Advertisement
Published: January 13th 2017
After a short flight from Macau we arrived in Manila, the scary city, late at night and the airport was bedlam with a few well dodgy characters hanging about. Still we found an ATM to get some pesos out and thankfully our lift (arranged through the flat we had booked) was waiting at the appointed place, we were then bundled into a minibus and driven off at high speed, me feeling rather uncomfortable about this, we were whisked away down back streets, across train tracks, through a garage and had absolutely no idea where we were as it was pitch black.
The van suddenly turned into a block of flats and drove 2 floors up a ramp and stopped. We were then handed over to two children and taken up in a lift. It was all very disorientating and disconcerting! The girl then asked us where we were from and when we said England she said 'aaah Mr. beanland' and started doing the faces, I relaxed slightly, we were led into a large apartment and ushered into a room, they gave us a key and I still had my phone so we reckoned it wasnt a kidnapping after all!
After unsuccessfully trying to whatsapp home where 2nd Christmas was taking place we eventually got to sleep.
The next morning we discovered we were in a block of flats surrounded by the shanty town not too far from the airport and amazingly our lift back to the airport turned up on time and when we left the room we found several other foreigners emerging from other doorways, it was all a bit odd.
After a delayed flight and a last minute dash to the changed gate we were on our way to Palawan. We only saw a handful of other westerners in Manila airport and it really felt like we were stepping into un chartered territory! Arriving in Palawan it really felt like when we went to Samoa or Tonga maybe it's an island thing I'm not sure yet.
Following our grotty-fab-grotty accomodation theme we got to the Best Western Hotel and after spending ages and I still don't know why, checked in and got to our fab room. Excellent first job sort out clothes for washing, then we found the laundry price list, washing one t shirt was more than the total value of Howard's clothes!!!
Oh well there was plenty of hot water and body wash and the place soon looked like a bloody laundry, but clean clothes!! How I love clean clothes!!
That night we had our first experience of the local transport, called tricycles they are a kind of bike and sidecar affair and I know Filipinos easily fit 3 or so on the attached seat but we struggled to cram both our bums in together, we hadn't figured out you can also sit on the ledge opposite the seat. And so our trike gamely struggled along and we ate ribs that night and they were gorgeous.
Before coming Howard had booked us on the famous Underground River Trip, reputed to be one of the new 7 wonders of the world so we were up early and excited to get going. The minibus arrived and as we were the first picked up we got good seats and we then went round collecting everyone else, after passing our hotel for the third time I decided maybe being in the back wouldn't have been so bad after all. Eventually our guide squeezed in and explained the days itinerary and the words waiting and
Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour
There's a bit of a monkey in there somewhere queuing featured heavily, oh dear.
Despite feeling we may be being conned we decided rather than do the 2 hour wait for the park permits we would go on the optional pay extra Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour which would use up an hour or so. Only 5 of us did this and on the way the driver then explained how the area used to be heavily logged but these tours were set up by the government as an alternative way for the villagers to make money and to preserve the nature. I then felt a lot better about it and we bumped, jostled and jolted along sandy paths and into the swamp.
I actually enjoyed this little trip, we didn't see a lot apart from mangroves but it was really peaceful and the young boat lad told us all about the area and was really keen on the conservation side of things, right near the end we saw a group of monkeys so that livened things up a bit.
Back with the rest of the tour group (about another 25 people) in Pabang we then had a buffet lunch, waited around a bit, went to the port
area, waited some more and finally our groups number was called, our guide then split us into smaller groups and a gave us a number and then we waited for our number to be called before we got on boats to be taken around the headland and onto another beach.
Any trips involving water in the Philippines mean you have to wear life vests 'it is compulsory the government says so' - even on the mangrove paddle boat, so once we waded ashore we had to keep our life vests on and walk a short way through the jungle to join hoardes of other people waiting once again for their turn. We were given an audio commentary thing which you also had to wear round your neck and a safety helmet.
Hanging about sweating buckets with all this clobber on was not fun. Once your groups number was called you could go down to the rivers edge and then got assigned another group and waited for your turn to get on a boat.
Finally we were on a boat and headed to the mouth of the cave, the system is vast and so far 14 Km of
river have been explored but the trips only go in for 1 km. it was impressive, some of the chambers are huge and there are bars everywhere. The only light is from a torch which the boatman uses to illuminate the areas you go through and to pick out some of the dubiously named rock formations. The underground river trip took about an hour and we then walked back to the beach and got back on our same boats and in our case then waited for about another 30 minutes for the rest of them to turn up! Bloody hell.
Then it was the journey back and eventually we got to the hotel feeling shattered!! We left at 7am and got back at 4pm, was it worth it? Well we had come along way to see this, the underground river and cave were good but the rest of it...
The next day we slept and did naff all, walked into town but it was Sunday so lots of things were shut, found a shopping mall, got some food and walked back. Visited the hotel pool which was on the 3rd floor and had 2 sunbeds! People
Sabang
On the way to the Underground River were laid on the ground and there was no space so we retired to our lovely room to cool down.
That night we arranged to meet up with Suzanne and David who were also travelling and were also in Puerto Princessa, despite having only met Suzanne briefly once years before at Hard Rock Hell, it was like meeting old friends again. The beers flowed and it was so nice to talk to other people who travel and just get what your on about! They had just returned from El Nido and gave us loads of good tips for our trip.
We had a great night that started in a restaurant, moved onto a look at the not very friendly Tattoo and Beer shack, which led to more beers on plastic chairs outside the convenience store, an encounter with an unusual girl who had a cat up her t shirt and ended up at a karaoke bar, as they had let Howard use their loo while we were at the store and we felt it was only fair to buy some of their beer too! Top night.
Feeling a tad rough the next day it was afternoon before
I got up and once more walked into town, food and back to recover before meeting Suzanne and David again for tea. They suggested the Tom Tom Club and the food was great, I had steak and the others all had schnitzels. Less beer for me that night as we were travelling to El Nido in the morning! We were the only customers in the place, they were playing rock videos in the background and we had another good night before saying our farewells and hopefully we will meet up in September when they get back from their travels.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0227s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
