Wayne Kerr's Taytay Tour - Philippines

[Wayne Kerr]

After a very fun month in Bangkok I reckoned it was time to piss off for a bit before I either ended up divorced or looking for a new job. This trip I decided on a small coastal town in Palawan in the Philippines.



Taytay is a small fishing town that I help a few friends buy fish from so I reckoned it was a good a place as any to catch up with a few friends and unwind a bit. I wasn’t expecting too much but was very bloody impressed by the place so took a few photos for the folks on here. Tourism is in its infancy there, but some foreign overseas investors have big plans for the place. It was a treat to see the joint before the dollar or more like yuan, yen, and won takes over. Hope you enjoy.

[Wayne Kerr]

Map of Taytay in Palawan - Philippines

^ Taytay is a small joint in northern Palawan


^ Taytay Bay is on the right and the area on the left goes by the name of Malampaya Sound

Check the joint out on Google Earth by clicking here -

[Wayne Kerr]

Flight to Taytay in Palawan - Philippines

The flight to Taytay airport is about 90 minutes from Manila and should set you back about US$30-40. The runway is still dirt so they only fly small planes in there. Worth the money just to get a good gander of the Palawan coast.


^ I used South East Asian Airways


^ Can get a good view of the pilot in action … they seem to spend most of their time checking out any western sheilas on the flight


^ A shot of Taytay Bay I took from my telephone … will have to get some tips from MeMock on aerial photography I think


^ The entire coast is full of coral reefs like this


^ The track from the plane to the airport


^ They are planning to build a new airport but I like this one just fine


^ The arrival area was bloody busy … my guide had problems finding somewhere to sit whilst waiting for the luggage


^ The local transport


^ We made our getaway down the runway in a private car

[Wayne Kerr]

Accommodation at Taytay in Palawan - Philippines

There are a few small resorts popping up out on the nearby islands but I was keen to stay in town so a fried recommended the Casa Rosa Bungalows. Found out later it was the only hotel/guest house in town and was suitably impressed. About 20 dollars a night for the small bungalows in the photos below and they have cold beer, do a cracker pizza, and serve great tapas for free when you order a drink at the bar.


^ View from reception at the Casa Rosa

.
^ The tapas bar at the Casa Rosa… cold San Migs went for 25 pesos each with free tapas, usually some local squid rings


^ My modest bungalow


^ All bungalows have atleast 320 degree water views


^ Not a bad spot for breakfast … even talked the girls into dropping a spot of the local Tanduay rum into my juice


^ Breakfast table


^ Spent a few long nights sitting there drinking … the fort to the left is made completely from the local corals

[Wayne Kerr]

Entertainment and food in Taytay in Palawan - Philippines

I travel a lot in southeast Asia which usually means massage, karaoke, and drinking way too much whenever catching up with friends. Taytay was a refreshing break as there aint any joints of ill repute to get into trouble in. We ate and drank at my mates place and his staff put on some great seafood feeds and entertainment in his bar. The dancers were members of his staff and they ended up drinking with us into the wee hours of the morning. Reminded me of good old fashioned drinking sessions upcountry Thailand with a load of Spanish culture mixed in.


^ Some nice seafood from my mate’s cool room


^ Can’t get fish like this in Thailand anymore


^ The dancing girls were very, very sexy … they were showing off their disco moves between the traditional dances … sorry no videos


^ Don’t want to sound like a poof or anything but the blokes were pretty good too


^ The blokes worried me a bit when they strapped coconut shell tits on themselves


^ They even did the national dance which involves banging the bamboo poles together trying to hit the feet of the guys dancing … I had to have a go with the sheila … nearly killed me it did

[Wayne Kerr]

Buying Fish in Taytay in Palawan - Philippines

Anyway the trip wasn’t all beer and skittles. I had to go and check out one of the places producing some fish stuff my mate is buying. The village we visited processes about 2 tonnes of fish a day to send to Manila and Korea and Japan. The nips love it with beer.


^ Early morning at the local pier


^ My mates yacht … he recently bought it cheap from some old Swedish bloke who sailed it there from Europe … will be lovely once he finishes working on it … our ride was the small boat in the background


^ The small village we visited


^ The processing area


^ The women folk do most of the work ashore


^ This batch was destined for Japan

[Wayne Kerr]

Water People in Taytay in Palawan – Philippines

Not many Filipinos I know who do any business without mixing in a fair bit of pleasure. The next couple of days were spent exploring the local islands. Most people seem to live on the water and catch fish for food and a living.


^ Typical village along the coast of Taytay


^ One of the larger market areas


^ A lot of families live on boats like this


^ The kids seemed pretty happy sitting up on the bow

[Wayne Kerr]

Resort in Taytay in Palawan – Philippines

Next stop was a small resort for a drinking session. One of the nicest joints I’ve visited and is on my list of joints to visit again.


^ Sailing to the outer islands of Taytay


^ The resort is built in a nice secluded bay protected from the southwest and northeast monsoons


^ We were already a bit off our faces before we arrived


^ They sent a few blokes out to pick us up


^ This blokes name was Evin … he reckons he’s related to Rodney


^ Entrance to the joint is through a hole in the coral reef into a nice big lagoon


^ A shot looking over the pool, lagoon and the islands offshore


^ Nice bungalows


^ The restaurant and bar is set up in amongst the jungle


^ It don’t more “waterfront” than this

[Wayne Kerr]

Island Resort in Taytay in Palawan – Philippines

The joint has an island wing a short 20 minute sail across the bay. This joint was friggin awesome and the double rooms go for 3,000 pesos a night.


^ Sailing to the offshore island resort


^ Lovely joint set in the jungle


^ Water was about 80 ft deep in the bay but sent this dinghy out to collect us


^ Some of the rooms


^ Nearly had to drop my pants at the pool table … jesus them flipper blokes can play alright


^ Now these are real beach chairs


^ Small breakwater for the boats


^ The pier

[Wayne Kerr]

Fish Feeding at Taytay in Palawan – Philippines

The pier at this joint is a great spot for a swim with the fish. A school of about 20 giant trevally about 1 metre long loiter around there and will try to put some underwater pics up after I get back to the office. Here are a few pics of us feeding the suckers.


^ The black shapes are giant trevally


^ A couple of guys swimming with them


^ Reckoned these little suckers would work the fish up


^ Trevally chasing the feed


^ Close up of the feeding frenzy

[Wayne Kerr]

The Big Lagoon in Taytay – Philippines

The highlight of the joint has to be this lagoon we visited. The outer lagoon is about 100 ft deep and you can swim through a hole in the wall to reach a shallower lagoon that is about 20 foot deep and due to the limited exchange with the sea is about 35 degrees and very salty … impossible to sink in it and I spent about 2 hours floating in the sucker.


^ The big lagoon


^ Kayak rental place


^ Hole in the wall through to the small secluded lagoon


^ The small lagoon


^ Heading out of the lagoon

[Mr Pot]

This is all around El Nido is it not? I got proposed to the missus around here. Lost the fcuking camera in Malaysia and every single photo of my time in Palawan; absolutly gutted. Cheers for posting these, hope there's more

[jizzybloke]

lovely pictures and a great looking place thanks Wayne.

[Wayne Kerr]

This is all around El Nido is it not?

Yeah mate, Taytay borders El Nido municipality, lovely part of the world

[Northern Scum]

Beautiful place.

Another great thread - cheers.

[Mr Pot]

We went this time last year, there were so many jellyfish it ruined the swimming and snorkelling; we got a glass bottomed canoe and there were hundreds of the fecks, if I had of jumped out I could have been in trouble, good job I hired that canoe - I know there is an extremely posionous box jellyfish native to the Phills, always wanted to know if that was around this area?

Apart from the Jellyfish, the beaces and lagoons have got to be some of the best in the world, wonderful place.

[MeMock]

^ A shot of Taytay Bay I took from my telephone … will have to get some tips from MeMock on aerial photography I think

Errrr, don't use your telephone to take pics

Great thread mate, well done (again)

[buad hai]

Beautiful photos. I'd love to go there to dive.

Are those small dried fish baby skipjack? The people on Saipan used to catch those with a rod and reel and then pickle or boil them crisp to eat with beer.

Thanks again for a fine travel thread.

[Khun Custard]

WK,
Thanks
Nice photo's, great info.
Can I get the contact info of the resorts from you??

[Wayne Kerr]

Are those small dried fish baby skipjack? The people on Saipan used to catch those with a rod and reel and then pickle or boil them crisp to eat with beer.

I didn't see any small skipjack amongst them. They're mostly siganids or rabbitfish, trevally and small mackerels. I have tried the dried skipjack in northern Philippines which I think must be similar to what they do on Saipan ... the delish with cold beer .

Can I get the contact info of the resorts from you??

Sure mate. Personally I like staying in town so I can do my own thing rather than being stuck on an island resort. That is why I chose the Casa Rosa. One resort that I did hear a lot of good things about goes by the name of Club Noah.

Casa Rosa
Barangay 1, Taytay
Palawan, Philippines
Tel: (63) 92 1212 0522

Miniloc Island Resort
Ten Knots Development Corporation
18th Floor 8747
Paseo de Roxas Street, Salcedo Village,
1226 Makati City, Philippines
Tel: (632) 894 5644

[gusG]

You sure do it tuff , don't ya? Great thread

[buad hai]

^I've noticed this as well. No matter where Wayne goes he seems to always end up with nice accommodation, great meals, interesting entertainment and lots of beer and other sorts of booze. Incredibly, many of these trips allegedly have some sort of connection to "work".

[Khun Custard]

^^^ WC Thanks
That's the next holiday sorted!!

[Wayne Kerr]

No matter where Wayne goes he seems to always end up with nice accommodation, great meals, interesting entertainment and lots of beer and other sorts of booze.

Jeez it aint all beer and skittles you know. Life on the road has resulted in me developing some bad habits that are going to be hard to kick, one or two of which may just about be the end of me if I end up back in the west . The latest is hand made filipino cigars. This trip I managed to fit about 150 of the suckers into my suitcase .

[The_Dude]

Great shots! Beautiful views, you are a great explorer. Thanks and keep them reports coming in!