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Well, the story so far is that after a few days in
Manila getting money and visa extentions sorted we flew straight over to
El Nido in northern Palawan. Manila was as rough as I'd imagined..our day involved getting to immigration and all the hours that took but the weird thing was that it was in one of the better parts of town but that the building around it were heaps of rubble with the facades still standing...we realised that a lot of this damage was done in World War II!!!...but the ruins are still standing around waiting for renovation...Went to the Santiago Fort, one of the few "sights" and that was more WW II damaged buildings...left as an historical reminder it was poigniant..but as the city's major tourist draw it was pretty desperate. Still, the people we ran into were all typically laid back and freindly Filippinos and despite the total pollution...(black deisel fumes pouring out of the millions of tricycles and buses and motorbikes...gagging fumes from burning rubbish) it wasn't as hellish as I'd imagined...great food in the restaurants around Malate and we got to enjoy some serious crooning from a mariachi band... Anyhow on to the good stuff...El
On the roof of the bus
Journey from El Nido to Tay Tay Nido was great, we set ourselves up in a cheapish place (everywhere we've stayed has been at the farthest right hand side of the beach...any significance?) and took a boat out to one of the thirty odd island off shore. They were all vertical rock faces sticking out of the sea, jungle clad with little beaches clinging to the edges...we skipped the ubiquitous "island tours" bit and just got someone to drop us at an island with two bottles of water and a pack of sandwiches and got picked up again before sunset.
For three of these days met no one except a dog that wandered out of the jungle...the best island we found was called Helicopter...all the beaches and islands had names like Seven Commandos, Lapus Lapus but no one we asked knew why. Anyhow at the end of the day we decided to walk around the island and found another group...all pissed on this evil looking red rum (get it?)...they were very friendly and red eyed and looked like they were on the fag end of a three day bender..(does that sound right?)it was strange cos after a day languishing in the shade of a tree on this
Jeepney stuck in the Mud
From Port Barton to San Jose... before the punctures beautiful island they told us that we had nothing to worry about...everythings okay and were all fine...we agreed completely and I asked to borrow their snorkle as I'd left mine up the beach...after that they offered more rum and have another go of the snorkle...anyhow, it turns out that these guys were the local anti-terrorist unit on their day off...they explained about their moustaches and side burns for plain clothes work and introduced us to their captain who was also well pissed. He told us not to worry and there's no Abu Sayef in these parts..not with them around...then he joked that in fact they were Abu Sayef and that we'd already been kidnapped...which was hysterically funny of course...then , no, no not really don't worry this is beautiful Palawan and it's the weekend. Aya pointed out that it was Monday which made them laugh even more. We were saved by our boat returning and got away without drinking the red rum. The next few days we ran into a young German guy called Timo and a Californian couple Sarah and George so we did the boat tour thing which was great for snorkling...found a turtle which was the highlight
Famous Filipino Monkey ..
in the house of the chief of the Village, near the Mangrove Forest, Port Barton... for me, just floated past me and let me trail it for what seemed like ages but probably only a few minutes. Finally left El Nido after our new found friends moved off to dive Wrecks in Coron (we're planning on trying an introduction dive in Bohol). Clenched our teeth (and bums) for the long bus journey down through Palawan...decided to break it into sections for sanities sake...the first was a buzz...the guest house had forgot to book our seats so we ended up on the roof for the two hour ride...fantastic air-conditioning and views but the branches were a bitch...the roads in Palalwan are dirt tracks so the dust from passing buses covered everything...looked like we'd just rode out the desert after that one...two tires burst during the two hour trip and left us blinking in the sun for half and hour a lad next to us was moaning 'Philippines..noooo good" which by that point was pretty funny...the final one burst just outside the town we were headed to so were bailed out and took a tricycle the rest of the way. Tay Tay was uneventful but had a great sunset and saw the weirdest vehicles...people just welded diffent parts together...the best being an old forties style truck body (with the pointed nose) welded to the front half of a motorbike...and another at a blurred glance was a guy standing on a platform with four wheels like an overgrown scooter thing whizzing along the road with two standing fans on either side off him...for propulsion..a cooling breeze? The next day we got seats in the bus!!...and it was an uneventful trip to San Jose then a hellish two hour ride squashed into an already packed Jeepney to Port Barton. Port Barton was very sleepy with no traffic and dogs and Cockrels roaming about everywhere...(we reckoned there were as many dogs as people in El Nido and they just roam about all day doing their doggy things) we stayed in the nice Greenviews Resort and there was no one else there...a bit twee with lace and garrish dust covers on the fans...Aya thought it stank of mold. Still, nicest rooms we"d had so far...did the best snorkling yet off a beautiful coral reef aptly named 'The Aquarium'...went into the mangrove forest early one morning with promise of spotting snakes and Monkeys..after a lot of looking spotted a few snakes..."What's that called?...Mangrove Snake...How about that one?...Stripey Mangrove snake...I see,and what types of monkeys do you get round here?...Philippine Monkeys...Right." The monkeys didn't appear but a passing fisherman said he could show us some monkeys and we followed him to his village. After a long walk through the village and around some rice paddies we got a sneaking suspicion and sure enough they took us to someones house with a monkey chained in the yard...still it wasn't as depressing as it sounds...it was playing with a four year old girl and they all seemed proud of it...an accepted part of the family...saying that, had second thoughts when they showed how they'd trained it to put their fags out. Yesterday we took the longest and most bum-numbing trip down here to Puerto Princessa...turned the tyre blowing episodes into a guessing game, Aya guessed none would blow (hopeless optimist) I bet three and in reality there were three blow outs (although one was a double blow out with both rear tyres going at the same time)...a break down for engine trouble and getting stuck in mud made the three to four hour trip into an eight hours epic...after that we stayed in our hotel and necked loads of San Miguel. Puerto is described as an nice Overgrown farm Town in the ever inaccurate guide book but I'd sum it up as a charmless polluted dump where nothing is open and the air scoures the back of your throat like...well like pure carbon monoxide...but...it has an airport so we can fly off to Cebu tomorrow and then sail on to Bohol and it's chocolate hills and internet connections...
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anonymous
non-member comment
Tay Tay = Mad Max
Hey Jim San keep the wonderful technicolour descriptions coming. The transport in Tay Tay (your home town?)sounds reminiscent of the cannabalised vehicles from Mad Max.