Once off the ferry from Siquijor, we walked to Harold's (our previous hostel in Dumaguete) to use internet to check a few things and book a flight from Cebu to Palawan, the most western island of the Philippines. As it turned out, some plans changed and we now had an extra day, so we decided to stay put for the night (Harold's had become a comfort zone: fast internet, own bathroom, tv, a/c, and a tasty restaurant nearby). From there it was an uneventful sequence of busing 6 hours to Cebu, spending the night, and then flying the next morning to Puerto Princesa on Palawan island. Thankfully, it was a smooth and easy flight.
Once we finally made it to Palawan island we were ready to explore, see, and do. We heard Palawan was less touristy and more untouched than some of the other Philippine islands. Our first stop after Puerto Princesa was Port Barton, a quiet fishing village that was somewhat hard to get to, but becoming more popular. Our bus was nothing special and they really knew how to maximize capacity: cram people in and strap things to the back and top (including people and animals).
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| Full bus ready to go |
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| Yes, that is a pig in the crate they've tied on to the back of the bus. |
It was supposed to be a three hour bus/jeepney journey, but it ended up taking an extra hour due to mechanical issues. We watched them repair the bus "Filipino style". Seriously, at one point, we saw a guy scooping up dirt with a cut-off plastic bottle and handing it to the guy working on the back axle, but hey, we are no mechanics so we can't judge their innovative techniques. All we can say is it must have worked because the bus made it the rest of the way :-). Waiting around wasn't horrible because it gave us a break from the heat on the bus (no a/c), a chance to stretch our backs and legs, and time to get a snack from the typical Filipino "stores" on the side of the road.
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| Guys working under the bus for an hour |
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| Filipino style convenience store |
Unfortunately for us, we were in Palawan during Chinese New Year. We read from a news website that roughly 3.4 billion people travel during this time, mostly by bus, train, and plane. We knew it was Chinese New Year, but we assumed since Palawan was less touristy, we'd be okay. We were wrong! It wasn't necessarily the Chinese either, but more so the foreigners who live in China to teach English and take holiday. This complicated things as accommodation was scarce. In Puerto Princesa, we looked online at places to stay in Port Barton; however, since it's such a small town there wasn't any online booking. The places just listed a local phone number, but since we don't have a phone we were out of luck. We tried to have our hotel call for us, but they didn't have any "load" on their phones. In the Philippines, texting is the most common means of communication because people have to pay and "load" their cell phones with minutes which is pretty expensive for them. Anyway, we researched the places to stay and knew where we wanted to go. After our bus dropped us off in Port Barton, we headed to the first place but they were full. We walked around to five different places before we were able to find somewhere to stay. Kristin was a little grumpy after this process because it was really hot, it was 3pm and she hadn't eaten lunch, and our bags were heavy. Not the best start to our time in Port Barton.
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| This sums up how we felt while looking for a place |
Fortunately, after a night in a crap room, we made it to "Mama Lucy's" place or Princesa Michealla's Resort, where we originally wanted to stay. It was a quiet and relaxing place, and there was a full garden to green up the place. However, the whole town only gets electricity from 6 P.M. until midnight, so the fan in the room went off about an hour or two after we managed to fall asleep. Then, even if we had managed to sleep despite the sweating, the roosters started crowing and dogs barking non-stop after the power went off. So we didn't have the best sleep, but the ambiance made up for it (kind of).
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| Relaxing garden that Mama Lucy tends to |
As for what we did there? Well, besides sit on the just okay beach, one day we went on an island hopping tour. We crammed 8 people in a small boat, 6 of us tourists, and headed out for the day. Others we saw on tours had much bigger boats for half the amount of people. Oh well, what could we do except smile and enjoy as the captain did his best to navigate the rough waters while we're sitting soaking wet because the waves were crashing on/ in the boat. The boat took us to two snorkel spots and two beautiful beaches. The snorkeling was not very good (although Kristin did get to see some more clownfish and another pretty orange fish), maybe because of the strong winds and waves stirring up all the particles.
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| Port Barton beach |
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| Matt enjoying the scenery |
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| Nemo says don't touch the anemone! |
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| Don't know what kind of fish this is, but it's pretty. |
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| One of the island stops |
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| Another island/ beach stop |
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| Remote beach |
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| Our boat |
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| Captain Matt! |
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| Standard view for the day |
However, we enjoyed our day with the other people on the boat and lunch was pretty tasty. Fresh fish, and fresh grilled squid with plenty of rice for everyone. Filipinos LOVE rice.
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| The boat group, less Matt |
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| Fresh fish, squid, and rice |
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| Trying to climb the coconut trees like the locals, but didn't make it very far. |
Another day we decided to make our way to Pamuayan Falls. It was about an hour walk each way, and although it was pretty hot, we appreciated the exercise. The water was cool, refreshing, and just what we needed at the end of the walk. There was a nice pool at the bottom of the fall for swimming and relaxing. It was a very serene place to kick back and enjoy the surroundings.
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| Pamuayan Falls |
On the walk back, while on the beach, we heard, "Kristin! Matt!" We looked up to the deck of the resort where it came from and to our surprise it was our friends, Evan (from Sugar Beach and Dumaguete) and Simon (from Sugar Beach). We were excited to see them again so we spent the evening enjoying some beer, catching up, playing cards, watching the sunset, and having dinner.
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| Just a little magic trick with some cards |
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| Port Barton had some beautiful sunsets |
Evan and Simon had one full day in Port Barton and we told them the waterfall was nice. Matt and I planned to leave the next day to go to El Nido; but, we had the tourist center call places in El Nido and everything (all 50 something places) was fully booked. So, we decided to stay another day in Port Barton and then go back to Puerto Princesa because we needed to do some things on the internet and there was no reliable internet in town. Matt and I figured since we would be there for another day and there wasn't much else to do, not to mention we could use the exercise, we'd join them and head back to the waterfall the next day. :-) It was just as refreshing the second time. The boys enjoyed throwing the football around in the water, plus we had tasty mangoes for a snack. The Philippines has some of the best/ sweetest mangoes so we ate them as much as we could!
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| Evan, Matt, and Simon |
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| Working on the Swiss' football skills |
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| Mangoes for everyone |
That night the four of us managed to get seats on a van that had brought supplies to Port Barton that day and was heading back to Puerto Princesa tomorrow. Perfect. We figured it'd be much better than the non-a/c, old bus. It was cooler, but still an adventure since they squeezed more of us in the van than we planned on. Matt sat on a fake chair that had essentially no back to it. Luckily it was only 3 hours :-). We hung out in Puerto Princesa and used internet before heading to El Nido the next morning.
