Advertisement
Published: February 17th 2012
Edit Blog Post
The journey across from Panay to Palawan was simple enough although still a bit painful. My morning flight with AirPhil was delayed but it didn’t matter as it only meant bumming around a little longer at Kalibo airport instead of the Mania Domestic Terminal. That said I still had to kill a good few hours in one of the dullest terminals I’ve ever passed through. My luck with flights that day had clearly run out as my second flight with Zest Air, an airline that makes even Ryanair seem punctual, was also delayed meaning I arrived to Puerto Princesa in the dark when I should’ve got there during daylight. It wasn’t all bad however since it was at the domestic terminal that I met a fellow Brit called Nev who I would go on to spend some time with in both Puerto Princesa and El Nido.
We headed out of the airport and shared a tricycle to the funky Banwa Art House hostel where we bagged a couple of dorm beds for 350 pesos, about 7 Euros. I stayed here for four nights. Despite there not being a whole lot to do in town, after a few days
I’d somehow developed a strange fondness for Puerto Princesa. It wasn't particularly attractive but it was clean thanks to a strict zero tolerance on littering that for once seemed to be respected and everything here did seem just a little calmer and less in your face.
Through the hostel I arranged a tour to the underground river in Sabang, one of the (new) natural wonders of the World. Everything in the tour was included - a minivan pickup from the hostel, snacks, water, boats and a buffet lunch. It was touristy as hell but still worth the money. From Sabang a boat took us round to the entrance of the National Park where we later had to don our life-vests and hard hats before hopping on another wee boat, this time with guide, to gently take us into the cave. The guide took us a fair distance where he told us there were bats, snakes and poisonous tarantulas apparently all the while pointing out stalagmites and stalactites that are supposed to look like various everyday objects. As I said it was worth the money although to call it one of the natural wonders of the world seems
just a touch exaggerated to me.
On Thursday 26th I headed up to El Nido in a surprisingly roomy mini-van shuttle having heard of the potential perils of using public transport for the trip - not surprising either as a good portion of the journey is unpaved and the buses here are so old it’s a miracle they even move at all. The van picked us up at 7am and left Puerto Princesa probably around 9am after picking a couple of other folks up and the mandatory faffing around at the depot. It’s fair to say that our driver wasn’t too concerned neither for his life nor for ours since he pretty much just disregarded every basic traffic rule in the book. His driving method seemingly consisted of just beeping at anything that moved until it got out of our way and then the inevitable happened when he mowed down a poor dog that didn’t quite get out of his way in time. He carried on as usual though.
Needless to say I was happy to arrive to El Nido in one piece. I managed to get a dorm bed
at La Banane hostel where I reunited with Nev who’d left Puerto a day before. Here I stayed for five nights before going back down to Puerto for one night before my morning flight out of the Philippines. There were some similarities between El Nido and Boracay - very touristy at this time of year and full of well over-priced food and well over-priced accommodation. Also, in fairness the town of El Nido is actually a bit of a dump but what it does have one of the best views I’ve ever seen.
The Bacuit Bay Archipelago was really quite stunning and one of the days I was there I did a tour (Tour A - 900 Pesos) including stops at Miniloc Island to see the Big and Small Lagoon and then stopping at 7 Commando beach where a couple of days later we would return on a hired boat for a relaxing day of sunbathing and snorkeling (and writing things in the sand with coconuts!!). It was well worth it and had I stayed longer I would’ve been tempted to do Tour C as I’d heard that this was also very good. The islands and beaches
were amazing especially Big Lagoon which I managed to swim from one side to the other where there was a cool little floating platform perfect for diving off of. The snorkeling was also good. One of the other people on the tour had the bright idea of taking along some bread which he broke up under the water attracting a whole heap of fishies. I really must buy myself an underwater camera one of these days! We returned to El Nido in the afternoon and headed straight for Happy Hour at Seaslugs for 60 pence San Miguels right on the beach and with a view of the Bay in front of us!
On Tuesday 31st I returned to Puerto Princesa and thankfully this time the drive was slightly less life-threatening. I came back down with Nev and together we found a twin room at The Duchess hostel costing us less than a couple of quid each. It was a welcome bargain after pricey El Nido.
Palawan wasn’t easy to get to and I met some travellers who just couldn’t make it across either because of time or budget constraints but it was definitely worth
it. The Bacuit Bay was beautiful, the underground river was worth seeing, I even had a little soft spot for Puerto Princesa and it was also nice to actually see some of the island rather than flying from one place to the next as I was doing before. It might be time efficient but I do slightly regret not seeing more of the Visayas and perhaps flying to Puerto from Cebu. That will have to wait for another trip perhaps.
I knew the next day was going to be tough. I had three flights to catch with three different airlines and two changes of terminal. Something was surely going to go wrong. My destination - Jakarta, Indonesia.
Suerte
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 8; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0605s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb