I am now in El Nido. An island town with no ATM, and nobody takes credit cards. I took a 1 hour flight from Manila to Puerto Princessa, on the island of Palawan. Then took an 8+ hour bus ride to El Nido. A bumpy, dusty, cramped 8 hour bus ride. I guess the locals take the bus, cuz its $300 pesos ($6 US) vs. the air conditioned shuttle van that takes 6 hours for $600 pesos. I didn’t know there was another choice when I got on the bus! Oh well, it was an experience. People jumping on and off a moving bus, able bodied teens and young men climbing up a ladder on the side of the bus to go sit on the roof! Mangy sketchy looking teenagers were riding on top of the bus with bags for 8+ hours- I so thought I was going to get my toiletries and diesel jeans robbed (they were SAFE)! I think I am at the end of the earth.
And I have just less than 7,000 pesos cash. It sounds like a lot, but everywhere is like $1,000+ pesos a night. The exchange rate is currently $1 US dollar to $46 pesos. To put it in perspective, a beer is 50 pesos. A meal is about 200. A snorkel trip is 700. The 8 hour bus ride was 300. EVERYWHERE is cash only. And the nearest ATM is a hellish 8 hour bus ride!!! This week on a tight budget will be interesting…
I found a place (the Bayview Inn) for 400 pesos a night, with an elderly woman named Mama Leety who runs the joint. She’s a born sales woman. She sells the toilet paper to her guests. And water, and shuttle reservations, and snorkel tours and snorkels. The only places that take credit cards are 2000+ pesos a night. So, oh well, I should have realized that pesos flow like water and brought more cash to this end of the world zone… BUT, I can deal. As long as I can go snorkel and enjoy the beach, I’m *F*I*N*E* =) Just as I typed that, a bubbly Swedish woman came up to my table at the internet café, (ArtCafe) and placed a piece of pizza in front of me. Wow. Hawaiian pizza. Lol… I would feel like a mangy bum right now, but she gave everyone else in the restaurant a slice… so I guess I wasn’t singled out as the “broke & hungry looking” one. Yes, this place is interesting!
A side note is that the song that goes, “I don’t want nobody, nobody but you” keeps playing in the Philippines. I don’t know if it’s a local song, or American, but oh well. (I later heard its Korean). The kids below the café I’m at are playing a game of tossing metal coins like pogs and running around, and singing the “Nobody but you” song, while the café plays it at the same time.
So, El Nido will be an adventure, and a stark contrast to the country club, spa massages of Tagaytay Highlands. I am looking forward to it!
El Nido Continued…
I have my shit stashed in multiple places. American money in 2 different separate places. Philippines currency in 4 different places. And my passports and credit cards divvied up among 3 different places. Maybe I’m paranoid, maybe I’m street smart. I just don’t want to get robbed and be completely at a loss.
So, I’ve been in El Nido for a day, and I am torn between being really happy at how isolated and undeveloped it is, and being BORED!!! The only real conversation I’ve had has been with an obnoxious loud-print-shirt-wearing Aussie who I keep bumping into since the flight from Manila. I think the same cast of characters revolves around this sleepy town. 1 way in, 2 ways out, and everybody spends a few days. There’s like 2 hangouts, so you keep seeing the same people. There’s more diversity on the coral reefs on any day than this town sees in a decade.
Me & the Aussie had dinner together and he told me about working for the United Nations in Mindanao, which is a really fucked up place in the Philippines right now. Rebels, ironically called the M.I.L.F. kidnapped an Irish Priest and held him hostage for a month. They also beheaded a teacher and paraded his head around town last week. Muslim rebels are pushing for succession, to be a separate nation on their own. Mr. Aussie told me how messed up working for the UN is, and how everybody gets paid really well to do nothing. I asked him how he can work for something in such a shitty place and feel no passion for the cause. The answer: money. But I don’t sense he’s truly happy. He’s got to be in his 40’s and just only started dating a girl a few weeks ago. The 40 year old Aussie Virgin, heehee.
Dinner the next night was at a hell hole called Eurasia Café. Definitely would not recommend it. Please remember, I am on the starvation because there’s not enough pesos diet, and am starving at every meal, but I had the worst pizza of my life there. Seafood pizza. No shrimp on top, as promised on the menu. Just calamari, and sardines with a sparse sprinkling of cheese. And a thick, hard, burnt crust that I couldn’t eat the bottom inch of. I fed it to 2 stray dogs. Only one of them would eat it!
The overwhelming sense I get in El Nido is that everyone is super friendly. The little kids pass by me on the beach and flash huge smile and say, “Hi”, “Hello”, “Hi Maam”. They aren’t asking for money or anything in return, and me smiling back delights them and widens their smile. The older folks also say hello in passing. Kinda of like hiking on a trail in Hawaii. Only this sleepy little town is the off the beaten path trail, and inaccessible except by an 8+ hour bus ride or a flight that costs most locals a month’s worth of salary.
A highlight: I fed a monkey a banana this morning. That has to be the highlight of my life so far. Ok, sliiiightly exaggerated, but I was sooooooo happy! Monkeys are my favorite animals on Earth. And to see 2 up close, not behind bars truly lifted my spirit and made me realize I can now die happy. I’ve had 3 of these moments so far in less than 2 weeks. The die happy kind. First on the boat ride across Taal lake. Second with Buka the baby monkey. Third, snorkeling in El Nido. Buka was the cutest little thing- I saw him fish a lighbulb out of a lantern, and try to eat it, before the owner intervened. And he sat on a bar stool in a restaurant and played with his little monkey penis while everyone ate their food.
Things are really cheap here. I bought a banana for 1 peso this morning. Less than 2 cents American. An all day snorkel tour on a boat with lunch and a guide is $10 American. A Beer is $1. An 8+ hour bus ride is $6. A lobster dinner with rice and dessert is $6. A huge bottle of water is less than $1- in Manila a small bottle of water was almost $1. You can have a sunset sail or go fishing for US$5 . Commerce depends on tourists going on the snorkel tours, and I think tourists’ good time depends on them going on these tours. EVERYONE sells snorkel tours. Restaurants, hotels, tour companies and people walking down the street sell snorkel tours. There is nothing to do but get your ass on the various snorkel tours.
So I went on 2 snorkel tours. Tour A (hosted by Ralph’s Bar & Resto, accompanied by a British couple) included: Small & Big Lagoon- Small lagoon was a swim into a cavern surrounded by lush Limestone cliffs in crystal clear DEEP water, and Big lagoon hosted a school of jellyfish- luckily they didn’t sting. The Brit pulled a Steve Irwin and scooped one up in his hand to prove it was harmless. Swimming through a sea of jellyfish was sooooo weird, b/c I knew what they were, and could feel soft little implant things brushing my body, and pulsing past my mask. We went to Payong beach, Simizu Beach, Secret Lagoon and Entalula Beach. The best snorkel spot was by far next to the El Nido Resort, which is a posh, $250 (US$) eco-friendly resort. Their reef was amazing. We literally found Nemo, while snorkeling past bright blue sea anemones, neon blue and pink fish, big healthy coral heads and millions of fish. It was worth the trip to El Nido just to see that one patch of reef! Unfortunately, after taking Tour B, I realized that the patch near the million peso resort was the BEST place out of 10+ other snorkel spots. A place this amazing and undeveloped only now harbors 1 prime snorkel spot out of 2 tours’ destinations. Sad. Really really sad. Unless the tours just don’t take us to the good places.
Tour C, through a company called Sea Slugs (and booked through the insistence of Mama Leety) was a bigger boat with a total of 9 people, including a buff and completely hairless middle aged German couple named Dieter and Una, who kept sneaking off to secluded parts of the beach together. She looked like Meryl Streep 10 years ago, and he donned a speedo, huge grin, shaved head and completed waxed and tanned body. I slyly took a photo of him just because. On board, there were also 4 blond haired, blue eyed Swedes, who barely smiled, and were quite serious the whole time. I swear most Europeans think they are more fun than they actually are in reality. I think the Swedes were afraid of the locals. Sad. And 2 dudes who worked for the government in Manila who come to El Nido once a year to tell the locals that they are dying because of Malaria, not because nature is cursing them. Yeah. They were the most fun of the whole lot. We got to talk and joke around a lot, but they also told me about how the people who live in rural fishing villages on Palawan are dying due to malaria infested mosquitoes who bring fever that turns into death. Really really sad.
We anchored at 3 beaches on Tour C that sustained fishing villages. There were about 10-15 people per place, with really simple shacks on each island. So simple, I think each hut was just a small room on stilts with no electricity, no running water, and plumbing. They fish for a living, then sell the catch in El Nido and trade for necessities. Interestingly, the reef near the expensive resort was a whole lot nicer than the dead reefs around the fishing villages.
Aside from the grim reality for the impoverished island inhabitants, Tour C gave me some thrills and chills! I saw a dead baby shark laying belly up on the bottom of one snorkel spot. 5 minutes later I saw a venomous sea snake (I snorkeled right over it!) and never mind the fact that the nearest hospital was 10+ hours away. Needless to say, I got out of the water at that spot and did NOT get back in!!! And, a few hours later, while watching the sunset on another beach, while shooting the shit with the only 2 locals on the tour, a 5 foot iguana slithered out of the forest behind us and walked down the beach 10 feet away. Too many Steve Irwin moments in a day!
So far, I’ve had a chance to hang out all of my days and nights, solo, except for one dinner with the Aussie. I got a chance to walk along a beach where I passed less than 10 people in 3 hours. I checked out tide pools, and picked up hermit crabs and saw fish darting around. I did yoga and stretched out the tangle of knots in my body from the long bus ride to get here. And I did a lot of thinking.
I think that the place you’re in is not as important as the people you’re with while you’re there. But I’m also happy I enjoy my own company, b/c I was ok with being alone. Quite happy. But I was craving a conversation…. With someone. Anyone…
