Tej Turner

Travelblog#36: Port Barton – the Philippines

11^th-13^th January, 2015

We arrived at Port Barton in the early evening and my first impressions were, to be honest, not great. The beach was nice, but I was soon to discover that the accommodation was all hideously overpriced, yet somehow nearly everywhere was full. Large colourfully painted signs advertised nightly barbeques, stone-baked pizzas, grilled cheeseburgers and all kinds of western foods, all sold at very western prices. Where was the Filipino food? When Roy, my former travel buddy, had described this place to me it sounded like a secret little haven which only received a gentle trickle of travellers, but he had been here over five years ago. It seemed this place had since been ‘discovered’, and its clientele had predominantly shifted to the flashpacker party crowd.

It did feel a bit like I was in Thailand.

I eventually found a place for the four of us to stay – a nice cottage with two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, and balcony with a hammock – and I even managed to haggle it down to a fairly reasonable price.

The next morning we were taken out on a boat trip to explore the archipelago of islands just offshore and we managed to avoid paying all the extra tout-tax by organising it directly with the boatman rather than an agency. The snorkelling spots we stopped at had some nice corals and so-so marine life. The islands, however, were paradise.

The first place we settled upon was a pair of twin islands which it was possible to wade between across a bar of sand beneath the shallows. Our boatman and his assistant cooked us a lunch of fresh fish and vegetables over a fire while we explored, swam, snorkelled and lazed.

In the afternoon we got back onto the boat and were taken to German Island, which had a lovely sandy beach dotted with coconut trees. We even managed to spot a turtle while snorkelling there and our guide showed us a spot where a turtle had laid its eggs in the sand.

Port Barton did grow on me – as it is a genuinely beautiful area – but at the same time the way it is now set up, with its expensive prices and all the pre-fixed tours, makes it feel a bit like you’re on a holiday rather than travelling. It is all a little bit too comfortable. A little too crowded. Locals are so used to seeing foreigners now that they are no longer interesting to them, and thus only speak to them when they want their money and that, to me, as a traveller, creates a distance and makes you feel like you are not really connecting with an area, just seeing all these pretty things from behind a glass as you are whisked around.

I think I may have come to Palawan a few years too late, but I am already here now and, like I said before, it is a beautiful place, so I am going to make the most of what it is while I am here and just hope that other parts of the Philippines, such as The Visayas and North Luzon, might be a little more adventurous and rewarding, when I get there.

Jody, James, Chloe, and I got a little bit attached to our nice little cottage by the sea, so after our boat tour we stayed in Port Barton for an extra day, to relax, soak up the sun, bathe, and read books in our hammocks.

For more photos, click here.

Travelblog#35: Sabang – the Philippines

10th-11th January, 2015

After a very comfortable Christmas and New Year spent with friends in Taiwan, I was back on the road again. Destination: the Philippines.

No longer alone, I had three travel buddies with me: Jody, James and Chloe. All of us are old friends and went to University together. Jody has been living in Taiwan for the last four years, teaching English. James and Chloe are a couple, and have also been travelling around Asia this year – while I was roaming around Indonesia, they were backpacking around Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

We left Taipei in the early hours of the morning and had a three hour stopover at Manilla airport, where we waited for our connecting flight to Puerto Princesca.

It was during this transit at Manila airport that I first encountered the carefree attitude Filipinos have towards time: almost every flight was delayed that morning, but nobody seemed all too bothered or surprised. Even when the planes were ready to leave, the airlines then had to chase up missing passengers who had not turned up to their gates. Streams of names were called out in the intercom over and over again, followed by; “your flight is ready to leave. Can you report to gate [X] for boarding… please?” each time, a little more pleadingly. The delayees were, presumably, sat in cafés, obliviously slurping upon drinks without a worry in the world.

I decided that I was going to have to ‘get with’ this laid-back vibe during my time here, or otherwise it might begin to annoy me.

We reached Puerto Princesca in the morning and caught a bus straight to Sabang.

We were too tired to do much else other than find ourselves a lovely little cottage by the sea to stay in, book our permits to visit the nearby underground river the next day, and finish off a long journey with a beer on the balcony.

The Puerto Princesca Subterranean River National Park has recently been named one of the Seven New Wonders of the Natural World, and has thus become a little overcrowded. After we had finished patiently queuing alongside all of the tour groups, through several stages of a hopelessly bureaucratic system, we were finally loaded up onto a boat and taken to a small cove further along the coast to the entrance of the cave.

It was a very scenic area, with large monitor lizards wandering around and cheeky crab-eating macaques trying to scrounge food. The brackish waters were a beautiful greenish colour and were teeming with fish. Swimming was not allowed; as the eco-system is very unique and part of a protected area.

Once our group number was called out we were loaded up onto another boat and we began our tour of the cave.

Our guide’s commentary was comical and gimmicky, rather than scientific, but entertaining. Between all the wise-cracks and one-liners, he did tell us a little bit about the history of the place. Mostly, he pointed out different formations and told us their names: “this is Medusa, can you see the hair?” “that one is The Dolphin,” “this one, is for adults only.”

It was a very nice cave, and definitely worth the visit.

Once our tour was over we decided to walk back to Sabang through a jungle walkway I had read good things about in my Lonely Planet guide, only to discover that in the year since my guide was written the footpath – which locals and travellers alike have been casually strolling through over the years – has been rebranded as a trail which, for the purposes of ‘safety’, (*cough* *cough*) white people need a guide.

To be fair, the price for the guide was quite cheap so we grudgingly paid it. It vexes me though, when the concept of Health and Safety is abused as a money-making scheme – it is a very western habit which seems to be slowly creeping into Asia. Most of the path was paved, and it was all very well signposted – there really is no need for people to be ‘guided’ through it.

The walk went past some lovely limestone scenery, swamplands and mangroves. We even saw a snake along the way, as well as a cave which is used by monitor lizards to lay their eggs.

When we got back to Sabang, we grabbed our bags and jumped upon a bus heading towards Port Barton.

For more photos, go to my Flickr account.

Travelblog#34: Taiwan

For the last few weeks I have been in Taiwan, spending time with old friends. I am not going to write a proper blog to account for my time there, as it hasn’t really been all that exciting: I made a few day trips around Taipei, had a cozy Christmas involving lots of cheese and wine, and watched the fireworks from Taipei 101 from the top of a hill during New Years Eve. I also bathed in some amazing hot springs and revisited Taroko Gorge, which still remains one of the beautifulest places I have ever been to. This was my third time in Taiwan, and I therefore didn’t feel much need to be a tourist. I didn’t even take my camera out with me, most days, and I have had a little holiday from being a ‘traveller’, while enjoying forgotten luxuries such as Western food, hot showers, lay-ins, and a cool climate.

Therefore, for my time in Taiwan I am just going to post up some photos, which can be found here.

I have just packed my backpack and tomorrow I leave for the Philippines. I will be there for around seven weeks, in all, and the adventures will continue. I will be travelling this next leg of my journey with three good friends: Jody, James, and Chloe – whose names I am sure the regular readers of my blog will come familiar with over the coming weeks.

Stay tuned!