Travel To: Coron, Palawan, Philippines

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There are two things you go to Coron, Palawan for - snorkelling and scuba diving. Oh and casual boat trips to white sand beaches and fresh abundant seafood and a chance to dip your toes in the turquoise Sulu Sea and... ok, maybe more than two things! But it's the snorkelling and scuba diving you'll hear the most about, and with great reason. I'm not a diver, so I stuck to the snorkelling aspect, but I was not let down for a single moment, the life an

d the colours, and the pure expanse was both jaw dropping and awe inspiring.

Before I begin to wax lyrical about how great it was, I will freely admit that I have never been snorkelling in a coral setting before.  In fact, my snorkel experience can be summed up to sweet lakes in rural Ontario - neat, but entirely different.

Coron is specially known as the site of 12 Japanese warships (most just supply carriers, but a couple of gunboats for good measure as well). Along with one of the top coral reefs in the world, this is the main reasons that many visit this area. And indeed, was one of the main draws for us as well.

While many travel to Palawan Island and stop at the other top hits of El Nido and Porta Princessa, we were looking for a mixture of outdoorsy-ness and relaxation (not always an easy combination but one we strive for more often than not), and so decided to forgo the other two locals and settle into Coron and make it our home for the week.

We arrived at the end of monsoon season, in the middle of a monsoon, making the hour long boat ride from the town dock to our hotel island an unforgettable introduction. Top that off with the sun going down and these two bleary eyed travellers weren't able to take in much more than high winds and a lot of salt water.  That is, until we got to our hotel.  We happened to arrive just as dinner was being served and so happily tucked ourselves into a meal of same-day caught crab and lobster.  From that moment on, things were starting to look up!

I like to think that Other Half and I are still resolutely in the "hostel" category when we travel, but it seems that more and more we've started treating ourselves to rooms with their own shower, and places that get cleaned on a near daily basis. I suppose these little splurges go along with such grown up things as steady paycheques. Anyway, the point of that little side story was to tell you that this time we splurged.  We stayed at the Chindonan Resort and Dive Centre which is on its own island and features its own coral reef and family of sea horses just out front. Or in other words, bliss. In addition to not needing to leave the surrounding area and still be entertained and well fed (breakfast and dinner included!), they offer their own tours of the Coron area, and have a dive instructor living on site.

Note: I am NOT being payed/endorsed in any way, I just had a really great time and want to share that with you.

While we did our research before leaving, and knew you could get a cheaper tour in town, we ended up taking 1 full day and 1 half day tour with the resort staff, because apparently we're ballers now. In Coron in general there are three main tours that people go on, and these can be done privately or in groups of up to 12 (I think). The resort (and probably other similar resorts) offer variations and different itineraries based on their location and so we chose a full day trip with several stops at popular white sand beaches, snorkelling spots, and hot springs.  In my personal opinion, this was only okay. And at times underwhelming.  Because there was so much natural beauty at the resort, we didn't take a lot away from this trip.

Our second, half day, excursion was to some epic snorkelling spots off the beaten path.  As with almost every travel experience I've ever had, going against the grain was worth it.  Malcatop, Lusong, and the coral gardens were our stops for the day and each proved to be different from the last, with the highlights being the pure serenity of Malcatop, the sunken Japanese gunboat of Lusong and the bat fish of the coral gardens.

On the days we weren't on excursions we would explore the house reef hunting for sea turtles and seahorses (no such luck for us!), head over to a teeny little island across the way to explore there or take the kayaks out and see what we could see. Each evening we would head down to the restaurant/bar, watch the sun go down with a drink in hand and then gorge ourselves on a seafood buffet.

As you can imagine, it was great week of exploring, eating and relaxing.  I must do if you're ever travelling through South East Asia!

 

 

 

 

 

Another New Year!

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Base Image from Trop Dope

Happy New Year to all!

It's always hard to believe how quickly time passes when you're faced with the dawn of another new year. Every year I'm convinced time has gone more quickly than the year before and I dream of the days when time seemed to babble on endlessly before me like languid streams. But alas, that was many, many, years ago and so it's on on to the future!

2013 was a solid year of love, loss, and learning.  While I look back on the ups and downs from last year and reflect on what they have taught me, I can't help but think 2014 is going to be a big one. We have a lot coming up this year which will plunge me into moments of change over and over again.   Not only will I be getting married, but I'll also be moving back to Canada, diving into (hopefully temporary) unemployment, finding a place to call our own and continually cooking and travelling up a storm! Each year gone by has given me lessons, and so hopefully I can use those to totally rock these coming 12 months.

This blog has also seen a lot over the last year, including some expected runaways in terms of popularity.  Our trip to Vientiane, Laos has been wildly popular (with good reason, it was a fabulous adventure) along with these nutella-stuffed cookies, these double chocolate red wine cookies, and these old-fashioned ice-cream sandwhiches - now if only you could be dining on all of these while in Laos. Whoa. It would almost be too much to handle. Almost.

I'm hoping the next year allows room for more adventures in food and travel to allow more growth and settlement of this space in the interwebbed world. It's been a year to remember, so here's to making the next 365 days of adventure as memorable or more!

Walnut and Oat Energy Balls

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Happy Holidays internet! I hope your holiday season has been as filled with warmth, joy and good food as mine has! Other Half and I are in back in Canada for the holidays and it has been a whirlwind! Add to that the ice storm that gripped Southern Ontario, a quick three days in chilly, wet London to visit my sister, and a brutal cold/flu bug that set me back a couple days and I think we have successfully fit in all the winter we can handle! 

One of the hardest parts about long distance traveling is eating. Making sure you eat enough good stuff to counteract the airplane food can be tricky, sometimes impossible. This time, because I was flying on a never-before-heard-of airline halfway round the world, I wanted to ensure I would be able to eat, let alone worry about the health side of things. And while my concerns ended up being mostly unfounded, I was thankful for these when I was faced with the decision of chocolate bar or chips as sustenance.

Like many things that I churn out of my kitchen, these little morsels of goodness are highly adaptable. The first version I made for the plane was a basic mix of walnuts, oats and honey. More recently I included dates, maple syrup and coconut. I'd also like to try it with pepitas, hemp hearts and almond butter.  The options are endless, and all delectable.

I know it will be hard to travel without these from now on.  Hopefully I wont have to.

Walnut and Oat Energy Balls

1/2 cup oats
1 1/2 cups walnut pieces
3 Tbsp of honey or maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Optional add ins: chopped dates, hemp hearts, pepitas or other seeds, almond butter or peanut butter, chocolate chunks
Optional coatings: coconut, cocoa powder, sugar

Directions:

1. In a blender, blend the oats until you have created a course flour, remove from blender and put in a bowl
2. Next grind the walnuts until finely chopped and add to the oats
3. Stir in the honey or maple syrup and cinnomon and combine to create a think doughy paste
4. Form into balls by rolling in the palms of your hands and roll in your coating of choice.  I used a mixture of coconut and cocoa powder - yum!
5. Enjoy!

 

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

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The beginning of December marks two thing in my calendar. 1. It's the time when I feel it is officially okay to snow, and 2. Other Half is ringing in another year of life. Snow is not a thing in southern China, but birthdays are and what's a birthday without cake? Not much, if you ask me. Which is why every December I roll up my sleeves, head into the kitchen and do my best to outdo myself from the year before.  And judging by the reviews from Other Half and the party goers that helped us celebrate, this one was a win.

I've spoken about this before, but Other Half is a peanut butter and chocolate fiend. The only combination that makes him happier is chocolate chip cookies and milk (there's definitely a theme to his food choices). And so each year I attempt a new twist on what I've done in the past.  One year it was a ice cream brownie cake concoction.  Last year it was this chocolate peanut butter "pie".  This year, it's a chocolate cake (with chocolate chips) and peanut butter icing. Neither element was too sweet and both were mouth watering-ly good on their own, the combo of the two put it over the edge. Yum!

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing
cake recipe from: 5 second rule 

For the cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted about halfway
6 tablespoons sour cream
1 cup milk
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

For the icing:

1 cup icing sugar (or more to taste)

1 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup greek yogurt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan. Line with parchment.
2. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. 
3. Add the butter, sour cream, milk, egg, and mini chips. Stir until well combined and scrape into the prepared cake pan. 
4. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until the cake is firm to the touch, a skewer withdraws clean, and the cake is just beginning to pull away from the sides. (NOTE: these are the bake time instructions from the original recipe - if you're like me and you're baking in a tiny oven that seems to be overly hot... check it after 10, it's probably done.)
5. Once out of the oven, allow to cool for approximately 5 minutes and then remove from pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
6. While the cake is baking, whip up the icing by combing all ingredients into a bowl and mixing until well combined.  Taste tests are recommended but caution is necessary - this stuff is addictive!
7. Once the cake is completely cool, place one layer on a plate and ice with approximately 1/3 of the icing. Carefully place the second layer on top and cover with the remaining icing.
8. Over with sprinkles, stick in some candles and enjoy!

Link Love-In: Just because

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Photo by: Stephen Wilkes

Hello there, you poor abandoned blog you. It's time again for some link love, not because I don't want to share my travels to Palawan, or my recipe for Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing that I just made Other Half for his birthday.  No, this is because I'm slow at writing, and I've been having too many weekend adventures that my writing time has disappeared quickly (and... I admit, I've been spending lots of my free time thinking about a certain wedding next summer)!

However, I can assure you that I am instead leaving you with a great list of required (in my opinion) reading that will fill any blog void I may be causing. Enjoy!

1. I love me some infographics and this one doesn't disappoint (via. livescience)
2. What's that? you want to see another infographic? With fun facts about Canada? Okay. (via. wpmedia)
3. I'm a punctual person.  If you tell me to meet you at 5:00, I will do anything humanly possible to meet you at 5:00.  I'll probably even be 5 minutes early just to make sure I'm not late. The concept of "fashionably late" baffles me, but I will practice it if you say a party starts at 7:00, not expecting anyone to show up until at least 9:00, so that you don't feel put out when I actually show up at 7:00. This article was written for me. (via. Huffington Post)
4. It's hard not to love the movie Love, Actually. I know people who say they don't, but they're still the ones watching it every Christmas.  If you're curious about what happened to all of your favourite lovey-doves, this will help. (via. The Hairpin)
5. If I ever choose to have kids, I want to be this kind of parent. (via. the greatest people on earth) 
6. I'm a big fan of this technique and Stephen Wilkes does it really well. (via. twisted sifter)
7. Do you have a doppleganger? I do, I've never met her, but I saw a picture of her once.  It was hanging behind the counter of the local Pita Pit. I thought it was a picture of me, except that I've never worked at Pita Pit and this girl was wearing a Pita Pit uniform. It was totally surreal. I can only imagine what it would be like for these people to actually meet. (via. twisted sifter)