El Nido

Why do you want to go there, somebody said in Puerto Princesa, there is nothing to see there...

Well, decide for yourself after seeing the upcoming - despite the bad weather - pictures. In the hotel in Puerto they offered a daytrip to El Nido. Leaving at 2.30 am, return at 11 pm. By now I know that the return time should be taken with 2 more hours. So, I decided to transfer for 5 days.
The trip was very bad, we were transported in a India-quality van. (Sorry Devendra). That took 5 hours. But this was the first I saw upon arrival:

 The way to here was very nice, but you cannot enjoy that in a van. Later I did part of the same way again with a taxi and we stopped a several very nice viewpoints.
It is off-season so everywhere they are working on the roads. It is quite a mess at the moment and we had some trouble finding the hotel. But as usual first thing I did was walking the surroundings and El Nido is very small. I can walk every destination within 5 minutes. Here a little impression:

 

There are a LOT of islands here and every 10 m there is a shop offering boat-tours. They all ask the same price for the same tours divided into A, B, C  and D. I have been into 5 shops and finally booked a tour in the shop most close to my hotel. Nowhere I was given any additional information about the tour, nor about the extra costs. The first tour you make is at least 600 pesos more expensive then the advertised price.  Because you have to pay 400 pesos taxes, and have to buy additional stuff. Everywhere they are selling plastic bags for your mobile and you really need that if you are going to take pictures with your mobile. You also need 1 for your passport, papers, money, etc. And finally, if you want to keep some things dry, like clothes, you should buy an 'ocean bag'. Waterproof bag.
The additional information you are not given is:
1. You cannot get onto the boat dry. You have to walk through water to get onto the boat, which can vary from knee-deep to up to your shoulders. Very bad service.
2. And yes, you cannot get dry OFF the boat, if you are lucky, see point 1, otherwise - see pictures - you need to swim.
3. Nobody is telling you to bring your swimming suit. So, should you ever be here: make sure to wear it BEFORE you go. Towels are provided in the boat.
4. Nobody is telling you that you have to wear shoes, should you go snorkeling. You cannot stand there without hurting your feet.

The day I went on a boat-trip, the weather was a disaster. So the pictures I made are not showing how beautiful it is here when the weather is sunny, but I suppose you canget an idea about it. Well, at least the boats went out, the days before and after they stayed ashore.

Leaving, you must wear a lifejacket (wellll, after some time some of us ignored that rule):

We needed to swin ashore at the first stop. I decided that there was nothing interesting to see, which was later confirmed by those who went there.  So I stayed on the boat (apart from not having my swimming suit with me):

See at the top of the picture how low the clouds are:

We would stop at 4 locations, they skipped 1, and the others were all close to another, but far from this one. Moving from here, we got very heavy rain, and with the speed of the boat, the rain was coming in horizontally. So the roof was of no use. Before I  could take my raincoat on it was already to late.
 I still will post some pictures, they will at least give you an idea how beautiful it is here:

 

Here was the snorkeling site, and because I never did that and wanted to know if you see more underwater I decided to also go for a swim. In my underware, hoping that nobody would care. The shores here are very steep. You can walk horizontally 5 meters into the water and already need to swim because it is to deep. Everybody was wearing a life-jacket except me. No need for, I can swim quite well. But the water was to salty to be able to dive, I could not get lower so swam to the shore and then was trying to stand. So that is why I know now that you cannot do that. The bottom is very sharp and uneven. And no, not the trouble worth except from a nice swim. The water however is very clear.

Time for dinner, which was prepared at the boat. And seeing it done, I must say that when they served it, it was far above my expectations!:

 

 

Next rainshower

And back to town

 

Well  I had it with the non-information of the tourguides, so no new tour for me (I had a lot of trouble getting my passport dry again and separate all pages), while I at first wanted to do 1 more. Well, about that.... I was talking about the tours with someone I met here when I got a deja-vu. They had advised me to take tours A and B, and then I knew she would say tour C was better. I had that moment about 1 year ago.  But ok, next day all tours were cancelled again.

I decided to try to hire a taxi and take me around 1 of the next days to some nice places cq viewpoints. Apart from the islands there must be enough to see in the surroundings. Right, a lot of shops have signs were they offer taxis but in the end there was only 1 shop I could find which indeed could provide a taxi. It's this shop, in case you ever come to El Nido:

2500 pesos for upto 4hours plus gas. Ok.

I went to the tourist-information for a map. They only had a very bad small map, which not even mentioned El Nido on the map. But at least it mentioned 2 waterfalls, so I asked the driver to take me there. And I ended up at a very nice waterfall which was NOT on the map. Nice man, I could stop wherever I wanted to take pictures and he showed me some nice viewpoints.

Well, this took me quite a while, so I am going to a bar now, finish this tomorrow.

First some views on our way along the road:

And after about half an hour he took a side-'road' which you would overlook completely if you did not know it was there:

The falls are called the Kuyawyaw falls. You are accompanied by a guide, which is really necessary. The tour was devided into 3 parts, you cannot find the way without the guide and you really need his help. At several places we crossed sidestreams (no bridge) and sometimes had to wade through the falls to the other side to continue. The 3th climb was very tough and a very steep climb. I am glad that there was a rope, the last part I needed to pull myself with both hands up  by the rope because  my legs could not handle it anymore. The majority of the other tourists stayed at the second waterfall. But it is certainly worth coming here :

This is the upper waterfall

 

 Well, nice man that guide only not so good in making pictures...

Well, that was it, here. Tomorrow going back to Manila. A few days early but Cebu is not flying here and the company which does - Airswift - is quite expensive, only tomorrow an affordable flight left. It might take some weeks now until the next story.

Conclusion sofar: Palawan is VERY beautiful!

Palawan

Puerto Princesa

Well, let me first give you an impression of my very beautiful hotel here, the Deep Forest Garden Hotel.
My room, so you can verify that I was really here, or you must assume that I am a very good fotoshopper.

The restaurant outside.

The swimmingpool.

And the wine-cellar:

And yes, the food is as good as you would expect after these pictures. No need to say, that I liked it here very much. A very, very nice hotel. Good coffee, good wifi, nice ladies, what does a man want more in life.

The second evening, the lady behind the bar asked which music I wanted on the screen (I was always the first one here sitting at the bar), and I chose a life concert of the Moody Blues. Then the owner entered the bar and it turned out to be his favorite music also, so we started talking. I asked him how he ended up here. He was working in Venezuela and was going home to Geneva, when he stopped here for a few days. But he never left again. Bought this piece of land and builded this hotel. A very nice man, we had our daily conversation from then on. I was very happy to be here, I suppose that's not hard to believe. :-)

That first day I wanted to discover the surroundings as usual. But the hotel is to far outside the town to walk that. So I asked a tricycle to take me around. "Where do you want to go?" I said: "You just show me some things you think tourists want to see. I leave it all up to you.". I don't like guided tours. Those people already earn enough, you are going with a group, while I like to spend everywhere the time by myself, and third, are to expensive. That was a to difficult question, because when we first stopped at an atm, he was talking to another taxidriver where he should take me to. Well, it ended up all perfectly well. I have been away some hours and he only charged me 300 Pesos, so I gave him 400. Here some pictures of Puerto Princesa:

The promenade, there were a lot of restaurants here, so in the evening will look more nice I suppose. And the harbour view is very nice, but not on picture.

As last action he took me to a war-museum, small but I think very interesting for one of my brothers:

And everywhere you look, it is green, green, green here. This island is one big tropical forest.

The underground river

I took a daytour to the underground river. It seems to be on the Unesco list of World Wonders. But actually the tour inside the cave was less then expected regarding the pictures you can find on internet. On the pictures they have lightened the walls, which you cannot reproduce sitting in that boat. And I have been in the Lod Cave in Thailand (see older stories) and in Remouchamps in Belgium, so this was not so special to me. However the total daytrip was certainly worth doing it. As mentioned, it is green everywhere, the road to here was very nice. 

We made some view- and toilet stops, and we were redirected to other attractions upon arrival. The told reason for that, was that it would take half an hour to verify all our names, which of course is nonsense. But ok. We could choose between climbing and caving and come back on a zipline (no, thank you) (( apart from the zipline I would have said: yes)), or a tour on a small river. So, nearly everybody went for the river.

Kees on the Amazone-river

We managed to catch some wildlife on picture:

After the boattrip we got a lunch and then went by boat to the beach of the underground river, say 15 minutes ride by boat. Very nice views of the coast while on the water.

Let me try to upload a short video:

The beach upon arrival:

O, by the way: the life jacket is obligated during the boat trips.

On our way through the jungle:

Nearly there.

And here we are.

Very nice surroundings.

Inside the cave:

Well, that was it in Puerto Princesa, 1 last picture on our way back:

As I said, it' s green, green, green everywhere. One big forest. Very, very nice overhere.  Next stop, I am already here now is El Nido, on the north top of Palawan.