Palawan is Paradise.

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If you hate white sandy beaches and clear blue-green seas don't come here

Palawan is the most westward island in The Philippines and it definitely does have a frontier feel about it - its ruggedly beautiful, a long fairly skinny rainforested ridge with beaches dotted all up and down the coast on either side and hundreds of little islands scattered around. The roads are mostly shite and the electricity supply is pretty limited and sporadic, but as a result it has a much more "authentic" feel than Bohol.

So, we flew into Puerto Princesa and did a day trip up to Sapang to visit the Underground River, which is 8km long, but you only go in about 2km. The entire trip is brilliant. 2 hours on a crappy road and you get to this amazing beach (Sabang) where you catch a little banca boat to the national park, passing stunning scenery all the while - blue blue sea, white beaches & rainforest hills in the background. Once you get to the underground river part one of the first things you see is a huge 1.5m long monitor lizard! Deadly! Then, you get to the waiting area (they only allow a few boats at a time in) and you are told to watch your camera, shades, hats, food and drink etc. as the (very cheeky) monkeys will rob whatever they can get their hands on. And they did - not our stuff, but somebody elses Coke Zero made its way up a tree. Despite being fairly small, they are pretty intimidating creatures. I thought one was going to grab the camera right out of my hand at one stage. The trip into the cave is brilliant - its pretty much pitch black bar one torch, and its full of stalagmites/tites, plus bats and "friendly" tarantulas. Thankfully we didnt see any of the latter, but we had to keep our mouths closed when we looked up to the ceiling - to avoid swallowing any bat poo, you understand. Afterwards we had lunch in a fierce posh resort (the mayor was on his way there that very day - ooh, er!) and chilled on the fabulous beach for a while. We may go back and spend our last few days in Palawan there.

We decided to head up to Port Barton with Mike & Louise, a great couple we met on the plane who were also on the tour. The boat trip from Port Barton to El Nido is expensive so we teamed up to split the costs. We thought getting to Port Barton would be easy as the guide book said one bus a day from PP, but that's in HIGH season. We are smack bang in the middle of LOW season. And there is no direct bus. Plus no one really warned us about what we had ahead of us! We had to catch a bus (not a bus as we know it) to Roxas and get off at the junction for Port Barton. The sign says its only 22km away. Cant take us that long, we think. Its been hooping down rain all day too. Other buses would slow down and ask us where we were headed and shake their heads when we said Port Barton. Didnt bode well. About 2 hours later our jeepney arrived - now this thing looks completely clapped out, but we had to fight our way on (the locals make good use of their elbows - they knew the score, you see). Myself and Louise managed to grab a third of a seat each, but the lads, god love them, had to sit at the back with all the luggage (that which wasnt on the roof), rice, bananas and about 8 other people including a heavily smoking old lady! So, we started off and it was a bit bumpy. And then the road turned into a big mud-slick. We lurched slowly, slowly forward and nearly tipped over the edge of the road three times (the jeepney has to climb up over the ridge to get down to PB). You know things are bad when the locals are looking scared. At one point, where it looked like there had been a landslide, we got well and truely stuck, but there was a big tractor on hand to pull us out (this is all it is use for apparently). Another time, they had to tie two winches to some trees to drag us free of the jeepney-engulfing mud. It only took us about 3 hours in all to get to Port Barton - a very long 22km! Now, I actually thought the trip was great fun. Dont think Si was as impressed, given he was nearly pitched out through a window at one stage!

We were, due to shite roads, one of about 10 tourist in PB. Its a really proper local village, and even though there are guesthouses all along the beach, it doesnt feel at all like a tourist trap. Big long white sandy beach, fringed with palm trees and banca boats lining the shore (this is a kind of theme in Palawan). Kids sing on their way to school along the beach every day. Cockerals crow from about 4.30an every day (thank jesus for earplugs). The bay itself is full of paradise island after island. Its just heaven. Things may change though. We hear the governor has been buying up the land all around, plans to build an airport in (kind of) near-by San Vincente and is deliberately not improving the road to PB to drive the current businesses into the ground. Nice. If that happens the place will become unrecognisable. Id imagine its now like Alona Beach was before the developers got to it. Anyway, we went island hopping and diving with this crazy German lady, Doris, who reeked of booze and smoked like a trouper. She had about 5 cats, 3 dogs and 1 monkey (in a cage - not nice). She was completely barking herself, but she was great craic. The diving was nice, not half as good as Bohol, due to the lovely practice cyanide fishing for tropical fish. If you every wondered why your tropical fish kept dying, now you know why. But I did see some a pretty hefty squid, some blue spotted stingrays, a massive moray and, the ultimate treat, a turtle - yay! No sharks though. They've eaten them all.

Next stop was El Nido, almost at the very north of the island. We got a banca up and it look about 5 hours to sail up. We've learned to add about a 1/3 on to what they tell you a journey is going to take. It was sunny and calm, and much more comfortable than the jeepney! El Nido is just beautiful. The islands here are much more dramatic here, rising steeply from the sea, with loads of hidden beaches, lagoons and caves. Apparently Alex Garland found the real beach here in this island group, rather than in Thailand, as per the book/film, but he hasnt actually confirmed or denied that rumour. But you can imagine its true, as this place is magical. The town itself gets a rubbish review in the Lonely Planet, but we love it. Its small but bustling, full of cafes and internet places, with tricycles as far as the eye can see (we cant figure out why as you can walk from one end to the other in 10 mins). The electricity runs from 12-4pm and 6pm to 6am. There is only room for about 500 tourists here so even in high season it doesnt get too rammed. The only draw back is there is no ATM or bank, and the places that give you cash advances on your credit card charge a hefty commission.

We've seen some of the most incredible sunsets here and the snorkelling and diving is also really good. The coral is in pretty good condition mostly, but you can see areas with extensive damage. We did the obligatory island hopping tour (the only down side about El Nido is you have to do a tour to see its full beauty) and went to the hidden lagoons, blindingly white island beaches where there is no one else but your groups and sand is so fine, and the water is so clear. The snorkelling is great, Ive seen almost as much snorkelling as I did diving (most of the dives are very shallow anyway). Our tour guide free-dived down to about 20 meters and hauled this poor turtle up from the bottom to show us. The poor thing was terrrified and I had to tell him to let him go. The poor wee thing took a big gulp of air and booted off to the nearest clump of coral it could find to hide from us. Some of the local's attitude to the sea here leaves much to be desired, especially since it is a conservation area, and is the livelihood of most of the locals. Anyway, this isnt the time or place for a rant! So, we've been chilling here for a few days, trying to decide what to do next (back to Sabang we think) before we fly to New Zealand. I can't believe our time in Asia is nearly at an end. It's gone so quickly (tiny, tiny violin)!

Anyway, I dont have my DVD with me today, so Im going to add some more photos to this blog later, so log in again in a day or two if you want to check them out.

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Photos

El Nido Sunset
The view from Greenhills in Coron Coron Bay, El Nido.

Jeepney Madness!
The jaysus mental road to Port Barton

Suiting up - in shades!
Diving in Port Barton

Si being all arty n
Island Hopping in Port Barton

Comments

[Cliona Gaughran]

Hey there
Well it looks like you are really havin a shite time. You should just come back. There's a great recession on here at the moment and today they are going to tell us how much more money they are taking off us through taxes. Great craic altogether!!! Siofra over this wkend and looking forward to that. My course started this wkend gone so I'll be hibernating until March. Missin yez and really fairly jealous....that place looks amazing! Love to Si as well XXXX