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Published: June 14th 2009
Our last night's sleep in Manila was interrupted by the football - Phil set an alarm to wake up for the Champion's League final at 2am! (Luckily we had a TV in our room so Elly was able to dose through it!) Man Utd didn't play well and lost - Phil was not a happy chappy and the day did not improve much from there... Almost straight after the match had finished at 5am we checked out and got a taxi to the airport. We needed to get cash out, as we knew that cashpoints would be almost non-existent on Palawan Island, but all of the ATMs were Out Of Order or refused to give us cash! We headed into the terminal (you have to show a guard your ticket to enter) and were told that we were at the wrong terminal (through no fault of our own - the taxi man had said there was only one domestic terminal and had taken us to Philippine Airlines rather than Air Philippines!) We asked which way to walk for the other terminal and the guard said "Taxi." We grumpily carried our bags to a taxi who explained that there's a new terminal
3km away and proceeded to fleece us for the fare!
At the other terminal we joined the huge queue to enter - all the baggage has to be scanned through security to enter the terminal building. Then we queued for check-in, queued to pay a departure tax, queued to hand over the departure tax slip, before finally queuing for the shambolic security! On the flight to Puerto Princessa on Palawan, Elly sat next to a lovely Filipino man called Ronnie who told us all about the island and proceeded to give us his phone number and email "in case there was anything we needed to know during our stay".
Trying to retrieve our luggage at Purto Princessa Airport was less than an easy task! Two flights had arrived at the same time in a tiny airport with only one baggage carousel! Despite being able to see our bags going round and round we couldn't have reached them without ploughing down a gaggle of nuns! The same bags continued to circle as no one could reach theirs and no extras could fit on the belt. Eventually we wrestled them free and got a tricycle from the airport to the
bus station.
The buses to El Nido and Sabang had all gone even though it was only 10am, so we had to get an aircon van. We waited for about 30mins til a driver and a 4x4 minivan appeared before he (very very slowly) strapped the luggage to the roof and covered it in a plastic sheet. Then everyone squeezed in - with 7 passengers it was full to capacity - and we drove for 6 hours with virtually no leg room (not enough for Phil's size 10s to fit in the footwell!). But the drive was amazing, through such a "tropical" landscape: high jungle-clad peaks in the distance, the road cutting through forests of banana plants and palm trees with palm thatched rooftops of huts on stilts poking through the undergrowth, interspersed with rice paddy fields. The weather changed constantly from bright sunshine to heavy downpours and back within minutes. The roads were only made-up halfway, after that it was like off-roading making us realise why only 4x4 vehicles drive the route to El Nido!
The drive was definitely worth it once we saw the islands of the Bacuit Archipelago stretching along the coast at dusk. We
arrived in El Nido, walked down the street and found a cheap cottage to stay in right on the beach. They were very basic little wooden huts with no hot water (though that's the last thing you need in 30+ degree heat!) We went for a walk along the beach and watched the sun set over the mountain across the bay filled with bancas. We wandered to a beach bar restaurant, eating lots of fresh seafood on the beach with the sand between our toes! The restaurant was lit by lots and lots of candles and oil lamps on bamboo poles - a very relaxing end to a very hectic day!
Our next day in El Nido takes some beating... we started with breakfast on the beach, eating really thick banana pancakes (they were as thick as the bottom of a victoria sponge cake and we vowed only to share one in future!) As we ate we watched a group of local children playing in the sea - they were having so much fun climbing on bancas and jumping off, throwing seaweed and generally splashing around! We walked around the headland to a secluded beach and went for a
swim - the water was crystal clear and as warm as bath water. Three little boys rode past in a banca while we were swimming - the oldest rowing, the next in charge of a fishing net, and the youngest had the job of bailing out the leaky boat with a cup!
At lunchtime we decided to charter a banca to take us to a nearby island. We arrived at "Helicopter Island" (it does actually look the shape of a helicopter) and arrived in paradise! Crystal clear turquoise water, white sand, views over the archipelago and for most of the afternoon we had the island to ourselves. We went snorkelling off the beach, the reef was amazing and we saw a Nemo!
The banca came to pick us up at 6pm and took us back to El Nido before sunset, which was a deep pink and very dramatic. We went to check the internet - surreal when there's only electricity for 12 hours a day! We went for a meal on the beach, lit by candles right by the waves with a surprisingly decent live band playing. Elly had Gambas and Phil a whole Red Snapper, washed down
with the one and only beer of the Philippines, San Miguel.
The next morning we woke to the sound of heavy rain pounding down on the hut roof. We headed to the Tourist Office to try to sort out our transport to Sabang. It was closed but a helpful young bloke outside told us that the best way to get there was by boat and suggested we ask at a certain restaurant. We asked there and at various places around the village, getting conflicting answers and our progress was often halted by heavy tropical downpours and having to take cover! Later, when the wind had dropped, we went for a swim in the rain - we were really glad not to be out on a little banca in the bad weather! Our evening meal in another beach bar was absolutely delicious and ridiculously good value with calamari, a whole grilled lapu-lapu fish, a fish steak Filipino style (with soy sauce and lemon), two ice cold San Miguels each and a coffee, all came to 3.50GBP each!
The next day we went on an island hopping tour. We boarded our banca - just us, the driver, and our guide
Ike - and putted off through the archipelago to "Small Lagoon". It was an absolutely beautiful place with sharp, spiky limestone cliffs rising from the turquoise water. We parked the boat but to enter the lagoon itself we had to swim through a tiny gap in the rock. The water was a mixture of warm sea water with cold freshwater on the top, all of it an iridescent aquamarine and entirely empty of other tourists! We swam through the lagoon and into a little cave - it was so still and calm inside, with peeping views out into the lagoon - a magical place.
Back on the boat, we went to "Big Lagoon", as the name suggests it's a big version of small lagoon but we drove around it in the boat rather than swimming and its bigger size somehow made the cliff scenery seem less dramatic. From there we went to Simizu Beach and went snorkeling - the coral reef started so close to the beach and there were loads and loads of fish and perfect visability. It was raining at this point but it didn't matter as we were underwater! While we were snorkeling, Ike and the
driver were cooking our lunch on a campfire on the beach. It was a feast of beautifully cooked grilled fresh fish , fried pork, Filipino sauce, rice and fresh fruit. We went for another snorkel in the next inlet before setting off back towards El Nido. The weather had taken a turn for the worse so we went round to a more sheltered beach where we went swimming in the tropical downpour!
The next morning we were intending to move on from El Nido to Sabang so we went to the "Travel Centre" to buy a shuttle bus ticket. We were told that there were no more buses or minivans leaving that day (in spite of it being before 9am!) We thought we should check that this was true so we went around a few of the many places in the village with signs up about transport - to no avail: even those advbertising 11am departures had already left at 7am! So we went back to the travel centre to book ourselves a place on a minivan for the next morning. This turned out not to be possible either, as because of the heavy rain, the road was too
flooded with mud for the minivans to pass - we were told that the only way through was by bus. Deflated, we went to the "Joy Liner" ticket office and bought tickets for the 5am bus. We'd seen the buses when when travelling to El Nido and were not looking forward to the journey, especially as we were told that due to the state of the roads it wold take 10-11 hours. We ate lunch in a restaurant run by Spanish diving enthusiasts and had some really great tapas and views out across the bay. We went for a lovely swim but on getting out we realised that the Aquapac (that we keep valuables in when swimming) had leaked so we spent the next hour drying the passports and money in front of the fan!
Up at 4.30am, we walked to the bus terminal in the dark. The bus was already there with some people already on board, some men on the roof maneuvering big boxes, but most people were just standing around the door looking at the bus. We milled around with them for a while trying to work out what to do, but no-one appeared to be
moving so Elly got on and found our seats leaving Phil outside with the rucksacks. Elly also found a conductor who told us to put the big rucksacks on the roof, so we left them in the hands of the men on the roof and hoped we would see them at the other end! The bus seat was so small that both of us couldn't fit fully on it, and our knees were wedged into the seat in front. Little did we know that this was the bus at its most spacious! We'd arrived at the bus at 4.50am, knowing how promptly the other buses from Manila and Banaue had left, but the 5am departure time came and went with what seemed like an endless number of huge bags and huge boxes being squeezed into the bus and on to the roof with no particular urgency. Then at 5.30am the bus driver appeared laughing manically as he arrived on the back of a tricycle!
We set off soon after the 'main man' had appeared, at which point all of the people who had been standing outside piled onto the bus filling every inch of space - planks of wood
placed across the aisle for people to sit on and otherwise, people stood in the entrance, on the steps, sat on the roof (there is a ladder on the side for people to climb up, this was located directly next to Elly's right shoulder giving us a lovely view of everyone's toes as they climbed) or clutching a rail as they hung out of the door! Our already tiny amount of space was encroached upon by overhanging limbs and bags.
We were on the road at last, but stopping quite frequently to pick up more passengers, often one within 50 metres of the last. Stops happened by the conductor, who was hanging out of the bus getting splashed everytime we went through a puddle, banging loudly on the side of the bus. If people were getting off their bags would be thrown down from the roof by another 'conductor' or if they were getting on, bags would be thrown up to him. The conductor would yell loudly and the bus would pull away again.
At about 7am we pulled in to a rest stop and all of the passengers piled out into the already scorching sunshine and into
a canteen where everyone sat down to a big breakfast of various rice dishes. In the meantime we saw the bus staff filling up with petrol using a hosepipe posted through the bus window to siphon it into the petrol tank which was located inside the bus at someones feet! The next stop was not a planned one. As we had been warned in El Nido, the road was in a bad state - huge stretches of road had been dug up for resurfacing and the heavy rains meant that piles of soil had washed across the road depositing a thick layer of silty clay which is why it was only passable by a 4x4 bus with huge wheels! It would often lean heavily from one side to another, feeling as though it was about to roll! None of this seemed to phase the conductor who was such a happy chappy and he continued to hang out of the door way with a big grin on his face! However at one point the bus did grind to a halt and get stuck. A JCB came to our rescue, however on trying to drag us out the bus began to lean
heavily to one side, at which point the conductor and all the people standing jumped off joined by people leaping on the roof. To avoid getting crushed by a falling bus, we sat tight inside. The JCB eventually dragged us out and all the people who had got off squeezed back on. We stopped a few more times on the journey for the 'conductors' to thrown down barrels from the roof and scoop up water from streams or ditches from the roadside and pass them up to the roof to pour into something?!
After 10 hours on the 'Joy Liner' (none of which were joyous, nor did they have spacious luxury that the world 'liner' suggests!) we arrive in Puerto Princessa. We asked at the bus station which was the best way to get to Sabang and they told us 'tomorrow'. Apparently, even though it was 3pm, there were no more buses, jeepneys or minivans going that day. That left us only with the option of hiring a minivan ourselves, which is comparitively very expensive, but otherwise Sabang and the Underground River would have been an impossibility. We arrived in Sabang in time to book ourselves a trip on
the Underground River for first thing the next morning. We met a man named Francis who showed us to some beach huts, which were very basic with no fan, a trickle of a shower and no tap in the sink, but in an idyllic spot right on the beach. We ate in the village at a restaurant that was just like someones front room. We asked for a menu and the lady told us she had 'chicken or pork,' we asked if that was with a sauce and she said 'yes', we said 'what sauce', she replied 'what do you want, curry?' In the end we managed to ask for a pork and chicken adobo with two San Miguels. When the food came it was delicious home cooking. The ambience was perhaps not as good as the food - no-one else was eating, in fact the only other people in the room were family members: the husband asleep on the sofa and a teenage boy choosing songs on the karaoke and singing along very quietly. Back at the hut, a generator had kicked in, so the light was now working in our room, but there was no light switch to
turn it off! It didn't matter though, as we were both so shattered that we fell asleep with it on.
We got up early and set off down the beach to the pier. The sun was already beating down at 7am and we had to put on suncream! We paid and got into a banca, as the first passengers of the day we got a 6 person banca to oursleves. The boat took us along the coast to a beach at the Underground National Park, where we walked through the jungle to the mouth of the cave. We were given hard hats and life jackets then got into a tiny banca on the river with a guide who rowed us into the cave. Elly sat at the front and operated the light, while Phil took photos. We passed lots of weird looking stalagtites and stalagmites which the guide directed Elly to point the light at, telling us they looked like a 'giant mushroom' or the 'Virgin Mary'. As we navigated our way along the river in the dark we were dive-bombed by lots of swallows and saw lots of bats hanging from the roof. Though the rock formations were
not as impressive as they were billed as being, the experience of travelling along a river underground was quite exciting.
We spent the rest of the morning on back on the beach in Sabang relaxing on sun loungers and swimming in the sea. We caught a van back to Puerto Princessa airport in the afternoon. At the check in desk we were told the baggage allowance for this flight was 10kg rather the 20kg limit that we have had on all the other internal flight (including one with the same airline, to Puerto Princessa!) meaning we were 22kg over our limit and had to pay an excess fee. Things then got worse rather than better; As we only had a confirmation letter of our booking, and they had no computers in the airport, they were unable to print us a ticket. So we were sent out of the terminal building to Philippine airlines ticket office even though we had bought our ticket through Air Philippines. The man behind the desk could not find any record of our booking on the computer. We asked what we should do, and he replied 'buy a new ticket' (which would have us cost
over 100 pounds). We asked if they could check with Air Philippines, but they told us to check ourselves by taking a tricycle down to their office! Exasperated by this point we eventually persuaded them to ring the Air Philippines office - after a long wait it turned out we were booked onto the flight, but that we now needed to get a tricycle to the other office to get the ticket printed out. So we caught a trike, asked him to wait outside, sorted the ticket, went back outside only to find the trike had driven off without us! We walked back to the airport and finally checked in, paid the excess, paid the departure tax and collapsed into a seat in the departure lounge.
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Hevs
non-member comment
Wahhh
Ah, the perils of travel! I remember waiting 4 hours for a 12 hr bus in Thailand, and three of us being taken seperately on the back of mopeds to the last of three different 'bus stations' - but then again they're all funny stories after the grinding resentment against the transport system has subsided! This made me smile a lot - it seems like you're having idyllic moments that you'll always remember, and the photos are stunning. Miss you guys loads, and from the weight of the bags I assume you're doing your usual overbuying! Can't wait for the next one :D x Love you!!