovers' Paradise of the Philippines

OK, so to be a vegan in the Philippines is not an easy thing to do but the good news is-  it's not impossible! The local diet is definitely meat-based and I'm talking breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even just being a vegeterian is hard- for example there are many pizza chains in the big cities but it's hard to find a pizza without ham, chicken or pork on it! In local eateries and street stalls it is very rare to find vegetarian or vegan options among the heaps of pork, chicken, fish balls, hamburgers etc but the the restaurants that cater to tourists will usually have a few veggie (easily-turned vegan) options. After a month-long trip in the Philippines I have some helpful advice and useful tips for the vegan traveler:

Transit Cities - Water-Wars in Bangkok and Couchsurfing in Manila, April 12-16 2015

After saying our goodbyes to India we hopped on a flight to Bangkok, Thailand (Indigo Air 74$ per person) and headed to the over-touristic Khaosan area to stay our two transit nights until our flight to the Philippines. We settled in K.C guesthouse (450 Baht per night with attach bathroom) on a quiet street near Khao San Road.