Underground Rivers and Desert Islands

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Hello again! Found a cheap(ish) internet cafe with a connection that stays flowing for more than 2 minutes at a time and thought I'd make the most of it!

As much as we love the Philippines, travelling around isn't very easy as most roads are dirt tracks and most sea routes seem to be cancelled and changed at a moments notice or simply non-existent. This has meant going back to the past visited destinations again and again in order to move on in what should be a straight line!

Here's what we've been up to...........

Puerto Princessa
From Dumaguette (where I finished the last journal entry) we took a boat to Cebu (already been there once) and a flight onto Puerto Princesa. We always choose the budget fare which means that overnight ferry's consist of rows upon rows of bunk beds with rubber bedding that you stick to in the heat. All in all though it's not so bad. Managed to get to sleep quick enough only to be woken by a steward (5 of them actually) hanging his face over mine and saying "Miss.....ticket please Miss!". Why they decide to inspect tickets once the boat has left port and at midnight I do nt know! I had a more gentle wake up in the morning though, a small cockroach running across my face.

Puerto Princessa is another "transport hub" with not much to do and people killing time waiting for their boat or plane. We arranged a tour to Sabang for the following day to visit the Underground River. The journey was very bumpy as over mainly dirt track and rocks and took about 2 hours. We didn't know we would be arriving at such a beautiful beach! A complimentary lunch of grilled fish and rice was laid on. There was also raw seaweed which I tried out of curiosity....I won't bother trying again. Yuck!

Palawan, we quickly noted, is the most beautiful place we have seen so far. Huge limestone cliffs raise out of the water creating hundreds of islands and covered in lush greenery with stunning white sand coves around the edges. The journeys may have been bumpy, but they were at least very scenic!

We donned our life jackets and hard hats (not falling rocks but bat dropping to look out for!) and boarded a boat with our other tour mates which consisted of a lovely young married couple who's husband was on business for the week and his wife had followed for a weekend break, and a group of about 10 others on an extended school reunion. All Philippino and we liked being the only westerners there! The boat only goes 1km into the vast cavern of the under ground river. At 8km long it woul have taken all day to go the entire length. There is no light source so someone sits at the front of the boat with a giant flash light to light the way whilst the boat rower tries to scare you with big splashes behind and along side the boat followed by "what was that!?....I'm sure it's nothing..." and then of course the usual pointing out of random rock formations which look like "dragon, jellyfish, carrot" etc. It was a great journey and bats squeaked and squealed as they hung by the hundreds from the ceiling which whent from just above our heads to a hundred feet above our heads in a huge cathedral like dome. We exited the cave to a downpour of rain which, thankfully, never last long around here.

Our plan had been to not return with our tour to Puerto Princessa but to go on to Port Barton and then El Nido from Sabang as a boat left from there.....at least it should have but they were trying to charge us 3000 pesos each for the 1 hour jouney. We knew we could go back to Puerto Princessa and get a bus there for 250 pesos each and so choose the cheap way for the following day.

We decided to skip Port Barton (a decision we later kicked ourselves for as Port Barton is apparently beautiful) and go straight to El Nido on the bus which is supposed to take about 6-7 hours. It was crammed with a huge amount of people, swelteringly hot and very bumpy. A tyre blew from beneath where Richard and I were sitting but this apparently happens all the time and they replaced it in no time. The journey took 9 hours. The worst bus journey we've had yet but within 15 minutes of being off the bus we'd found a little hut accommodation on the beach and were in the sea in time for the sunset.

El Nido
We brought a camping permit from the environmental office, hired a boat for the following day and picked a deserted island to be dropped off on for 3 days (agreed to pay the other half of the money once they came back for us!). We were very excited about our adventure the following day and went to dinner on the beach at a quiet little becah bar......you should always be wary of restaurants that are quite, it's usually for a good reason! Richard was plowing through his grilled chicken as we chatted about the supplies we would need for the following day. When he got to the middle he realised that his chicken was in fact bleeding and arely cooked at all. A very Angry Richard refused to pay the bill and spent the night very worried that he was going to be hit by a huge bout of food poisoning at any second and our desert island dream be over. Glad to say that he woke in the morning very well and very pleased!

STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND!

We got up with the sun and began running around collecting supplies of water (lots) and food (included a big banna loaf - carrot cake is my favourite but Banana comes inclose second!) and throwing it all into the hired cooler we set off for Helicopter Island. You can see in the picture why it is called this as it looks like a helicopter with no rotor blades. We arrived at our "deserted island" to find it not so deserted. Two American girls were there and had been for 5 days. Luckily for us they were then leaving and waiting for their ride back to the mainland. They had been fasting for 5 days which we decided was pretty darn stupid in such heat and with no way of getting help if in trouble! One had a mustache and the over a beard so Richard decided they "must be lesbians".......umm?? I gave them a banana each and a piece of bread as their first food in 5 days. They were very happy.

We set up our camp inbetween two large trees. The mosquito net was erected by tying rocks to the ropes and throwing them over the branches to either tie on or anchor to bigger rocks on the ground. We then had tarp on the ground and rocks to secure the edges of the net and the tarp together. We just hoped it wouldn't rain! Snorkling there was the best we'd seen so far. The reefs were a mass of clown fish and parrot fish and so many colours. Did have to look out for the jelly's though! We also had resident monkeys that came to visit and sat in the trees arund us just watching us as much as we were watching them. We didn't see the giant monitor lizards but we heard them at night and you could see there tracks in the sand around our camp in the mornings.

Unfortunately, the first day was such a hectic one of running around and building camp etc. that I had forgotten to wear my hat and a headache kicked in that rendered me unable to see properly, then unable to get up or eat or drink despite Richard's many attempte to get me to do so. My temperature saored despite my shivering and goosebumps. I then became somewhat delirious and thought I could see monkeys (what is my obsession with monkeys anyway?) and, slightly more British of me, cups of tea! Everywhere I looked! I evidently had heat stroke (so glad I don't burn!). Richard was very good and assisted with getting me up when I need the toilet and doing the hair holding and back rubbing when I was sick as well as bringing me snorkle masks of water to wash my hands and face. Bless him. He wanted to get the boat back (we had mobile numbers asa an emergency) but I said I was better off in shade with a nice breeze than in a stuffy concrete room with no air and stifling heat. So we stayed!

The sun goes down at 6pm on the nose and with only a tiny sliver of moon there is only the light of the stars to see by. On our walk back to camp following my being sick and my confusion finally leaving me, we nticed tiny eerie lights around our camp. They were white and floated around and shimmered and dissapeared and reappeared. Richard said "What is that!?". I responded "FIREFLIES!....either that or the monkeys have lighters" (you can tell I was beginning to feel better at this point). I dropped into a heavy sleep under the safert of our net and only woke a few times to the sound of something shuffling past a few feet away. Monkey? lizard? A cup of tea perhaps? No idea but it didn't come any closer at that was fine by me! I felt bad for Richard as the following 2 days I layed in the shade and slept day and night. Richard insisted that I have the lion share of the water to rehydrate and he ate most of the food as I couldn't even manage the lovely banana cake.....well maybe a couple of slices.

Richard evidently found his own amusements without me as I looked up to see him harpooning washed up jellyfish and abandoning them in a sorry looking heap on the sand. I don't know where he got the well shaped and pointed spear but I don't think he made it himself although as he wandered up and dwn the beach in his shorts and spear I was half expecting to see him chatting to a ball called Wilson...

Our "not so deserted beach" occassionally had visitors dropped of for a hour or two r snrkling or sunbathing who were probably as dissapointed to see us as we were them. On our final day we were due to be collected at 5pm and I was finally feeling better. We took down our camp and collected every piece of rubbish ready to take back. At about 9am a HUGE Philippina family turned up and their boat left so they were obviously staying for the whole day. The came and sat right next to us and preceded to open bottles and cans and make a fire. They opened a tin can and just threw the jagged lid into the bushes where the monkeys come to visit every day. They burned polystyrene for their fire and threw the rest into the sea. We were furious and called the boat to come get us "right now please" before we witnessed anymore and started an argument. It was a great experience. Would have been better if I wasn't ill of course but you can't have everything exactly the way you want it all the time can you! That very night we boarded a boat to Coron..........

We were hopoing there had been a mistake when we were pointed to our overnight boat. It wasn't all that big and the entire front end was filled with about 20 bulls and about 10 large pigs that you had to climb over to get aboard. You can imagine the smell.
The camper beds covered the entire floor which meant climbing over people and stepping on their beds to reach your designated spot. No room for bags so you put them on your little bed and had to arrange yourself around them without kicking anyone in the head, being kicked in the head yourself or bumping into the stranger laying next to you. It was very uncomfortable. More so for Richard than me as he was too long for the bed without the bags adding to the problem. A very cramped night and we arrived in Coron at 10am. Richard had me take a picture ofhim outside the boat and said "next time I suggest getting a boat like this, show me the picture and slap me". Will do! It was horrible! Also had KTV which is Karaoke TV which is on in every bar and restaurant and everybody, serously EVERYBODY, sings along. The Philipino's love their karaoke more than anywhere else in SE Asia. You hear people singing all day long and they don't care how bad they are! In an internet cafe, a song came on which was obviously very popukar because the entire cafe broke into song.....it's like being in a bloody musical....nightmare.

Coron was the wrong place for us. No beach without Island hoping which meant an expensive tour. We didn't want to waste our time so made the most of it and got a tour with a English guy called Mark who was staying at the same place as us. We had some great snorkling and another great lunch of grilled fish as cooked by our boat man on a lovely beach. We visited Baracuda Lake. A stunning and huge lake in the middle of the sea! Seriuosly it was fresh water I tasted it! You have to climb over some rather dangerous and spikey rocks to reach it and it is surrounded by limestone rocks. Popel also dive here as is 30 degrees at the bottom of the lake due to a hot spring.

The following day we booked a proper overnight ferry (Super Ferry in fact!) to Manila (another destination we've been already). We stayed one night and had a very nice curry!

The idea was to go up the west coast to some beaches. One in particular called Tambobong is supposed to be amazing....but 8 hours on a bus to Santa Cruz we discovered that it was very difficult to get to without spending a fortune on hired boats and cars....not what our stupid "guide" book says. We went back on ourselves (again) another few hours to Subic Bay where we are currently on Baloy beach for a few days. This is by far the hottest place we have been. We have to avoid being outside at the hottest parts of the day as simply can't handle it! We have a fridge in our room which is more of an apartment (GBP 8.00! - More than we'd usually spend but our own toilet is a novelty!) and have been making use of it by nipping out early before the sun is too high and buying bread and ham and water and beers (of course beers!). Enjoying our little domestic bliss.

And this is where we leave you....which is good because my hands hurt. I'm not used to all this typing again!

On 9th May we fly to Singapore where we will stay overnight in the airport. It has sleeping areas and a cinema so we are actually looking forwrad to it!

10th May we fly to Medan, Sumatra in Indonesia - another stamp for the passport!

30th May we fly back to Singapore and then off to Australia. You'll just have to wait for the next entry!

Hope you've enjoyed this entry....it caused me great pain and now I need to go join Richard in the sea to recover....woe is me!

x

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Photos

Palawan
A stop for a scenic view on our way to the underground river.

Sabang
Making friends on the beach!

Sabang
Very big Monitor Lizards. These things are about 5 foot long!

Underground River
It's the height of fashion don't you know!

Underground River
Coming out of the void!

El Nido
The view from our little hut....

Deserted Island
.....I was overseeing the camp project.

Deserted Island
Richard returns to camp from his Jellyfish hunt!

Boat trip
The cramped boat!

Boat trip
The pigs we had to climb over to get on and off!

Boat trip
The picture Richard had me take to remind him why not to get a boat like this again.