Palawan

Another quick update from the Philippines trip. Last Friday, we finally left Manila and flew to Puerto Princesa in Palawan island. Palawan is said to be the "last frontier" of the Philippines, being somewhat remote and less developed then the other parts. Even if Puerto Princesa (capital of the island) is a fairly large town at 150,000 inhabitants, it felt wonderfully peaceful. In case I haven't made it clear yet, Manila did not become my favorite place in the world - didn't really like it at all :)

Maybe it was an accident, but the first impression of PP was a "musical town". As we got of the plane at the provincial airport, there was a marching band playing, welcoming the passengers. Later we went to eat some noodles in a small local restaurant and the chefs and waitresses were all happily singing along with some radio hits. Still later in a local mall, all the shop assistants lined up and performed a dance, right there in the middle of the shop.

We spent one afternoon in the town, and left even further the island the following morning - to El Nido, a little town at the north of the island, with wonderful beaches and stunning little islands with karst cliffs and lagoons everywhere around. (Look up the pictures to see what i mean). It was about 6 hours ride by minivan, which we were apparently quite lucky to find. The other option is taking a bus for 8-9 hours. The road is mostly unpaved, passes through the jungle with occasional village or farm around. Just as we arrived here, it started raining (for the first time during the trip) and it remained that way for about 3 hours. We spent the time at a cafe reading Reflex, a Czech magazine, that some other traveler left behind. Finding accommodation was somewhat complicated. There are a lot of beachside lodges and cottage resorts, but mostly fully occupied, as this place is surprisingly popular with foreign tourists. It seems that about 50% of the people here are foreigners, very unusual for this country. We ended up finding a nice cottage a bit away from town, right at the beach - only way to get there is walking on the beach, or, during high tide, on a little muddy path (around the graveyard). Water is cold and only runs sometimes, electricity in on only about 12 hours a day, but it's all good. Maybe except for all the roosters, which wake up and make noise very very early. But really, it should come as no surprise, as roosters are everywhere in this country. In the center of Manila. At the airport. At the beach. Everywhere you go, there's at least one rooster doing the Kykyryky somewhere in the vicinity.

Tomorrow, we signed up for a boat tour of the islands, beaches and lagoons, which will surely be a great experience, as long as it doesn't rain too much.