Palawan

Puerto Galera Sabang

larrynixon — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:31:00 GMT

I flew back from Cebu City to Manila not having arranged a hotel so I called The Rothmans Hotel on arrival but they were fully booked so I went to my old standby, The Southern Cross in Ermita. They owed me peso 200 from last visit so it was nice to roll in and get a room like a regular, as well get the p200 back! I walked round to The Citystate Hotel and paid for the bus/banca trip to Puerto Galera Sabang leaving 08:00 hrs the next morning. I roamed around a while, ending at Robinsons mall and did what a lot of people do when in Manila, hang around the mall. I had a quiet night, usual sort of thing when travelling solo, a few beers at the bar, talk to some locals and travellers, dinner and bed.

The next morning was hot and sunny, the bus trip down to Batangas was easy and by 11:30 I was sitting in The Blue Penguin 3 as it cruised toward PG Sabang at 12 knots. We arrived just after lunch and I checked into Villa Sabang where I had reserved a peso 900 room with a nice view over the Sabang beach. Spent the rest of the day arranging XR200 Honda dirt bikes for my next visit with my brother Bob and his son Chris as well as 3 rooms at Villa Sabang. Had early drinks at Tina's, followed by late drinks at Big Apple's beachfront bar. It was good to meet Anne Marie the bar manager again, she remembered our previous visit with Ken and Duncan. Particularly Duncan, he seemed to be very popular with the locals!

Just roamed around the next 2 days, swimming at Big Luguna beach and spending a memorable afternoon at the floating bar drinking with a bunch of poms. It was a sensational day, no wind, hot and sunny, perfect for finishing off my 4 weeks travelling in Palawan, Cebu, Mindanora, Camotes Islands and Puerto Galera Sabang.

Next day was back to Manila where I actually ended up staying at Citystate Hotel, it was nice, a small room but cheap at p1515. A quiet night getting ready to return home to Taipei the next day. Thanks Liz, Kate and Maddy for making this trip happen, without your support and encouragement I am sure it would not have been such a success. And thanks to Ken and Rabbit for coming along on the Palawan/Jimmy Boyd part of the trip, it was great to have your company!

Cebu City to Camotes Islands

larrynixon — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:40:00 GMT

My intention was to meet Rhea, a friend from Taipei and accompany her to meet her family where they lived at Kanipaan Brgy, Cagcagan on the Camotes Islands so I checked into a sketchy downtown hotel called the Cebu Century hotel to meet Rhea. Her plane from Manila was late so I had a few beers in the 5th floor kareoke bar, managing to avoid the various hostesses hoping to get a free drink from me. Rhea turned up with her father and brother around midnight and we planned the next days travel arrangements, managing to get an hours sleep before a 3.30 am departure by taxi for an hours drive up north to the boat port.

We arrived safely after a hair raising, extemely scary taxi ride, the driver was clearly on ectasy the way he drove, 120 km in small congested roads dodging tricycles, dogs and random people! Needless to say we were all relieved when we pulled into the port without incident, even Rhea commenting that it was a fast ride. We got tickets for another roro (roll on, roll off) small ship and departed at 05:00 hrs for Poro, a port town on Camotes island.

We were met at the wharf by some family friends and we all piled onto the 2 110 cc motorbikes they had brought to transport us to the family home some 14 km away. The ride was a hoot with 3 people on my bike and 4 on the other. The scenery on the way was sensational, beautifully maintained houses lining the litter free road with friendly passerbys waving and shouting greetings to us. As we drew closer to the house, the greeting were more personal with everyone seeming to be expecting us, and calling out as we rode past.

We pulled into the house, which is located up a bumpy dirt track off the main road to a heartwarming welcome from Zandro's wife Evelyn and 4 children. The children were delightful, each one holding my hand in greeting and touching it to their foreheads as a sign of respect while excitedly saying hello in quite good english. After I was shown around I was shown to a lovely bedroom where I was to sleep. Clearly this was Zandros room and both he and Evelyn were happy to sleep on the concrete floor while I was a guest. In fact, the whole family slept on the floor, including Rhea, all huddled together in beautiful family harmony. The fact they had no mattress did not seem to matter but I was relieved I had a double bed with soft foam mattress as my bones do not like sleeping on a hard concrete floor.

The highlight of my stay was a pre arranged party where Rhea and myself had put in money to buy a live pig, several plastic barrels of coconut wine, 2 crates of 1 litre, Bar Na Bar bottles of local beer and a massive karoke machine that was delivered late afternoon. The poor pig was very unhappy about the prospect of being BBQ'd so I went for a walk with Rose, Zando's 12 year old daughter to see the rest of the village while the pig was being "prepared". We arrived back just as it was being stuffed with various vegetables and spices and sewn up using farm twine. Before long the "baboy" was rotating over an open fire of coconut husks, being turned continuously by a growing group of increasingly excited villagers, who had already started drinking the coconut wine.

The baboy took 5 hours to cook and it was an event to behold when the cooked animal was placed on the kitchen table and dismembered by several very experienced locals, all quite pissed by this time. The party had began long before this, the kareoke machine was blasting out old numbers like "New York, New York" at deafening volume and a large crowd of locals had gathered to watch, listen and particitate! The night grew very boisterous with everyone seemingly wanting to meet me and have their photo taken with me! I crept away about midnight to my room while Rhea managed to turn the kareoke machine off a couple of long hours later, it was right next to my window!!

The next morning was very quiet, apart from the roosters crowing, dogs barking and little kids playing as all the adults slept in. Zandro took me for a tour of the island on his motorbike, it was magical experience and we seemed to run into people from all over the island who had been at the party the night before.

I left early the 3rd day to catch a pump boat back to Cebu. Zandro took me on his motorbike and while riding along I was stung by a large bumble bee type thing which flew down my shirt. This was a bad thing as the pain was intense and I had trouble breathing. Zandro dropped me and left me to my misery, it took 5 hours before I could get to see a doctor and have some treatment! The pain diminished over the next 2 days but even now it is sensitive!

Damuagette to Dipolog and Dakak resort

larrynixon — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:18:00 GMT

After Ken and Rabbit split, I flew alone to Damuagette, a nice little university town where I checked into The Check Inn hotel. This newish hotel was great value and very centrally located in downtown, between the sea and the market. Having been here before, I decided to roam around amd immerse myself into the local way of life (as much as a middled aged single while male could be immersed) I met the manager of a local bar and she suggested I go to Mindanao and have a look at the Dakak resort. So I arranged a ticket on a roro ship leaving at 05:00 the next morning, only p200. The passengers are accomodated in bunks jammed close together, with their belongings, fighting cocks and children all competing for space, it was a great experience and I enjoyed the everything in spite of the heat, humidity and noise.

We were dischared at Dapitan port where I took a minibus to Dakak, having a look while on the move at the interesting villages and towns on the way. The road was sensationally rough, being under major reconstruction and it was a hot and bumpy ride to Dakak where I arrived to a nice 5 starish tropical resort complete with several swimming pools and a wonderful coconut fringed white sandy beack. There was a fairly well set up dive shop here but I was not inspired to dive, rather I kicked back by swimming and enjoying the various facilities. There was one other european staying there with his girlfriend, the rest of the guests were well heeled filipinos.

It was an early departure the next day to catch a fast ferry back to Damuagette where I had a wonderful 2 hour massage for p360 before arranging a boat ticket to Cebu City leaving at 07:00 the next morning.

Gallery: Palawan

larrynixon — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:41:00 GMT

Diving in Coron

Angeles go go bars, Classic aircraft and Jimmy Boyd

larrynixon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:35:00 GMT

After an uneventful flight, we met Armel, a Manila taxi driver, recommended by Maria in Taipei who used to live in Manila, and we headed north up to Angeles where we checked into the Clarkton Hotel which was nice, had a good pool and caberet room complete with Pokies type dancers who unlike Pokies were all real females (Pokies was a 80's drag place in St Kilda, Melbourne). We hired 125cc motorbikes and headed out to the old US airbase of Clark where we finally found the aircraft museum and also checked out the terminal where Bob and Chris will be arriving on May 9. We toured round the base, marvelling at the many abandoned buildings and facilities left by the US airforce when their lease expired in the 90's. On the way back we had some fun and games, we came across a police checkpoint and were pulled over for a licence check! Big mistake, Ken and Rabbit did not have theirs, and their bikes were going to be impounded! Ken actually showed the cop with the M16 his scuba licence...the cop was not impressed. Rabbit talked them into letting me take him back to the hotel to collect his licence so he was OK but Ken was in the shit, in a big way. After they called for reinforcements, a big bad looking motorbike cop came screaming up on his 250 Honda cop bike, siren and lights on, it was madness. He then proceeded to book Ken for no licence, but did not impound his bike, only took the number plate so Ken would have to go to the city hall police station to pay the fine and collect the plate. This was to stop him from skipping the country, anyway the fine was only peso 600, about A$12, good one Ken.

That night we toured the sketchy Fields Avenue, lined with bars, restobars and go go bars. That place was really going off, lots of single white guys, no single or otherwise white girls, thousands of local girls, hmmmm. We had a meal and walked back to the Clarkton, quite a walk but nice enough. We were lucky enough to see a caberet show when we got back, all very innocent with colourful costumes and well rehearsed dance routines. Because we were meeting Jimmy Boyd early next morning we were in bed by 1 am.

Jimmy Boyd, what can I say, he is a dead set legend!! Ex US airforce pilot, vietnam vet and who knows where else, saw action, flew fighter jets and ulimately settled down in Angeles City with his wife after he left the airforce. He now runs an air charter business using a 1949 Navair 4 seater polished aluminium aircraft. It is a beauty. Anyway, Jimmy turned up at our hotel right on the dot of 07:30 to take us to his hanger, in a classic American massive black Cadillac convertable. What a way to go. It was early morning, a perfect tropical morning, warm, sunny and windless, just the best day for a 3 hour flight up to Baguio and the rice terraces, returning along the coast and over Mt Pinitubo which erupted in 1991 causing massive damage and loss. It was awesome (I know, an over used word but it was), in fact the whole flight with Jimmy was awesome. He kept us entertained with interesting stories of his life and around the Philippines. He took us back to the Clarkton where we met Armel for the drive back to Manila, stopping at the US Military cemetary on the way before dropping us at our hotel, the Citadel Inn and another massage for Rabbit.

That last night was a blast, Ken and Rabbit were in fine form and after a big night at Handlebars, a motorcycle themed restobar in Makati we visited another couple of bars before heading to bed as Ken and Rabbit were flying out early the next morning. I missed them leaving to say goodbye, I was in the 7-11 getting some water and they left in a taxi.

So it was a sensational trip, we travelled most days, and it was a bit tiring but we had an absolute ball, will have to go back and dive Coron again though.

Coron-Wreck diving at its best

larrynixon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:07:00 GMT

We arrived in Coron Town after the 9 hour banca ride quite refreshed so after a short tricycle ride to Discovery Divers Bar, we waited for another boat to take us the 10 minutes to a small island where Discovery Divers have their diving resort. Not having seen a photo of this place we were blown away to round the point to find a large but derelict flying boat on the beach next to the beautiful resort which is built local nipa hut style. The individual bungalows are separated from their neighbors by a good distance (you need as much distance from Kens snoring as possible) and they are located on hill overlooking the sea surrounded by tropical vegetation. it is nice. An open air restaurant and bar completes the scene apart from the dive shop a short walk away. Larry was travelling light so had to get all his dive gear, Ken had a reg and gauge set with computer belonging to Rabbit while Rabbit had everything brought from Sydney. Rabbit was very good, he even loaned a reg to Larry but this was left in Melbourne as he was travelling light and on the road for another 2 weeks after Ken and Rab.

There are 8 ships from 120 to 170 meters long, and sitting at depths from 24 to 43 meters on the bottom. The outside of these ships are covered with soft and hard corals, apparently better than most coral reefs found locally.

The next morning we left on the resort dive boat for the first of 2 wreck dives, to the Tangat wreck where we tied up to a bouy directly above the wreck. As this was Kens first dive since 92 in Perth with Larry, the dive master agreed it would be a good idea to make it an easy dive, max depth only 28 metres. But that did not stop Ken using ALL his air before halfway so he went onto the diver masters optopus as arranged in case he ran low. This allowed us to finish the dive in a reasonable time. After lunch on the boat, we dived another wreck, Kogyo Maru and Ken breathed less but it was not until the last dive the next day thay he was back to breathing normally and he still had 50 bar left at the dives end. The second day we dived Olympia Maru and the excellent Tai Ei Maru which was a 600 foot long oil tanker, but apart from the visibility which varied from 5 to 20 metres the wreck diving in Coron Bay exceeded our expectations. Discovery Divers were very professional and took great care helping us to adjust to diving after quite a few years of not diving.

After 3 nights at Discovery Divers we decided a night in Coron Town might be good so we checked out and went to a local pension, cheap at peso 600 but with paper thin walls and I was next to Ken....snoring...no sleep... But seriously it was an OK place, not star rated but my kind of place.

Coron is a small fishing and trading town on Busuanga Island in the Calamian Island Group Southwest of Manila. Coron is off of the regularly travelled tourist path and as such is a nice place to visit, there is no hustle unlike places like Boracay.

We were all very tired after the last few days so did not try any of the bars, had a quiet dinner and bed ready for yet another early start, flying back to Manila and car to Clark. (I say Clark as it sounds nicer than Angeles where we ended up)

El Nido-banca ride from hell

larrynixon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:26:00 GMT

We were up early next morning for a 6 am departure to El Nido by a local banca that Larry had arranged. We waded out to the boat floating in a millpond sea, shrouded by mist and overlooked by the mountainous jungle, it was totally a magic moment. But this was soon tempered by the moment the bancas aircooled unmuffled diesel fired up and we all realised this could be a difficult trip. I mean we were shoehorned into a small and narrow banca with an exhaust blasting away at a million decibles for the next 5 hours, I had mentioned to Ken to maybe bring some ear plugs which he did and I had my ipod ear buds but poor Rabbit had to endure the 5 hours on his own. But he did manage to fall asleep which was amazing in spite of the noise. Ken said it was like being in an APC in Vietnam during the war and they all managed to fall asleep then as well.

We moved off into the gathering light, heading north east passing some beautiful palm fringed islands and often able to see the coral sea bottom below us. Ken saw a large turtle swimming along which was good. We settled into a routine, enduring the exhaust noise and being amazed by the passing sea and island scape. There are over 7000 island in The Philippines and it seemed like most were located where we were passing. % hours later we passed between 2 lovely islands and rounded a point with El Nido clearly seen in the distance. I think we all had a silent cheer that soon the dreadful exhaust noise would be a distant memory, but in fact our ears were still ringing 24 hours later, can't have been good for us, particularly Rabbit. But still he managed a massage as soon as we checked into Abet and Lally's beach cottages. There was a slight problem checking in in spite of me having paid 20% deposit, there no record of us but we were given rooms only to be moved a couple of hours later as there rooms were deluxe which we had not booked when they finally found my reservation. Beach cottages was a little stretching the imagination as well, we were 60 metres from the beach surrounded by other rooms filled with noisy French and German tourists complete with crying babies. It was a shock after Port Barton. Tired after the trip, we explored while Rabbit was massaged, and found a cheap boat hire place for us to go island hopping the next day. And cheap it was, you get what you pay for I suppose. Next morning found us on board a large but distinctly run down banca while the crew tried to get the ancient diesel motor going. This should have made us suspicious but soon we were away, cruising to the first of our stops in the amazingly beautiful "Small Lagoon" where we swam and snorkled close to the Philippines Survivor series was or had just been made. Then the motor would not start, we drifted for a while, anchored, drifted some more until finally it started. This was repeated for the next 4 island stops with the crew canabalising the rest of the boat for parts to get the motor going. We eventually made it back after a sensational local BBQ of chicken and fish and beer but it did take some of the enjoyement out of our island hopping. The islands off El Nido are world famous and people come from all over to go island hopping hence El Nido town was crowded with straight tourists.

After dinner in a nice local place, Ken and Larry tried a local disco, it had a great laser, bubble and smoke light show but the music was not great so after a few more beers we left, ready for an 07:00 departure on yet another big banca bound for Coron town, a mere 9 hours away!!! Coron is where were were going scuba diving on the old Jap wrecks from WW11. But this was a good trip, relatively quiet motor, sensational island views, flat seas and cold San Miguel beer. The time went fast and we really enjoyed this boat trip but it was expensive peso 2200 each or about A$70.

Port Barton-worth the drive

larrynixon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:53:00 GMT

Port Barton, I had heard it was nice there but this is really nice, a little paradise well off the beaten track but well worth the effort of getting there.

We were picked up early by Oon who I had arranged to drive us to Port Barton in his 4WD mini van. The significance of the 4WD did not register until we left the sealed road and hit a road which may as well have been a test track for Land Rover. Lucky the road was relatively dry but even so there were many times we were sure the van would get bogged in the deep, rutted and muddy wash aways and we would be out pushing in our sandals! It was rough, unbelievably rough but a hightlight all the same. The track wandered through some of the thickest and mountainous jungle we have ever been in, very few signs of civilisation apart from an occasional patch of flat jungle that had been cleared and was now a deep green patch of rice paddy with a thatched growers hut perched on the edge. We were all hanging on while the van rocked, rolled, groaned and sometimes bottomed out while navigating the tortuous road. It was only and hour and a half but we will remember that ride for a long time.

Then we glimpsed the blue sea through the jungle and we broke through into Port Barton, a sensational village fronting an lovely while sandy beach and surrounded by thick jungle. We rolled up to our accomodation, Summer Beach Bungalows and were allocated a beach facing bungalow each which was in a beautiful lawn/coconut tree area running down to the sand. We were greeted warmly by the manager who Larry had been dealing with on the internet and nothing was too much trouble for her or the other staff. Ken and Larry were expecting the cold water showers but it was a bit of a shock to Rabbit but he became used to cold showers from then on as all subsequent places we stayed only had cold showers. The weather was very hot so a cold shower was welcome apart from maybe early in the morning.

Rabbit had another massage while Ken and Larry explored the beach and surrounding village, chatting to many locals and the odd fellow traveller. This is not a tourist town and has few facilities but was the most delightful place we have stayed in since Phukett in 1972 when it was a backpacker only destination.

Dinner was interesting that night because it was Valentines Day with all the Philippines embracing this tradition and Summer Beach bungalows had a Valentines day romantic dinner scheduled complete with tables decorated with candles and a corsage for the ladies. As we were 3 men, the staff thought it hilarious and many jokes were made about us having a romantic Valentines dinner together! Ken and Rab went to bed earlyish, Larry hooked up with a guy from Sydney and went bar hopping (there were only 2) and chatted with the friendly locals until late. The streets were unlighted, dirt tracks with nipa hut style houses and all the families were outside, still eating, socialising or singing badly on distorted videok units. It was a real experience.

Puerto Princesa-Puerto to the locals

larrynixon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:21:00 GMT

We had an early flight to Puerto arriving 09:30, the airport was hilarious with an full military band playing as we walked from the aircraft to the open air baggage and arrival area. The airport is small and typically tropical of impoverished parts of Philippines. Reminded me of many of the isolated airports in PNG we flew out of in the early 90's.

We were faced with a wall of hotel operators, tricycle drivers and interested bystanders as we left the "secure" baggage retrieval area where bags were arriving stacked high on a small trailer to be unloaded by a tired looking worker at a slow pace. Ken and myself were travelling light, cabin bags only but Rabbit had brought all his diving gear so we waited until he found his bags. There was a notice board with Larry and liz Nixon? displayed from Puerto Pension so we were shown to a minivan and taken to Puerto Pension, a delightful place overlooking the waterfront and coconut tree fringed bay. Puerto is the jumping off location for the world famous underwater river but as we were on a limited time frame and had to be in El Nido to catch the Tuesday ferry we had to miss it, maybe next time?

After checking in and lunch, Ken and Larry went exploring while Rabbit had the first of many post travelling massages. A highlight of our short stay in Puerto was a walk down to the waterfront board walk where we hung with the locals, drinking cold San Miguel beers at 50 cents each and snacking on fresh barbequed pork on bamboo sticks while taking in the unbelievably warm tropical nightscape. Everyone was intrigued with the 3 foreigners, particularly Rabbit, with him being so much bigger than the average fillipino and many did a double take when they saw us but also many wanted to say hello and find out where we were from.

As we had an early start the next morning, we had a quiet night with dinner at an amazing outdoor restobar finishing with a few beers on the verandah in front of Kens room drinking more SMB's from his mini bar until midnight! We all liked Puerto and were sorry we only had half a day there.

Manila-what a city

larrynixon — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:56:00 GMT

As soon as I stepped off the aircraft I could feel and smell Manila! The humidity hit me like a wall, and that unique tropical smell permeated past the struggling airport aircon. Ah, home again!!

I had left Taipei at 2 pm on Wednesday, landing at the new Manila terminal 3 at 4 pm after a nice Cebu Pacific budget flight. I was seated next to a slightly spaced out man who as it turned out was an American having flown from somewhere in the states to Taipei, a short layover then onto Manila, taking 30 hours. We chatted a couple of times and the questions he asked me made me wonder what he was doing as he was confused and vague. I directed him to the meter taxi rank and ran into him again wandering around outside looking dazed. I suggested he come into Ermita with me in my taxi and so began a typical Larry saga.

He had no idea of what Manila is like and I said I would help him find a suitable hotel but he needed constant guarding from the various pimps, touts and con artists who flourish on the streets of Manila so after looking at a few places I showed him the Southern Cross Hotel where I was staying and checked him in safely. It made me feel good that I had helped him but I was left wondering how he would survive, he explained he was tired and jet lagged after flying 30 odd hours but I think he had taken some travel medication which had not agreed with him! By this time it was late and as I entered the bar I saw my brother Ken and mutual friend Rabbit frantically waving from the bar where they had been waiting for me.

We had a few beers then I took them outside to orientate Rabbit with the Ermita streets by jumping on a garishly decorated jeepney to travel down to a beer garden I knew at the rear of Paridise bar and hotel. Well the look on Rabbits face was sensational, he did not know which way to look, the almost 2 metres of him bent to fit the low jeepney roof, a flood of jeepneys, taxis, motorcycles and people and a constant roar of unmuffled diesel exhausts and clouds of choking diesel smoke was overwhelming. We found the bar and there began our first night in Manila.

The next day Ken took Rabbit to Corregador Island while I spent the day looking at hotels for my next trip in May when our other brother Bob and son Chris were coming with me on a short visit while transiting to Taipei. We met at the bar late afternoon and I took them to more bars and a nice seafood restaurant down on Manila Bay. While walking back we called into The Cowboy Grill and were entertained by a couple of filippino rock and roll bands belting out covers of well known songs. Man those guys can sing, I can see why they are in such demand on cruise ships!