A Detour Through Paradise

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Me and Alex spent a week or so lazing around Hong Kong, visiting some Museums in between eating copious amounts of Dim Sum. We went up to the peak and looked down on Hong Kong by night. We went on a day trip to one of the outlying Islands, where we walked, swam, played cards on the beach and ate an obligatory seafood meal (poor us!). We wandered the bustling night markets and bought juicy mangoes and pomellos and sampled fresh sushi. Each day began with some BBQ pork buns and usually finished with a tapioca milk tea. Really it was impossible for events sandwiched between such things to be anything but marvelous. Our room even had a window. And of course the company was superb.

Alex had had a bit of an insane day before catching his flight to meet me. When I awoke from my surprisingly deep sleeper-bus-to-Hong-Kong sleep, I had 8 missed calls and a large string of texts detailing the events. It began with his bank screwing up his debit cards and culminated in kingfisher airlines not letting him board his flight without proof that he wasn't going to stay in Hong Kong for ever and ever. The debit card saga being fixed, he frantically booked tickets from Hong Kong to the Philippines, which put an end to our indecisiveness over our next destination.

After a bit of research, we decided that we would spend our time in the Philippines on Palawan Island. “Ah, so you've been to paradise” said our concierge in Manila, on our return. And a type of paradise it was. White sand beaches, palm trees and coral reefs aplenty. The Philippines is a westerners paradise trapped in a poor man's world. As a devout catholic country, it is strictly against contraception, this combined with poor education, results in a massive population problem. With a land area only just bigger than the UK, the Philippines has a population of 95 million which just cannot support itself. Unemployment was very noticeable. In most poorer countries I have been to, the people are always active, trying to farm and trade and make a living. It seemed that in the Philippines lots of people just had nothing to do. An interesting twist to this was that companies appeared to create extra, seemingly unnecessary jobs. Shops invariably had too many assistants. Buses had up to six people working on them; a driver, two luggage haulers, a ticket giver outer, a ticket stamper and a half way ticket checker. Even in the bigger towns, there was noticeable poverty and simplicity to the lifestyle. Despite this, I don't think I have ever met a country of such kind and smiley people. In Manila, a famously poor and rough city we did feel like we might get mugged but we joked that the mugger would probably say please and apologize afterwards.

Anyway, I'll save Manila for a later date, we didn't stop there until the end. Instead, we flew (my first flight on this trip) from Hong Kong to Manila and immediately caught a slightly tight, booked the previous day, connection from Manila to Puerto Princesa, the Capital of Palawan. Puerto Princesa is a dusty run down place. A frontier town between us the the unknown, it was busy for the Philippines and swathes of uniformed school children giggled and smiled as we passed them on the street. As Puerto Princesa was the only place on Palawan with ATM s we attempted to withdraw money to cover the next few weeks. Unfortunately, our lovely UK banks decided this was a bad idea and cut off both of our cards on the first day (An annoying hitch which took a few days and some angry calls to rectify). Luckily we had travellers cheques and some cash to change that just about covered us. It was also enough to buy dinner in one of the Philippines most reputable seafood restaurants, which as well as being very swanky, was also wonderfully cheap. Coming in from the dusty filipino night we left our shoes in little drawers at the wooden doorway and wandered into the gently lit mat filled rooms. We sat cross legged on floor cushions and watched the steam waft from the open plan kitchen across the dining room. Leaving the details to your imagination I will just say that the set meal we had was delicious and the overwhelming flavour was freshness. It consisted of Steamed Lapu lapu (a local fish), grilled tuna, langoustine with guacamole, vegetable and coconut curry, calamansi and seaweed salad, mango and avocado smoothies and finally a tropical fruit salad served in a green coconut. It was one of simplest yet the most well thought out meal I have eaten.

In keeping with my overland theme, our plan was to zig-zag up the island as far as we could before flying back to manila. Our first port of call, was Sabang, a mere 6 hour jeepney ride away (8 if you include all the stops).

The jeepney is THE Filipino vehicle. Originally made from WWII American military Jeeps, and still built to that model, they form the majority of transport in the philippines. They are big, open windowed machines with deep roof-racks allowing people, pigs and motorcycles to clamber on top. Jeepneys are invariably pimped. They are painted, decorated and named with wonderful names ranging from 'Cherry baby' to 'The wrath of christ 2'. Im sure there are even more amusing ones that we have forgotten. Anyway, as long as you don't mind having a very numb bum, very cramped legs and a very dusty face, they are a fun way to travel. They definitely do the job and once full will get you from A to B or anywhere in between.

In Sabang we hired a beach front hut from 'Marys beach cottages'. Mary (assuming she was the silently glowering women in the cafe) wasn't that friendly. But the place was nice and we were both rather excited by the beach front, hutty nature of our accommodation. It was the sort of holiday I'd always thought maybe I would go on if my family was a bit more 'normal', and I hadn't spent my childhood being dragged round museums. Anyway, Alex having brought some factor 30 suncream from the UK and me having invested in a bikini in Puerto Princesa, we decided to give the beach lifestyle a go. Starting off with a swim in the sea. I think it was that day I saw a snake in the water and quickly got out again.

Sabang had one big resort, which coinciding with our stay was hosting the miss Philippines swim wear competition. We didn't go. Instead we tried to buy some dinner from one of the restaurants further along the beach. It was pitch black but we found a restaurant and a man with a big grin gave us an extensive menu. We spent a while perusing then tried to order. “No, dont have” he grinned. We tried something else. “No”. And something else, “No”. A new approach was needed. “what do you have?”. “Fish”, he grinned and pointed to two items on the list. We ate in an awkward silence while he sat grinning, staring at us from a few feet away. It was a weird place.

The highlight of Sabang was the underground river and the walk back to our beach through the jungle. The river is supposed to be one of the longest cave rivers in Asia although you only get to go a few km down it in a little tourist boat. Its crammed with bats and birds and probably lots of dark slithering things that lurk behind the immense stalactites and stalagmites. The walk home took us through 5 hours of mangrove swamp and jungle. We saw monitor lizards, mud skippers and monkeys and were suitably sweaty by the time we were done.

From Sabang we were aiming for Port Barton, a few 100 km up the coast. As a tourist you could hire boats to do this journey but they were expensive and we were loving the jeepneys. We particularly loved this journey, as the jeepney was overcrowded and we ended up riding on the roof. It is perhaps the best way to travel. Bumping through gorgeous greenness with the wind in our hair, surrounded by a bunch of smiling filipinos. We ducked when we went under trees and spent the rest of the time spotting banana trees and interesting flowers. We also braved a rainstorm, when the conductors produced a tarpaulin and we all huddled underneath. The jeepney dumped us at a cross roads, where we waved down a passing bus heading in the right direction. Once again we rode on the roof, perched on top of a mound of luggage. Retrospectively, this wasnt such a good plan. Unlike the jeepneys, which trundle along , the buses do a good 50 km an hour, which makes holding on much more imperative but also harder. Also the buses are higher so the ducking becomes more persistent and also occasionally involves power lines. I made a nest between two suitcases and a chicken and actually went to sleep for a few hours. Anyway, we survived, albeit with slightly more wind and sun burn than we'd started with. The bus dumped us at another crossroads, and after a mere two hour tuk-tuk ride, we were at our destination.

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[The girl in seat 62]

Apologies for low volume of photos
I am suffering from a poorly internet connection...