Blogs from Port Barton, Palawan, Philippines, Asia - page 3

The biggest nightmare of travelling in the Philippines is you are always unsure of the true cost of something, no matter who you have spoken to or how much research you have done, every trip you will be stung by some unexpected cost. On departing Bohol for Cebu, we found, in addition to our greatly overpriced ferry tickets, a ‘terminal fee’, an ‘environmental fee’ and a ‘ticket charge’. I don’t even know where to start with the last one! However, the ferry was enjoyable. I rocked out in my seat to the music that Tom had transferred for me and kept one eye on the film being shown in our nice deck. 2 hours later we were in a taxi once more, the Norwegians sleeping in the back (the world is too big for them). I ... read more

Von Sabang ging es mit dem Jeepney zurück zum Highway (2h, 75 P), wo ich sofort Anschluss nach Roxas bekam. Ich stieg kurz vor der Stadt an der Abzweigung nach Port Barton aus (1h, 50 P), wo ich eine gute halbe Stunde auf den Roxas-Port Barton Jeepney warten musste. Für die letzten 22 km nach Port Barton benötigte der Jeepney mehr als anderhalb Stunden, die Straße ist selbst in der Trockenzeit eine absolute Katastrophe, verhindert aber auch, dass sich das verschlafene Dorf Port Barton in ein Touristenzentrum verwandelt, denn das Potential dafür ist vorhanden. Der Strand, in einer sichelförmigen Bucht, ist malerisch und gut zum Schwimmen geeignet, vorgelagert liegen Duzende Inseln, die sich hervorragend zum Island Hopping eignen sollen, was ich allerdings nicht verifizieren konnte, da nicht genügend Touristen im Ort waren mit denen ich mir ... read more

If you hate white sandy beaches and clear blue-green seas don't come here Palawan is the most westward island in The Philippines and it definitely does have a frontier feel about it - its ruggedly beautiful, a long fairly skinny rainforested ridge with beaches dotted all up and down the coast on either side and hundreds of little islands scattered around. The roads are mostly shite and the electricity supply is pretty limited and sporadic, but as a result it has a much more "authentic" feel than Bohol. So, we flew into Puerto Princesa and did a day trip up to Sapang to visit the Underground River, which is 8km long, but you only go in about 2km. The entire trip is brilliant. 2 hours on a crappy road and you get to this amazing beach ... read more

So we set off from Sabang at 8am headed for Port Barton in an outrigger big enough for 4 people, after persuading the boatmen that 6am really isn't a reasonable starting time. We shared the boat with a nice couple, Steve (from Belgium) and Whitney (from the US). One hour into the boat journey our boat broke down, bear in mind that Palawan is a very remote island and there are few boats sailing these waters and nothing even remotely resembling a coastguard ...we soon began to panic and question if there were sharks in these waters. Palawan isn't one of those places that you see any kind of habitations on the land and where we broke down we were at least a good 20kms from anybody. Luckily though the engine started again and the panic ... read more