Marcel joined us for breakfast at Puerto Pension at 8 am. Because he had a bad leg, and we did not want him to climb up to the third floor restaurant of the hotel to have breakfast with us, we had the breakfast delivered downstairs at the garden. It was a very pretty area, with short Bermuda grass, tropical flowers and seats made up of driftwood. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining brightly, and there were hardly any clouds.
We have been up as early as 6:00 am and packing our suitcases. We had to check out of the hotel that morning, as our flight was in the afternoon, and we were going to be busy all day until then.
So off we went. A lady realtor named Edith went with us. Our van driver was the same gentleman who took us to Badjao and Kamarikutan the night before.
We looked at many properties, and just spent the whole morning doing that. It was a good way for us to see the land, and see the pricing of the land, to compare it to my family’s land in Iloilo. We were just piggy-backing with Jose, but in a way, while we were doing our own research, helped him look the land over, and helped him make some calculations. There was land that had a good beach, but had no access from the cemented municipal road. Oh, how he got mad, that he wasted his time for that He was certainly not interested in that. There was land that already had a resort in it, but he did not like the buildings. But then we went to other properties that seemed to have promise, from half a hectare to 2 ½ hectare properties beside the cemented municipal road that opened to a beautiful beachfront. We advised him not to get any of the half a hectare properties as it had a sewer line from the municipal road that exited into the land, and that would cause future erosion plus he did not want the silt from the street to get into his property and spoil his beach when the rainy season came. The land he liked had a modern green house with 3 bedrooms in the middle of 2 ½ hectares, with 200 mango trees in the orchard and two white cows. It had a 4 foot concrete walkway that led from the house to the beach area. It had a little gazebo by the beach underneath 2 mangrove trees. He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders, apologizing that he may have to get rid of the mangrove trees later, but then I told him it was giving good shade to the gazebo. This land was also near the big river, which he thought would be good for other water activities. He said he wanted to buy his own boat and had already priced the boat. He also wanted to buy a horse to use, but I did not see a horse in the whole of Palawan while I was there.
We got back to Puerto Princessa in time to eat lunch at Palayok, their version of Barrio Fiesta in Manila, where we had native fare. After lunch, we took a tricycab and dropped Marcel back at his hotel, and then Jeanne and me went on to do our city tour, using the same tricycab. We went on to see the crocodile farm, then the butterfly garden.
The crocodile farm was full of crocodiles of different ages and breeds, but they looked the same to me. They looked lazy and did not move much, just lay on top of each other. Occasionally, one would splash water as it moved near another crocodile. We ended the tour by taking a picture of each of us holding on to a baby crocodile. It was clean and did not smell crocodilish at all, but who knows what they really smell like.
The butterfly garden was an enclosed garden in someone’s backyard, which was well taken cared of. It had different elevations of flowering plants and the butterflies started fluttering their wings when we entered. Of course the caretakers helped by waking them up so they could fly around for us to see. It was nice. From just seeing the crocodiles, this was a nice place to be.
Then off to their public market to buy dried fish for Manila. I like public markets for it tells one about the general culture of the area, what people generally buy and cook. There were not many fresh vegetable produce at all, and I surmised that people do their own vegetable planting in their private gardens. Their public market was not that big, the dried fish looked old, compared to Iloilo’s. So we did not buy much, but could not resist the banana cue snack that they were selling nearby. Jeanne, myself and the tricycle driver all enjoyed 2 banana cue sticks each, so tired and hungry that we were.
“Back to Puerto Pension to pick up our bags and take us to the airport.”, we said. The tricycle driver mistakenly took us instead to Marcel’s hotel, and who do we see but Marcel standing outside waiting (now showered and fresh) for someone to meet him, again. He waved us down, and we gave our hugs and said our final goodbyes. Went back to Puerto Pension, picked up our luggages and on our way to the airport, passed by his hotel again, where he was still standing outside, so a final shout and wave of goodbye. We became like family to him.
We had dinner at the Puerto Princessa airport, where I bought a basket to be used by the other flower girl for the wedding. Got into Manila at 2100 hrs, and took a taxi back to our Marang home. Jeanne was very good at searching out the spot where the taxis were. It was a long walk, and I would have gotten lost if I were by myself. Again here was the virtue of the tourism department. Before we boarded the taxi, we were given a slip with the taxicab name, taxicab number, and license plate, plus the name of the taxicab driver. Just in case we missed some luggage later.
We learned later from Christinne, my other daughter whose family went to Bangkok the week of March 15, that after they got out of the taxicab, the driver did not open the trunk but just drove on with their suitcase in the trunk. They were never able to recover these. Another guest in the hotel told them that a similar thing happened to him. Unfortunate incidents that maybe a fluke, but this would never have happened in Manila nor in Palawan when I was there.
Despite the traffic, we were at the Marang house in an hour, and eating supper. A good warm bath and early bedtime rest was in order. Then packed my bags again, for the following day, I was traveling to Iloilo with my mother.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Honda Bay, Palawan
Thursday, March 4,2010: Honda Bay
Between Pepito, and our van driver the day before, we found Marcel and the hotel where he stayed. We went there early in the morning, after we asked for our Honda Bay tour van to pick us up from his hotel, to give us a chance to talk to him. He was pleasantly surprised to see us, and we invited him to have dinner with us later that evening at Badjao and coffee afterwards at Kamarikutan to meet the owner of the land that he said he was interested to see. We also wanted him to meet Dayang Dayang. He was impatient though, as by 3 pm he was already calling us, but we could not answer his call as we were in the middle of Honda bay. We did text him to tell him where we were and give him an idea of when we got into town.
Honda Bay, was beautiful. In our boat, we had the family of Victor, Blessie, Sam and Michael Gamboa from Manila, Iaian and Maryjelle Price from England, and Luis, Kim and Cris from Catalan, Spain.
Again when we got to the port to embark on our boats, the tourism authority made sure that we wrote our names as a headcount of all who went out on boats, and which boats. Our tourist guide was Gloria and was accountable for all of us. We first sailed into the coral reefs in the middle of the bay. We were given life vests and would transfer from the boat to a hut in the middle of the sea, which was the jump off point for snorkeling the coral reef. Alas, this was something I could not do. My vertigo gets bad when my head gets into the horizontal position, and in water? I did not want to risk anything. So, I sent my underwater camera with the captain and diver of the boat, and he took some awesome pictures. I had no idea how beautiful it was under the water. I confess that I did not experience snorkeling and diving at Honda Bay because of my vertigo, but I did experience it, for did I not see the coral reefs and fish?
Next stop was Pandan Island, noted for the giant spiky leaved pandanus plants that lined the beaches. More snorkeling, walking by the beach, and then lunch. While others continued to swim and snorkel, Jeanne and I indulged in a wonderful massage with virgin coconut oil. It just hit the spot, and I think helped us not get too sunburnt.
Third stop was Snake Island, and this island was full of mangroves, that all you could do was walk the beach- front perimeter. The island is very hot, and has no shady trees to rest under. Snake Island is about 8 km long from point to point, and is shaped like a snake, hence how it got it’s name. There are no snakes on Snake Island contrary to its name. While the group went off to swim and snorkel again, the boatmen bought fresh big fish from fishermen off the island. It was too hot, and by this time I was really exhausted by the heat. Jeanne and I stayed on the boat to sleep. I sent my camera off with the captain of the boat again, and got to see the biggest tropical fish in this area. The other passengers of the boat, also told us that there were siukoys (mermaids and mermen) jokingly referring to themselves being in the picture as they swam and snorkeled alongside the fish.
Coming back to port, our guide pointed out an island called Lu-li meaning lulubog – lilitaw. Part of it would submerge during high tide. It had two houses on it, though, and looked like it was occupied and busy when we passed by. Interesting!
We got into Puerto Princessa at around 5 pm, then proceeded to our hotel to freshen up. Then off to pick up Marcel at around 6 pm. Our van driver from Honda Bay said that he would be pleased to take us to the Badjao Restaurant and then Kamarikutan, as he did not live that far. So we had good transportation. Badjao Restaurant was the restaurant to be at sunset in Puerto Princessa. We ordered their seafood platter. Here, you get to eat good food, and watch the beautiful sunset at the same time. It had a fantastic view and I kept taking pictures of the different stages of the sunset. The entrance of the restaurant is a bridge through a very prolific mangrove swamp. Tall mangrove trees with roots jutting out of the water lined both sides of the bridge which gets you to the restaurant that is on stilts on top of the bay.
After Badjao, we proceeded to Kamarikutan for coffee. Alas, Dayang Dayang had already left, but she left me 3 tongatongs, plus a magazine about Palawan. I so wanted Marcel to meet her as she was such a high class personality living in Puerto Princessa, but I guess it was not meant to be. The girl who worked for her, whose aunt wanted to sell her beach property in south Palawan showed us the land title, etc., but the land was about 4 hours away, and Marcel was not interested to buy land that far from Puerto Princessa.
Hearing our conversation, our van driver said that he knew of beach property being sold around Honda Bay. Marcel wanted us to go with him, and when we left each other that night, we were to see each other in the morning and accompany Marcel as he looked for his beach property.
Between Pepito, and our van driver the day before, we found Marcel and the hotel where he stayed. We went there early in the morning, after we asked for our Honda Bay tour van to pick us up from his hotel, to give us a chance to talk to him. He was pleasantly surprised to see us, and we invited him to have dinner with us later that evening at Badjao and coffee afterwards at Kamarikutan to meet the owner of the land that he said he was interested to see. We also wanted him to meet Dayang Dayang. He was impatient though, as by 3 pm he was already calling us, but we could not answer his call as we were in the middle of Honda bay. We did text him to tell him where we were and give him an idea of when we got into town.
Honda Bay, was beautiful. In our boat, we had the family of Victor, Blessie, Sam and Michael Gamboa from Manila, Iaian and Maryjelle Price from England, and Luis, Kim and Cris from Catalan, Spain.
Again when we got to the port to embark on our boats, the tourism authority made sure that we wrote our names as a headcount of all who went out on boats, and which boats. Our tourist guide was Gloria and was accountable for all of us. We first sailed into the coral reefs in the middle of the bay. We were given life vests and would transfer from the boat to a hut in the middle of the sea, which was the jump off point for snorkeling the coral reef. Alas, this was something I could not do. My vertigo gets bad when my head gets into the horizontal position, and in water? I did not want to risk anything. So, I sent my underwater camera with the captain and diver of the boat, and he took some awesome pictures. I had no idea how beautiful it was under the water. I confess that I did not experience snorkeling and diving at Honda Bay because of my vertigo, but I did experience it, for did I not see the coral reefs and fish?
Next stop was Pandan Island, noted for the giant spiky leaved pandanus plants that lined the beaches. More snorkeling, walking by the beach, and then lunch. While others continued to swim and snorkel, Jeanne and I indulged in a wonderful massage with virgin coconut oil. It just hit the spot, and I think helped us not get too sunburnt.
Third stop was Snake Island, and this island was full of mangroves, that all you could do was walk the beach- front perimeter. The island is very hot, and has no shady trees to rest under. Snake Island is about 8 km long from point to point, and is shaped like a snake, hence how it got it’s name. There are no snakes on Snake Island contrary to its name. While the group went off to swim and snorkel again, the boatmen bought fresh big fish from fishermen off the island. It was too hot, and by this time I was really exhausted by the heat. Jeanne and I stayed on the boat to sleep. I sent my camera off with the captain of the boat again, and got to see the biggest tropical fish in this area. The other passengers of the boat, also told us that there were siukoys (mermaids and mermen) jokingly referring to themselves being in the picture as they swam and snorkeled alongside the fish.
Coming back to port, our guide pointed out an island called Lu-li meaning lulubog – lilitaw. Part of it would submerge during high tide. It had two houses on it, though, and looked like it was occupied and busy when we passed by. Interesting!
We got into Puerto Princessa at around 5 pm, then proceeded to our hotel to freshen up. Then off to pick up Marcel at around 6 pm. Our van driver from Honda Bay said that he would be pleased to take us to the Badjao Restaurant and then Kamarikutan, as he did not live that far. So we had good transportation. Badjao Restaurant was the restaurant to be at sunset in Puerto Princessa. We ordered their seafood platter. Here, you get to eat good food, and watch the beautiful sunset at the same time. It had a fantastic view and I kept taking pictures of the different stages of the sunset. The entrance of the restaurant is a bridge through a very prolific mangrove swamp. Tall mangrove trees with roots jutting out of the water lined both sides of the bridge which gets you to the restaurant that is on stilts on top of the bay.
After Badjao, we proceeded to Kamarikutan for coffee. Alas, Dayang Dayang had already left, but she left me 3 tongatongs, plus a magazine about Palawan. I so wanted Marcel to meet her as she was such a high class personality living in Puerto Princessa, but I guess it was not meant to be. The girl who worked for her, whose aunt wanted to sell her beach property in south Palawan showed us the land title, etc., but the land was about 4 hours away, and Marcel was not interested to buy land that far from Puerto Princessa.
Hearing our conversation, our van driver said that he knew of beach property being sold around Honda Bay. Marcel wanted us to go with him, and when we left each other that night, we were to see each other in the morning and accompany Marcel as he looked for his beach property.
Subterranean Caves by Sabang Beach in Palawan
Wednesday, March 3,2010 Subterranean Caves Tour – (Note: some names have been altered in this blog to protect people’s privacy.) We woke up early and had breakfast by 7:00, then were outside the hotel at 8:30 to wait for our van to take us to Sabang Beach where we were to embark on the Subterranean Caves tour. There were only 6 of us in the van, and it was just right for comfort. There was a gentleman from Canada, whose name was Marcel sitting by the driver, a couple from Manila , a young Filipino couple named Jonathan and Debbie who sat behind the driver. On the second row, a German boy named Gerdrich who had an Italian surname. I took over the third row, and Jeanne, the last row. The trip to Sabang Beach was about 3 hours, but halfway we stopped at a high point in the mountains to take pictures of the beautiful bay below us, as well as to make a pit-stop. There was a souvenir shop where I took advantage of buying souvenirs for my friends in the US. They also sold hot, freshly made “turon na saging” - crisp fried saba banana eggrolls with a sprinkling of muscovado sugar. I haven’t had this for a while, so I indulged myself by eating one piece. It was delicious!
An hour later, we made it to a beach resort to eat lunch first. Here, we witnessed brave Gerdrich eating tamiloc, a worm-like mullosk found in mangrove trees, which was supposed to be the delicacy of the area. We watched him put inside his mouth several foot long lengths of that morsel, and despite our silent “eeow” grimaces, just let him indulge in it and enjoy it. Marcel liked the stir fried kangkong (water spinach). As for me, fresh buko coconut water and young coconut meat was my indulgence. It was a hot day, and we needed hydration, and what better natural nutrients could be had than those found in fresh coconut juice. There was a lady preparing halo-halo nearby so all of us at our table had that shaved ice with sweet beans, jello, candied bananas, yams topped by thick evaporated milk for dessert.
From Sabang Beach, we got into a boat to take us to the Subterranean caves. When we got there, we saw a lot of monkeys playing by the beach, but were told to stay away from them, because they would snatch away belongings, especially if they thought it had food. When we walked into the entrance of the forest path, we were met by a big five-foot brownish-grey monitor lizard, with a long forked blue tongue. I asked the guide if it would bite, noting that it did not seem to have teeth, and when he answered “no”, I ran after the lizard to take several pictures. It moved slowly and did not seem to mind me and the small crowd behind me, just stuck it’s long blue tongue out for everyone to see. My daughter later laughingly joked….. “it does not bite, it just swallows, but you’re too big for him to swallow.” So, sometimes it’s good to be big enough.
We walked inside the jungle path to a beautiful cove of clear turquoise colored waters which led into the subterranean caves. Here is where I appreciated the Palawan tourism department, for it made a head count of all of us, and for our safety, a record of who got in and out of the caves.
There were 10 people in our boat, (six of us in our group was joined by another 4) and we were seated 2 people abreast. The first person in front held the lantern by which we could see the cave formations. Our boat guide also paddled the boat. Only paddled boats were allowed inside (no boats run by motor to keep the water clean), and it was very quiet except for the movement of the paddle on the water, and the occasional tic-tic-tic of fruit bats as they made their way through us in the cave.
We looked like orange aliens because of our reflector colored life vests with the orange hard hats we donned to protect us from occasional stones falling out of the cave stalactites or falling bat-dung which they jokingly called “holy shit” coming from the bats who clung on the cave roof.
There was no order on getting into the boat, and I just so happened to sit with Marcel who adjusted my hard hat outside, before we got into the darkness of the cave. Jeanne and Gerdrich sat behind us. Marcel reached into the water, tasted it, and said it was not as salty because of the fresh water coming from the caves. Not thinking, I also reached down with my finger and tasted the water, agreeing with him. Later though, I found out that bat dung was mixed in with the fresh water, so that was not so kosher, I thought. With all of the weight of 11 people in the boat (including the boat man), the boat sank a few inches, and the water was only about 3-4 inches away from my hand at the edge of the boat.
We entered the cave and explored it for about a mile and a half before we turned back out. On our way out of the caves, I noticed that Marcel took off his hard-hat and then slumped over, dropping whatever he was holding in his hand with a “clunk”. I got alarmed because he was leaning to the right and about to fall into the water. I was on his left side, so I pulled him back by his arm and asked “Are you alright?” He mumbled, and said he was, then started to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk – just to let me know that he was awake and okay. I was not impressed, because what he was saying made no sense, so when we got out of the caves, gave him a quick medical appraisal. Apparently he was just very tired and jetlagged to sleep. It was however, not a good place to do it. I got an appreciative hug for my attention though.
The subterranean cave was very impressive, and its highest ceiling inside rose to about 65 meters. It makes one realize how awesome God’s world is. Remember that we were paddling on a river underneath a mountain. The river traversed the cave underground for a long stretch, and we were told that it goes on for about 8 kilometers. We only went in 1.5 kilometers. Outside, the mountain range was known as St. Paul, as a British explorer earlier compared it to the dome of St. Paul’s cathedral in London. The whole experience took about 45 minutes.
Inside, stalactite and stalagmite formations fell from the ceiling and rose from the floor. Among the formations I remember were the ones which looked like images of saints and deities in the big cathedral area, the area where there were vegetable looking formations, and the face of Christ on the right side, coming out. We saw bats hanging from the ceiling, and occasionally we could hear them flying through the darkness sending their radar sounds out. There was water dripping on us, or was that “holy shit”? The rough walls were later taken over by a smooth highway where it looked just like we were under a “fly-over” or a bridge and the river went in a straight line for as far as we could see. But this is where we started to turn back.
“Do you want to experience the darkness?” asked our guide. We excitedly said “yes!”, so he asked our torchman to turn the light out. He also stopped rowing, and we were at a standstill. For as many seconds that took, the combination of the darkness and the stillness was moving. It was pitch dark, and silence overtook everyone. When he turned the light on again, he asked, “do you want to experience the darkness again?” and when some members of our group said “yes” he said, “then close your eyes….. it’s the same thing.” He was funny, and would occasionally beat on the water with his paddle to alarm us. When someone in our group would ask nervously, “what’s that?”, he would laughingly let us know not to worry, because there were no crocodiles living in that water.
As our boat silently sailed out of the cave into the light, the mouth of the cave opening looked very dramatic, and when we got out into the sunlight again, it was like we came back into life. It was like coming from death to life, and being humbly reminded of our mortality, our smallness and finiteness in God’s awesome world. For some it may just have been a physical adventure inside the caves, but it had a deep spiritual significance for me.
The ride back to Puerto Princessa was uneventful, for all 6 of us took to sleeping and snoring to the music of Enrique Iglesias which our driver seemed to like. It was tacky listening to it after a while, but when you’re tired and sleepy, who cares? I think the snoring of all six of us, took over the music, and that’s when the driver realized we did not care, so he just turned it on louder for his own entertainment. It was blaring louder when we got into town and finally woke up.
We got back to Puerto Princessa at around 5:30 pm. There was a traffic jam, as there was a parade in town for a week-long community celebration. We watched part of the parade go by before we could proceed, and because some of the streets were closed to traffic, we, who stayed at Puerto Pension were the first ones to be dropped off.
After we freshened up, we got into a tricycle to take us to Badjao Restaurant, which was way out of the regular traffic area. I’m glad that we did not let the tricycle go, because the restaurant was closed to the public that night because of a wedding. Badjao was down near the beach area, and the tricycle seemed not to have enough power to get up the hill to get out of the parking lot, so the driver asked Jeanne to get out and walk up the hill to meet us there. I rode on, and I asked him why he asked Jeanne to go down and walk up the hill, and not me, and he just said politely, “understandable naman po.” Jeanne is about 50 lbs heavier than me.
We returned to town again, and proceeded to Kamarikutan, which was another place recommended by my sister Chona.
Kamarikutan….. was a unique experience in itself. It was a bamboo and nipa hut establishment, that was owned by a lady who called herself Dayang-Dayang. There was a big convention, and people were all over the place, from the gardens to the round dining nipa hut area, to the museum area which displayed ethnic Palawan instruments, and paintings of local artists. People were thinning out when we arrived. Because the eating area was still full, we decided to sit in the living room area. Here, the chairs and tables were made of driftwood, or ethnic bamboo. The problem was, it was quite dark, and there were mosquitoes in the dark corners of the place. So, we eventually moved to the dining area, where they had katols (mosquito deterent smoke coils) underneath the tables to ward off the mosquitoes.
Although connected to the main hall, the dining area was surrounded by a flow of water where white, red and spotted black carp swam. The water started as a fountain by the entrance, and went around to the other side of the round dining area, like a moat. It was quite impressive.
We were probably the last few people there, and Dayang-Dayang approached us, thanking us for patronizing the place. It was then when I noticed that the silverware were placed inside bamboo tubes, and the tubes were decorated with ancient Filipino syllabary. It was actually a tongatong. So the conversation went into the making of these, and the type of bamboo that it was made of. I made tongatongs for my Filipino Folk Arts Theater in Dallas, but the bamboo that was available for me to use was not as sturdy as the Palawan bamboo that they had. I asked if I could buy some tongatongs, and she said if I came back the following day, she might just give me some.
Conversation went into the culture of Palawan, how immigrants from all over the Philippines had moved to Puerto Princessa, the security and peace situation which she said was the best she’s ever seen compared to other urban cities, and the nature conservation which despite the many tourists that come, they are still able to conserve their natural resources. We talked about land and beach property and she told us that foreigners are attracted to them, but that they should be wary of whom they purchase it from. The girl who worked for her, had family property in Narra, Palawan that they wanted to sell. It was beach frontage with coconut trees. It was also not very expensive, so remembering Marcel of our subterranean cave adventure, we thought that this may be something he would be interested in.
When we got back to our hotel, we called Pepito, and did some detective work to see where Marcel stayed, and how we could get in touch with him. We found him, and later was able to leave a message at his hotel for him to have dinner with us the following day, to introduce him to Dayang Dayang himself as well as the lady who owned the land.
An hour later, we made it to a beach resort to eat lunch first. Here, we witnessed brave Gerdrich eating tamiloc, a worm-like mullosk found in mangrove trees, which was supposed to be the delicacy of the area. We watched him put inside his mouth several foot long lengths of that morsel, and despite our silent “eeow” grimaces, just let him indulge in it and enjoy it. Marcel liked the stir fried kangkong (water spinach). As for me, fresh buko coconut water and young coconut meat was my indulgence. It was a hot day, and we needed hydration, and what better natural nutrients could be had than those found in fresh coconut juice. There was a lady preparing halo-halo nearby so all of us at our table had that shaved ice with sweet beans, jello, candied bananas, yams topped by thick evaporated milk for dessert.
From Sabang Beach, we got into a boat to take us to the Subterranean caves. When we got there, we saw a lot of monkeys playing by the beach, but were told to stay away from them, because they would snatch away belongings, especially if they thought it had food. When we walked into the entrance of the forest path, we were met by a big five-foot brownish-grey monitor lizard, with a long forked blue tongue. I asked the guide if it would bite, noting that it did not seem to have teeth, and when he answered “no”, I ran after the lizard to take several pictures. It moved slowly and did not seem to mind me and the small crowd behind me, just stuck it’s long blue tongue out for everyone to see. My daughter later laughingly joked….. “it does not bite, it just swallows, but you’re too big for him to swallow.” So, sometimes it’s good to be big enough.
We walked inside the jungle path to a beautiful cove of clear turquoise colored waters which led into the subterranean caves. Here is where I appreciated the Palawan tourism department, for it made a head count of all of us, and for our safety, a record of who got in and out of the caves.
There were 10 people in our boat, (six of us in our group was joined by another 4) and we were seated 2 people abreast. The first person in front held the lantern by which we could see the cave formations. Our boat guide also paddled the boat. Only paddled boats were allowed inside (no boats run by motor to keep the water clean), and it was very quiet except for the movement of the paddle on the water, and the occasional tic-tic-tic of fruit bats as they made their way through us in the cave.
We looked like orange aliens because of our reflector colored life vests with the orange hard hats we donned to protect us from occasional stones falling out of the cave stalactites or falling bat-dung which they jokingly called “holy shit” coming from the bats who clung on the cave roof.
There was no order on getting into the boat, and I just so happened to sit with Marcel who adjusted my hard hat outside, before we got into the darkness of the cave. Jeanne and Gerdrich sat behind us. Marcel reached into the water, tasted it, and said it was not as salty because of the fresh water coming from the caves. Not thinking, I also reached down with my finger and tasted the water, agreeing with him. Later though, I found out that bat dung was mixed in with the fresh water, so that was not so kosher, I thought. With all of the weight of 11 people in the boat (including the boat man), the boat sank a few inches, and the water was only about 3-4 inches away from my hand at the edge of the boat.
We entered the cave and explored it for about a mile and a half before we turned back out. On our way out of the caves, I noticed that Marcel took off his hard-hat and then slumped over, dropping whatever he was holding in his hand with a “clunk”. I got alarmed because he was leaning to the right and about to fall into the water. I was on his left side, so I pulled him back by his arm and asked “Are you alright?” He mumbled, and said he was, then started to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk – just to let me know that he was awake and okay. I was not impressed, because what he was saying made no sense, so when we got out of the caves, gave him a quick medical appraisal. Apparently he was just very tired and jetlagged to sleep. It was however, not a good place to do it. I got an appreciative hug for my attention though.
The subterranean cave was very impressive, and its highest ceiling inside rose to about 65 meters. It makes one realize how awesome God’s world is. Remember that we were paddling on a river underneath a mountain. The river traversed the cave underground for a long stretch, and we were told that it goes on for about 8 kilometers. We only went in 1.5 kilometers. Outside, the mountain range was known as St. Paul, as a British explorer earlier compared it to the dome of St. Paul’s cathedral in London. The whole experience took about 45 minutes.
Inside, stalactite and stalagmite formations fell from the ceiling and rose from the floor. Among the formations I remember were the ones which looked like images of saints and deities in the big cathedral area, the area where there were vegetable looking formations, and the face of Christ on the right side, coming out. We saw bats hanging from the ceiling, and occasionally we could hear them flying through the darkness sending their radar sounds out. There was water dripping on us, or was that “holy shit”? The rough walls were later taken over by a smooth highway where it looked just like we were under a “fly-over” or a bridge and the river went in a straight line for as far as we could see. But this is where we started to turn back.
“Do you want to experience the darkness?” asked our guide. We excitedly said “yes!”, so he asked our torchman to turn the light out. He also stopped rowing, and we were at a standstill. For as many seconds that took, the combination of the darkness and the stillness was moving. It was pitch dark, and silence overtook everyone. When he turned the light on again, he asked, “do you want to experience the darkness again?” and when some members of our group said “yes” he said, “then close your eyes….. it’s the same thing.” He was funny, and would occasionally beat on the water with his paddle to alarm us. When someone in our group would ask nervously, “what’s that?”, he would laughingly let us know not to worry, because there were no crocodiles living in that water.
As our boat silently sailed out of the cave into the light, the mouth of the cave opening looked very dramatic, and when we got out into the sunlight again, it was like we came back into life. It was like coming from death to life, and being humbly reminded of our mortality, our smallness and finiteness in God’s awesome world. For some it may just have been a physical adventure inside the caves, but it had a deep spiritual significance for me.
The ride back to Puerto Princessa was uneventful, for all 6 of us took to sleeping and snoring to the music of Enrique Iglesias which our driver seemed to like. It was tacky listening to it after a while, but when you’re tired and sleepy, who cares? I think the snoring of all six of us, took over the music, and that’s when the driver realized we did not care, so he just turned it on louder for his own entertainment. It was blaring louder when we got into town and finally woke up.
We got back to Puerto Princessa at around 5:30 pm. There was a traffic jam, as there was a parade in town for a week-long community celebration. We watched part of the parade go by before we could proceed, and because some of the streets were closed to traffic, we, who stayed at Puerto Pension were the first ones to be dropped off.
After we freshened up, we got into a tricycle to take us to Badjao Restaurant, which was way out of the regular traffic area. I’m glad that we did not let the tricycle go, because the restaurant was closed to the public that night because of a wedding. Badjao was down near the beach area, and the tricycle seemed not to have enough power to get up the hill to get out of the parking lot, so the driver asked Jeanne to get out and walk up the hill to meet us there. I rode on, and I asked him why he asked Jeanne to go down and walk up the hill, and not me, and he just said politely, “understandable naman po.” Jeanne is about 50 lbs heavier than me.
We returned to town again, and proceeded to Kamarikutan, which was another place recommended by my sister Chona.
Kamarikutan….. was a unique experience in itself. It was a bamboo and nipa hut establishment, that was owned by a lady who called herself Dayang-Dayang. There was a big convention, and people were all over the place, from the gardens to the round dining nipa hut area, to the museum area which displayed ethnic Palawan instruments, and paintings of local artists. People were thinning out when we arrived. Because the eating area was still full, we decided to sit in the living room area. Here, the chairs and tables were made of driftwood, or ethnic bamboo. The problem was, it was quite dark, and there were mosquitoes in the dark corners of the place. So, we eventually moved to the dining area, where they had katols (mosquito deterent smoke coils) underneath the tables to ward off the mosquitoes.
Although connected to the main hall, the dining area was surrounded by a flow of water where white, red and spotted black carp swam. The water started as a fountain by the entrance, and went around to the other side of the round dining area, like a moat. It was quite impressive.
We were probably the last few people there, and Dayang-Dayang approached us, thanking us for patronizing the place. It was then when I noticed that the silverware were placed inside bamboo tubes, and the tubes were decorated with ancient Filipino syllabary. It was actually a tongatong. So the conversation went into the making of these, and the type of bamboo that it was made of. I made tongatongs for my Filipino Folk Arts Theater in Dallas, but the bamboo that was available for me to use was not as sturdy as the Palawan bamboo that they had. I asked if I could buy some tongatongs, and she said if I came back the following day, she might just give me some.
Conversation went into the culture of Palawan, how immigrants from all over the Philippines had moved to Puerto Princessa, the security and peace situation which she said was the best she’s ever seen compared to other urban cities, and the nature conservation which despite the many tourists that come, they are still able to conserve their natural resources. We talked about land and beach property and she told us that foreigners are attracted to them, but that they should be wary of whom they purchase it from. The girl who worked for her, had family property in Narra, Palawan that they wanted to sell. It was beach frontage with coconut trees. It was also not very expensive, so remembering Marcel of our subterranean cave adventure, we thought that this may be something he would be interested in.
When we got back to our hotel, we called Pepito, and did some detective work to see where Marcel stayed, and how we could get in touch with him. We found him, and later was able to leave a message at his hotel for him to have dinner with us the following day, to introduce him to Dayang Dayang himself as well as the lady who owned the land.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Palawan Travel
Tuesday, March 2,2010 – left for Palawan with daughter Jeanne. Left Manila through Cebu Air Philippines at 17:50 and arrived Puerto Princessa at 19:05. The Puerto Pension driver was not at the airport to meet us when we got there, so we had to call the hotel. He came after 20 minutes, saying that he was at another errand. Meanwhile, we were getting nervous as the crowd at the airport was diminishing, and finally the lights inside the terminal were shut off, leaving us outside in the dark. We were solicited by many tricycle cabs, but were scared for our safety, so we huddled near the door of the terminal which had light, and a security guard. Found out later, that Palawan is one of the safest places for tourists, and that we had no reason to fear for our safety. We found out how true this fact was, after the few days we were there.
The hotel driver got us to the hotel, where Pepito, our guide was waiting. My son, Ricky had prearranged all these, and that really helped a lot. After freshening up at our hotel room, we went out to Kai Lui to have dinner with Pepito, and gave him the money for the tours we were joining the following days: Subterranean Caves on March 3, Honda Bay on March 4, and City Tour in the morning of March 5 before we left for Manila.
Kai Lui was a great restaurant. It’s bamboo ceilings, and décor was outstanding. From the garden area to the restaurant seating, the ambience and service was five star. They had sour mangoes with bagoong and I was asking the waiter if the mango was too sour, to which a gentleman sitting behind us suddenly chimed in, that it was not, and that I could taste his mango and bagoong if I liked. I did, and we struck a short conversation. He said that his name was Noel, and that he was a sales rep who would come to Puerto Princessa often during the year, and that he really enjoyed eating in that restaurant. As for me and Jeanne, we had seafood sinigang, seafood sisig and then we thought we’d try their crispy fish tail. The sinigang was not as sour as I would usually make mine, but it was made out of fresh coconut water, so it was on the naturally sweetish side. The seafood sisig was wonderful. But we could not eat the crispy fish tail. It was too dry and hard, so we let Pepito take that home with him.
The hotel driver got us to the hotel, where Pepito, our guide was waiting. My son, Ricky had prearranged all these, and that really helped a lot. After freshening up at our hotel room, we went out to Kai Lui to have dinner with Pepito, and gave him the money for the tours we were joining the following days: Subterranean Caves on March 3, Honda Bay on March 4, and City Tour in the morning of March 5 before we left for Manila.
Kai Lui was a great restaurant. It’s bamboo ceilings, and décor was outstanding. From the garden area to the restaurant seating, the ambience and service was five star. They had sour mangoes with bagoong and I was asking the waiter if the mango was too sour, to which a gentleman sitting behind us suddenly chimed in, that it was not, and that I could taste his mango and bagoong if I liked. I did, and we struck a short conversation. He said that his name was Noel, and that he was a sales rep who would come to Puerto Princessa often during the year, and that he really enjoyed eating in that restaurant. As for me and Jeanne, we had seafood sinigang, seafood sisig and then we thought we’d try their crispy fish tail. The sinigang was not as sour as I would usually make mine, but it was made out of fresh coconut water, so it was on the naturally sweetish side. The seafood sisig was wonderful. But we could not eat the crispy fish tail. It was too dry and hard, so we let Pepito take that home with him.
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