Advertisement
Puerto Princesa Airport
No worries about walking on this tarmacAs we changed our original plans and diverted to the Philippines for a few weeks, it was the first time we have gone to a new country without a Lonely Planet, without a plan of what we wanted to see and do and without knowing what was going to be behind the Pinoy door. But this is what this trip is all about, rolling the dice and seeing what numbers come up. So after a quick look at a map we decided that we would go and visit the banana shaped island of Palawan, the most westerly island in the Philippines archipelago. The basis for choosing this island its proximity to the Borneo state of Sabah- perhaps we could catch a boat across to the Malaysian state and explore it as we have only been to its sister state of Sarawak and are well up for some Laksa. But as always, not all ideas are feasible and funnily enough, the world looks alot smaller on a map!!
We flew Hong Kong to Puerto Princesa via Manila and had booked a place to stay that was made of bamboo and located in the middle of a village a few km's out
of the middle of town. We planned to use this as a base to get organised for the rest our time in the 'ppines. Now after a bit of internet time prior to flying out of HK and speaking to a couple of people along the way there was a bit of grey area about whether or not we would need a onward ticket out of the country. We figured that we could explain that our intention was to get a boat to Sabah from south Palawan and therefore had not booked anything as we didnt know if this option actually existed. The border control people at HK airport didnt think that this option had validity and we were told to go and buy a ticket out of the country or we wouldnt be allowed on the plane. . . . . 'far out brussel sprout' where is the love of adventure!!!!
We had given ourselves enough time to have breakfast and a coffee before we flew out of HK and little did we know that this time would be taken up by trying to find a power adapter for the laptop (Our powerlead was bought in Vietnam and
Diving El Nido Style
Warming up for a session at 10m the HK power points are configured differently) as our battery was non-functioning. As the second hand on the clock was ticking and we had specific instructions to deliver our onward ticket out of the Philippines by 10am, it seemed easier to go and buy a ticket from the ticketing office, albeit that we knew we wouldnt be getting a super saver deal. Crushed about not being able to get a dodgy tanker ride into Sabah, we reluctantly bought our Manila to Kota Kinabalu tickets and set about heading into the next chapter of our trip.
Puerto Princesa is the small capital city in Palawan that offers a way for tourists to book tickets to an Underwater Cave which is a three hour trip out of town and nominated for the 7th natural wonder of the world, or an island hopping excursion around Honda Bay. Outside of this there isnt much happening here and we used the better part of a whole day to organise ourselves for a visit to El Nido. Looking back, we should've just bought a ticket Manila-El Nido but not being overly concerned about wasting a few days here and there, and being interested in seeing
Suited and Booted
Kiara knew that there was no turning back on her scuba adventures now different places we werent too phased.
To get to El Nido from Puerto Princesa you have two options, the first being the most cost effective was a local bus that is void of air conditioning and somewhat squashy that takes anywhere between 6 and 10 hours. Option two is a minivan which is four times more expensive but quicker so we took this option. The roads were as bad as the those in Vietnam which added extra time to the trip, but there is a plan to upgrade not only the roads but too also introduce a rail line over the next couple of years.
El Nido is a place built on a eco-friendly platform and leads the Philippines in green tourism. It is located on the NW tip of Palawan on a clear aqua bay overlooking a multitude of protected islands similar to those in Halong Bay. The water was as clear as Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, and has everything that we would relate to paradise. In fact, the opening scenes from the movie The Beach were filmed on an island accessible from El Nido (I think the actual island in this movie was filmed in
When Doves Fly
Doved up in El Nido Thailand on Koh Phi Phi). The quaint little town which is located right on the bay is easily traversed by foot and is typical of beachside holiday destinations in West Australia in the '80s before the property boom of the '90s (Think of towns like Kalbarri or Yallingup). Interestingly, the town only has power from 2pm to 6am, which influenced how people interacted in the town. For example, the town usually was awake from 6am as the aircon switched off and the room heated up. You could be sure that you would bump into friends at one of the restaurants for an early breakfast before 8am. We would plan to get back to the room at around 2pm so that we could charge the phone or camera and turn our aircon on and have it bearable by the time we went to sleep. Also, most of the travellers who are not touring around the marine park would migrate to the places with free wifi around 2pm and fire up their laptops and check emails, Facebook etc. This is quite an interesting occurrence from a human behaviour perspective.
The beach and surrounding islands are the main drawcard of El Nido
Got it Covered
Everything is sweet 10m below and recreational pursuits such as snorkelling around the protected coral reefs surrounding the islands, island hopping and even camping overnight on deserted beaches can be easily organised. But we chose to learn Scuba Diving with Palawan Marine Club, one of the things on our extensive bucket list that we've manage to avoid for various reasons until now. There was one other achievement made in El Nido during one of our nights that was quite unexpected- being crowned the El Nido Arm Wrestling Male and Female champions!!! Now this wasnt a sanctioned event by the international arm wrestling federation, but one of the bars we were at turned into an international competition with representation from Australia, Britain, France, Denmark, USA, Germany and the Philippines. Jez (and his mechanical rotator cuff) was undefeated and his record stands at (7-7-0) and Kiara (Who puts the arm in harm) has an equally impressive record of (5-5-0). A clean sweep- Australia stand up!!!!!
El Nido was a special place and with plenty of good times and memories we left for the bumpy road back to Puerto Princesa before we flew out to Cebu for some more beach time and Scuba Diving.
We were
told that the best part of Cebu City is when your on the boat to Bohol Island and we tend to agree. Apparently Cebu has some amazing beaches and places to visit, but this has to be out of the city proper because in our opinion there was nothing amazing about this place. We spent a night here before we left for Bohol enroute to Panglao Island- another beautiful part of the world, coupled with an amazingly kind and beautiful people. We stayed in Tagbilaran City for a night so that we could get familiar with the place and have a look around the city. Once again, there wasnt too much to see or do in Tagbilaran and we quickly organised a trip out to Panglao Island and Alona Beach. Alona Beach is accessible by vehicle and has two bridges that look like the ones connecting Coloane to Taipa in Macau. Alona Beach is a little more developed than El Nido and has a few similarities to some places in Thailand. It was the start of low season and there wasnt many tourists around which meant that we were getting a fair bit of attention from the local tour touts.
Kiara Dominating
They kept coming and Kiara kept winning- Australia 2, Denmark 0 There is a cost-benefit to low season though, the prices for scuba diving come down significantly as does room rates and whilst low season is usually coupled with poor weather, the hand of global warming had dealt us with six out of seven days of perfect conditions. This was one of the most relaxing weeks of our trip, with our schedule consisting of little more than sun, beach and bbq seafood. Noice!!!!
Its always nice to do some things that your not always comfortable with, under the proviso of seeing new cultures and cock fighting is one of those things. The national sport of the Philippines, where gambling is permitted and 8yr old kids go and buy you beers for a fee of 5PHP (12c), it is both eye opening and after a few ales quite easy to watch. To summarise, all the breeders take their roosters into the arena and size up potential combatants. Then when a suitor is found, the roosters get a hardcore looking blade sewn onto their leg and they are locked into the fight schedule. This is serious stuff in the Philippines and some big bets were placed on the two-horse race. Prior to
The Infamous Cockpit
Applying Darwin's Theory to roosters the fight, the cocks are faced together and spread their neck wings in rage whilst the audience is placing bets in the most chaotic fashion. We had a guy place our bets for us and we split the winnings (in hindsight we should've split the losses as well!!!!). The betting scene is somewhat similar to the old stock exchange trading floor before the introduction of electronic trading. Organised chaos is quite befitting of the picture. Then after the roosters have had it out, the winner gets the losing chook and all the winnings are paid out and its on to the next fight. Not as blood thirsty or gruesome as we expected, and justified by the fact that these roosters would probably fight each other in the wild anyhow. Anyways, we went and saw it, and felt more like cultural missionaries than RSCPA donors.
All good things must come to an end and given that we had to work towards our departure date from Clark in Angeles City (North of Manila) we decided to fly into the nation's capital to check it out before we left for the next stop on our tour. We werent too sure what to
El Nido Hot Spring
We hired a bike, rode for 2hrs and tried to find this hot spring that was referred to in the tourism office. After a 15min walk thru rice fields we were lead to the hot spring- was expecting something like in Europe but this would have to do!!!! do in Manila, but went in with open eyes and an idea of going to see the Kylie Minogue concert on July 5th (Before we realised that it was going to take 2hrs to get to in the Manila traffic). We stayed in Makati in a hotel that was offering an unbelieveable deal of $39/night in the middle of Makati and went to a few malls, had a couple of massages, went to a girlie bar to watch the State of Origin, and drank beers whilst watching midget boxing- you know, all the usual Manila stuff!!!
To summarise, our trip to the Philippines was amazing. The people are among the friendliest in the world. The beaches are world class. The only downside about this place is the transport system/ease of getting around and the cost of accommodation and food comparative to other parts of Asia.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0352s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Roslyn
non-member comment
G'day
Hi Jeremy & Kiara, I have just sat for a while and finally caught up with your wonderful blogs. Sorry with all that has been going on here over the last couple of months I haven't been keeping upto date with them. Sound like your adventures a lots of fun and a little of stress. Congrats on the arm wrestling wins- a great effort for your country !!! Also win at Cas. Haven't got skype up and going yet but soon I hope. keep on enjoying and remain safe. Love Roslyn xxx