Tao Expedition ... Awesome
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2009
1
3
4
Trip End
May 02, 2009
El Nido, Philippines
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Jay and I had the most fantastic experience with the Tao Philippines Expedition. For anyone who hasn't heard of these guys, google them and check it out. Basically we embarked on a three day two night journey from El Nido to Coron on The Aurora, with 9 other tourists from around the globe and the fantastic Tao crew.
The group was made up of Jay and I, Dan and Sall (from Melbourne - Dan is a scientist with the CSIRO and Sal works for DHS so we had a fair bit in common). Then there was Ambroise and Caroline from France, temporarily based in Singapore, who were a very cool couple and greatly reduced Jason's distaste for the French (based on a very surly Frenchman he used to work with). There was a couple from Switzerland (Alf and Joanne). Joanne was a Filopina but lived in Switz for a long time. The remaining three were made up of the "three musketeers" - three older Belgium Gents with virtually no English, and who would speak to us in French and assume that we all knew exactly what hey were saying
Paradise (Photo by A DePlace)
. The crew was a bunch of great Filopino guys, girls and a gorgous Lady Boy. Eddie is the proprietor of Tao but was only with us for a few hours, then handed over the expedition to Sa Sa, a very cool Filopina who had travelled all around Asia. Our resitent Massuese was Nell, the stunning Lady Boy who gave us all very intimate explanations of what it is like to be a Lady Boy. Ollie was one of the crazy crew who keps us entertained by doing backflips of the boat and free diving for what seemed to be 5 minutes and casually waving to scuba divers!We started off by visiting the Tao "comune" where Eddie's partner Jack was staying with his family. They are looking for volunteers and I am going to consider this - they need people to write funding submissions - which I think I can handle! The island where Jack and his family were was amazing and they were all splashing around in the water, or sitting on the balcony of their Nipa huts. Jack is very english, and was standing on the beach with a waistcoat on, shaving with a machete in front of a broken peice of mirror. Very Robinson Caruso.
We then went to a couple of snokleing sites which was great. Then made our way to an island to sleep the night. Drank loads of beers on the beach, made limited french conversations with the Three Musketeers, and got drunk, then slept in a hut owned by villagers. Dinner was fish, squid, rice and some amazing salads and vegie dishes
Beautiful (Photo by A DePlace)
. I can't explain how good the food was. In fact, I can't explain how good the whole thing was!!!!Next day we were back to the boat - kind off. We got the little bankas with the big outriggers back to the main boat. I remember thinking "should really me, Jason and the somewhat rotund Alf really get on this little boat with Crazy ollie" but should've said somehtn (yeah, shoulda shoulda is great in hindsight). Alf sat on the front and I remember looking at him and thinking, he is too low, then Ollie yelling "camera camera!!!" and me realising we were sinking. Ollie grabbed the bangs (yes, at the beginning Eddie made it very clear there were dry bags, why didnt' we use them???) and did a noble job of holding them up and passing to Jason. Jay did so well holding the bag, then yelped in paid and realised he had stood on one of those mean looking sea urchins with the massive black spikes and glowing fluro eyes. The bag went in - the camera and phone got wet! I managed to stand on the boat which saved me from the sea urchins while I watched the guys on the boat laughting hysterically and taking pictures!!!! Anyway, the locals got a rescrue crew and we were back in the boat, wet camera in hand. Once back on Aurora we did a bit of bush surgery to get the urchins out ... Jay tells me they are very very painful, so never stand on one of those things. The tips are still in his foot. Alf suffered the same and also lost his camera (he did have a dry bag, but unforutnatley they don't work unless the camera is actually inside!)
Fish dealer! (Photo by A DePlace)
. So we got back on the boat, soaking wet, electronically poorer, urchins in foot. What really sux though is that we managed to call the travel insurance company. I hope that if people search for COLUMBUS DIRECT TRAVEL INSURANCE that this post comes up. Don't buy their cheap crappy insurance. When I called I told the woman we had been in a boat sinking and she was totally rude, cut me off, and didn't ask if I needed medical assistance. She said "we don't cover water damage" but you can try to claim if you want, then when it is declined you can appeal. SO DON'T BUY COLUMBUS DIRECT TRAVEL INSURANCE. So, afterwards, it was more snokelling, more seafood, more laying on white sand beaches. I can't explain how good Tao Expeditions are. If you are in the Philippines, you must do one. BEST TRAVEL EXPERIENCE EVER.
