Palawanderers

Parts Unknown

Crossing over from Cebu island to the island of Palawan is fairly painless, except for the aborted landing that gives us a bit of a shock as we attempt to land at high speed. We’re informed by the captain we had a strong tailwind! The long journey is broken up by spending a night in Puerto Princesa. We don’t see much of it, landing after dark and staying in a hostel close to the airport. Apparently there is an underground river that is a MUST SEE, but we’ve seen plenty of amazing caves and by this point in the travels we prefer to stay in one place for longer rather than trying to do too many locations. We pop out for dinner and I have a Red Bull to provide some wings. It’s served in a tiny bottle and looks and tastes more like medicine than the sugary version we have back home. We return to our hostel and crash out after another tiring transfer day.

In the morning we notice the guesthouse we’re staying in houses a miniature zoo. There are various reptiles in cages and a couple of tiny pups run between our feet. The owner is really friendly and helps us organise our transport to Saint Vicente. So far everyone has simply told us to turn up at the bus station and hope for the best. With some help we’re able to arrange for a shared van to collect us from here and take us directly to our accomodation some way North of Saint Vicente town proper. Somehow, despite searching in the area of Port Barton, the beach house we’ll be staying at for the next five nights is 73km away from there. Not quite what we had in mind!

A bumpy five hour journey later we arrive at Victoria Beach House. Our room overlooks the ocean, opens straight out into the bar/restaurant area and has immediate access to a huge empty beach. We’ve made worse mistakes.

We spend our first afternoon settling in and I take a walk along the beach. Annoyingly there is a rope and a “Temporarily Closed” sign blocking access to the adjacent beach I’d hoped to walk or run across in the next few days. All of the staff seem confused about this and simply advise me it should be open, just walk across the rocks they say. Alex and I ponder what we’ll do for the next few days as we’re pretty cut off from anywhere popular and there isn’t much to do in the local area except beach.

Walking along the beach earlier I noticed the small waves were an odd colour, deep green. There is a lot of seaweed/algae in the water that is so dense it’s changed the colour of the sea! We have the first meal in the beach house restaurant (surrounded by friendly stray dogs) and retire to bed. To our dismay there is a local family staying in the room across from ours and they’re enjoying a Filipino’s favourite pastime all afternoon, karaoke through a speaker… Once that finishes the family in the room next to us make a real racket, and through the thin wooden walls we can hear every word. We try to drown them out with the air con but neither of us sleep particularly well.

All change please

After a pretty disturbed night… at one point the air con cut off and there was a lot of shouting and shrieking from next door… We request to change rooms for the first time on our trip. It works a treat as we’re technically upgraded to a more modern room at the back of the property with a nicer layout and most importantly, solid walls away from the hustle and bustle.

Once we’ve settled into our new digs, we head out for another beach walk. Sadly, even though the beach is usually deserted and we’re often the only people on it, there is a lot of litter. This time we decide to do something about it and take a couple of carrier bags with us to pick up some plastic before it is gobbled up by the ocean. It doesn’t take long for us to fill two bags. I don’t think we’ll win any conservation awards but it’s rewarding to do our part for pachamamma.

Even after a short half hour walk, in this heat we’re absolutely baking. The tide is stronger today and seems to have washed all of the algae back out to sea. We cool off in the waves and bring our body temperatures back down. We feel the occasional sting, something is prickling at our skin. It doesn’t hurt but it’s quite a weird sharp itch. We try to figure out what it might be, jellyfish or some spiky seaweed? We later discover it is angry plankton!

Following a delightful backpacker meal of granola, incredibly sugary liquid yoghurt and mini banana float, we attempt to secure transportation for our scuba dive trip tomorrow.

The scuba dive centre has told Alex there’s a direct route not shown on Google. Our place rents out scooters for 700 pesos (£10) a day, so we enquire about hiring one from 7am tomorrow. Curious why we need one so early, we explain to the receptionist that we intend to drive to Port Barton. She seems confused, tells us it’s too far, and clearly they don’t want us to use their bike to get there and refuse. Hmm. A spanner is in the works. There’s no public transport here and any private transfer would cost a small fortune. They offer a private transfer at 4000 pesos (£57). Disheartened, but determined, Alex wanders next door to see if they can be more helpful. She chats to a couple who have literally just arrived from Port Barton by scooter. It most certainly is possible. Their reception indicate a bike hire shop just one block from our accommodation. They offer us a bike for 500 and say they’re open from 6.30 so a 7am pickup won’t be an issue. Phew.

Returning to town later in the afternoon we pickup some more rum and coke that is so cheap it’s hard to believe. A 400ml bottle of rum is around £1.40, two small bottles of coke for around half that. We take our haul to the beachfront and watch a glorious sunset, well oiled on rum and sugar.

For our evening meal we try the Turtle Beach place next door. We sit out facing the beach and are served by a friendly young woman who, like most Filipinos, greets us as Sir and Ma’am. We feel like royalty. Alex tries the XL burger and fries while I settle for some fried chicken. Not quite the food you’d expect at the seaside but oddly it’s rare to see any good fish on the menu despite the proximity to the ocean.

Dive and Drive

After a much better night of sleep we arrive bright eyed and bushy tailed to pick up our moped for the day. It’s name is James Theo. We’re advised not to fill it above 4 bars of fuel as something needs fixing. That’s all we’re told and we’re on our way! Unsure what to expect from the roads today and expecting the worst, I’m pleasantly surprised to discover the road to Saint Vicente is paved and quiet. We have a smooth ride for the first hour and despite a couple of wrong turns we make it to our marker of Paragua Town in good time. That is sadly where the paved road ends. From here to Port Barton, which is still an hour away, it’s bumpy rocks, loose gravel, dust, sand and even a water hazard making up a so called road. I haven’t done much driving on a scooter and having seen some of the resulting scars in Thailand years ago, I’m keen to avoid any accidents, especially with Alex on the back. It’s difficult and exhausting and I’m now racing against the clock to make it to the beach on time whilst ensuring we keep our bodies intact. Somehow we arrive at the beach just in time and count our limbs. They’re all still attached.

Good road:

Bad road:

We quickly change into our swimming gear and board the boat that’s bobbing around just off shore. We meet our group and dive masters for the day and set sail. Our first stop is the ‘Swimming Pool’ dive site around 45 minutes off the coast of Port Barton. Visibility is not great and the scene is a bit more drab and lifeless than the vibrant coral reef in Cebu. Still it’s what we wanted in terms of being able to practise our diving without our instructor Jenny. One of the more interesting creatures we see is a cuttlefish stalking across the seabed with it’s alien-like tentacles.

Next up is our first wreck dive. The sunken vessel is a cargo ship that sank around 50 years ago. It’s incredible to see how quickly nature has claimed and smothered it with pink mushroom shaped corals. Our guide takes us into the interior of the ship and we swim through a rusted doorway, not an easy feat with a huge cylinder on our backs! There is an air pocket which our guide advises we stick our heads up into. It’s very disconcerting to have your head in open air knowing you’re 20 meters underwater. As we descend back through the large bowel of the wreck, a huge school of fish sit there with their deadpan stare just bobbing around in the water like this is a natural place for them to call home. It’s a shame we don’t have any pictures from this dive as it’s difficult to explain the ghostly sight of a sunken ship reclaimed by the eerily still silence of the depths.

We ascend and board our boat once more. The most difficult part of a dive is removing the giant rubber fins while clinging onto the side of a boat in the choppy water! Usually the dive guide or boat crew help us with our gear, making life a lot easier than when we had to do it all ourselves while earning our PADI. Lunch is a triple deck club sandwich and a mini banana, filling enough as our next dive is not far away.

As we prepare for our third and final dive of the day, some [possibly Russian?] members of our group hawk and spit into their masks while the rest of us use the more socially appropriate liquid soap. “We prefer organic” they state as they swivel remnants of their lunch around the inside of their mask. Gross.

Our final dive is a visit to the Coral Garden. It is not as colourful or full of life as the Moalboal reef but it is astounding in a different way. As far as the eyes can see there are giant cabbage shaped coral sprawling in all directions, providing an underwater world similar to something from a Disney movie. Not many memorable fish live down here but the sunken vegetation makes for another impressive dive site. I’m glad we stuck with our PADI training and unlocked access to a fascinating world below the surface.

We return to the beautiful beach of Port Barton and get a drink at Happy Cafe on the shore wanting to spend a little bit more time here where we meant to stay. Alex gets a fruit juice and craving a pick-me-up for the slog home I ask for a Red Bull. The servers look at me like I’ve asked them to bring me a painted bovine. “Errr energy drink?” seems equally perplexing so I settle for an Americano instead.

The first half of the journey home is definitely challenging as expected but by taking it slow we reach the tarmac road unharmed. The sun is starting to set behind us providing a lovely backdrop to the journey. I play our Travel Playlist from my phone and we cruise home listening to songs that remind us of our journey so far. Bliss.

Rest Day

After such an adventurous day yesterday, we have a relaxed one without doing much at all. The only memories from today are talking to a nice chap on the beach who is opening a cafe in June and is excited to tell everyone about it (despite Filipino planning permissions) and trying a Smirnoff Mule for the first time having seen them everywhere. They’re pretty good.

Long Beach

Another day requiring a moped to get us around and the reliable James Theo is sat waiting for us at the rental shop. We drive South, past the mysteriously closed beach which we have now discovered is closed due to filming of the TV show “Survivor”. We drive down a passageway that takes us to a spot on Long Beach, earning it’s named with 18km of unbroken white sand. Again it’s practically empty and we find a spot in the shade of a palm tree, ensuring we’re out of range of falling coconuts! We spend around an hour reading and chasing shade before finding a different spot to have a dip and cool off.

For lunch we head into Saint Vicente town and I can’t resist the crispy leg of pork that looks delicious. It’s bigger than I anticipated and I end up taking half of it home for my evening meal, throwing some of the scraps and fatty bits to the Alsatian-like dog sat next to me drooling. For dessert we share a Mango Graham, again something we’ve seen throughout the Philippines but haven’t yet tried. It’s very refreshing in the heat and I suspect we’ll be having a few more of them before we leave these islands.

In the evening we head to a couple of viewpoints on the moped. While I’m driving along a sandy, quiet road a loud rumble in the shrub precedes a giant monitor lizard bounding across the road. It must have been 4-5 feet long and gives us quite a shock! After Godzilla has crossed our path we nervously continue onwards, wary of the slightest rustle. We reach the stunning viewpoints and take some photos to cap off another adventurous day.

Where there’s a will…

Right, time to move on to the popular and much more touristic spot of El Nido. How do we get there then? Well everyone we’ve asked over the last few days, and trust me we’ve asked quite a few people, tell us to go to the crossroads and flag down a van. Sounds simple enough. That is until we come to check out and the hostel owner tells us the police have been cracking down on unauthorized van pick ups and people have been calling her saying no vans wil stop, can they get a private transfer. She offers us the private transfer option which is at least five times what we thought today’s journey would cost us. Great. We figure we’ll give it a go anyway and if all else fails we’ve got an expensive backup plan. We take one of the strange electric vehicles that somewhat resemble the Pope Mobile up to the crossroads 7km outside of town. We join a group of locals and through broken conversation we discover they’re also trying to get to El Nido and have been here for some time. A handful of vans pass us by with a helpful toot of their horn to acknowledge our presence at the side of the road with our thumbs sticking out. Luckily our prayers said in the Pope Mobile have been answered and a local bus going to El Nido pulls up after about 10 minutes. It’s not a pleasant journey as it’s baking hot with no air con and in towns the bus stops every few meters to pick up or drop off passengers, but it’s dirt cheap and gets us to where we want to go.

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Adventure – Diving without Jenny to guide us. Driving through stunning locations (when the road was good). Sunsets with rum cokes, it never gets old.

Excitement – Underwater wonder. Larry the lizard, our cheeky flatmate who greeted us each night with a “GWACK” as he scurried back under our bed in fright.

Trauma – Ending up in the arse end of nowhere. Rocky roads. Vegetable chop suey, literally a bowl of basic steamed veg for 300 pisos. So much unwanted sand.

BONUS LARRY