Palawan in the Philippines - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

THE GOOD Palawan is without a doubt one of the most beautiful places I have seen. It has enormous and inpenetrable looking jungles all over, the beaches for the most part are just beautiful and the color of the ocean is that gorgeous turquoise. There are coconut trees everywhere, over 7,000 islands of all sizes and the people are so, so friendly! THE BAD The touts at the airport - I could go into great depth about the whole process of walking away from people who try to get you to wait for their special taxi and how the price drops the further you get from them, but I think you get the idea. It is not as easy to get around here so far as it is in Thailand. We have ended up hiring drivers to take us from point A to point B (and back again). This can get expensive (by SE Asia standards). It turns out that Palawan is a very long and thin island and we were aware of that but I don't think we realized how far it was to our different destinations. (Usually a four-hour drive in a private taxi, add a couple hours to that for minibus and double it for a regular bus.) We probably would have not traveled to El Nido had we realized the distance for a 3 night stay! The wifi pretty much EVERYWHERE on Palawan sucks! El Nido is potentially one of the more beautiful spots on the planet (they say). There is a gorgeous ocean surrounded by the largest karsts (limestone formations - photos below) I have ever seen! So they built a bunch of ramshackle high-rise hotels around it and crowded the beach with boats! It's really too bad because I bet it used to be just incredible. I will take a snorkel tour tomorrow and am reserving final judgement until then. FINAL JUDGEMENT - Had we been able to do a private tour (which our hotel said wasn't possible but we have since learned was), it would have been great! As it was there were many boats and many people at each gorgeous stop all waiting to to inside the secret lagoon or get a kayak for the other lagoon. The snorkeling was very good and the prepared lunch (all prepared on the boat) was amazing. I don't know how they do it! THE UGLY The dogs! There are dogs everywhere, most not in good shape and not well taken care of! I wish I could bring them home or take care of them or something! This place really needs to get a spay/neuter clinic going and soon! There are also barking semi-scary dogs that have caused me to turn around rather than face them. I don't want a dog bite here! The amount of people living in complete poverty was beyond belief. Riding in between our destinations are, as I mentioned, great expanses of undisturbed and beautiful jungles but along the road there are people living in shacks no larger than 10x10 with holes, pieces of metal, tarps - terrible! Port Barton and actually a lot of Palawan has not recovered from the pandemic as well as the typhoon. THE SURPRISES We ended up our first night in what you could call the barrio of Manila. The hotel was nice inside but when the much negotiated taxi driver dropped us, we were a bit in shock! It ended up being a good experience though as many things do if given a chance. Our hotel was well protected and the rooms were clean and nice inside. We initially thought about skipping dinner or ordering in but decided to venture out into the neighborhood and were glad we did. It was so full of life! People selling roasted chickens, little shops all over selling everything from chips to fresh? fish, tuk-tuk drivers everywhere (although I believe they're called tricycles here) and lots of friendly people. We found a little place with a few seats and ate a BUNCH of delicious chicken wings prepared with different sauces. Yum! Their dinner menu included pasta, rice and french fries along with the chicken wings, most of which we declined! That's a LOT of starch but bring on the french fries! One of the coolest innovations I've seen was that a container was included on the table with disposable plastic gloves - a great way to eat delicious but messy chicken wings!

The boat that took us to Carcipa Island was very cool with bamboo outriggers and a very capable 'captain'. We met some interesting people on the way who were staying at the same resort, it being the ONLY resort on that island, We loved it there! The food was incredible with most of the cooking being prepared by the owner and his wife (i believe they were Swiss?). The other help were all so kind and friendly and we were literally in paradise for four wonderful days of relaxing, snorkeling, swimming and a little more relaxing!

On to El Nido. We made the mistake of staying in El Nido town. What did we know? It has been ruined! It is surrounded by the most beautiful rock formations but is covered in bad hotels, touts, tuk-tuks (or whatever they're called) and is just not pleasant. The reason people come here it seems is to go on boat tours to the surrounding islands so that's what I did today. I had such a great time! Yes, it was crowded. That seems to be the case these days with things that are incredibly beautiful and worth seeing and, sure, it would have been nice if you saw it 10 years ago with way fewer people but that's just not the case and, as someone I met today on the tour said, it's only going to get more crowded. Sad but true. Anyway, I am so glad I did the Tour A, not just because of the incredible beauty but also because of the people I met. Emails were exchanged and I hope to keep in touch.

After leaving the hustle, bustle and disgusting beach of El Nido town, we had made reservations to stay in a jungle resort back near Port Barton. Where to start? The shuttle to the place which, although, messaged that we let them know the arrival time and they would pick us up which ended being a wait at the bus terminal for an hour and a half and a charge of 600 pesos each way. Or the wasp invasion in the middle of the night in my friend's room which turned into a major ordeal. (I slept through the whole thing.) Or the many and dangerous concrete stairs that you had to walk up and down to the restaurant, to our rooms and to our bathrooms. We left early which is how I ended up in the UFO room at Ausan in Port Barton directly below.

It appears I can't add captions so a brief description of some of the photos: A wild monkey, a monitor lizard pet, a very large grasshopper/cicada?, a flitty bird that likes the flowers of coconut trees and a hummingbird moth (moving at high speed), my 'house' on Carcipa Island and a Filipino food truck. Pretty isn't it? There are things I love about the Philippines and there are many, many parts of it I haven't explored. Despite that, I don't see myself returning. Enough said. Here are way too many photos (if the wifi holds up!).