Palawan Post

Just arrived from a delayed flight to Manila from Palawan. Time to post while the memory is fresh!

DAY 1

Woke up at 4 a.m. and got ready for the trip of a lifetime! Getting up is less of a bitch when you're excited. So I got dressed and packed my retainers, toothbrush, deodorant and some books which I would never read on the trip. I wore my famous lame cargo shorts and a shirt. Topped it off with my grey jacket that makes me look even baggier. Then wore slippers for footwear. (I'm sorry for all the boring clothes details.) I also brought my buff which I was reminded to do so by means of a prophetic dream. (I will discuss the significance of this later on) Then I had to decide if i was going to bring a laptop or not. I was thinking that I might need internet and movies during the idle times at night before bed or maybe at airports. On the other hand, Jules did tell me that he didn't even bring his phone with him because of his firm resolve to bring his full attention to Palawan.

I ended up bringing it. Not such a bad idea anyway.

The drive to the airport was uneventful. My dad called me up to check in as usual. We had this weird conversation on the way there.

Dad: Mag-ingat kayo doon. May mga umiikot doon sa tubig tapos humihigop.
(I imagine perverts roaming the waters and slurping up unwary swimmers)
Me: Okay...

Turns out he was talking about the under current. -___-

We got to NAIA termina 2, one of the nice looking terminals. It was my first time flying through that airport terminal and I was totally excited. At the airport I had to remind myself to not say any bomb jokes. I couldn't say that this donut was the bomb or that I had a fucking bomb. I will have to find some clever loophole for this in the future.

We boarded the plane at about 7:30 in the morning. We felt like noobs looking for our seats because we couldn't see where the numbers were on the seats. A random guy had to tell us where our seats were. When we did find our seats Gabriel took the window seat.

Take off is always awesome. You go superfast and everything starts to shake. Toni would get nervous every time.

The whole plane ride was uneventful. A little turbulence. Meh.

I am sorry for boring you with the details.

When we got off the plane I felt like we were in some uncharted land full of exotic animals and strange customs. I would take deep breaths like the air there was ultra fresh. For a while it did seem that way. Even just outside the airport. When I saw some butterflies I was like, "Woah... wildlife..." And I thought that was it for the trip. I didn't know that we had to take a fuckin' two hour ride going to the resort. This ride was terrible. The road was full of zigzags and the car was cramped. I wanted to hurl but then I just held back. Toni let 'er rip twice. When we were getting closer though the view did get better.

Cool craggy lookin' mountain

When we did get to the resort I was just happy to get out of the car. We were welcomed with cucumber-pineapple shakes. I swear those shakes are the nectar of the Gods. They were refreshing and hydrating at the same time. My nausea instantly left me. I should make them over here too.

*Continuing thing blogpost after several weeks*

We have those shakes all the time now. I just had them with my lunch. They are still really refreshing.

Okay, we got to the resort and it looked pretty good. Very classy hotel vibe. There was a pool with a bar in the middle. There was also a gym for peeps that wanted to work out. I thought about going over there to work out but then I decided to keep the chilling vacation feel. The shore looked pretty standard. The sand was unusually soft and powdery. That was pretty amazing.

While we were standing there looking out at the sea a giant black and red butterfly fluttered against the wind and into the sea. I was like woah... Palawan wildlife.

We had a choice that day to go swimming or go to this cave. I would have really wanted to go over to the cave but we did not have the proper footwear for hiking. So we went swimming. Which was too bad because the pics of the cave looked really cool. Who knows what other specimens I would have seen over there. Sigh...

So we went swimming at the beach. It was alright. The waves were medium sized. In the mornings they would be huge. If you walked along the shore, you would see schools of tiny little fish. Occasionally you'd see the slightly larger brown and white ones. The tiny fish I'd try and corner into the sand. I never did get any though.

The next day we went into the caves. The trip going there was pretty cool. Almost like a storm at sea. The waves were pretty big and it was especially tough to walk get ashore. The waves kept pushing the boat towards me while I tried to get Gabriel off the boat. I could have had my food crushed underneath the boat. Gah. I did not want to lose a toe.

The island looked like the island from Jurassic park and if you were facing the forest, there were giant stony cliffs on either side of you. It was pretty beautiful especially with the stormy weather. I felt like Tom Hanks.

We stepped into a forest and followed a path to the underground river. When we got there there were lots of other tourists too. That kind of made me lose that sense of being one with nature. When there are lots of people and you wanna see the forest, it kind of sucks.

After much waiting and observing how the clear seawater was differently colored from the brown brackish water from the caves. We finally got into a boat. The boatman was a man named Joy. "As in Joy to the world!", he said. He took us to the inner parts of the cave. Closer to the entrance, you could see lots of swallows flying around. They would screech and chirp as they flew all over the place. I thought they were pretty neat especially considering that you get Bird's Nest soup from their nests.

The bats were even cooler. It was the first time I ever saw bats actually hanging from a ceiling. They would huddle together to form cute little clusters of bats. And if you shined the light on the they'd fly away one by one leaving one bat going, "Hey where'd you guys go???"

I was in charge of the flashlight in this case. There's only one high powered lamp aboard the boat. It was hooked onto a car battery and to turn it on you had to pinch alligator clips to the positive and negative ends. It was kind scary especially considering that we were on a boat.

Boatman Joy pointed to us the different rock formations on the inside of the caves. He would describe them in very Filipino ways. Calling them by names of vegetables and saints that they resembled. There was even a giant male mushroom. And why was it a male mushroom? It had a giant erect penis on top of it. Classic. There were also really high up ceilings in the cave some probably about 150 feet up. Also, it is a good thing to remember to always keep your mouth shut when you look up. You never know if what you get in your mouth is mineral water or bat shit.

Cold, dark and wet.

We had dinner at some lame restaurant. The problem with the restaurants at Palawan were that they didn't have a lot of Palawan specialty food. Also they use cabbage in their sinigang. WTF!!! The number 1 specialty food that I really was craving for the whole time was Tamilok. I wasn't really craving in the sense that I really desire the taste of it. I didn't know. I just really wanted to try. I almost thought that I would never get to try some but eventually we did. That was for the next day after the Mangrove tour and zipline.

Kinda sad to have to leave...

*This blog took too long*

The mangrove tour took us to the other side of the shore that we could not inspect the night before due to the lack of streetlights or awake people in the area. We talked to the tour guides in the area and we talked to them about ziplining. Karina was freaking out already because she was afraid of a lot of things. Eventually though we'd get her on there. It was so funny.

Anyways, we got the the mangroves and I was pretty excited to see a mudskipper along the banks of the river. I was like HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIT!!! I saw a whole bunch of them too hanging out along the waters edge  among the tree roots. Woohoo. Nature.

The water was brown due to the decaying plant matter that was in it. It was brackish water according to the tour guides, a mixture of fresh and saltwater. On both sides of the river were the mangroves everyone was talking about. They certainly delivered. The place looked so pristine and untouched by the civilized world. Thinking about it now makes me happy that there are still places like this where the air is fresh and the water is teeming with life. It's no surprise that everyone's so excited about mangroves.

We met our tour guide when he brought his boat ashore. The first thing I noticed was that he was pretty old to be doing a tour and paddling the boat. The second thing I noticed was that his big toe was bleeding. Turns out he was missing a fuckin' toenail due to a boating accident. Muhuuutherfuckerrrrrrrr... He didn't make a big deal out of it too. He was like, "I'll finish the tour now and take care of this later." Like a fuckin' boss. Jesus Christ... He didn't even bother keeping the thing dry. He put it in the water while he waded to the shore. No big deal..

Business as usual for this tough mofo.

We made it into the river system and he began to tell us about the mangroves. I learned a lot and I appreciated the value of these mangroves to the ecology and the communities that lived here. It felt like I was in an episode of Man vs Wild. The mangrove episode. We also got to see a couple of mangrove snakes coiled around branches of trees that hung right over us. The whole thing felt very serene and the rain made it only better. It was nice and cool and there were no mosquitoes around because of the salt content of the water.

At the end of the tour the old man sang us a song about the mangroves and about taking care of the life at Palawan. It was pretty heartwarming and it made me sort of fall in love with the place. Sigh. Maybe I'll upload the video sometime.

After the tour, we took a boat thing to the other side of the river. We walked to this beach which was right next to this mountain covered in thick forest. The sand at the beach was extra soft and was littered with cuttlebone (kept one as a souvenir). That was exceptionally beautiful. It was like island paradise. Man...

Toni at the island paradise part. You can see me and Gabriel at the center left.

We hiked up some of the mountain and I felt even more like Bear Grylls. Thank God I had my buff with me. It is the perfect thing to have when you go to Palawan. Or any hike or nature trip. Never leave home without it. I used it as a hat to keep my head warm. As a scarf to keep my neck warm. As a pirate hat to look cool during the stormy sea part. As a headband during that hike to keep the sweat out of my eyes.

It was a long hike up through the forest. When we got to the top we stopped at the end of the zipline. There were lots of people there and lots of foreigners too. Just waiting for our turn, Karina was already crying and trying to back out. My mom told her to suck it up because the hike back down was wayyy too long and she might trip which would have been worse for her. So she did go on it. Even when she was strapped up and ready to go she still didn't want to. The zipline guys pushed her off anyway. YEEEHAWWW!!!

I went before her and it was kinda scary looking at it from the top. When you get pushed off it was really cool looking down and watching the forest beneath you go by. I was a hundred feet of the ground and I could see the waves crash against the rocks on the shore. That part was cool. The start. The rest was kinda boring right after.

Anyways, I landed and made the walk back to the resort. Along the way I found an iridescent blue-green butterfly and tried for a few minutes to take a picture of it.

 We ate some food at a restaurant which served nothing but regular old Manila food. No seafood even! WTF!!! However, they lady that sold tamilok was there and she SOLD US TAMILOK. OH MY WORD. After all this time... Finally... ;___;

It cost about 120 for that bowl of tamilok (if I remember correctly). I looked at the grey mass in the bowl and noticed that they looked a lot like elongated oysters. When I did try one though... Man oh man...
It tasted like oysters. Very very fresh and very very sweet oysters. They did have a milky taste to them along with a very slighty briny taste. It reminded me of the sea. It was something not to be missed. If you go to Palawan, you cannot leave without try this out. Fosheezey.

That kind of ends the Palawan adventure part. I feel like I didn't do enough of the stuff that I imagined that I would do. No snorkeling near coral reefs. No eating delicious and exotic seafoods and fruits. No eating of crocodile meat. No walking through the forest and observing wildlife. I guess if you plant vacations to Palawan, you better be sure beforehand about what kind of tour you want. I really would have wanted to go for like a biologist/ food trip/ with friends kind of tour. But then I got a lot from this already. Maybe the next time I go there, it will be better. This trip has made me see the country in a different way. I hope more people come over here and see this. And I hope the country learns to develop all the other beautiful places it has to visit.

Even the parts that aren't tourists spots are pretty...

I wish I had some tamilok right now. Sigh.

P.S.
You have never lived until you have taken a dump on a plane. Especially with turbulence.