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Published: July 12th 2019
The air conditioning had kicked in at some stage during the night, I had an unfitful sleep. The mattress was too hard and my sciatica was playing up and around 3.30am I was awake and needing to stretch.
Eventually got back to sleep and we were woken at 6.50am for breakfast. Sweet pork and filipino sausage and eggs with rice.
We said our goodbyes to our host who gave me two boxes of the hopia to take for our journey.
We had booked the subtarenean river cave tour and an hour or so journey we gave over our ID so that the tour guide could get permits for us to do this. Apparently it takes at least an hour, so while we waited we were offered two choices, mangrove river cruise or zipline. Each had a cost. We thought about just waiting the hour at the beach and were told we were not allowed to swim and many attempts were made to persuade us to do one of the two activities. I'm sure it was Idioms Issue of a scam.. I actually wanted to do the zipline. It cost 550 pesos so around $15 AUD. An 800 metre
This view
Mountains, greenery and blue ocean. Picture perfect!climb and the view from the top of the zipline overlooked the bay. It took 1.34 minutes to go down right over the ocean looking at the spectacular turquoise sea, limestone tree lined mountains and pale yellow sands. Definately a unique way to see that part of Puerto Princesa.
Buffet lunch of 2 different types of pork plus pork soup (they love their pork, sorry all my vegetarian and vegan friends) whole fish (it was like a fishsicle) rice, noodles and veg with sugared deep fried banana (this was yum!!)
A motorized boat ride across the warm tropical sea to a small bay tucked away and five minute walk where we spotted a few Macaque monkeys (and we were desperately trying to spot the large lizards that were often seen) and we were at the start of the river cave tour.
Because of the bats that were the main inhabitants of the cave, we were told not to talk and were given audio sets so you could listen to a guided tour through headphones and this would not interfere with the bats communication. We were also told to keep out mouths shut incase anything from the bats
Zipline
Puerto Princesa Zipline view fell in...
Our guide shone lights to landmarks of the cave and combined with the audio it providied an paradolia interpretation of staligmite and stalictite formations into objects and people.
Bats and swallows flew everywhere and the caves had a distinct aroma. The tour lasted around an hour and we covered only 2 km of the 25 km river cave. I enjoyed it and again marvelled at some of creations we have on our planet.
Back on the motorized boat/catamaran and just as we pulled into shore the heavens opened. We timed the rain perfectly.
Our van dropped us to a meeting point to be collected by another van to take us to our next accomdation destination.
I have to mention the toilet situation over there, just good to know before you go..literally..
You have to pay, which can be anywhere from 14cents to 30cents. Sometimes there is no toilet paper, or you have to grab it on the way in. You don't flush the toilet paper either, but put it in a bin. This goes for number ones and number twos. Sometimes there is no toilet seat. Sometimes there is no button to
Kym ready for ziplining
1.34 seconds over the ocean 'flush' and you add water from a bucket into the toilet. Some have bidets but the water pressure is non existent or you can wash using the bucket, if you are so inclined. There is nothing to dry yourself, unless you bring in more toilet paper. I have a she wee, its great, I don't have to sit and I keep it in a glad bag so well, yeah, it doesn't 'wet' my stuff. I have those wet bum wipes too ... and hand sanitiser.. I am bathroom organized!
A 4 hour journey to El Nido left our butts numb. I did get some reading done and even wrote a chapter.
Our next accomdation was a little budget hotel down a dark alley way. Aleston Secret Hotel. Cute little room, bed was comfy enough and brekky was included. Wifi was not great, it seemed like this and power cuts were normal.
We had a quick walk around the street and most things were closed as it was late. Back at the hotel, we gtabbed a few beers, Red Horse, a nice strong 6.9% which after the second had kicked in with a nice buzz. The weather was
humid and both of us after the long day needed a shower and bed, ready for our next adjective adventure in the morning.
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