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For the May holiday I felt like it was about time to get out of Shanghai for a bit and the Philippines offer the perfect opportunity to do so.
Tranquility, sunshine, great underwater life and friendly people at our doorstep. A mere 4.5 hour flight from Shanghai, Manila is a quick and easy option for city dwellers, looking to get away from it all for a few days.


I hadn’t been back to the Philippines since my initial trip to Palawan back in December 2012, so it was about time. Since it was only going to be a short 4 day trip, it was an obvious decision to not take any connecting flight but instead organize an airport pick-up that would take us south of Manila, down to Anilao.

We decided to stay at Portulano Dive Resort, as diving was the main objective.


The resort is located along a hillside – the downside is clearly the lack of beach of possibility to go anywhere. If you don’t want to dive, there’s the option to rent kayaks, hike up the hill or read books. Snorkeling is not too impressive, even though the diving is rather shallow at around 10 to 20 meters.

Food is great, staff is helpful and friendly and four days are easily spent. Four dives a day come in easily, with two in the morning, an afternoon dive as well as a night dive. There are many critters and small things around, but you also see the occasional jack fish, giant clam and trevally.




Besides diving I also managed to almost finish the 5th installation of Game of Thrones – a truly never-ending read that I honestly can’t wait to be done with. Snorkeling and kayaking rounded off a great trip.



See all pictures on Flickr.

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