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Published: October 28th 2011
We arrived late into Manila airport from Brunei and given our flight to Palawan was very early (in about 6 hours or so), we decided to spend the night at the airport rather than battling the famed Manila traffic and moreover raising our chances of having something bad happen. Manila has a reputation you see. By the time we got on our morning flight we were stuffed. The cold granite floors of the airport might look beautiful but......We were so stuffed in fact that after finally boarding we both slept through an hour of waiting on the runway. The wait was due to a local typhoon that was causing a bit of havoc. We were later told by another traveller that the wind was so strong at one stage that the stairs to the plane were blown over! The ensuing flight was easily the roughest I have experienced with one woosh of turbulence dropping us so fast that Chris came out of her seat. We did arrive safely though after circling Puerto Princesa airport for over an hour waiting for the weather to be kind.
The first thing that hits you in the Philippines, not literally but still a good
Puerto Princesa, Palawan
A rainy welcome thanks to a typhoon.chance, are the tricycles. There appear to be more tricycles than people. I had heard about this crazy mode of transport but they were very different to what I had imagined. It is basically a motorbike with a sidecar contraption attached. The drivers are ever-willing to ask for your patronage but most always in a friendly and not over-pushy way. A fun thing is that every tricycle has its own name (often sign written across the front). These names are almost always the name of the driver’s wife (or girlfriend, or both) or children. To see names like “Mary”, “Jessica” or “Juan & Sylvia” splashed proudly is not at all that uncommon but my favourite was a little less say, traditional. “Girl Poison” won my award for best tricycle name and the tricycle (official name not known) grafittied professionally with the slogan “Jesus is my Captain” gets an honourable mention.
The second thing you notice is that if people and tricycles rank 1 and 2 in population in the Philippines, then a close third place would be awarded to mobile (cell) phone shops. The Filipinos are absolutely obsessed with cellular technology and every conceivable accessory that goes along with
it.
Puerto Princesa is the capital of Palawan and whilst a nice enough town, there was little to see so we opted to head north to a place called El Nido. It is becoming quite well known for its Ha Long Bay style setting of limestone cliffs, yellow sandy beaches and island hopping for the tourists. El Nido itself didn’t disappoint and nor did the 5 hour bus journey to get there. The trip was a great insight into the daily lives of the Filipinos. Normal to them though is certainly not normal to us and accordingly we witnessed many unusual (to say the least) things. In short, please enjoy these beauties:
• Grain drying. The locals lay out large tarpaulins or sheets and spread various grains out in the sun to dry. OK, I agree this is not so unusual, but if I told you that they do this on the road, smack-bang on tarmac of the “National Highway #1” nonetheless and in places nearing road bends where the bus driver would only see them at the last minute, you would probably agree that it would be an eye opener to us foreigners.
• Clothes drying.
No need for a clothes line when you can spread the family’s clobber out over the road safety barriers.
• Transport. The locals tend to use a “jeepney”- a somewhat dilapidated rust bucket of a truck-come-bus thing, that stops anywhere, anytime and will collect as many people (complete with their daily goods such as bags of grains, crops, hardware et al) as physically possible. This often means that the younger male passengers end up travelling on the roof!
• Total randomness. You will be in the middle of nowhere and you will see a man walking proudly with a 10 metre long piece of bamboo slung over his shoulder or a guy carrying a plastic bag full of fish....whilst leading a goat. You just shake your head in wonder.
• Horn beeping. Incessant horn beeping. Ridiculously crazy over the top incessant horn beeping! After being in Asia for 6 or so weeks now, I have somehow become quite used to this phenomenon however I still cannot believe how often the drivers give their horns a toot. To say they do it too often is an understatement of massive proportions. It must have something to do with the
Puerto Princesa
...and of course...BEER time! child that hides inside of every one of us.
• Rice bag carrying. Also a sight to see in and around market places. If I asked you to carry a 20kg bag of rice, how would you do it? Most would sling it over a shoulder I suppose...but not in the Philippines. The common mode here is to put a small plastic bag on your head (keeps the hair clean) and then carry the rice sack on your head. It reeks of an immediate head ache and neck ache to me but they do it without any whinging!
El Nido lived up to its hype. We found ourselves a beachside cottage for about $10 a night and took in an all day island hopping tour. We visited crystal clear lagoons hiding patiently behind shear limestone outcrops, beautiful sandy beaches offering up coconuts to drink and then eat, and snorkelled over some not-so-bad coral reefs. It was a great day made all the more amazing by our 4 fellow passengers, a few of whom we would bump into again during our travels. It’s one of the best things about travelling.
A fun little snippet from El Nido......we had
...and this little piggy..
Local meat market in Puerto Princesa. heard of a restaurant called the “Curry House” which supposedly served up a good meal. Our party of 6 found the place after a bit of searching only to be told by the waiter before sitting, that he didn’t know where the chef was and that maybe could come back tomorrow night. It was Saturday night at 7:30pm. Now that’s how you run a business!
After El Nido we returned south and stopped in for a night at Sabang, a small beachy town known for its “amazing” underground river. So, amazing? Well look, I should try to be diplomatic...but I won’t be. We thought that it barely reached the OK mark on the wow scale for natural wonders. What is amazing though is that it is currently in the top 3 for the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” public voting poll. To be blunt it is just a long cave that happens to have water in it and bucket load of bats (which also means a bucket load of bat poo accompanied by a bucket load of bat poo smell). If this “wonder” beats Uluru or the Great Barrier Reef, it will be amazingly farcical.
From the island
of Palawan we flew north to the island of Busuanga and to its capital Coron City. Coron is famed for ship wreck diving. In fact it has something like 14 Japanese WWII wrecks that lie at shallow depths. One wreck actually lies partly out of the water at low tide so even the snorkelers can have a sneaky look. We did a 3 dive tour which included 2 wrecks and a lake dive. The second of the shipwrecks was called the Tanga Wreck and it was just out of this world. It was like being in a real living Jacque Cousteau documentary. It is hard to explain the thrill of diving in the dark (with torch of course) through a ship that has lain dormant for over 50 years. It was easily the best dive I have done to date.
The lake dive was also fascinating. It was my first dive in still water and my first without a wetsuit. There was no need for the wetsuit as the water reaches 38°C after about 14m deep. The lake is both fresh and salt water but the two don’t mix until they are unsettled. When this happens the water goes
On our way to El Nido
Sights at at Tay Tay bus "terminal". blurry and makes you think that you can’t see properly. It’s a weird sensation to say the least but really cool. For the trivia buffs out there check out the word “thermocline” for a more specific definition.
Other than island hopping, Coron holds little else for us tourists so we jetted out to a more traditional Filipino holiday destination. The sun, sand and sea surrounding the tiny Island of Apo was a magnet for us. What Apo Island lacks in physical size, it’s only 3km x 1km, it more than makes up for with its world class dive sites. The entire island is surrounded by great coral reefs many of which are accessible by simply swimming of the shore. We decided to shell out and undertake our PADI Advanced Open Water scuba diving course. We had to do 5 varying dives and also some reading (study...hate it...always have!) and a few video sessions. We passed the course with flying colours and along the way did what is probably the best dive I have ever done, yep, just 4 days after the other “best dive I have ever done”. As part of the course we chose to do a “drift”
El Nido
The beach in front of our cottage. dive. Basically you dive and just go with the flow of the currents on the reef. The location was called Coconut and I remember being absolutely blown away with the enormity of the reef. I felt severely insignificant and totally minute in comparison to the slope of the reef as we drifted by giant turtles, many huge fish and millions of smaller fish, and corals of every conceivable colour spanning many metres in diameter. It was a serious underwater wonderland and one I want to revisit sometime it the future. With so many dive sites, Apo Island will no doubt draw us back there as some stage. Our Dive Instructor David was a great guy too which made our 6 days on the island all the more special.
The Filipino people were very welcoming and friendly. They have this laid back “whatever” kind of attitude which often had us wondering if anyone actually worked. There are always guys just lounging around playing cards or just doing nothing (apparently). But all in all, we really enjoyed the Filipino way and would liked to have stayed longer as there is so much to see! Unfortunately on entry you have to show
2 for 1 deal
..but they must be EXACTLY the same cocktail or it's 2 for 4 (so we found out)! a valid itinerary for exiting and as such we “guessed” a fair date of departure...which turned out to be all too soon. We will return someday though!
To finish up, I can confirm that you can buy ice cream in the Philippines. Yep, three scoops thanks. Oh, and can I please have that on a bread roll? Yep, no problems!
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