Friday, March 5, 2010 Looking for Beach Property and Puerto Princessa City Tour

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.