Beyond The Maple Tree

Bulabog Beach

White Beach
Flo met up with us and we stayed at a really nice hotel on White Beach, on the West side of the island.  Our beachfront hotel had a nice restaurant and sitting area on the beach that provided shade and great views from breakfast til sunset.  It was also close to our favourite cute little local smoothie shop called Eva's Fruit Shake.  We had the best Mango-Pineapple smoothies every day 😋.

Most of our days were spent beaching and exploring the ~4km stretch of White Beach and beyond.  White Beach is probably one of the cleanest and most beautiful beaches that we have ever been to.  Even though we were here during Lunar New Year and the area was absolutely full of tourists, it didn't actually feel as busy as other beaches that we have been to because the beach here is so wide and long that there is plenty of space for everyone.

Along the South section of White Beach, there is an algae that grows near the shore and accumulates at the Southernmost end of the beach.  As you walk down, the water starts to have a green tinge that eventually becomes a green sludge the further South you go. For some reason, Jen found the spinach-smoothie waves completely mesmerising and fascinating, so we stayed here contemplating the sludge for quite some time 😂.

Diniwid Beach
On the North end of White beach, there is a small walkway that you can take to get to Diniwid Beach.  Since Diniwid is tucked away from the main White Beach stretch, it is much more quiet and secluded.  Even though Diniwid is small, it was worth the visit as it has some karst formations that make it really pretty. 

At the end of Diniwid beach, the walkway looked like it had been damaged by a typhoon, but we continued carefully through and ended up at the remnants of a hotel. 

Talking with a local hiker, it sounded like someone had built the hotel without following the government's environmental rules, so they were told to tear it down. They did a poor job of tearing it down... but on the bright side, the remaining structures provide some nice viewpoints and a footpath to Balinghai Beach.  

After we crossed over the walkway, we were actually surprised that it was still there and not blocked off - it doesn't feel particularly safe after you see the what's left of the walkway's foundation 😯.  We're guessing it probably won't be accessible for very much longer.

Filipino Food Favourites
Despite it being very popular in several countries that we've travelled, we have never been drawn toward trying any of the "Shaved Ice" desserts like "Bingsu" (S.Korea), "Baobing" (Taiwan), or "Kakigori" (Japan).  We thought of "shaved ice" desserts as being something like the Snoopy-Snow-Cones from when we were kids, which neither of us liked.  In fact, neither of us are even really into ice-cream (weird, we know).  But once upon a time, Jen had seen an episode where Anthony Bourdain ate (and seemed to really enjoy) a Filipino shaved-ice dessert, called "Halo-Halo", from the super popular Filipino chain, Jollibee.  The memory of seeing that episode gave us enough motivation to finally give Jollibee and "shaved-ice desserts" a try.

We were amazed at how busy Jollibee was and luckily managed to snag the last empty table by the door.  We ordered the "Super meal" and "Aloha burger" to sample a bit of everything (burger, spaghetti, chicken, salisbury steak, rice, juice).  We really wanted to be able to say that we loved everything and totally understood the hype... but in reality, we were rather underwhelmed - the food was just "OK".  

Back in Puerto Princesa, we learned that Jollibee didn't serve Halo-halo anymore, so we had been trying to hunt down other places to find Halo Halo.  It was actually surprisingly difficult - we were unable to find anywhere serving Halo Halo in El Nido or Bohol (some had it on a menu but said it wasn't available when we asked about it).  We found one good Halo Halo in Puerto Princesa at Noki-Nocs, but all of the other places that we tried in Puerto Princesa and Boracay fell short (Mang Inasal, Halo Mango, Chowking)..

Then we tried Ice Flakes Boracay and never looked back! 
It may not be a "traditional" Halo Halo, but the method that they use to shave the ice made it our favourite dessert by far. What makes their version so special is that the ice-shaving machine is somehow able to make the ice in a way that it is super fluffy and extra smooth.  It actually feels like you are eating fluffy, freshly-fallen snow that is full of sweet delicious flavours that melt in your mouth.  This was unique because the "shaved-ice" elsewhere was more like chunks of crushed ice with sauce on top, that you have to chew through, instead of it melting quickly in your mouth like snow. 
Ice Flakes Boracay also served other shaved-ice flavours, so one night we also tried the mango coconut flavour.. it was good, but we quickly reverted back to Halo Halo because we liked the variety of toppings (particularly the delicious Leche Flan)!.

We had several nice meals in the Philippines, but other than Halo-Halo, we unfortunately didn't fall in love with any of the traditional Filipino dishes.  We didn't find them very appealing because they were all really heavy and meat-based dishes served with rice and zero vegetables.  

Jen's quest to find a good Filipino "Ube Cake" also failed - we tried it at 4 different places and although they were very inexpensive, they were sadly all disappointing flavour and texture wise.