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Published: August 8th 2007
Not a Matt blog this time - rather a blog from Matt’s parents who are visiting a South East Asia country for the first time to see where Matt is living and to take a holiday with him in some parts of the Philippines he has not yet seen.
Bit of a travelogue really, so bear with us and hear about our trip, warts and all.
Matt met us when we landed in Cebu and as usual a bit of local knowledge goes a long way - instead of taking an ‘expensive’ airport taxi from the rank at the exit, we walked out of Arrivals and found a regular metered taxi to get our ride to the hotel.
My impression next morning looking out onto the dilapidation, undisciplined traffic, dust, noise, dogs, goats mixing it with the traffic, I thought I could just as well be in Cairo or Nairobi - it looked just the same except for one huge difference - same heat - 32 - 35C - but here the humidity is sky high of course and frankly much harder to cope with especially for new arrivals from our colder climate.
Next day flight to
Underground
Was that Bat shit tasty? I hope this light doesn't go out.Puerto Princessa in the Palawan Islands for an overnight stop on our way to Sabang. Matt ‘treated’ us to a four hour bus ride to Sabang the next day - picture this - bus full inside and out with dogs, chickens, kids, banana plants, even an engine which some passengers had to climb over to get in and out though we found the best way out and back in for the odd ‘CR’ (Comfort Room) (read hedge) opportunity was through the non existent windows - jump out, one foot on the back wheels to get back in. Hot, dusty, crowded, but apparently an experience not to be missed according to Matt.
Sabang - we chose a cottage right at the end of the beach - very quiet if you discount the usual wildlife sounds, occasional generator and the ubiquitous cockerels who here have absolutely no sense of time - lets get going at 3am why not (and every other hour of the day and night).
Cottage had occasional water and an electricity supply for about 4 hours in the early evening - but what it did have was the most stunning deserted beach right outside that we were
Banca
Our transport from Sabang to El Nido. Very wet! The "CR" is the box on the stern, with built in bidet if there are any waves. to get some snorkelling practice in, in preparation for our next destination, El Nido.
The highlight here in Sebang though is the underground river which is still claimed to be the longest in the world - we walked to it via the ‘Jungle Route’ through the national park which was fun in itself but the river was something else. We had a boat to ourselves - guide/oarsman, Matt on the camera, me on the car battery run searchlight up front and Noeline to balance us up in the middle. Pitch black in the cave of course, occupied by thousands of bats and swallows - one and a half kilometres into the cave we took the option to pay our guide a little extra (a 100 pesos each, about a pound) so we could go deeper into the cave - to about 3.5 K’s in - we were totally alone from there on in - just brilliant - stalactites and stalagmites and cavernous roof heights 65 meters in some places. Our guide took great delight in advising us to keep our mouths shut when we looked up if we wanted to avoid ‘a small drink of mineral water slightly warmed
El Nido sunset
Backdrop to dinner on the balcony. by bat ’. Back to Sabang beach by ‘banca’ the local outriggered type of boat.
More snorkelling practice - now getting quite good - with the aid of float jackets Matt borrowed from the local boat owner/restauranteur/general family fingers in every pie man (Elmer) who we had also met by chance whilst still in Puerto Princessa. Matt doesn’t need any float assistance of course.
Time to head for El Nido in north Palowan to put our snorkelling skills to the test - travelled by banca up the coast (7 hours) great fun. Everyone on board got absolutely soaked (except the two German tourists on board who seemed to avoid even so much as a drip on them - how do they do that?). The onboard ‘CR’ - another experience not to be missed - apparently. Not too bad for the boys - go over the back, but ladies had the upturned beer crate for a loo seat which according to reports was not all that comfortable.
El Nido is a tourist spot but not what we think of as ‘touristy’- just a couple of sky high priced island resorts and otherwise just backpackers and Philippinos from Manila.
Island to island
Beautiful or what? The idea here is to hire yourself a banca and guide and head off around the stunningly beautiful islands snorkelling and stopping off on the white sand beaches.
Our Japanese hotel owner introduced us to her neighbour - Emir - who we were to spend two days out snorkelling with - looking at the guide books later we found him tipped as the best guide in the area mainly because he gets into the water with his guests and is therefore able to find and point out things we might otherwise miss. Most importantly we would have the boat to ourselves.
On the first day the sea was fairly choppy but as long as he knew Noeline and I were OK Emir would take Matt off for a more adventurous snorkel/dive - for example he took Matt (finned up like him) to a difficult fast flowing area where Matt came within a couple of meters of three Reef Sharks - not for novice Mums and Dads. Oh, I did bump into two jelly fish during the day and had the stings to prove it.
On our next day out the water was calmer and we went further
Jelly
Ouch! out to some really calm bays where we spent hours floating above the coral and beautiful fish. When we went into deeper water to see turtles, Emir, ‘mine swept’ (jelly fish swept) our path tossing them aside as if they were just a football or some such. We also visited ‘Secret Beach’ which is only accessible from the sea via a rock covered entrance at the right level of tide - inside is an open lagoon and beach completely surrounded by jagged rocks - fabulous.
Time to make our way to Lanuza via Manila (overnight stay) and Butuan (flights) and on by minibus over the mountain road to Lanuza. It was raining by the time we left the airport and I have to say I was hugely impressed by the drivers ability to negotiate the gravelled, pot holed ‘rock and roll’ road over the mountains in the rain and eventually in the dark especially given the very low candle power of his headlights. We are talking about something like 90 miles here mostly on rough roads and a 6.5 hour journey. But the mountain road wasn’t the hair-raising bit - that was reserved for the last hour where we
Lunch stop
We stopped on the beach each day for a BBQ of fresh fish, salad, rice and fresh fruit. were travelling on reasonable roads through villages - in the dark remember - unlit motor bikes and trikes appearing out of the darkness as well as dogs and people walking in the road - how the driver saw them I don’t know - if I had been driving in those conditions the local population would have taken a significant dive. There seems to be an unshakable belief that vehicles won’t run over you even if you are completely invisible to the drivers - unbelievable but true. The most amusing thing was that the driver didn’t grumble about the lack of rear lights on the invisible vehicles - rather that they didn’t have any ‘reflectors’ - so its OK to be unlit but to not have the failsafe of a reflector, though clearly accepted as the norm, is something to grumble about.
Our time in Lanuza and especially the strange case of the cockroach in the night and the three national guardsmen will have to wait for a later blog - just a short reflection though - this is a difficult place to live in for us soft foreigners - the heat and the bugs are downright horrendous - but
El Nido airport lounge
Relaxing in the airport lounge waiting for our 19 seat plane to touchdown. it is beautiful and the people are hugely welcoming - it’s a good place to be.
Noeline and Lester - the older Youngs
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anonymous
non-member comment
Nice Blog !
what a great experience....love your sunset photo !...cheers !