Puerto Princessa

Day 1 – Love & Peace

Once again we were on the move and this time to a jungle resort about an hour outside Puerto Pricessa (Still in Palawan Island).

We had pre-arranged a private minibus with the guy who had transported us to El Nido and Daryll & Rachael arrived at our lodgings in the minibus to collect us around 9.00.  We asked the driver if he could stop along the way for a cashpoint as we were all pretty desperate.  Entering a town we tried the first one that did not accept our cards, then to another one that was out of action.  In the end we had to settle on a petrol station that took a hefty commission to give you cash advances against your card, but we had other choice!

Now with cash in our pockets we continued on to our jungle destination ‘Love & Peace Resort’ and when we got there it was down a large steep set of steps to the reception where we checked in.  The resort itself was lovely with large detached palm thatched cottages dotted around and a Bamboo Bar/Restaurant area that looked over the river just below it.  Unfortunately we were not staying at the bottom and we were shown up the first steps to the road level and then up another equally steep set of steps to the Bamboo cabins where we were actually staying.

 

The cabins themselves were pretty sweet, overlooking the resort and with individual verandas on each one and a surprisingly spacious private shower room.  We were in one and Daryll & Rachael were in the one next door.

Once we had unpacked and put up our own mosquito nets (glad I bought one along now -  not just taking up baggage space) we went downstairs to try and find details about a trip to the underground river. However they wanted quite a lot of money to transport us there so we went downstairs to the bar to discuss what we wanted to do.  We had a couple of Red Horse’s and decided that we would have to get a bus into Puerto Princessa to hire some motorbikes (the resort didn’t have any to rent out) so we could get to the underground river by ourselves which was quite a way away. 

 

After another beer Daryll and Rachael had changed their minds and wanted to go to Honda Beach the next day instead as it was Rachael’s last day and they preferred to do a beach day.  As Shell and I were going to be seeing a lot of beaches over the course of the next few months we decided to stick with our original plan.

So we asked the receptionist to get us a Tricycle to pick us up and take us to the bus stop (we were told buses go regularly from the top of the road).  Anyway Pilipino Meatloaf picked us up in his pimped up Tricycle blasting rock music out of it and took us the short journey to the bus stop.  We had no idea what we were looking out for but luckily enough for us there was someone who helped us and flagged one down for us, which was just as well as they just looked like regular white minibuses with no signage on them. 

We squeezed on with all the locals and after around an hour or so we arrived at Puerto Princessa coach depot where we were told we could find bike hire places. However this was not the case and after wandering around for a while we asked some Tricycle guys who told us there was a hire place about 5km away, so we hopped into his vehicle and made our way there.

 

Finally we had managed to rent a motorbike although I was slightly worried about leaving my passport as security as we were flying in a day or so.   The streets were quite busy so we thought we would try and check out Puerto Princessa town to see what it had to offer, plus we were starving as neither of us handnt eaten that day and it was around 5pm.  After not being able to locate the coast or Port we parked up just as a big festival/procession was taking place but all it consisted of was marching people and majorettes and was not much of a spectacle.  So true to form we went in search of a bar for a quick and food drink before heading back to the Jungle. 

It appeared that Puerto Princessa did not have any bars only lots of chain food restaurant’s, so we opted for one of these eateries but unfortunately they did not serve beer either, what they did serve was very bad food – Spare Rib’s turned out to be Spare Rib and a bit of boiled rice!!

So not being very impressed with the town, apart from the fact we managed to get some more cash out of one of the ATM’s we thought we would head back home.

Once again we had left it a bit late to go home and we were again travelling in the dark, but at least this time the bike was a bit more decent and the back light worked.  It took us some time as the Phillipino’s are not that big on road sign’s but after taking it carefully we eventually found the turning to ‘Love and Peace’.

When we parked up we were informed our noisy friends were in the bar area so we went down and joined them for a couple of drinks before deciding to turn in for the night.  We were going to have a nightcap on our veranda but the fact we had a swarm of jungle bees around our outside light changed our minds and I (Not Shell) was happy to get inside our hut and inside the mosquito net and turn out the lights!

Day 2 – Underground River/Wait

We had to get up early as we were advised it was better to get up to the underground river as early as possible as it would get busy with tourists.  So after a quick breakfast we got ready and got back on our motorbike.

The ride was about an hour or so but the scenery along the way was very nice and after a while we found ourselves at a pretty bay where the jetty to get the boats was.  We queued up to get our park permit, translation guide ticket and entrance ticket – they charge separately for each (we would get used to this bureaucracy over the next few weeks) and then we had to go to another place to pay for boat tickets!

 

Once we had paid for our boat ticket P1000 (around £15) we were given a number and told we would have around a one hour wait, so we found a little stall and got ourselves a couple of fruit shakes and sat down and waited.  Whilst we were waiting a Japanese tour guide said she had two guests and would we mind sharing our boat with them,  we agreed but she wanted to split the boat 50/50 (Not paying herself), but Shell did not let her get away with this and told her it should be split 5 ways which she then agreed to.

Eventually it was our time to get our boat and we started across the bay to the underground river which we thought we were going straight into. But instead we moored up on the beach and to be fair to the guide she took all our paperwork and sorted whatever needed to be done at the ticket office there.

 

We were then led through the jungle to a place where loads of people were waiting to board smaller crafts to actually go into the Underground river.  So we had to wait there in the jungle sweating our bits off for about another hour and a half until it was our time to get a boat.

 

 

The underground river is a 14km cavern system which is now one of the 7 modern natural wonders of the world so we hoped the wait would be worth it, but judging by the entrance it looked like it would be.

 

Slowly we were paddled into the cave and were met with massive caverns with loads of different stalagmite/tite formations and literally thousands of bats clinging to the roof.  We were informed to keep our mouths shut at all times when looking up – for obvious reasons!!

Whilst we paddled through around 3km of the system we had very cheesy audio-commentary through individual headsets, but to be honest it was better to listen to the man who was paddling us along, him coming out with puns like ‘This is the bat cave – I am not batman, I am Boatman!!’’

The trip lasted around half an hour or so and the system was very impressive but it seemed like a lot of waiting round for a short trip and could have been better managed (a waiting bar at the beach sprang to mind!!).

Once out of the cave we then went back to the beach to get the boat back to the quay, this again meant waiting on the beach and waiting our turn to moor up at the jetty.

 

When we eventually got back on land time was running out to return the bike so we had to miss the lunch at the beach that we were looking forward to.  So we headed back but halfway along the way I realised that we would not have enough fuel to get back and had to find some fast.  We were told that the bike was unleaded petrol so we panicked a bit when we went to one of the stall’s to buy petrol out of bottles, worrying that I would put the wrong fuel in, eventually after managing to google the effect of putting leaded into an unleaded bike and it saying it wasn’t critical we had no option but just to buy a bottle, put it in and take the risk.  It was only a short while later as I was riding along it suddenly came to me there has only been unleaded petrol for about the last 15 years (unless its diesel) – Doh!!!!!

As we were making good time we stopped halfway for some light refreshment where we got speaking to a French girl who was travelling solo and was close to tears as she had been given some bad bus information and had been stranded there.  Fortunately she had managed to arrange a private minibus in a couple of hour’s time and Shell tried to console her telling her it was just a bad travel day and she would have a great day tomorrow.

After a quick beer we were back on the bike and we managed to get it back to town and the rental garage with about 30 minutes to spare and on petrol fumes!  We asked if there was a bar nearby and he said nothing opens until around 7.00 but he invited us to buy a beer from the shop next door and sit in his garage and drink it there, so we did (not that we are desperate or anything!).

Unfortunately we had misunderstood the garage owner who had offered what we thought was a private car back to our resort with his brother-in-law for what was a reasonable fare (although more expensive than busing it) and after a couple of beers in the garage we thought it would be easier to get the private car, only to be informed he had left about half an hour before!!

So going back to our original plan we flagged down a Tricycle to take us back to the bus depot and whilst we were trying to negotiate a price a Italian guy came along and said he wanted to go I the same direction, so we all jumped in and shared the fare (which to be honest was only around £1.30).

 

When we got to the bus station we were unsure about where to get the minibus back and as we asked around a large coach came round the corner and a local told us that is going in the right direction so flagged it down for us.  We boarded or should I say shoe-horned ourselves onto it and did our best to hold on, with locals and some livestock (birds we think) and it was standing room only all the way.

It was also dark again so it was hard to make out where we were going or had to get off, fortunately Shell got speaking to one of the locals on board and she said she would tell us when to get off.  The journey was colourful but very uncomfortable but for less than £1 each for an hour or two’s journey you can’t really complain!

We got off when we were told to and as it was a long dark walk back, asked a random guy passing who went and woke up meatloaf to drive us back in  his tuk tuk to ‘Love & Peace’ Once there we went up to our veranda (the Bee’s had buggered off by then) and had a couple of Rum & Coke’s to relax after all our travelling.  We were also joined by another dinosaur sized gecko.

Later in the evening we went down to the bar area to get some dinner and to catch up with Daryll and Rachael to find out how each other’s days had gone.  They had upgraded to one of the posher cottage’s for the night as it was Rachael’s last with us, but we were happy to stay in our budget hut for another night (at least there will be no strange noises coming from next door in the morning!!!).

After some food and a few more beers Shell and I hiked up the stairs to bed, next day we were heading for a new Island!