After arriving in Manila, it seemed like the airport terminal was a pretty big dump, as there wasn't really any amenities, it was even tough to find a place to eat, as there was only one old and worn down restaurant, although the food ended up being alright. I later found out that there's actually 4 different terminals that make up the Manila airport, and that the 3rd terminal was by far the best and most modern. After eating, I decided that rather than spending money on a hotel room that I would only use for about 6 hours, that I would just crash at the airport again (I know, a recipe for disaster potentially), so I found the airport shuttle, which I had thought would be free, but apparently there's another one that charges a fee, and I was on my way to the next terminal. It was interesting to hear some of the Filipinos speaking in the van to each other, as they would often mix in English into their normal conversation! I had a quick chat with a few of them, and mentioned that I found it to be interesting how they speak, and they mentioned that most people in the Philippines are quite fluent in English, and mix it into their normal conversation to practice a bit.
We were dropped off at the lovely terminal 3, and I found a nice spot to plug in the computer, watch some Boardwalk Empire (another amazing show I've gotten into, if you haven't checked it out yet, highly recommended!), and rolled out the sleeping bag and caught some sleep. I was up early the next morning, and checked in for my flight to Legazpi, although I was so exhausted, and was contemplating just going to find a hotel in Legazpi when I arrived, and just spending the day catching up on sleep. I arrived in Legazpi, and it was only 10 am, and I realized I could still make the trip to Donsol that morning, and find a place, then just sleep there. When I inquired at the tourist information booth, they told me I could just take a taxi to the local bus station, and grab a bus from there, for a total cost of 135 pesos ($4.50), and they told me the local bus would only take 1.5 hours at most, so that seemed like a pretty good deal. I got outside, and a man offered a private van to Donsol, but wanted 1500 pesos ($37.50), so I told him yeah right, I'm going with the local bus, and then he said it would take 3 hours at least....but I was willing to risk it. I arrived at the local bus station, and found the people there to be very friendly, addressing me as sir everywhere I went, and everytime I asked questions. They lead me towards the local van bus that takes up to 10 passengers, and typically waits until 10 people show up before it departs. It only had 6 people at that point, so I had some time to kill, and picked up a few things from the supermarket, where again, everyone was so damn friendly and polite.
While working in Fort St. John the last few years, I would frequent the one Subway sandwich shop there, and there was a guy working there who was always ending every comment and question with sir, and I found it a bit odd, compared to the rest of the staff, who weren't anything like that. I learned he was Filipino, and now I totally understand why he was like that, as their culture is all about polite and friendly service. Anyways, I waited a bit longer for more people to show up to fill the van, when the driver mentioned that if everyone chipped in an extra .40 cents apiece, that they would take the van without waiting for another two passengers, so that was a win, as everyone agreed and we were on our way. One of the first things you notice about the Philippines is the tricycles everywhere, as they take their motorbikes, and add a one wheeled side-car to make a tricycle for cheap transportation. It seems like everyone has one here. You also notice that it's a very very green and heavily vegetated country, due to the large amounts of rainfall, and rich volcanic soil source. We made the nice drive through the country to Donsol, and sure enough, arrived within 1 hour and 15 minutes of leaving...so yeah, don't pay attention to the private drivers if they tell you it will take so long to get to Donsol from Legazpi.
I arrived, and decided to go check out a guesthouse that my friends Amanda and Devon had stayed at the previous year, called Amor Family Farm Guesthouse, so I hired a tricycle, and went for my first ride. They actually crammed about 5 passengers on this little tricycle, and I was quite shocked that a) the small motorbike could actually get us around and b) that the thing didn't tip over backwards, since most of the weight was being carried on the backend. I was actually leaning forward, after every little bump, as I could almost feel the thing pulling backwards and up into a wheelie, but apparently that's just normal, and they don't have any issues with flipping over backwarsds. I arrived, found that they initially only had an aircon room for $45 a night (damn what a shock after coming from Vietnam!), and I asked if there were any cheaper places around, but then 10 minutes later the lady said they had a fan room for only $25 a night..still, quite expensive, but I was just so exhausted and wanted to find a room, and sleep, so I took it.
The room itself was quite nice, although it was definitely not what you would get in the rest of SE Asia for that price, but beggars can't be choosers. I just settled in, watched a bit of tv on my computer, and slept most of the afternoon. After catching some much needed rest, I just had a quiet dinner in the guesthouse restaurant (a local dish made with a Ray of some type), and a San Miguel. I chatted a bit with some American kids, as the resort was mostly full of families and couples (yay for being a single loner again), and not really a backpackers spot, where you could meet people. I didn't spend too much time there, finished up, and called it an early night.
The next day I didn't want to go at 7 am to do the whale shark diving, as I wanted to sleep in, and figured I would try and go for an afternoon dive if anything. I slept in, grabbed some lunch, where I ended up meeting a Filipino named Amer, who happened to be the owner's son, and was just visiting for a little vacation. We had a nice chat, and I found that he's a fellow travel junky, and also writes a travel blog, mostly focused on the Philippines, providing quite a few lovely photos and tips on what to go and see. If you're ever in the Philippines, and want to know what to do, I highly recommend you check out his blog which can be found here: www.ameramor.com
After finishing up lunch, I decided to wander down to the Whale Shark tourist information centre, where you have to watch a video on the sharks, pay some fees, and can arrange the tours. I inquired about an afternoon tour, but they informed me that no one was interested in going yet, and that it was better to go in the morning, as that's the typical feeding time for the sharks. I met a nice Swedish couple there, who had just gone in the morning, and said they didn't see any sharks that day, but were going again the next day, and said I should join them. Basically how it works is that you sign up on a sheet, and each boat costs around 3500 pesos, but will take up to 6 people, so if you can get 6 people to sign up, your costs can be reduced quite nicely. I agreed to sign up for the next morning dive, and not bother with the afternoon dive, and went on my way back to the guesthouse. There wasn't really a whole lot do to in Donsol during the day, and the guesthouse was fairly quiet as well, so I just grabbed a basketball and played on the court for a little bit. That's another huge thing about the Philippines, is that everyone is absolutely nuts about basketball! Seriously, every 5 minutes while driving, you'll see a basketball court, usually very cheap and poorly made, but functional. It's a bit ironic that they love basketball so much, considering they are a very short race, but it's definitely their passion. After fooling around for awhile, in barefeet (terrible idea), I gave up on the hoops, and just hung out blogging for a bit, and then chilling by the beach enjoying a beer. When I ordered one from the bar, he mentioned he saw me playing basketball earlier, and mentioned that a few members of the staff try to play a game around 4:30 pm, so he told me to come join them if I wanted to. After tanning and relaxing a bit, I went and grabbed some shoes and water and was ready to play ball.
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| Chickens hanging out while I eat |
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| Decided to be evil and feed this chicken a piece of chicken...it loved it! |
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| Hanging near the beach, being a loner |
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| Relaxing in Donsol |
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| Whale Sharks love eating Chickens |
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| Riding in a Tricycle |
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| Jeepnys! I've only seen them in the Philippines so far, but pretty bad ass buses I'd say |
After basketball wrapped up, I just cleaned up, and had another Filipino dish at the guesthouse, this time Chicken Adobo, which is a really nice and lightly spicy chicken gravy dish. I caught up with Amer again, who wanted to look through my trip photos and take a few of them to add to his travel blog, as he also interviews visiting guests that stay at their guesthouse when he has a chance. Again, since Donsol is super quiet, and I had an early morning, it was early to bed again, nothing too crazy.
The next day I was up early, rented some snorkel gear from the guesthouse, and made my way down to the tourist information centre. I found the two Swedes, and we were placed onto a boat with a Dutch guy and a German couple, and were on our way out to sea. When you watch the Shark Interaction video, they tell you all these rules, including only 6 people per shark, one boat per shark, keep x amount of distance from each shark, etc etc. Well once you get out on the water, and drive around and around, hoping to spot a shark, and then your crew spots one, it's a full on free for all. Every boat just pins it to where the shark is, and they are just basically pushing and throwing everyone off the boats and into the area where the sharks are. It's absolute madness, especially as you have about 60 people or so, all struggling to get close to these sharks, take photos, swim with them, etc. We were lucky to have gotten close to one of them on our 2nd stop, where we had the shark to ourselves for a fair bit, and it was really an amazing experience, as they are a truly incredible animal, but after awhile, I kind of felt sorry for them, as all these people are all entering their space at once, so much for 1 boat per shark! You also notice that some of the sharks have noticeable damage on their fins and tails from being struck by propellers of boats, so I started to feel worse. On top of all that, my feet had blistered quite badly from playing basketball in bare feet the previous day, and it hurt so much to actually use my fins and swim, that after 3 swims with the sharks, I just called it quits and hung out on the boat. The others continued to jump in and swim around a bit, as they all had underwater cameras and wanted to get some great shots, as seen here :)
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| Whale Sharks :) |
I've also got a few videos that can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfoEPjaXT1I&list=UUBNXsiU27cHBjcuOevuHIpQ&index=4&feature=plcp
Around 11 am we were on our way back to shore, but I wanted to get some photos from the Swedish couple, so we agreed to meet up for lunch. I ran back to the guesthouse, as I had to check out, and move to another place, and settle up my tabs. Unfortunately, like most places in the Philippines, they didn't take Credit Card, and I had actually spent too much of my cash, leaving not enough for the bill. Thus began the hunt to obtain money. Since I don't buy guidebooks, I had no way of knowing that Donsol previously had no ATM either, as is the case with a fair bit of the Filipino destinations, but fortunately, one had opened fairly recently, so I grabbed a tricycle and was on my way to the bank machine, although the driver didn't really speak any English, and couldn't understand what I wanted to go do, so I had the hilarious hand gesture communication technique including a card in one hand, money in the other hand, trying to simulate withdrawing cash from a machine. The driver still didn't really understand this, and dropped me off at a Petrol station, but then found some police officer who spoke English and told him where to take me. I arrived at the bank, and of course found that the machine wouldn't accept Plus cards, so my bank card was no good. I then tried a cash advance with my one credit card, which I hadn't done before, and don't recall ever setting up a pin number for, so this of course also failed.
So now I'm stuck with not enough money, and two cards that don't help me. The bank staff told me the nearest bank machine that accepted Plus cards was in Legazpi damn! I had one other credit card left at the guesthouse in my other bag, so I had the driver take me back to the guesthouse, retrieved the other two credit cards I have, and back to the bank. Fortunately, my one credit card did work, and I was able to get enough funds to settle my tabs, phew! Quite the driving adventure anyways. I checked into my new place, and wandered over to meet the Swedes for lunch, although I was already over an hour late, and worried they might have left without me being able to get their photos. Fortunately, they were still there, but had already eaten, so I grabbed an expensive meal and grabbed some awesome photos and videos from him, as seen here.
After lunch, I figured I would go ahead and book a flight for the next day out of Legazpi, as there wasn't really a whole lot else to do in Donsol, and I was basically just sticking around to see if I actually saw Whale Sharks or not, and with the success of the morning, I figured it was time to head out towards Cebu. I just found a nice pub called Gilly's, grabbed a few beers, and used the free wifi to sort out flights and such, plus I also found out that Cebu happened to have an Irish pub, and with St. Patrick's day coming up shortly, I figured that was a perfect place to head to next. I booked my flight, and wandered back to Amor for dinner, and to catch up with Amer, who had a list of questions he gives to travellers, as part of an interviewing process. After finishing up his questionnaire, and having a delicious and spicy pork dish, I settled up my tab and wandered back to my bungalow for another quiet night's rest.
The next day, I was up pretty early, as I wanted to catch the local bus to save money and get to Legazpi, but figured I should go a bit earlier just in case. I knew the Swedes had hired a private van with some others and were going that way, but the cost was too much considering what you got, so I made my way down to the bus stop. I had to laugh when an American man and his Asian g/f showed up and were asking about prices to go to Legazpi for the next morning, and the guy in charge told them 75, and the guy assumed he meant 7500 pesos for the ride, and he started saying how that was way too expensive, and that's what they would pay for a private vehicle to go. I had to chucke and tell him that it was only 75 pesos, and that was as cheap as you could find basically, so after laughing about that, they decided they would take the local van, but not until the next day. I only ended up waiting about 10 minutes before the van was full, and we were on our way back to Legazpi, arriving fairly quickly again....love the local transportation :) I had a few hours to kill, and figured I would just hang out at the airport, so after arriving to the bus station, I just grabbed a tricycle and was on my way to the airport. I didn't realize how small the airport really was, and how there's nothing to really do there, so I should have found a nearby restaurant with wifi to kill time or something, but oh well. I found a little cafe outside the airport, and ordered lunch there, and some coffee. I again had to laugh, as the cafe stand served hazelnut cappucinos, lattes, etc., but they didn't list any flavoured lattes, so I asked for a hazelnut latte, and they said they couldn't serve that....so apparently, if it's not on the menu, you can't get it! Very difficult to put a shot of flavoured syrup into a latte, as opposed to adding it to a cappucino ha ha ha, oh well.
I just sat around killing time and noticed the Swedes showing up about 1.5 hours before our flight left, having paid 7 times as much as I did for the same ride, win! I went through security, paid my departure tax (which every airport in the Philippines has, and is kind of a nuissance), and joined them in the wait for the flight to Cebu. We caught our plane over, and arrived into the city. They hadn't really made any plans for accomodation, so I joined them in a taxi ride into the city to try and find a spot for the night. We ended up heading down to a place called the City Circle Inn, which was an alright place, with a fan room and free wifi for about $25 a night, plus a decent location. We got all settled in there, and decided to just head to one Cebu's mega malls to kill the afternoon. We arrived there, and Sarah and Joaqim tried to figure out some travel plans for the next day, then we just grabbed some tasty Thai food for a late lunch. After that Sarah wandered around the mall shopping, and since Joaqim and I weren't really in the mood to shop, we just found the bowling alley, and played some pool and PS3 for a few hours to kill the time. Eventually, the mall was shutting down, so we grabbed Sarah, and were on our way back to the hotel for the night, with a late night stop at McDonalds for some greasy Western food ha ha! I said my goodbyes to them, as they were leaving early the next morning, and just hung out in my room, catching up with some people and watching some tv until late.
The next day I was going to check out and go find a cheaper place, but kind of got lazy, and just decided to spend one more night in the same hotel. I grabbed a coffee from the McDees and some fries, and was on my way to get an early start on the St. Patrick's Day festivities. In years past, it's quite common to begin the day at the pub around 11 am or so, and spend the majority of the day there, so being in the Philippines, I figured that I would stay with my typical routine and head down to the Irish pub nice and early. I arrived around 2 pm, and found only 2 people there, both of whom hadn't even realized it was St. Patrick's Day, bummer! I ended up hanging out with them for awhile, but they were both in their 60s, and weren't really too much into the festive mood. I had hoped to eat lunch at the pub, and then have the buffet for dinner, but since the staff was too busy preparing all the food for dinner that evening, they weren't serving lunch at all, damnit! So I just sat at the bar, having green beers and starving for several hours. Eventually it was dinner time and I gorged myself on some very tasty Irish food, but the place was still pretty quiet. It was already 9 pm, and the band that was supposed to be playing hadn't even finished setting up, and the crowd was fairly sparse...I spent about 7 hours or so at the place, and barely met anyone, and didn't really feel much of a St. Paddy's Day vibe, which was a real shame. Compared to past years, where the average age is probably 25 or 26 where I have hung out, I think the average age at this place was probably around 55 or so...so kind of a bummer, especially considering it was mostly just old men and their Filipino wives/gfs hanging out at the place. I decided to cut my day short, and just head back to the hotel early, since there wasn't a whole lot happening at the place, bummer!
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| First green beer of St. Patrick's Day |
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| Wicked Irish feast :) |
There happened to be a place right next to the K5 called Thresher Shark Divers, and they had a little upstairs restaurant and bar, so I decided to pop in there, but found that it was pretty much packed full with divers and staff. I was having a hard time finding a place to sit, but one of the guys at the bar was able to move his computer and I settled in and had a nice chat with him. He had been the head instructor at the shop for several years, and was now running an island off Haiti for Princess Cruise lines, looking after about 2000 passengers at a time, arranging diving activities in the area. I picked his brain a bit about the diving in Malapascua, and being somewhat bias, he told me that Thresher was the best place to do diving through, but he seemed like a genuine guy so I took his word, and decided I would book through them. We ended up having several beers and had a pretty good chat throughout the evening. I found out that he had bought a motorbike in the Philippines and was driving around with that, and that he had actually been driving in front of my bus for awhile, as I noticed a white guy and a good looking Filipino girl a few times on the trip to Maya. Of course, as the world is small, it ended up being this guy and his sort of g/f. She was super friendly, and was quite chatty with the girls at the bar. One thing about Filipino women that you will notice is that when they get together, and talk and laugh A LOT and really loudly! It's pretty entertaining actually to see them get all excited and giggly over whatever it is they speak of. Anyways, it was basically just me and Gareth, his girl and the staff left, and it was getting late, and the place was closing down, so I settled up my tab, but found that Gareth had put several of my drinks on his tab, so I felt a bit bad about that, but he was quite insistent on paying, so I couldn't turn that down. I agreed to get him back over the next day or two when I saw him again. I just wandered back to the room, watched some Boardwalk Empire, and called it a night.
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| Riding the local bus, not knowing what I'm doing as per usual |
The next day was kind of a lazy day, as it was raining mostly, and wasn't really an ideal day to even hang out on the beach, which is too bad, since Malapascua actually has some decent beaches, even though it's a tiny island. I just sorted out a few dives for the next day, and waited for the rain to pass, so that I could go for a little wander around the island. Since it's not too big, it didn't take me long to pass through the village area, and see the sights of the place. Malapascua isn't really known for much other than the famous Thresher Sharks that you can see there, plus other great diving spots, so that's all I was really there for. After a wander around, I just headed back to my room, relaxed for a bit and then wandered back to the Thresher Shark Divers restaurant, since I already had a tab going there, and would be able to pay with credit card, since again, I was running low on cash, and there's no ATMs on the island....it's like life in the 70s or something...can't imagine what it was like without access to automatic money machines everywhere! I just settled in for dinner, but didn't really meet anyone, as the people who were all there were training to be Divemasters at the shop, or else were staff, and already kind of had their little cliques. So needless to say, I was kind of a loner bum again, but oh well. I had a really early start the next day, as the Threshers come up quite early for cleaning, so I was in bed super early.
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| Two locals chilling in Malapascua |
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| One of the beaches of Malapascua |
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| Puppies playing with a feather |
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| Then the big dog comes and takes the feather away |
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| The Philippines is a very religious country, there were churches being built everywhere I went |
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| And they love basketball! Seriously, there's probably a court every 6 or 7 blocks |
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| Simple life on the island |
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| Even the pigs hit the beach from time to time |
Unfortunately, between the mosquitos in my room, and the roosters cawing until all hours of the night (seriously, I thought they sleep during the evening, and are meant to wake up around 5 or 6 am!) I didn't sleep for probably more than 40 minutes that night, which was so brutal. I arrived at the dive shop, exhausted, hungry, and not in a social mood at all, which is too bad, because it was probably a good chance to meet a few new people, but when I'm that tired, I don't feel like speaking too much. We took the 45 minute boat ride out to the dive spot, geared up, and were in. We descended to about 28 m, and quickly spotted a Thresher Shark, swimming around, getting cleaned. They typically reside a lot deeper, but come up to this depth to find fish that will clean their skin for them, so it's a great spot to watch them. We all settled down on a slope and watched the cool thing swim around. Here's a link to what a Thresher Shark looks like, pretty cool looking fish!
After about 20 minutes or so on bottom it was time to head back up, do our safety stop and get back in the boat and head back to shore. I grabbed a quick breakfast when we got back, and then just went and crashed pretty hard for several hours until I had to get up and head out for my night dive at 5 pm. We headed over to an area where you can watch Mandarin Fish mate, and spot several other creatures of the night. There were quite a few people in the boat who were hardcore underwater photographers, so once we were near the Mandarin Fish, they were all kind of in there, taking their photos, so I didn't get to see a whole lot, but oh well....one of the idiots even kept using his flash photography, even though they were told not to repeatedly....it's really a shame how people just don't respect the underwater creatures and only care about getting photos, but oh well what can you do. After hanging around the Mandarin Fish for awhile, we ventured around a bit more, spotting Seahorses, Lionfish, Rays, and some Nudie Branches, which was quite nice. I was having trouble again trying to figure out my buoyancy though, which was quite frustrating, especially when I would go shooting upwards or sink quickly downwards, and in the darkness, trying to keep track of your dive buddy while having a tough time controlling your position is very frustrating....definitely need to keep working on it! We finished up the dive after about 55 minutes, were back on the boat and back to town. After cleaning up a bit, it was time to have an amazing curry dish at the dive shop, enjoy a few beers, and relax. Gareth ended up showing up later in the evening, and his g/f was acting a bit strange, as she came in well after him, and then sat near me, and kept kind of flirting with me....the whole situation was really a bit awkward, so I just finished up my last beer, and called a night.
The next day I slept in a bit, and figured I would grab some breakfast, and settle up my tab, then catch a local boat back to Maya on a bus onwards to Cebu. After eating and deciding to book a nice hotel for a change, using a website called Agoda (basically like a hotwire.com type site for last minute hotel bookings) that Gareth had told me about, and checking out. I settled on a pretty nice looking place, and settled up my tab and I asked one of the dive instructors about the local boats, and she told me that the last one usually left at 1 pm, and it was already 1:05 pm, damnit! So I hustled down towards the beach where they typically leave from, and found an empty booth and a few guys sitting around, saying they would take me over on their boat for 700 pesos, blah! I also noticed a white couple hanging out and started chatting with them, and they said they felt like it was a bit of a scam with the local guys offering their boats for so much, so we just sat tight for a bit, and sure enough, a lady showed up at the ticket booth, and sold us tickets for 30 pesos each. So we were on our way shortly after that back to Maya, and found a Ceres bus ready to go shortly after we arrived, so we boarded that and were on our way.
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| A man and his cock on the boat to Maya |
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| Nice cruise down the highway along the sea |
We arrived several hours later, and I hailed a cab and was on my way to my 3 star hotel (which looked pretty damn nice and more or less resembled a 4 star if you ask me). I checked, and had an awesome dinner at the kitchen, then just had a quiet night in the room. While perusing the television I came across a channel that was only showing cockfights! In the Philippines, cockfighting is a huge deal, as Gareth had mentioned to me a few nights earlier, it's almost kind of sad as you'll see some families with sick children who won't spend money on medicine for their kids, but will buy anything for their fighting cocks....talk about backward priorities at times, but oh well. It was pretty interesting to watch, especially considering they had commercials advertising products such as protein and weight gain foods for your rooster, and various other supplements! Here's a clip of the channel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=mKX99HtAE1g
After watching tv and a movie, I just called it a night, and enjoyed sleeping on a comfy bed for a change. I had a late breakfast the next morning, and hailed a cab to take me to the airport, an hour and a half before my flight, figuring that would be plenty of time. Well I arrived at the airport about 50 minutes before my flight due to heavy traffic, and then when I went to check in, the airline was making a big deal about it, saying I might not be able to make the flight even though I was 43 minutes before departure for a domestic flight. Apparently, they want you to be at the check-in gates no later than 45 minutes before flights....a bit crazy I know, especially considering I waited in line for a good 2 or 3 minutes, with no one in front of me, and no one at the desks calling me up to help for that time frame...but they eventually caved and let me on the flight, so I was on my way to Puerto Princessa.
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| Cebu City from my hotel I hadn't read much into Puerto, other than about this famous Underground River Park that's nearby the city, and has been recently voted into the 7 New Natural Wonders of the World. I figured I had already been to two of them (Ha Long Bay and Table Mountain (in Cape Town)), so why not a third. I was basically just using PP as a step off point to get up to El Nido, which I had heard rave reviews about. I arrived at the airport, and had a chuckle at some Russian guy who kept taking bags off the carousel and realizing they weren't his family's bags and putting them back on, then caught a tricycle to a place called Manny's Guesthouse that I had read about on some other traveller's blog site. I arrived there, and didn't see any visible front desk area, so I just wandered up the stairs into this big huge room area where there were several Filipinos there, and assuming they worked there, asked them if I could get a room. They laughed about that, and said they were guests and that I was in their family room, and that I would have to go downstairs to find the staff, oops! I wandered downstairs and found a few younger girls who worked there, and they grabbed me a room. I then inquired about getting a tour organized for the Underground River, and they said I had to wait for Manny, the boss to get back and he might be able to help me, so I just settled in and hung out for awhile, looking up things to do in the area. After about 2 hours of bumming around, I decided to head out to a restaurant that I had read about on a site, that was a Balinese restaurant called Kailai. Before I left, I happened to meet Manny, and told him about the tour I wanted to do while I was there. Because of the increasing popularity of the tour, since the announcement of it making the list, it was quite difficult to secure a permit and go on the tour on short notice. He said he would try and make arrangements for me to go in 2 days time, as it was too late to get anything sorted out for the next day, and suggested a place for me to go eat dinner called Kinobuch. I also asked if it was safe to walk around at night, or if I should be taking tricycles, but he mentioned it was actually a very safe place to walk, so I just set out on foot to try and find the Kailai place. After about 20 minutes of walking down the main street, I managed to find the place, and found it to be packed with people, and a sign saying it was full for the night, but since I was by myself, they were able to accommodate me, so I settled in at a table for 2, and ordered a delicious Tuna steak. The food and the service was quite impressive, as was the decor of the place. Shortly after finishing up my meal, I was about to head out when I noticed a familiar looking haircut pass by me, into the restaurant. I was thinking it was Amer, from Donsol, who had mentioned he was going to Palawan on vacation for a week and a bit around this time, so I walked through the restaurant, and sure enough it was him.
He had just returned from Coron and El Nido, and was with a big group of about 12 friends, so I met a few of them, but they were just going to sit down to eat, so I told them I was going to head down to a place called Tiki for a beer or two and some live music, in case they wanted to meet up later, and said goodbye. I arrived at the Tiki Bar, and found it to be pretty packed full, but it was pretty much only locals, and everyone's table was full, so I just sat at a table in the back by myself, and became quite entertained by a girl cover band, who appeared to be only singing Jennifer Lopez songs and dancing around in sexy outfits. Needless to say, it was actually pretty entertaining. The staff were also pretty friendly and would come sit down for a bit and chat with me, so I wasn't a complete loner there. I probably spent about 2 hours there, but Amer never did show up, so I just decided to head back for the night. Rather than taking a tricycle, I figured I would just walk the whole way back, and it didn't present any problems at all, so it was nice to be in a safe city, where walking late at night wasn't an issue. The next day I caught up on sleep a bit, and decided to just wander around for the day. I had heard abou this awesome seafood restaurant called Labuanjao, so I figured I would try and head there for lunch, but once I tried to map it out on Google, I found it to be a bit difficult, so I just decided to wing it. I started wandering along trying to find my way there, and ended up pretty disoriented, ending up at one of the ferry terminals at one point. The security guard there was kind enough to point me in the right direction though, and I was back oh my way. I didn't actually find the place until probably around 3 pm, after walking through the sweltering heat for quite some time, but I was happy to have found it, as it was an awesome place. The layout of the place was quite amazing, as you would walk down a long boardwalk into the restaurant, which was situated right on the shoreline and afforded some spectacular views, especially at sunset. I ordered some delicious scallops and lobster for a very cheap price, and enjoyed a lovely feast along with some beers. The restaurant wasn't too busy, since it was lunch hour, but once it became close to dinner time it really filled up. By this point, I had finished my meal, enjoyed a lovely sunset, and was on my way back to town.
  
I got outside and found several tricycles there, so I inquired about prices. They wanted 180 pesos ($4.50) for a trip into town, which was way too much considering it was only about a 10 minute walk, so I scoffed at that price and just decided to walk it back. The area wasn't too well lit, but I managed to find my way back to the main area of town, after traversing a few quiet side streets. Once I was back in the centre, and had grabbed some cash, I decided to just hire a tricycle to make it the rest of the way back to the guesthouse, and to my surprise, the guy was actually honest with me and charged me the local price for the ride (8 pesos). Since he was so honest, I just gave him an extra bit of money, since it was nice to be treated fairly for a change. After having a shower, and chatting with Manny a bit about the Underground River tour the next day (he said I should be good to go, but to wake up at 9 am and double check with him), I decided to head back into town to try out the Kinobuch place that Manny, the guesthouse owner had recommended. I walked a few blocks, and hired another tricycle to get me there, and he wanted 60 pesos for the ride, that the previous guy had charged 8 pesos for....so yeah, if you're a foreigner, they definitely try and jack the prices on you. I told him I wasn't paying more than 20 pesos, and he finally relented. I settled into Kinobuch, which had a massive projector screen showing soccer matches, and tried a Philippino dish called Lechon, that I had noticed several street vendors selling in the country. It's basically just fried pork fat, and it was alright, but not the best meal I had. I probably would have been better off going to a street vendor and paying one quarter of the price for just as good, if not better of a plate of it, but oh well. After hanging out there for an hour or so, I decided to wander back to Tiki for another night of live music and billiards. I arrived there, and found it to be full like the previous night, and ended up sitting at the same table as the night before, chatting with the staff, and watching the same girl band playing. Again, I was kind of a loner though, as there weren't really any people to meet there, as all tables seemed to be full. At one point, this very tall and attractive looking woman came in with 2 Asian men, and sat near the bar and pool table area, so I went over there to play a game of pool and get a closer look. However, once I went up to the bar to grab a beer, she came and sat beside me to order a drink, and upon studying her facial features, I realized that she looked awfully man like, and looking at her hands, I came to the conclusion that she was likely a lady boy of some sorts, so I was then turned off at once ha ha....I just grabbed the pool table and played a few games to myself, and kept catching he/she looking in my direction, but just ignored it and carried on my way. Eventually they left, and I just continued playing pool for awhile longer, having one more beer before calling it an early night, since I had to be up early the next day for my tour. I walked on back, having spent another day without really meeting anyone, but oh well. The next day I was up early to check on the tour, and when I spoke to the girls at the guesthouse, they told me it was cancelled, which was irritating. They didn't speak the best English, and couldn't tell me why, and said to wait for Manny to return in 2 hours time, I just went back to sleep for a bit, and waited until he arrived. After speaking to him, he said that with the announcement of the Underground River being on the 7 Natural Wonders of the World list, the permit system for tours had become a complete mess, and that the agency he was going through wasn't able to secure me a permit, and that's why my tour was cancelled. He said I could try again the next day, but since there wasn't a whole lot to do in the area, I didn't want to stay much longer, so I asked if there were any buses or vans going to El Nido that afternoon so I could escape Puerto Princessa. He told me there weren't (which I later found out was a lie, as there's a local bus company called RoRo that has buses going between Puerto and El Nido about 8 times a day, up until 10 pm at night), but I took his word for it, and just decided to stay another day and leave the next morning. Again, I didn't really know what to do, but had remembered seeing something about a golf course on a map of the area, and inquired about that. Apparently it was open to the public, and located on the military base. It was a nice enough day, and I had nothing to do, so I went and grabbed lunch first at a place called Nenas (which has the best pizza in Puerto Princessa apparently, and after ordering one there I would agree that it was absolutely delicious and amazing!). After having lunch, and listening to some Spanish audio tapes (I've decided to start working on learning a bit of the language), I went back to the guesthouse to get changed, and hired a tricycle to take me to the golf course. Unfortunately, the driver didn't really speak very good English, and also had no idea what golf was! So we started driving along, and I kept making a golfing motion, saying it was somewhere by the airport, but he only understood airport. He stopped twice to ask other drivers directions, one of which spoke good English, and was able to direct us in the right direction. It was a fairly lengthy drive to the course, one which involved several stops at military checkpoints. At the first checkpoint, they asked where I was going ,and I said golfing, and then asked for ID which I didn't have on me, but they let me through anyways, just told me to bring it next time I came. We finally made it to the course, and the driver wanted 180 pesos for the drive, which I again scoffed at. I offered 100 pesos, and wouldn't budge until he finally accepted that (although I would later find that I should have only paid about 30 pesos but oh well). Upon arrival at the course, they were quite friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, they didn't have any left handed clubs for me to rent, but I was already there, and so keen on my first round of golf in 11 months, that I just went ahead and rented right handers anyways! I also had to hire a caddy, and had the option of hiring an umbrella girl, but I didn't want to spend any more money than I had to. The actual golf course was pretty simple and straightforward, nothing too difficult to navigate through, although interestingly enough, it was located right next to the airport, so airplanes would often be taking off and landing throughout the day, very close by, so you would have to contend with those noises, and the military shooting range was also nearby, so you would hear automatic rifles being shot off at most times too! I trudged up to the first tee off box with my caddy, and met a super nice Filipino father and son, who were just teeing off. They asked if I wanted to join them, but since I was golfing with the wrong hand, I figured I would slow them down and said it was okay, I would go by myself, but they insisted I join them. The first swing, was an awful one as expected, a shank right into the nearby creek, but then the mulligan wasn't so bad at all, a decent 175 yard drive with a bit of a slice! They immediately joked that I was actually a right hander, and just pulling their leg. The rest of the round went pretty well, with lots of struggles, but a few awesome shots, considering the awkwardness of my wing. I even managed to par a hole! While walking the course, I got to know “The Colonel” and his son JC a bit, and they were really kind and great people. The Colonel used to be in charge of the air force base in the area, and was actually tasked with building hole number 8 when he was a young officer. Apparently, the head of the base had decided they should have a golf course, and tasked the Army, Navy, and Air Force with creating 3 holes each ha ha, quite an interesting task. Needless to say, the course was pretty simple, and mostly just used by military personnel, and a few ex-pats as well. We had a nice little round, and finished up by having a few beers and some food in the tiny clubhouse, while getting to know each other a bit more. I found out that since retirement, The Colonel (I actually can't remember his name, but his staff members call him that, since that was his rank), had opened up a restaurant and hotel and travel agency in Puerto Princessa. There happened to be a golf tournament at the course the next day, and several of the locals were trying to get me to come join it, but since I had already booked a van ride to El Nido the next day, I had to kindly decline. I ended up meeting the owner of Palawan Pawnshops, as well, a guy who was pretty kind and kept a low profile, even though he owned 800 of these shops around the Philippines, and was doing quite well for himself. After several beers, I was ready to head back into town, and decided I would come check out the Colonel's restaurant for dinner that night. I asked them how much I should pay to get a tricycle back to town, and they told me that they would just drive me back into town, what a nice bunch of people! So we got into his awesome 1980s Landcruiser, with tinted windows everywhere (hard to see anything outside, especially at night!), and were on our way into town. I decided to just go straight to the restaurant, and arrived and sat down with the Colonel, who made sure the beers kept coming. I then met his head chef, and they helped pick out a few of the house specialities, including an amazing organic goat dish, and the best tuna sashimi I have had since Tokyo! Needless to say, it was an amazing feast, the best I've eaten in quite sometime, and it was with great company too :) I can honestly say that eating at Tio Rods was the best eating experience I had in the Philippines, and highly recommend going there if you're ever in Puerto Princessa. After this incredible feast, and numerous beers, it was getting a bit late, and I had to catch an early van ride, so I went to settle up my tab, and found out that the Colonel had decided it was on the house. I felt quite bad about this, and offered to at least pay for my drinks, which they at least accepted, but all the food was still quite a bit of money to lavish on a stranger. I really got to feel the true Filipino hospitality this day, and was so impressed! After dinner, I was back to the guesthouse, and ended up procrastinating on the internet instead of sleeping, and didn't get to sleep until 5 am or so, and had to be up for my pickup at 7 am, boo. I was up, struggling to get going, and surprisingly enough, the van was actually on time...maybe the Philippines is more efficent than the other SE Asian countries?? I hopped in, and of course they managed to pack way too many people in a very small van, as per Asian style. I sat beside two nice American girls who were teaching in Korea, and had a decent chat most of the way, even though I was exhausted and really needed to sleep. The road to El Nido has improved over the last year apparently, as my friends had told me it took 8.5 hours or so to get there, but that time was now down to about 6 hours, thanks to road construction. The ride was still extremely rough, and bumpy at times, which didn't seem to deter our driver, who was flying along at about 120 to 140 km/hr at times, smashing through potholes. Sure enough, he eventually got a flat tire from his driving, and seemed to be quite surprised at the fact that he popped a tire! We had to stop for awhile, until he got it all changed. |
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| And our El Nido van gets a flat tire! |
I met the French owner and chatted with him for a bit, and he let me know that it was possible to get money by using a credit card at two places in El Nido, so my cash worries weren't so bad anymore, although the places charged 6.5 and 8% respectively on their withdrawals, ewww. I settled into the room however, and soon met a New Yorker named Joe and probably one of my most favourite people I've met in a long time, a Lithuanian named Eugene. We briefly chatted, then went out into the common area, and rather than the standard travellers's chat, all Eugene wanted to know, was it if I would like to play a game of chess. Eugene has that stereotypical ex-Soviet block accent, but is just a helluva character and I took an immediate liking to him. While playing Chess, a big Monopoly game started up beside us, and it was quite entertaining since the game was the French version, and none of the players could understand the Chance and Community Chest cards, so my French knowledge actually came in handy for their game. Even though I was exhausted, I still managed to play a few games of Chess with Eugene, although he crushed me pretty easily, as I'm terrible at the game, and kept getting distracted by the monopoly. After a few games with Eugene, a Russian by the name of Sergei (typical right) stopped by and asked if I wanted to play. I tried to get him to play Eugene since they had played several times, but he said I should try playing him, and of course, he also smashed me.....note to self: avoid chess with Russians and ex-Soviets!
After a few games, I was pretty worn down from the 3 hours or so of sleep the night before, so I decided to have a power nap, which lasted about 2.5 to 3 hours, somehow, in the hot sweaty mess of a dorm room. I had the very top bunk of a 3 level bunk bed (first time I've seen one in person), and of course the hot air rises, so it gets pretty yucky up there. After waking up, I came out to find most of the hostel fairly empty and quiet, although an American girl named Rose, an a German girl named Anida were kicking around and up for grabbing dinner, so we wandered off to a place called Squidos that had stuffed squid as their speciality. Joe also ended up joining us shortly after, as they were busy booking an island tour for the next day, which I wasn't so keen on. I had been told Island Tour C was the best one from El Nido, so I was going to do that one, but not for another day or two, as I just wanted to veg out the next day on the beach. We each had the squid, and it was pretty damn tasty, and then wandered back over to the hostel, where a few people were outside on the beach, lounging on some beanbag chairs, and having some beers, so we joined them. We ended up ordering some shisha from a place next door, and then one of the American guys showed us a pretty cool trick he had learned. He brought out a bowl with some water and liquid soap, and an empty toilet paper roll, then dipped it into the mixture, and blew the smoke from the shisha into the roll which created this smoke filled bubble, then snapped it off the roll, and it floated away. It was a pretty damn cool party trick, and soon the local children that were playing on the beach were over watching, and chasing the bubbles. I gave it a go myself, and failed miserably, and the children all started laughing at me! Ha ha ha, damn the laughter of young children stings, but I laughed along with them. After finishing up the shisha and hanging out a bit longer, Rose and I went wandering along the beach to try and track down Anida, the Bosnian/German girl and some Lithuanians she was with.
We wandered along, and apparently passed their table at the one place, without even noticing, but then returned their way and found them and set down to have a few beers. They were a pretty nice group, as they all lived in Ireland, and the brother and sister were from Lithuania, while the brother had a Filipino g/f who was living in Ireland as well. They also had a Polish girl along, and her extremely jealous and prick of a boyfriend from Armenia. I didn't realize how brutal he was until a bit later on the evening. He only stopped by to say hello, and then told everyone he was going to bed, and his g/f stuck around. After that place closed down, we wandered over to a smallish nightclub around 1:00 am or so, and found a pretty quiet place that was winding down. There weren't a whole lot of people there, other than a few drunk tourists and a few Filipino girls (two of whom grabbed me immediately and were dancing with me), but I kind of shunned them, as I'm still always leery about Asian women approaching you in a nightclub, as prostitution is rampant. They kept pestering me, but I finally just told them I had a g/f and that I wasn't available, and just went and hung out with the rest of the group. The place didn't stay open much longer, and was closed within 20 minutes, and that's when the strange events started.
The Lithuanian girl was the first to leave, and when she left the place she noticed that the Armanian boyfriend had been outside, staring through the nightclub window, and then went running off swearing loudly. The rest of us came out, and the Polish girl wandered over to our hostel to grab something from the room, and then her b/f absolutely flipped out. He was yelling at her calling her some very obscene names, and telling her that he was going to break up with her because she was out hanging out with other people and that she should be there with him in the room, and how he couldn't trust her. He was just yelling and screaming, and it was a pretty sad display to be honest. All I could do is sit there and watch this poor girl take this verbal abuse from this spaz case. He finally went back into the room, slammed the door, and she just said we should continue on our way and head down to the beach with some locals we had met. We met up with them and were just hanging out on the beach having a nice time, when the Armenian guy again popped out onto the beach to try and see his g/f, who ran behind us and hid. After he left again, she came back out and we chatted a bit, as I just couldn't understand why she was with the guy. She said she was young, and loved him, but wasn't sure if it was meant to be or not.....in my opinion, she should dump him as he obviously has no trust, and no respect for her freedom and opinion, but oh well. It was getting late though, so we all shut it down around 3 am, and wandered back to the hostel for some sleep.
El Nido actually has power for about 12 hours a day, and it cuts off around 3 am or so, which means the fan in the room stops running, leading to a very hot and sweaty box. I managed to somehow sleep until 11 am the next day, even though it was sweltering. I noticed a guy had moved out from one of the 2nd level bunks, so I moved down there to try and escape the heat of the highest bunk. Because I was just having a chill day, there wasn't a whole lot going on, other than wandering around a bit, and checking out the beach. After catching a bit of sun, and wandering around town a bit with Eugene, to find some cheap rum for the evening, as well as tracking down the petrol station to try and get some money (which turned out to be unsuccessful since they didn't have enough cash on them, and wanted me to return later that afternoon), we were back at the hostel, and found some people to play some cards and monopoly with. For a little while, it was Eugene, Rose, and a Quebecor named Robert who stopped by for a little bit to play, so we decided that with so many R names, Eugene would now become Reugene. This also began to apply to others at the hostel, including an Englishman named Gary, who of course became Rary, and then Lisa, a crazy Australian girl, who became Risa. Reugene, Rose, Robert, and I played some card games for a little while before Robert went on his way.
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| El Nido :) |
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| The hostel |
After lingering around in the hostel for quite sometime, especially with the weather becoming rainy and drowsy, we decided to kick up the card games a bit, and incorporate some drinking games into the action. We ended up playing a few games including horse race, screw the dealer, etc. I ended up meeting a few more new people this day, including two more of my absolute favourite people, an amazing Swedish girl named Hilla, and an English lady named Claire. They both had very unique personalities, with Hilla being loud and bubbly, and always full of energy (which I thought was because she was always drunk, but soon found out she has never had a drink in her life), and then there was Claire who was always mumbling or muttering things that you could never understand, but then would say something clearly that would just come out of the blue and wonder what the hell she was thinking or where they came from, and have a laugh.
Eugene and I ended up finishing off our bottle of rum quite quickly, while playing one of the games, so he went out to search for a second bottle since they were going down so smoothly. The rum in El Nido costs about 60 cents for almost a litre, so it's dirt dirt cheap. We also found some energy drinks called Samurai, that mixed well with them, and would give me a bit of an energy shot....I would have the occasional outburst, yelling Samurai to let others know I was having some, which became one of my trademark sayings. While playing the screw the dealer game, one of the American girls, Chris, wasn't able to drink since she was on antiobiotics, so this crazy and wild Aussie girl named Lisa agreed to be her surrogate for drinks. Hilariously enough, I decided to use the fact that she didn't pay a lot of attention to the game, and begin a Pavlovian type experiment. I played the game fairly, and would dole out drinks to Lisa in a fair manner at the start, by yelling out “Risa, drink!”. As time went on, I would frequently just yell out “Risa” at times when she wasn't even due for a drink, and she slowly began to respond positively. Eventually, we weren't even playing a card game anymore, and I could still yell out Risa, and she would have a drink. This experiment was absolutely amazing to Joe, the New Yorker, who was highly entertained by the whole ordeal. When the second bottle of rum showed up, things got really crazy, as the games just basically turned to having shots of rum, instead of a single drink. Poor Reugene, had to do about 11 shots in a row at one point, and I had to do about 6 at one point....needless to say, the Rum didn't go down so well! Reugene ended up getting pretty ill of course, and we had to put him to bed, as a whole lot of us were heading out to a place called El Toro, next door to have a little party, as it was one of the two nightclub like places in El Nido.
We all arrived there, and I was feeling pretty good about myself, as it seemed that I had 3 of the girls somewhat interested in me. You could kind of tell Lisa was an alpha female, as she would basically charge into any situation where a guy was dancing with a girl, including when I was dancing around with Hilla and Claire. I didn't really know what direction to go in, and was kind of chasing Claire a bit, as it seemed like there might be some interest there. We sat outside for awhile chatting, and eventually walked back to the hostel and made out a bit, but then she just went to bed. I returned after that, and had a good heart to heart chat with Joe over his life's problems, and after that returned inside. I noticed two girls sitting with one guy, and one of them looking very bored, while her friend was getting close with the guy, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I went and sat down, and asked her how she was doing, and she told me she didn't speak English, and kind of acted disinterested. For curiosity's sake, I asked her what language she spoke, and she said she only spoke French, bingo! So I started speaking French with her, and immediately she warmed up to me, and we had a nice chat. At one point, her friend and her wandered off to the rest room, and I started chatting with the guy who was there, and found out he was a fellow Canadian engineer, from Quebec, so we got along pretty good. We hung out for awhile longer with the girls, and then the place was closing. I got outside, and found that a few people including Hilla were going to find some food, so I was keen on going with them, as I didn't think much about the French girl and it going anywhere with her, other than friendship. The Quebecois and her friend and her were going for a walk down the beach, and off to maybe have a swim, and I just watched them wander off a bit, and turned to join the group. Then suddenly the Quebecor came running over, and asked if I was coming with them, and I told him I didn't think it was really going anywhere, so I didn't think so, but he told me I really should, as the girl was just really shy....so I scrapped my food plans, and went off for a wander with them instead!
We got near the end of the beach, and everyone stripped down to their underwear and went into the water. The Quebecor and his girl immediately disappeared, and I was left with the other French girl, still not knowing what was going on, but then she kept getting closer and soon enough we were making out and tried to get up onto one of the many boats parked in the water there, but weren't able to. After awhile, she wanted to wander back onto the beach to see if she could find her friend. We got back t othe beach and couldn't find her friend, so we just found a spot by one of the hotels and just spent awhile there, until about 5 am actually. It started to pour, so we were getting super wet, and ended up being very sandy as well. After having a bit of fun, I walked her back to her hotel, as she had a bus at 7 am, said goodnight, and was back to the hostel for another night.
The next day I woke up feeling pretty rough, and in desperate need of water, not to mention completely wet and covered in sand from the night before. I also found it to still be raining cats and dogs, which lead to another pretty quiet day in the hostel, playing cards and monopoly. I destroyed the group at monopoly, using the tried and true strategy of going for the Reds. Statistics have proven that the red properties are the most frequently landed on properties, so if you can get a monopoly on them, you are often likely to have success. After the big game of Monopoly, we moved on to a few more games of cards, where I was able to win some money off the others, since I was down to my last 20 pesos of cash, I made enough to pay for a meal, win! After the cards were all finished up, some more monopoly began, but I didn't partake this time, as I had to head out to try and get some money finally. The gas station didn't have any reception, so I had to go to the place that charged a 8% charge, ouch! We were actually trying to get a poker game going, as a few people were leaving the next day including a hilarious Dutch guy named Laut, who was going to take a tricycle ride with a guy from our dorm room who was bedridden for two days with some illness. Apparently, there was a place in Puerto Princessa where you could actually rent tricycles and drive them wherever, so a few of them had rented one and drove it all the way to El Nido, which lead to some hilarious looks from the locals. We weren't able to get the game going though, so we just decided to head up to Habibi and have shisha, but didn't anticipate so many people from the hostel being interested in joining. We were able to get a spot for about 6 people, but then all of a sudden we had about 12 people all wanting to join in. We somehow managed to squeeze everyone in, and enjoyed some new flavours including strawberry and banana.
After we all wrapped up the shisha, Gary and I decided to head out and check out this wicked pizza place that had been recommended to us by Rose, but no one else from the hostel wanted to go, as they figured it was too expensive, and would rather go for cheap hot dogs from one of the food stands. So it was just Gary and I, enjoying some of the best pasta and pizza around, it was super great. La Tavorna was the name of the place, and I highly recommend it if you're in El Nido. After the tasty dinner, I just wandered back to the hostel, where I found it to be fairly quiet. After our one big party night, the hostel owner decided to put up signs everywhere, saying that outside drinks and food was not allowed at the place, which is a bit ridiculous, considering it is a hostel after all, and they typically ran out of beer every night when people were buying them, so people continued to sneak drinks in, just a bit more subtley. Everyone was fairly worn down this night, and it didn't look like a whole lot was going to happen, but then Reugene kind of coaxed a few of us into having some more fun, and before I knew it, we were out for Laut's last night, heading back to the Asylum Bar, which again ended up being somewhat crappy! For some reason, flush with cash, I decided it was a great time to buy everyone shots, and thought Tequila was a great choice, but didn't realize that they were 6 dollars apiece, oops! The place only stayed open another 25 minutes or so, and had another early close, so we were forced to wander off elsewhere, but by this point, I was pretty tired again, and just called it a night.
The next morning I woke up and found the entire room to be empty, which was a bit strange, and also found most of the hostel to be empty too. Rose informed me that most of the people had booked into the Island Tour C that morning, since it was a super nice day, but they hadn't woken me up, even though I had told people I wanted to go on it, so I wasn't worthy of invitation ha ha ha, oh well! I was pretty tired and feeling especially hungover this morning, so I just went for breakfast with the few remaining people, that being Claire, Rose, and Chris for breakfast at the Art Cafe. Laut was still kicking around, but I had actually forgotten he was leaving, so I never had a chance to say goodbye to him. We just hung out enjoying breakfast, and getting to know each other a bit more. Chris had mentioned she guided tours around Central America for awhile, and for curiosity's sake, I asked if she knew Kristy Fane, a Canadian I had met in Croatia and in Turkey, who had been working down there as well. As luck would have it, Kristy had actually trained Chris, so they knew each other quite well, small world! After breakfast, Chris had told us about some scuba diving place she booked a trip for the next day, so Rose and I decided to go look into it, but the place was closed for a few hours for a lunch break, so we didn't book anything yet. I just showed the girls where some awesome fruit smoothies were, we grabbed some from there, and then wandered down the beach back to the hostel. I ended up running into the American girls from the van ride, and hung out with them for a bit, then showed the one girl around El Nido a bit, since I had been exploring the place, and knew a few of the good spots to eat and buy things. After showing her around, I just wandered back to the hostel, and then wandered back to book some scuba diving for the next day.
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| The police have their own bird, this pretty awesome Eagle |
The place offered 3 dives for $75 dives with lunch included, but I figured I would just do 2 dives in the morning, and assumed the boat would bring us back to the shore for lunch, so I figured I could come back and rest a bit during the afternoon, so I just booked the two dives and wandered back to the hostel and hung out until the rest of the hostel group showed up, having finished their island tour. I joked around with a few of them, calling them jerks for not waking me up, but it wasn't really a big deal to me. They said it was an awesome day, and showed me a few pics, which made me look forward to going on one myself. I had to laugh about Reugene, who was also meant to go on a tour that day, tour A, but when he woke up in the morning, he decided it was too sunny to go on the tour, so he just went wandering along the beach, and met some locals who invited him to have some rum, and ended up getting drunk with them for several hours on the beach, then returning to our dorm room to sleep off the drink for the rest of the afternoon. The guy is just so hilarious and random at times!
The rest of the night was pretty low key for me, as I had to get up at 7:30 am the next day to head out diving, so I just hung out with the group and played some cards for a bit, until they were all heading out to El Toro for the night festivities, which I passed on, and went to bed. Unfortunately, everyone else got quite drunk and were fairly loud, so I didn't sleep so great and was up early to head out. We met up at the designated spot to catch our tricycle ride to the dive shop, and get prepared to head out diving. The dive shop was a bit dodgy looking, and they didn't even have enough waiver release forms for us, so Rose and I had to split one waiver, which made me a bit leery about the equipment and care of equipment that the place put into it, but in the end everything worked perfectly fine.
We hopped on the boat, and were off to our first dive site, which had a very impressive wall, with some amazing coral, lionfish, and boxfish. The water clarity was so incredible, you could see for at least 20 m if not more away, which made for a really great dive. After that dive, we were on our way to the next dive site, which I was about to partake in, thinking we would head back to shore for lunch, but then they told me that we weren't going back to shore, and that I would be better waiting for the 3rd dive, as it was more interesting, so I had to hang out in the boat for an hour and a bit while the others went diving. I considered snorkeling around, but the current was way too strong, and the coral was a bit too deep in the area, so I just lounged about. After the others were done their 2nd dive, we went to a nice and quiet beach area, and set up a spot to have our lunch, which was really delicious, and provided a nice opportunity to enjoy a pristine and isolated beach. At one point, some people dressed in government type shirts came by and told us we had to pay the El Nido tourist tax to be out on the beach, but none of us had any money with us, so they told us to make sure we went and got our cards when we got back to town. We finished up lunch, and went to the third dive seat, which was super great, as there was a massive group of yellow flounders that you could swim amongst, and the cabbage coral in the area provided nesting spots for a whole array of wildlife including stonefish, scorpionfish, eels, boxfish, and crabs and lobsters. It was another great dive, one of the best I've had to date.
After wrapping up the dive, we were back on our way to town, arriving there around 4 pm, and feeling pretty tired, plus my back was quite sore from the gear so I figured it would be a good time to head out for a massage. Hilla wanted to come along with me, and we joked around that we could go for the couple massage, even though her and Reugene had already been fake married on the beach the previous day. Speaking of Reugene, he had actually disappeared this day, and we just never saw him again, and thought he may have checked out and never bothered to say goodbye to anyone, but later found out that he had went to some local village for a few days to spend some time living in a shack with the locals he had been out drinking with on the beach the other day...ha ha ha what a guy!
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| Streets of El Nido |
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| My favourite Lithuanian ever, Reugene! This guy is hilarious |
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| Enjoying a Filipino cigar, going for the Che Guevara look |
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| Bengals fans all over the world! |
We came down towards the hostel, and found all the Israelis out there having drinks and full of energy, and they somehow convinced us to join them, and before we knew it we were all going to El Toro for one last night, since quite a few people were leaving the next day. It was super dead, and not a whole lot going on, so after being inside for maybe 20 minutes, the place was shutting down, so Hilla and I just sat outside on a boat, and had a nice chat while getting closer to each other, and finally having a nice makeout session on the beach. I had a huge thing for Hilla since the day I met her, so it was nice to see that the feeling was mutual. Eventually though, it was super late, and I did have to get up at 8 am the next day to check in for the Island tour, so we said goodbye, and hoped to meet up again in Borneo, as we were both heading that way after the Philippines.
The next morning was a bit rough, as I only slept about 4 hours before getting up. We were actually supposed to go to the place to confirm our booking at 7 am, but only Claire, who had gone to bed at a decent hour, was able to wake up and make it there. Hilariously enough, Rose decided to come join the tour this day, even though she had already been on it a few days earlier. We got the Israelis up and going, and they were all keen to make the Island tour a booze cruise, so everyone bought a bunch of beers and rum, and got ready to load up the boat. Before going on any tours in the area, you have to buy these tourist tax cards that are valid for 10 days, but I was lucky enough to get mine from Darcy as they had a 10 day expiration window. One of the Israelis borrowed two from an American guy who was leaving, and when the staff checked our cards, I was okay, but then they wouldn't accept the Israeli's card, as they apparently make some sort of code on the cards to tell what nationality you are. Good thing I happened to get a Canadians! It was funny to talk to Elvyera, as she told them she was Lithuanian when she bought their card, and they had no idea what code to mark down, or what country that was, so they just wrote down some weird code on hers. After the Israeli sorted out his permit thing, we were on the boat and on our way. The first stop was a hidden lagoon, which was a nice little spot, although our boat stopped near the entrance way and made us all snorkel, which wasn't such a big deal, except that while snorkeling, there were other tour boats that actually drove through the narrow way and up to the beach, and one of the boats almost hit me! These boats were mostly filled with Koreans, who apparently can't swim at all, so they had to get them to the beach without putting them in the water. After wandering around there for awhile, and going through a cool little cave, we were back on the boat again, and off to a secret beach, that we had to snorkel through a small cave opening to get to. It was super amazing in the area, even though it was small, as the snorkeling was great. I had to laugh when this bright blue fish started nibbling away at the dead skin on my foot. I had paid for one of those fish massages in Thailand once, and now I was getting a free one, just by having dead skin on my feet while snorkeling :) We didn't get a whole lot of time here unfortunately, we had to leave within 30 minutes. While leaving through the cave, I nicked my finger pretty good on the cave wall and cut it open nicely. We then made our stop on a small island with an abandoned church where we would be having lunch.
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| On the booze cruise |
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| The island with the abandoned church |
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| View from the lookout point on the island |
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| Helicopter Island |
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| Approaching El Nido after a day of cruising |
The next morning I tried to get up in time to catch the 10 am bus, but then decided to go for the 12 pm one, so that I could have breakfast, and say my goodbyes. Reugene randomly showed up this morning, having returned from his remote village sleepover, and decided he would come on the bus with me to Puerto Princessa. We had the hostel book us tickets, and found out that they weren't very fair to us, as they first tried to charge us 550 pesos each, even though the sign in the hostel said bus tickets were 380 pesos each, and then they changed it to 450 pesos, as they said it was a non air con bus. We didn't really know any better so we just did that, and then had to pay for our own tricycle to get to the bus station, and found out that the actual bus ticket was 350 pesos, and it wasn't like the hostel even called ahead and made a reservation for us or anything, they just wrote down info on a ticket that we presented to the bus staff. So yes, if you're ever in El Nido and want to take the RoRo bus to Puerto Princessa, just go down to the bus station and buy the ticket before you get on the bus, and save yourself the money. We waited around for awhile, until it was time to go, and then were on our way. I was pretty exhausted and worn down by this point, so a lot of the bus journey I ended up sleeping. There weren't many people on the bus, so we just put our bags on seats opposite to us, and were able to have 2 seats to ourselves for the first 2 hours or so, until the bus started picking up more and more people. It was kind of funny though, as people would always go sit next to Eugene, but never sit next to me, I don't know if it's because I look sketchy or smell or what, but there was at least 4 different people that came and sat beside him, and then got off, whereas no one sat by me. It wasn't until the last hour or so of the bus ride, that the bus was completely full, and two people were forced to sit beside me.
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| Even the bus stops have basketball nets |
We arrived in Puerto Princessa, and tried to find a tricycle into town to the Colonel's hotel. The tricycles said they charged a flat rate of 150 pesos into town, no matter what, but Eugene wasn't keen on paying that much for a short ride, so we waited and bargained and waited until there was finally a local guy who was going the same direction as us, so we could split one with him and pay 50 pesos each, but this still wasn't to Eugene's liking...ahh those Lithuanians! We arrived at the hotel, said hello to the Colonel, and found a room with two singles for the night, and checked in. By this point, my friend Hannah from Vancouver had been waiting for me to arrive and meet up, as I had initially thought I would be in town by 5 pm or so, but didn't get in until 7:30 pm due to catching the late bus. We got in touch and agreed to meet up at Tio Rods for dinner around 8:30 pm. This was also the day of Earth Hour, which was the first time I've ever partook in it. I didn't realize it until I saw a sign at the restaurant, so at 9 pm, shortly after we had received all our amazing and delicious food, the lights all went out, and it was candlelight dinner time. It was a nice ambiance, and Reugene and Hannah enjoyed their food, so I was happy to have made a good recommendation. After dinner was all finished up, Reugene went off to meet up with Elvyera, the Lithuanian girl we had met in El Nido, while Hannah and I just caught up. It was about 10:30 by the time we were all finished up, and she wanted to head back to her dorm, since she had an early bus the next day, so we said goodbye and I wandered over to join Reugene and Elvyera for a drink and some live music.
We hung out at the live music bar for awhile, enjoyed the reggae band that was playing, and had a pretty good time until about 1:30 am, when it was almost closing time and we figured we would head back, especially myself, since I had a 7 am flight the next day, and would have to be at the airport at 6 am. While walking towards taxis, we overheard some Filipinos singing some terrible karaoke under a little canopy in some undeveloped land, behind a fence. We stopped at the fence and watched them for a bit, and they spotted us and then invited us in to join them, and since we're kind of random like that, we settled in for some late night karaoke! It was a pretty hilarious time, especially as I would pick fairly famous songs for Reugene to sing, yet he didn't know any of them! Bon Jovi – Livin on a prayer, Journey – Don't Stop Believin, etc.....so I ended up just having to sing them all myself, and I'm absolutely terrible, but it was all good fun. Eventually we found one song that he could at least sing, Hey Jude by the Beatles, so we got him involved. The locals were super friendly, and encouraging us to continue singing, even though we were all so bad. It was probably around 3 am by the time we finally decided to call it quits and head back to the hotels. We said goodbye to Elvyera and the locals, and stumbled back to our hotel for the night. In true random Reugene fashion, he fell asleep with his computer on his chest, and suddenly woke up 30 minutes later, asked for my facebook address, then promptly fell back asleep. I stayed up until 4 am sorting out a few things, and figured I would grab a little less than 2 hours of sleep, which almost backfired, as my alarm clock wasn't loud enough and I didn't wake up when I was supposed to! Reugene randomly woke up, and asked me if I missed my flight, which of course panicked me as I awoke, and had to gather all my stuff quickly and pack up in a rush and head out the door!
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| The Reggae band |
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| My two favourite Lithuanians ever! |
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| Elvyera enjoying our karaoke session |
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| A bonafide singing star! |
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| The locals loving our Karaoke skills |
I hailed a tricycle, and made it to the airport just in time to check in, where I was overweight and had to pay extra, making the flight just as much as a later flight in the day would have cost, so I should have just done that but oh well. I was in Manila by 9 am, and tired as hell, so I found a restaurant, grabbed something to eat there, and proceeded to sleep 6 hours in their booth. I had pretty much the whole day to kill, so I just lingered around the airport, surfing the net, and not doing much else. For my last meal of the Philippines, I found an Asian restaurant called Cowan's Asian Express, and couldn't resist eating there! The food wasn't really that great, so I think the Asians should stick to Asian restaurants, and the Irish should avoid them :) After checking in, and having my one thong explode on me and become unrepairable, I had to pick up a new pair, and then finally catch my late night flight (12:30 am) to Brunei, and that's where I'll finish off my story.
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| Amazing Asian food! Ha ha yeah right |
A bientot,
Rye
