1

"How difficult will it be to get a fast boat or ferry from Manila to Palawan, from there to Boracay"
Not possible, you will need to fly.
3 weeks is not long for that itineray but maybe fly Manila to PP for Palawan then fly PP to Cebu City for one of the Visayan Islands, then fly Cebu to Caticlan for Boracay then fly back to Manila.

2

look upon 3 weeks as like an initial reconnaissance. Choose two places, i.e. fly to Palawan from Manila, and thence to Cebu, and then out. Much more than that, and you'll be rushing about too much.

first time I went to the Philippines, I was like you, been to Thailand and elsewhere in SEA plenty of times before, and gave it three weeks. For me it was just Manila, Boracay, and Cebu in like a triangle, and that was about right.

3

you can get ferry from batangas pier to caticlan jetty where pump boats go to boracay at 8 a
m or 8 pm every day arrving caticlan 5 am. for 760 pesos you get a berth in a dorm so if on the night ferry save a hotel bill for a night.
http://travel.2go.com.ph/eTicket/search.asp
Batangas is about 2 hours from Jam terminal in Pasay or Cubao bus fare 175 pesos and the buses go to the pier.
Borocay isn't cheap but well worth a visit , in january there is also the Dinagyang Festival of Iloilo City around 15 th January so one option is to get a bus from caticlan to Iloilo - there are buses that use the batangas ferry from Manila to IloIlo and beyond so make enquiries at the pier - Its about 5 hours from Caticlan and i think there are also minivans. One option is to go to Puerto Galera - there are simple rooms in the town for 400 pesos although most foreigners head for sabang beach for scuba and bars or white beach ( more popular with weekend visitors from manila.Then an afternoon ferry back to batangas to catch the borocay ferry or if on the return leg an early morning ferry. I think Palawan should be number one on your list and realistically will involve going back to manila and getting a plane but if you get the overnight ferry arriving batangas 5 am then you should be in manila 8 am and you have saved a night in a hotel again.-

4

I agree with making Palawan your main focus. One possibilty would be to fly Manila to Coron, stay there few days, then ferry to El Nido, stay there a week then down to PP (maybe stopping off at Port Barton) then fly to Cebu..Week on Bantayan or Malapascua then fly to Boracay if you have time..

5

Two big festivals held in the third week of January, both culminating in full on partying and colourful and noisy street parades on Sunday 20th Jan 2013.

Sinulog in Cebu, and Ati-Atihan in Kalibo near Boracay. Seems to be getting hard to get accommodation in Kalibo for the weekend, but I was able to book a room through www.asiatravel.com last week.

6

it's true, the food is not great in the Philippines. Sometimes you will find yourself surrounded by water on a beautiful island with no seafood available! they prefer Lechon (whole roasted pork, delicious) or rotisserie chicken.

Palawan had some good seafood, but don't be expecting the flavours you would find in Thailand, Cambodia etc

Their most common dish is Adobo, chick/pork/ or something stewed in soya sauce and coconut vinegar. portions can be quite small...

that being said, the biggest smiles and happiest people in all of Asia are in the Philippines. You will enjoy it!

I agree with 4, Malapascua is great! beautiful low key island with lots of cheap guesthouses and cheap restaurants

7

on a side note, the big city festivals in the Philippines are something to avoid. The little barangay and small town ones can be totally brilliant, but the big city ones, forget that. I recently got a flight to Bacolod and checked that it was the fourth, not the third week, in October when they have their big Makkassa festival. That was a relief for me. It meant, that I wouldn't have any problem getting accommodation, I wouldn't have to suffer any bullshit with increased taxi fares, and so on. But I'm not a killjoy or spoilsport, because I love the smaller fiestas, in the Philippines. If you travel around the Philippines, you will take part in little fiestas at barangay or small town level and you should consider yourself lucky to be there. It's inevitable. In German, klein ist schoen, or in English small is beautiful.

8

How big a problem is malaria ?

9

How big a problem is malaria ?

next to non-existent. Though it is possible of course, you'd have to be really unlucky, to contract malaria in the Philippines.

10

But don't people in rural areas use mosquito netting normally ?

11

Not always, sometimes no screens on any windows and no nets inside, they just use smoke from a fire to reduce the number of the little buggers!

12

another thing to keep in mind is plankton. January is the beginning of the plankton season, we were stung repeatedly while snorkelling. only burns for a minute, my husband didn't mind at all and still spent hours snorkelling, however, I didn't like the little stingers.