I started travelling in Asia once again a week ago today. Travelling first from Melbourne to the amazing hospitality of Ashleigh and Claire in Sydney before catching a flight direct to Manila. After a night in what I can only describe as being a brothel I scrubbed off the travelling dirt and hit the airport once again to meet my cousin and friend from my earliest memories, Emma. That day we met, after a few hour confusion, worry and stress at terminal 1 and made our way across Manilas vast airport complex to terminal 4. After a hula hoop outside we made our way in and that night caught a flight to the beautiful island of Palawan itself.
I first visited the Philipinnes a year and a half ago and when I last said goodbye I made a promise to myself I would come back. In my memories since I had a seemingly idealistic vision of this place to be the most beautiful place I have ever seen. A vision of supreme and sunbathed tropical islands, untouched places, unbelievable beauty and amazing people. This time I am happy to report that my ideal ideas have held up. This is paradise!
Previously in the Philippines I missed a flight to Palawan but without that I would have missed out on amazing places like Cebu and Malapascua. I was grateful at the time, a twist of fate as I thought. Still my plans for Palawan always stayed in the back of my mind and this island and the surrounding constituency of the same name has not disappointed.
We started our time here in Puerto Princessa, the capital. As with most capitals of any large or small place almost anywhere Puerto is a bustling hub of activity. Banks and big business line the streets juxtaposed by market stalls and traditional housing. It's not filthy but it's far from clean. The place we stayed was behind a dilapidated row of shops and through a small door our tuk tuk driver took me to look at the "cheap cheap accomodation" he recommended. As always in these situations I expected the worst and as Emma waited outside with the bags and ride I went to look. It was the most adorable little place. A few rooms with the backpacker holy grail, air con! Liannes place was compact but creatively and beautiful decorated. Thankfully after the first night of celebratory few drinks or ten she had the space to give us one more night to recover.
We booked our bus to the small town of El Nido on the northern tip of Palawan Island on the second day and first thing in the morning on the third we packed our bags and boarded the tiniest minivan for a 5 hour journey to the town itself.
When we arrived just outside El Nido town we were pleased to hear that we had, by chance, came just in time for the local village festival and parade. A traditional festival is amazing to see but what's not so amazing is to find accommodation so we followed our tried and tested method and paid a tuk tuk driver to find us a place he recommended. This time it wasn't so easy but after a few tries we found our place, Strong Tower, it was rickety and old, the floors felt like they might give way at any second, it was unbelievably hot and the bathroom barely had a toilet with no flush. Still it was a place to sleep and a base to see the surrounding beauty.
We planned to stay a few nights and take the bus we had booked back to catch another flight to the central Philippines. That didn't happen. On our second night we met an older Canadian man and after his travel stories stretching back to the 80's we decided to rip our bus ticket up and set our eyes on a by sea alternative travel plan back to Manila via some of the best islands this country has to offer.
In El Nido we got to experience that traditional local festival...
Hula hooped with the beach kids...
Spent our time on many boats...
Travelled to far flung deserted and deservingly epic islands...
And met these guys....
We booked a boat to take us around the coast for the day and by chance ended up with the Manalo family. A bunch of loud and always laughing women coming together in this part of the world on holiday from the North. As soon as we boarded our bamboo boat they were the most welcoming group. We spent the day with them. The first of many amazing days to come.
To Coron....
No comments:
Post a Comment