Puerto Princesa

Day 271 – FAIL!

With a 9am flight to catch from Coron to Puerto Princesa we were up early, but not early enough to avoid having to scoff our breakfast in time for our 7am airport shuttle. Of course come 7:30 the shuttle still wasn’t there and we were starting to worry that we wouldn’t make check-in. I finally convinced the girl at the desk to call and find out what was happening, she reported that he was on his way and not to worry. When the guy actually arrived he did look worried, he hurried us out to the van (of which we were the only passengers) and then drove like a madman to get us there with a whole two minutes to spare before check-in closed. This might sound like a lot, but every flight we’ve caught in the Philippines have left early, sometimes by up to 40 minutes, meaning check-in and boarding can close within minutes of one another.

Our day didn’t improve when we got Puerto Princesa. We opted for the guidebook recommended Casa Linda Inn especially because it noted how friendly and helpful the staff were and we knew we’d need some help arranging tomorrow’s trip to the subterranean river. However when we got there the woman on the desk barely said a word to us, instead she seemed peeved that we had upset the game she was playing on the computer. We checked-in anyway figuring that the shift would have to change eventually and she might be replaced by someone more helpful, alas this didn’t happen. (Things got worse that night when it turned out that the two French families staying there had appointed the room next to us the kids’ room and the room on the opposite side of the complex the adults’ room!)

We had all afternoon to spare so we decided to do a job we’d been putting off for a while, burning a backup of our Canada and Japan photos to send home for safe keeping. We walked from one side of town to the other, several kilometres in total, in and out of more than a dozen internet places looking for somewhere with a burner we could use. Several places had burners on their front desk PC but wouldn’t let us use it or plug into it, and when one finally did, their PC refused to recognise our portable disk drive. In the end the exercise was a complete failure except for a lot of exercise in the stinking afternoon heat.

To cap things off we caught a trike across town to Neva’s Place, supposedly the best pizza in town. It was ordinary at best, then any benefits that may have come from our early night were thoroughly negated by the aforementioned French kids. Tomorrow’s another day!

Day 272 – The Subterranean River

First thing we boarded our little tour bus, went and collected the Filipino / Canadian family we’d been paired with for the day and headed for Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. Quite a mouthful, it’s basically a fairly long stretch of navigable river running though some big caves. With a huge amount of effort the local government has had it short listed to become one of the ‘New 7 Wonders of the World’, it’s nice and all but I think they’re drawing a pretty long bow!

In what seems to becoming a Filipino tradition we arrived well early of our allotted time (boats into the caves are strictly scheduled), so we spent some time lying on the picturesque beach (this turned out the be a mistake, because the really fine white sand was nearly impossible to wash off). We then had lunch (at 10:30am!) before getting on a boat around a couple of coves to the cave entrance.

Sabang Beach.

A fresh coconut to drink from with lunch.

Before heading to the caves we stopped to watch a few monitor lizards rooting around in the undergrowth. This one is a small one apparently, I’m sure Mum would have liked him all the same.

The cave entrance is in a small tidal lagoon behind the first dune.

At the entrance we were all decked out in life vests and coloured hard hats. The girl at the front of the boat got to control the flash light and the park worker at the back steering the boat chastised anyone who lent even slightly to the side. These two facts combined made it very difficult to get a decent photo inside.

As our guide paddled us through the cave he pointed out what I suppose some people must consider interesting features, such as formations resembling vegetables, religious icons, naked women, that sort of thing. After pointing out each thing he would, without fail, say “OK Mam, Sir, we will now continue our sightseeing tour”, he must have said it 50 times in 30 minutes. Apart from ‘interesting’ formations he also talked briefly about the cave’s natural history and history of exploration, topics I found quite a bit more interesting.

Bats sleeping on the ceiling of the cave.

Another tour boat heading past us in the dark. By far the most impressive area we passed through they referred to as St Pauls dome, although slightly smaller than the original, this one has an underground lake, making it very pretty. Even with strong floodlighting, solid ground and a tripod it would have been a challenge to photograph, with just our piddly flash and from our wobbly perch aboard a moving boat it was impossible to capture.

Reputed no more, a cave recently discovered in Mexico has around 20 times more subterranean river.

This afternoon we had another chore to do - upon arrival in the Philippines we were only given 21 days to stay. We could have avoided this by getting a visa before we arrived but we were too disorganised. So now we had to go visit the local immigration office, one room manned by two ladies above a travel agent on the road out of town. The process was only supposed to take 15 minutes but there was a collection of people in front of us with some serious overstays that it was taking the ladies a long time to process. They had a boat and I suspect were thinking of sneaking out of the country without an exit stamp until they realised they might have trouble getting into Malaysia without it. Anyway, eventually she finished with them, we handed over a whopping 3,030 pesos each (A$75) and in turn received our 38 day visa extensions (even though we only needed an extra 6 days).

For dinner we went to Kailui which was both close to our hotel and highly recommended. When we got there we were told we would have to wait for a table, despite it being a Monday night. While we were waiting an Australian guy came past and reassured us it was worth the wait, telling us he believed it was the nicest meal he had had in years anywhere in the world.

With our expectations high we were ushered barefoot (a no shoes rule applies) to our table in the huge open air wooden pavilion. We opted for the set of the day designed to be shared by two. It started with a clam and seaweed soup, not the kind of seaweed you might find in Japanese soup, it looked more like a peppercorn branch and each one popped in your mouth. Main course was a variety of fish and prawns each with their own delicious sauce and dessert was fresh fruit. I mightn’t go so far as to call it the nicest meal we’ve had in years but it was certainly delicious, fresh and somewhat original, not to mention cheap, including beers it was less than 20 Australian Dollars for the two of us.

Erin showing off her fancy seaweed.