Category: Services

Rehabilitate yourself on an island beach paradise, maximum 30 guests (10 of whom might be volunteers helping the place run better), about 15 local fishermen families half spread out on each side.

Drink fresh coconut water for less than half a buck, an excellent fasting regime. We also have local natural honey and local orange/lemons, for the perfect morning drink or to add to your juice fast throughout the day.

At the end of that you can do the liver cleanse, or go all out hardcore with my special fast (15 days parasite cleanse, 12 days only water, 1 day kidney cleanse with watermelon followed by the famous olive oil Epson salts liver cleanse. That followed by a slow reintroduction of veggie soup and bentonite clay and psyllium husk shakes to thoroughly flush out the intestines.)

I’ve been fasting every spring for at least a decade and have enjoyed developing my understanding of the science. Coconut water, especially fresh, is full of electrolytes and is great at charging up your body. It contains magnesium to help you process the sun and all sorts of other nutrients, from which you could practically survive. You can eat a few each day if you want to tone down your fast or if you are a first timer. Drinking water is from natural waterwell, so you can be sure to revitalise your body with living energy.

The place is very peaceful and I live here, so I consider it my home where I filter out guests who do not support the harmonic nature I aspire to. We all cook together and clean up, like a family. Mostly great vegetarian food with the occasional fish or squid caught by the locals.

Excellent snorkeling in the clearest waters in the world, for free only 100m off shore, learn how to fish or speargun, caves and Spanish fortress to explore, and beach volleyball and other sports if you’d prefer to sweat out your toxins.

At certain times this can even be combined with yoga lessons<, an excellent way to amplify the detoxification effects of fasting.

Detox your mind

Around the time I was writing these pages an interesting thing happened. I had been developing this retreat for almost two years, during which time I’ve had many volunteers helping me, and some paying guests passing through. Early on I came to the conclusion that the primary purpose of this venue will not be to maximise earnings but to maximise my enjoyment of the paradise and use it as a tool to wake up people to what is happening in the world and hopefully divert them towards a more meaningful direction.

I found certain qualities annoying, such as people who like to be served, are overly prissy about ants or other such nonsense, while many volunteers seemed asleep at the helm (facebook zombies I like to call them), breaking or losing my tools, doing nonsense work, and just wasting my time.

Over the years I had accumulated some negative experiences and it is these thoughts that seemed to forever linger in my mind. I would paint scenarios how I would plan to respond next time I met such a person. These negative thoughts would often consume my mind almost all day long, until I would develop a short fuse and if a guest or volunteer made a mistake, I might blow up disproportionately. Consumed with such a firestorm of negative scenarios and imaginary arguments, I think it was even making me sick!

Until I remembered a book I once translated on the power of positive thinking. About a Czech guy who was incredibly indebted due to failed enterprises, fat, stuttering, but managed to turn everything around through positive thinking. Now he is thin, still stutters, but gives inspirational speeches in spite of it (well paid for it), has a model for a wife and a leer jet somewhere in between.

But one thing which struck me now is how he kept repeating that around 25,000 thoughts pass through our heads each day, and if most or many of them are negative, they will decrease the quality of our life. And that the trick is to simply replace them with positive thoughts. It is easy or tempting to dwell on the negative, as if there is some vindictive satisfaction in it.

On this thought it occurred to me to replace all negative thoughts coming into my head with an appreciation of this paradise. After all, it seemed absurd to be living in heaven on earth but constantly filled with anger, thinking up conversations and guests who do not even exist, or perhaps who have passed through long time ago. Whenever such a negative thought sprung into my head, I would stop and focus on the paradise I lived in, simply appreciating it. And I must say that in almost an instance it has totally transformed me from someone who is agitated all day long, cursing at every problem thrown at me, to someone who is at peace and glowing with appreciation of the place. There are different ways we can detox.

End of our beach, one of our many beautiful sunrises and sunsets, more here.

Meditation can be a form of detox as well. With meditation you basically flush out all thoughts from your mind, so it would have a similar effect. Because we are beings of energy, both the negative effects of too much acid in our diets or too much acid in our thoughts can lead to disharmony in our system, and illnesses.

Flush out your negative energy

So, by certain foods, such as raw veggies and other alkaline leaning foods, you can detox your physical body from all the crap you may have been pumping into it over the years and decades, such as: smoking, alcohol (think inTOXICation), car exhaust from the cities, ammonia and other chemicals in your burgers, meat pumped to the max with hormones and antibiotics, or all the chemicals they use in big agro-business. Or through meditation or yoga you can detox your mind, but one simple solution I found is to walk barefoot.

I have been walking barefoot for more than a decade and have often been stopped by people in cities, demanding some sort of explanation. Forced to produce reasons for them, I did some thinking and came up with the following:

• feels good, leave me alone
• I’m not a conformist. I am protesting against conformity.
• free foot massage, should have positive effects on my organs.

But at one point I came across an interesting article which articulated my thoughts on the subject. Since we are beings of energy, they have calculated that we carry a certain frequency matching the earth’s electromagnetic frequency as it pulses between its surface and the ozone. They have done experiments and found that people who are taken deep below the earth for extended periods of time (where the frequency is quite different) have fallen ill.

You may live on the surface, but be exposed to other sources of frequency which could disrupt your natural condition. Such as mobile signal towers, wifi, electricity running through every wall, and stress of the city in general. And the worst thing you can do in such an environment is to wear thick rubber boots that prevent the transfer of the bottled up negative energy in your body to the “ground”. Yes, this is an electrical term whereby a positively charged object can be neutralised by attaching it to a negative connection, such as the ground (“negative” in this sense not to be confused with the “negative” energy in our bodies, which simply means “bad for it”). That is why lightning rods are planted firmly into the ground.

The best way to ground your bad energy is by bare feet straight onto mother earth. And with such a pristine and clean beach here, this seems second nature. Therefore, just spending any time here should improve your well being and inner peace. Combine that with a bit of live music around the campfire at night, you will be bubbling with endorphins, which alone can help in your healing, as the great doctor Patch Adams has proven (also a Robin Williams movie).

Book a paradise spot with us.

With so many islands in this area, we can arrange for you many hiking and trekking, biking and motorcycling tours between El Nido and Coron, including Culion. Whether you need a guide or want to do it solo but with good instructions and gps coordinates, we can do it for you.

This can be combined with our island hopping boat tours to explore some of the smaller islands, learn how to fish along the way, or camp in secluded areas. Or just take a pitstop to enjoy some of our sports facilities to enjoy some kitesurfing, or volleyball and other sports amongst the coconut trees. The natural world is your oyster with us!

Linapacan island:

Culion:

Coron:

and much more!

The Philippines is a country of 7,107 islands, beach paradise after beach paradise. It is not difficult to find empty beaches where you can set up a tent for free, with walking trails through the jungle on remote islands. If you respect the environment and locals, they are most often completely cool about it. Just spend some money wherever you stay and the word will get around.

The above picture is where I first started camping in Linapacan, a beautiful area off the beaten path with 52 paradise beach islands. You can read the complete story, as I moved to develop a nature camp/resort on a different paradise beach island. You can check out info I’m collecting on other parts of the country, ferries how to get to Linapacan, or join or book one of our private custom boat tours between El Nido and Coron. Tons of paradise beach islands to see along the way, excellent snorkeling in crystal clear waters, caves to explore, Spanish fortress and much more. Completely off the beaten path!

Palawan

Voted many times as the best island in the world, there is lots to see, You can find more in the Things to Do section of TripAdvisor. The area between Coron and El Nido (Linapacan) is pristine and beautiful. I’ve had visitors come on kayaks, inflatable longboards (complete with waterproof gps tracking unit, solar panel, compartments etc), even four Russians on an improvised engine-powered raft (complete with a keg). Can be a 2,000km stretch around the southern tip of Palawan (if starting from Coron). But be warned of possible pirates around the southern tip, or sea alligators who can reach lengths of 6 meters! In which case it might be better to dive into the mainland around Princesa, cut across and continue northwards after that.

Four Russians showed up announced on my beach with their powered, homemade raft.

I’ve collected some information about El Nido, Coron, and Linapacan. Port Barton and Sabang are nice, you can poke your head from the main highway to the beach, or peruse the beaches from the ocean side on a sailboat. Sibaltan on the other/east side of the peninsula is a great archaeological village with a mile of beach. Good idea to rent a motorbike and bring tent with gear. If you give yourself enough time to hunt around, usually you can find a room from 300 to 500 pesos a night for up to two people in a single bed, possibly with fan. Or scour the beaches looking for quiet spots, for your tent.

The lovely Sibaltan

Just to the east of Sibaltan are a ton of islands and you can try your luck finding a local fisherman to take you there. Or ask Dennis at the Ursula resort right on the beach. Say hi from Karel. Or you can take a 30 minute boat to Pical on Iloc Island, for local tours from there. There are also a lot of boats in San Fernando, about 20 minutes north of Sibaltan. In Sibaltan you can stay cheaply in a dormitory hut.

The lovely Iloc island.

South of Sibaltan is TayTay and northward by boat you can make your way to Linapacan or Coron. You can try the ferries for budget, join a group in one of our multi-day, private boat tours, or pass through the entire area, Manila round trip, for 10,000p total (above map picture).

Once in Linapacan, halfway to Coron, there are tons of deserted islands or beaches (such as the lovely Bolina island), with caves, cliff diving and an Old Spanish fortress around San Miguel (or), the main town. In San Miguel the BRC hotel now has a big dorm with bunkbeds, there is the Patoyo tent camp (on the island of Patoyo and a great one to explore) across the way, or the nature camp I started, now managed by the son of BRC. Through him you can arrange affordable local boat tours – 52 islands in this area alone. Linapacan has the declared clearest waters in the world, with excellent snorkeling everywhere. You will also experience authentic Filipino rural living.

I suggest the app maps.me, which works offline and only requires GPS. Before you come make sure to zoom in enough and download the detailed maps of all the areas you would like to visit, since the internet can be very slow here. With this map app you can see how long or developed the beaches are and perhaps some trails.

Cebu and Visayas

Now that I have thoroughly explored the Palawan area and left my budding little nature camp in capable hands, I would like to buy a motorcycle and explore the rest of the country, starting with the Visayas region. Be sure to check the progress! I’ll be updating it here and on the Philippines Camping Facebook page.

Below are some pics I’ve taken while touring through the Palawan area.

Our budding kitchen.

Volunteer helping to build trails in the jungle.

Move the hammocks and tents according to your taste,
beautify your own area.

View from the top of the island – second project.

Everything built from surrounding natural materials.

Pockets of space in the jungle just off the beach (sometimes rather windy right on the beach).

Our little paddle banca to explore neighbouring islands.

Cheery people from all over the world.

Our first project on a nearby island, with main hut already completed.

Explore the many deserted islands.

Live next to local fishermen with their families.

Tons of space to park your own tent for only 100p a day, or rent one of ours for 300p a night for one person or 400p for two. We have volleyball, kitesurfing boards, excellent snorkeling, and a small banca with which you can paddle around this or neighbouring islands. We can also organise local island hopping tours, diving and cave exploration. Tons of things to do in this gem of the Philippines!