First time to the last frontier

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Walking through Iloilo's docks toward the wharf from which our ship to Puerto Princesa was supposed to depart, I could see, tethered to the dock like an old and lame dog to the railings outside a veterinary surgeon, in place of the sleek cruise liner I expected, an old rusting hulk of a ship that sat low in the water and listed alarmingly to port. In our excitement we had arrived at the docks exceptionally early, so I therefore assumed that this ship was only a temporary incumbent of the berth, and that our vessel would soon arrive to replace it. This, as I'm sure you're well aware, did not happen. I'm not that knowledgeable when it comes to ships and shipping, but I had some pretty serious reservations as to the seaworthiness of the vessel that sat in the muddy waters of the Iloilo river like a duck with a broken neck. It just seemed to sit wrong. From the bow all the way to midships the Milagrosa Tres was given over entirely to freight and was, quite clearly, dangerously overloaded. The bow was forced low into the water which caused the ships fat and lumpy rear to rise grotesquely into the air. I can only assume that the passengers, of which there were over 500, were expected to act as ballast in an attempt to return the ship to an even keel.

We had purchased "deluxe" tickets which, in our naivety, we had assumed would procure us a cabin. As it was, after boarding the ship, it transpired that the deluxe berths were actually a couple hundred ratty bunks on the top deck that differed from the other classes in no easily discernable way. We were well glad we hadn't chucked our Pesos at "tourist class", as this was an enclosed room on the lowest deck that had the airconditioning turned up so high that, looking through the small window in the door, more resembled a hospital's morgue than a cabin on a ship. We at least had a view and, given the incredibly strong wind, more than adequate ventilation. The other passengers were all holidaying Filipinos who displayed their happiness at being on vacation by playing loud music on their phones, drinking beer, eating crisps, smoking constantly and, as soon as the ship began to move and for the 40 hours that followed, vomiting profusely over the side.

The first hour of sailing did much to allay my fears regarding the ships seaworthiness. She seemed to cope very well with the gentle swell of the coastal waters and appeared to be making excellent progress; until she reached the open ocean that is. At about one in the morning I was jolted awake, and as my first waking action was to clutch tightly to the bed, I assumed that I was just dangerously pissed. I quickly realised, however, that this was not the case and that the reason I was holding so fast to the bed was to prevent myself from falling out. The ship was bucking and rolling alarmingly; the convoluted movements sending glass bottles, discarded cans and sundry items of luggage rattling and crashing across the deck and causing the steel bunks to grind against the metal deck as they moved appreciably with each wave. What with the vomit that was beginning to form a mobile lake under the bunks, the smell of stale beer, the crashing of the bunks and, of course, the constant falling and rising of the ship, we failed to get any more sleep that night, nor any the night which followed.

Although we had booked tickets for Puerto Princesa, the Milagrosa Tres stopped first at the island of Cuyo, which lies, with its satellite islands, half way between Panay and Palawan in the Sulu Sea. At 9am, 14 hours after leaving Iloilo, the ship limped into Cuyo harbour to relive itself of some cargo and to reload for the 2nd leg. This pit stop gave us the welcome opportunity to place our wobbly legs upon solid earth and to explore the island. We had only six hours on Cuyo, but they were some of the most rewarding that I'd yet spent in the Philippines. After disembarking from the ship, we made our way straight to a little fish joint beside the beach. We dined on whole grilled fish for breakfast then went our separate ways; Anny to spend the day sunning herself on the surprisingly pretty town beach, while I set out to explore the town.

After exploring most of Cuyo's wide streets with their brightly painted wooden houses of yellow, blue and green, I took myself down to the town's second beach, this one east of the pier and the one that houses the town's fishing community in a precarious balance of stilt houses. During my explorations I was beckoned over by a guy called Jonny and invited to sit with him and his family to shoot the breeze and drink a little rum. Jonny was born in Bohol but was educated in marine navigation in Cebu. He met his future wife during his studies and after graduating they moved from Cebu to Cuyo where he now earns a living as a fisherman. In this he is not alone; Jonny told me how almost all the immigrants to Cuyo find work as either fishermen or fish farmers (Jonny does both) and, in the main, make a pretty decent living from the sea. The original Cuyonese are all farmers, growing cashew, coconut and a wide range of fruits and vegetables. The delicious cashews which are grown here are the islands highest earning export, followed by coconuts and then fish, which, Jonny explained, are put into a chemical sleep and then packed alive and flown to Hong Kong from the islands tiny airstrip.

The second leg of our journey, from Cuyo to Puerto Princesa, was just as rough as the first and at 16 hours, also a little longer. Still, we sailed into Puerto's harbour on Wednesday morning under a glorious blue sky and other than feeling very tired, we were in excellent spirits and full of excitement as to what the much fabled island of Palawan had in store for us. We disembarked and immediately struck lucky by meeting a retired coast guard who directed us to his mother in law's guest house the "Sea Port Inn", where we found some simple but very cheap lodging. The remainder of our first day on Palawan was spent making preparations for the coming two weeks, our last in the Philippines. We had planned, at the end of our stay here, to sail from Coron in the far north of Palawan, to Manilla. We quickly discovered that all ships from Palawan to Manilla have been discontinued, and that we would therefore have to fly. Thankfully, the South East Asia low cost airfare boom has definitely hit the Philippines, as the flight from Puerto Princesa to Manilla that we booked only cost us 1000 Pesos each, or about £13. Even though we were busy planning and organising, we still managed to squeeze in a couple of meals, one of which we ate in a fairly flash fish restaurant, which had tables on a raised deck above the water at the edge of a mangrove forest. The seafood platter was delicious.

The following day we booked ourselves onto the Honda bay islands tour which, unsurprisingly, was a tour of the islands in Honda bay. We spent some time on Pandan Island (our second Pandan of the Philippines), which had a decent beach and some interesting mangrove forest on its southern coast. We ate our lunch here, which consisted off a huge grilled fish and as many king prawns as you could manage. I managed something close to forty. Next was Snake Island which, unfortunately, is named after the shape of its shifting sandbar, not because of its interesting reptilian inhabitants. This was followed by Starfish Island which was named after its inhabitants, hundreds of which could be seen in the shallows. It was here that I also spotted a small horseshoe crab. As we were leaving Starfish Island to head back home, the clouds that had been building all day finally loosed their watery bounty upon our heads in a spectacular display of precipitation that looked incredibly beautiful against the ethereal blue of the sea.

From Puerto we moved north by some 70 kilometres to visit a town called Sabang that, as well as having a couple of very pretty beaches and a national park, is principally known as the home of the Puerto Princesa Underground River, to give it its full title. This self explanatory attraction is supposedly the longest of its kind in the world and the brains trust of Palawan seem so enamoured with it that they are trying to have it voted the 7th Natural Wonder of the World. I'm not so sure about its chances to be honest. We did enjoy our little boat ride into the mountain, but I think you'd have to be a fanatical spelunker to get that excited about what is, essentially,a long wet corridor. The bats were pretty cool though, as was the setting of the entrance, which is a small fissure at the bottom of a huge limestone cliff that is covered in creepers and ferns. The walk back, as an alternative to the bangka ferry, was probably the most exciting part of the day for me. The 5km path climbed up and into the limestone hills and twisted its way past huge karst outcrops that were a mess of vines and creepers. Deep in the jungle, in a small clearing near a cave, we came across a group of huge, two metre long, monitor lizards that were sunning themselves in the week light that managed to penetrate the jungle canopy and reach the leafy floor.

That evening, after all the day trippers had left Sabang, we sat on the now deserted beach and watched huge waves thunder into the shore with a massive electrical storm out at sea as the illumination. We talked about how much we've enjoyed our first few days on Palawan, and how happy we were that the sun had finally started to shine, all be it only intermittently. We love how clean this paradise island is; even the smallest villages have separate bins for different types of waste and it is a rare thing to see any plastic on the beaches, by the road or in the bushes. Being close to the sea has meant that we've eaten a great deal of seafood, which has come as a welcome relief from all the adobo I've eaten, which is about the only Philippine dish I enjoy. Actually that's a little unfair, I'm quite partial to a big bowl of Lomy, but eating chicken noodle soup for every meal is not really an option, though I have tried. We are also in love with Palawan's scenery. It is so refreshing to see hills hat have almost total forest cover, as opposed to the scrubbed and barren mountains found elsewhere in the Philippines. The view of lush emerald forest cascading down steep hills to meet with the blue-green ocean is a recurrent scene on Palawan and one which, if the guidebooks are to be believed, gets even more spectacular the further north you travel. Which, excitingly, is exactly where we are headed next.

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Comments

[EdVallance]

haha I rode the Milagrosa 3 times - not the nicest experience, I'll agree! And like you said in your last blog, the Philippines Lonely Planet is as good as useless. Even if they just made stuff up you'd expect them to get it right by pure luck once in a while but they haven't, the book is just consistently wrong!