Overview

We had a great 20 day trip to less-travelled parts of North & South East Asia seeing many places in an incredible journey that started with flying from Sydney to Manila. Our tour operator was APT and we had many great holiday experiences.

After 2 days in Manila we spent 17 days travelling on the small ship Caledonian Sky exploring relatively unknown regions of South East Asia rich in natural beauty, wildlife and timeless traditions.

We started with visits to a couple of island ports in the Southern Phillipines, then the East Indies - Borneo then Sulawesi (the Indonesian island formally known as Celebes) and a number of smaller islands in the Indonesian archipelago then East Timor & finally Darwin - where we will spent an extra day to visit Kakadu National park before flying back to Sydney.

As well as seeing beautiful beaches, wetlands, mangrove forests, amazing cathedral chambers and volcanoes we witnessed a wonderful Orang utan Rehabilitation centre, a Bornean Sun Bear Centre, Long nosed monkeys, amazing birdlife plus saw Komodo Dragons in their natural habitat.

A variety of cultures and peoples live in this region with some economies are based on local crafts and batik clothing, other markets have buffalos and pigs that are sold for funerals and other ceremonies. Other islands have indigenous cultures that are studied by Western anthropologists, since they have remained unchanged for over 400 years.

During World War II, many of these islands were the site of fierce battles between allied soldiers and Japanese forces and have touching memorials for the many thousands of Australian servicemen and women who died bravely in battle or perished as POWs suffering incredibly bad conditions and atrocity.

Below is the overview map of our journey (courtesy APT) - hope you enjoy reading about this as much as we did experiencing it.

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Manila June 14-15, 2016

Manila: Tuesday 14 June

After flying from Sydney, we spent the next two days in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. Manila is a large city with a number of districts. Mostly the more desirable districts have walled compounds containing housing complexes (with high security entrances).

Our hotel was in a central area called Makati; the financial and business district with large shopping malls and office blocks (with security at the entrances). Not a great attraction but has very good, well-appointed leading hotels.

We walked a couple of blocks and found a park called Greenbelt. It is not very large and has many expensive shops and eating places throughout. Located in the centre of the park there is a small Catholic Church with a high dome-shaped roof. The main entrance to the church is a bridge above a pond that contains many beautiful fish.

There were interesting sculptures & gardens

 

Manila: Wednesday 15 June

Initially a satellite state of Brunei from 1485 -1521, Manila was a colonial part of Spain then under Mexican rules for the next three hundred years (from 1565 – 1898) until America won the Spanish American War at the Battle of Manila City in 1898. The US gave the Philippines its independence on July 4, 1946.

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial

The time we spent at each stop on our city tour was curtailed by the traffic and time taken to travel to the tour attractions; our first stop was at the American Cemetery and War memorial at Fort Bonifacio.

The remains of 17,296 servicemen & women who gave their lives in World War II are interned at this cemetery. In addition 36,297 missing from the war whose remains were not recovered or identified, or were lost or buried at sea are commemorated by having their names on the wall of the memorial.

 

 It was a most moving experience to see so many gave the ultimate sacrifice defending the freedom of Pacific countries.

 

Intramuros: the Walled City.

 

Intramuros means “within the walls” in Latin, and is the oldest district and historic core of Manila. This fortified area was the seat of government during the Spanish Colonial Period.

It was built as a seafront defence line in 1662, and rebuilt on a number of occasions after earthquakes and damage from the war. 

 

The internal fort, Fort Santiago is one of the oldest fortifications in Manila and has a history of being rebuilt many times. Built in 1571 on the site of the native settlement of Raja Soliman, the first structure was made of logs and earth and destroyed by a Limahong attack in 1574. A stone fort was built between 1589 and 1592 but destroyed by an earthquake in 1645. Subsequently repaired and strengthened from 1658 to 1663, it became the headquarters of the British occupation army from 1762 to 1764 then repaired and renovated in 1778.

The Philippine Division of the US Army had it headquarters at the Fort, which was then occupied by the Japanese military in 1942 where hundreds of civilians and guerrillas where imprisoned, tortured and executed.

After almost total destruction in the Battle of Manila in 1945, restoration of the fort began in earnest in 1951 and a separate administration took over in 1992.

San Agustin Church & Convent

 

Located within the walled city is the oldest church in Manila and dates back to 1606 It is remarkably well preserved and survived unscathed during the Japanese occupation of Manila. The museum adjacent houses impressive collection of colonial religious art.

Later that day we went on board and prior to departure we were given a wonderful Bon Voyage by local Marching Bands

Coron, June 16, 2016

Coron, Palawan Philippines: Thursday June 16

 

Coron Island & Kayangan Lake

 

Travelled by a small outrigger motorised boats across to the Siete Pecados Marine Park to Kayangan Lake which is nestled into the mountain walls - access to the lake is a steep climb to a viewing platform followed by a downhill walk. 

Swimming in crystal clear waters and seeing the amazing moonscape-like appearance was a great experience.

On the trip back, the erosion of the limestone formations that are in the surrounding waters gave a muffin-top appearance at the waterline; many have steep cliffs rising very high, out straight out of the water. We cruised around some of the rocky outcrops passing by Barracuda Lake.

 

A city tour was less inviting. A church, fishing village and fish markets were very basic. The spa was too hot to use - 43 degrees.

Puerto Princesa, June 17,2016

Puerto Princesa, Palawan Philippines: Friday June 17

St Paul Underground River Excursion

Travelled by minibus for one and a half hours to Sebang on the West Coast on the West Coast of Palawan. We then crossed the bay by outrigger launch to St Paul Subterranean River National Park.

We then boarded small canoes that are paddled by a local guide in the St Paul cave.

Once inside the amazing limestone stalactites and structures that have formed over millions of years could be seen.


The bats that live on the roof of the cave were flying about and out of the cave entrance. It took over 40 minutes inside many chambers along cave which stretches for many kilometres but visitors are only permitted to go about one kilometre inside. Many of the limestone chambers and formations were given names like cathedral, beautiful lady, candle etc.

That night we left Philippine waters and cruised on the Sulu Sea towards Malaysian Borneo.

Sandakan, June 18, 2016

Sandakan, Borneo Malaysia: Saturday June 18

Borneo is the 3^rd largest island in the world and divided amongst 3 countries, Brunei (the North Western region), Malaysia (northern region) and Indonesia (73%).

 

We docked at the port of Sandakan and were greeted with traditional dancers and then went to the Sepilok Forest Reserve Sun Bear and Orang-utan Park.

We saw the Sun Bears located in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation centre from platforms high above the forest floor then walked to see the Orang-utans Rehabilitation Centre. 

This is the 3^rd stage of the rehabilitation process where the orphaned and injured Orang Utans are bought to before eventually being returned to forest life.

 

Before returning to the ship, we visited a city market that didn’t impress anyone.

We then sailed South down the Makassar Strait