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So the next day, a French tourist threw a fishing line into the water and finally reeled in a tuna. Crouching on the deck of the boat, sunburned and sweaty, we cut the fish into pieces and ate it raw with tiny calamansi limes. (It was — and I don’t say this lightly — one of the best meals of my life.)


OK, so it wasn’t quite “Lord of the Flies” or “Survivor.” But we were very far from Manhattan.

Asia’s ‘final frontier’


But even more breathtaking than Palawan itself are the tiny, sparsely inhabited islands sprinkled across the South China Sea between Palawan and the northern island of Coron. And the only way to see those is by boat.

Tao Expeditions’ multiday trips appeal to travelers who want to drop off the grid and indulge in a temporary Robinson Crusoe fantasy on remote tropical islands without a single resort or restaurant in sight. (“We do not guarantee that you will have a nice relaxing time. Barking dogs. Crowing Roosters. Mosquito bites. Jellyfish stings,” the Tao website declares. “We love it.”)


“If you break your leg, get used to it, because there’s no hospital,” we were warned in a pre-trip briefing.

The prospect of five days without Internet was alarming. I’m 26. I Google, Facebook, email and tweet in the same insatiable way that I drink water and breathe air.

Painlessly unplugged

The transformative influence of the Philippines works quickly. Within hours of our setting sail, a new bikini became my skin, and I stopped caring (honestly!) what might be happening online.

Life on the boat quickly settled into a languid routine of snorkeling, eating, relaxing on the wooden deck and exploring tiny islands. Every evening, we set up camp on a beach and spent the night talking, singing or reading by torchlight.

On the fourth day, we stopped at a small island village to discover that a festival was being held that afternoon. While the other tourists stayed near the beach, I wandered off. I wove between small thatched houses until a tiny smiling girl appeared. Like a magical rabbit from a fantasy novel, she beckoned me to follow her. I did.




Untamed tourists


My hair, which I normally straighten, had relaxed back into its natural mess of tangled curls. My skin had turned into a Picasso-like maze of tan lines, sunburns, inexplicable bruises and long scratches from where I’d swum into a cliff. My body looked like a map of the Philippines. I loved it.
