the best of times with my best friend

I will miss...

the TV
Hot water
AC
Clean, cockroach and bedbug free room
Minibar
Working lights
Real door locks

Private bathroom including
Bath tub
HIGH pressure shower
Clean toilet
Clean sink

These things are all nice and great. And of course i want to have them all the time. But in the end, i've been living without them for so long, they don't really matter that much to me anymore. For the last 10 days, i've had all the above listed luxuries, but none of them, and i mean none of them, compare to having dinner, a drink, sharing a laugh, and chilling on the beach, with none other than my best friend.

Welcome to the Philippines

The past 10 days have gone by far too quickly. I wish she could have stayed longer. If just only to chillout and do nothing (not that we didn't already do lots of that). Its not to share memories, not to tell eachother stories, just to sit there and talk to someone that knows you like no one else. I didn't think i would miss it that much. I know i will miss it till the day that i see her again.

So for a recap. My best friend arrived (late mind you!) in Puerto Princesa on a rainy Saturday evening. We quickly hugged and headed for the hotel van that was to take us to (or more accurately, me) to civilization. We checked in and headed out for some food. I took her to Henry's (still the best i think, no one makes 'em better than Henry!) and we gobbled down some street food. From there, we headed back to our place and chilled out for the rest of the night.

Next morning, we hopped into a tricycle and zipped over to Honda Bay, just 10 km from PP. Picturesque according to guidebooks and brochures, i'm sure it was if it was a little but sunnier. But we still had a good time. She chilled on the beach while i grabbed the snorkeling gear and headed out for the water. This was my first interaction with the reefs out here in the Philippines and i must say, i'm not as disappointed as i thought i would be. I've been told by other divers that the Philippines is for macro stuff (the little things, its called macro, i assume, b/c you need a macro lens to shoot them) and before, that stuff never interested me. But after snorkeling around for a little bit, i saw some really colorful and amazing things. I think i will have to do it some more on some different islands.

Our rain shelter

Also saw my first sea horse! Well, more like second if you include the one from Coron. But i found this one on my own, and purely by accident as well. I was in less than 1 foot of water trying to take my fins off when i realized the leaf that i looking as wasn't flowing around exactly the same as the others. At first i thought it was stuck. Then i thought that maybe it was a different type of leaf. Then i thought it might be a well cameflouged pipe fish. I looked at it for over a min before realizing that it wasn't any of the above, but instead, a seahorse. How cool is that? Never thought a seahorse could be cool, but hey, your interests are bound to change right?

The view from our shelter

Anyways, i soon realized that my best friend was yelling at me, telling me to get up so we could scoot off to the next island (it was island hopping day). I must have looked like i had just drowned or something. What else would someone be doing floating in less than 12 inches of water not moving. Ha! So we puttered off to the next island and before she could get some more sun, the rain started. I knew it was coming so luckily, we secured ourselves a nice shelter in which to hide. Not much to do that day after the rain, but eat a fish, of which i had very little.

Mmmm, fresh yellow spotted fish
(i don't really know its name, but it weighed like 3-4 kg)

Next day we dragged ourselves to the local bus station, stuffed ourselves onto a Jeepney and headed North to Sabang, home to the most famous natural attraction in Palawan. 3 hrs on a bad road, with no leg room, AC or toilet does not make for a happy vacationer. And as always, as we approached our destination, the Jeepney stopped more, and more, and more frequently, probably just to spite us. Anyways, we finally arrive on what is probably one of the best, quietest beaches i've seen in some time. One kilometer of untouched, beautiful sand surrounded by mountains on one side, limestone rock on the other and limestone cliffs in the background.

My sentiments exactly!

Its so much cooler to be outside

The beach was quite, quite nice

We settled into the guest house on the far end of the beach which didn't make things very convenient for us, but that was not really an issue since the place had good food and great ppl. Only issue, at night there was some loud banging music which carried long and far across the water to annoy us all night. That and the chickens have no idea what time it is and crow all night long. Oh, and the lovely rat that came to harass us the first night.

Sharing a double bed, with a mozzy net for protection, we went to bed the first night in Sabang. Now, i love mozzy nets like nothing else and cannot live without one. But i have to admit, when you're living in one, it feels like you're stuck in a box because you never want to go out of it. In addition, with only temporary power at our place (lights out at 11 pm), the only thing we had for illumination was my flashlight. So when my best friend wakes me up in the middle of the night telling me that there's something in the room, i have to admit that i'm just a little freaked out as well. Where the hell was my knife? Crap, its outside of the mozzy net. I'm not going out there.

At first i was really groggy, and thought that there was something inside of the net. So that of course instantly freaked me out. Especially when something brushed against my leg. Of course it was nothing more than my reading material but still. In the moment, it was creepy. Then becoming more and more conscious, i tell her, don't worry, there's nothing in the room. I use my flashlight, waved it under the bed to scare off anything that might be down there before i risked my face by looking under. Nothing there of course. No worries, back to sleep.

Thats of course when i heard it as well. A scurrying, twitching, scratching sound coming from underneath us. It had such intensity i even felt it through the walls and in the bed. Ok, fine, a little over exaggeration here, but i did actually feel and hear the sound. It lasted for less than a second but the fear struck me for just a little while longer. In a dark room, with only a flashlight and a mozzy net casting strange shadows everywhere, the mind begins to wander. Fortunately I soon figured out the sound was coming from under the floor, outside of our room. What was it? A rat? Chicken? Who knows and cares. It was fun, just not at the moment.

It didn't take us long to realize that we didn't have enough money for our stay and someone (of course me) would have to journey back to PP to get cash and use the net to book our flight back to Manila. But before I regale you with that 11 hr journey, i'll talk about what we were in Sabang to see. The Underground River! Apparently the worlds longest underground river system (i'm not going to argue with them but in Mulu, they told me theirs was the longest underground river!). We decided to hike there instead of take the boat since my best friend wanted to see the jungle and get some exercise. Now i'm all up for exercise and everything, but the jungle? Really? I've been there before and vowed never to go again more than once on this journey. But of course, she wanted to go so what the hell, lets do it. We started off our 5ish km journey around 10:30 am and was quite a bit easier than i thought. We walked along beautiful deserted beaches and through Jurassic like limestone forests.

Beautiful little limestone cove. Oh and look, there goes our guide

Hermit crab brawl!

Lazy ass guide

This was a stunning private beach

Back into the woods to climb over 200 steps

View of the bay

2 hrs later, after fighting a little sprinkle from the sky, many wooden and concrete steps, we appeared at the entrance of the cave. Our guide had left us a while back to fight the jungle on our own, and of course, we find him lazying under a table when we arrived. We drank the little water that we had and waited around for the park boat to take us in. Amazingly, out of the trees popped a fair sized monitor lizard. He just looked at us, walked up a little and then turned and went to go harass some other tourists. Quite an interesting experience, meeting a tame(ish) lizard of that size. Apparently, it will even take food from your hand. Not that i was going to try or had any food to give him. It would have been neat to do though. He walked over to another table of tourists that did have food and scared the crap out of them. Quite hilarious.

Mmmm, tourists

We finally got our chance to board one of the tour paddle boats around 1:30 that afternoon. My best friend and I boarded in the front which was kind of a mixed blessing. Sure, we got to sit up front, we even got to hold the light. Only problem, there was only one light. And the guide/operator sat at the back. So throughout the whole tour, we had no idea what he was saying. And his English got especially muddled when he told us to point the light at certain objects within the cave. Regardless of his poor English skills, i ignored him anyways as much as possible and just looked at what i thought was interesting.

Entrance to the Underground RiverOur turn!

Just another cave? Nope. This one was quite original in many ways. It was big. Not as big as Deer cave in Mulu, but a good size. Especially one chamber which was like over 60 m above us. Another plus, there's a river flowing through it! So the entire cave had been cut out of the limestone over centuries of flowing water. Just sitting there, with control of the torch of course, was quite nice as you floated past strange formations and through amazing passageways. Another top cave in my opinion. But I must admit, so far every cave i've seen will only live in the shadow of Deer cave. I'm one tough cookie to impress now as far as caves go.

Getting closerSorry, its hard to take pics in the dark!
Just imagine instead that we're going really really fast!
Lookout!
Uh, there's nowhere else to go is there?
Uh, forgot the name of this famous formation, can you suggest any?

The next day i was up and out of the room at 7 am to catch the jeepney back to PP. I of course volunteered to do this because i didn't want to lie on the beach all day while my best friend did. So off I went at 7:30 am. 3 bumpy, ass aching hours later i arrived in PP. From there i jumped onto the next jeepney, went 10 min into town, then used the net for 1 hr booking flights. after that, i went to the restaurant next door, ate for about 30 min and headed off to the bank. From there i took another jeepney and headed back to the bus terminal to catch the 1 pm jeepney back to Sabang.

So at this point, i've pretty much been sitting on my ass in various types of chairs for the past 6 hrs (with the exception of walking to/from the bank, net cafe, and restaurant, totaling probably no more than 150 m). So fine, i'm not in the best of moods at that moment. I board the jeepney at 1 pm, quite happy with the fact that its empty and that there would be plenty of leg room for me to relax. 1 hr goes by before it finally moved. God, the breeze was so nice. We pulled out onto the road and headed off. Less than 3 min, we had stopped again. We pulled into a construction site and loaded the jeepney with about 15 bags of cement. Fine, whatever, there was still plenty of space for me to move around. 3 min later, we pulled back into the bus terminal. WTF is happening here? For the next hour, the jeepney continuously filled up wiht more and more ppl. Finally, at 3 pm, after sitting for 2 hrs in a hot tin can, with no breeze, with no leg room, and an already bruised ass, we headed back to PP.

Another 3 hrs I sat on that stupid jeepney. It was the most hellish ride in recent memory i've ever had. My bonus? The last hour sitting in the terminal in PP, they loaded the entire rooftop up with cargo. Whats wrong with that? Oh, nothing, just that as they approached PP, they literally stopped every 10 m to drop off another box to some store/restaurant/family. God, my patience was really wearing thin. I climbed out of the jeepney (out the window) when it got into Sabang and literally had trouble walking! It was a nice 1 km limp on the beach back to my place.

Now the best part was, tomorrow i would be taking the jeepney back to PP again. Damn, thats a total of 12 hrs over 4 trips on that stupid jeepney. I was really earning my stripes now. We took of the next morning in the afternoon around 12. The bus this time didn't leave till 2, however, we were smarter and waited outside the bus. One hour into our journey, the bus pulled over for a quick rest. I was like screw it, i'm sitting on the roof (like a local!). My best friend was like are you sure? Isn't it going to rain? i was like who cares! Its an adventure! Sure enough, we jumped off the bus, ran to the back, climbed up on top and sat ourselves down on a nicely folded tarp.

Just chilling on top

All nice smooth roads from here

We probably didn't sit up there for more than 20 min before the rain started. But, with a low setting sun in the background, limestone cliffs and forests whizzing by, cool fresh air, no engine noise, and of course, my best friend, those few min on the roof were the best ride i've ever had. As the rain started to come down, we quickly scurried back into the bus and just sat down, refreshed, for the final leg back into PP.

Contemplating life's greatest questions

Next morning we caught our flight to Manila and checked into a room with one of the highest pressure showers i have ever used. It literally powerwashed away the dirt. Damn that was a good shower. We explored Manila for the next 2 days. I did a little bit less considering that this was my second time here. I actually spent 2.5 hrs in the Bureau de Immigration office convincing the people that i needed my passport back in order to fly the following Sunday. I didn't think it would be necessary but hell, i paid the express fee and i should get my passport back now! idiots. But i was nice about it since they controlled whether i got my visa or not. Stressful day i tell you.

We checked out the fruit market, another big market, the Mall of Asia, and a supermarket. I never did get any jackfruit from Manila. I was quite disappointed. Another thing i'm sad we missed was the fireworks festival they were having at the MOA. Last time it was just pure luck that i stumbled upon a small show. But this time, Canada and France were going to perform! Two shows in one night! A little tired after walking everywhere all day, we decided to skip the first show (Canada) and watch the later show instead. Unfortunately, it started to rain around 8 and didn't stop till well after the show would have finished. Thunder, lightning, the whole works.

Baclaren MarketMall of Asia

Next stop, Boracay Island! Probably, if not the most famous destination in the Philippines. White sand beaches, beautiful blue water, nice hotels, what more could you ask for? We flew in (late of course) and hopped onto a minivan, then pump boat, then back to another minivan before arriving at the Regency Hotel. Beautiful place with not one, but 3 different pools (from what i could tell). We quickly settled in and headed for the beach.

Flying over the Visayas

Boracay beach

Boracay was definitely not what i expected. The entire island itself was way underdeveloped. Rough roads everywhere, ppl transporting roosters in tricycles to the local cock fight (i wanted to watch), no major malls or even a single mall of any sort. It was nice in a sense, but at the same time, not really. Its hard to explain, i just wasn't terribly impressed. I think Sabang was much better.

Looking North up to section 1, or is that 3? Who knows

Mining nose gold for the townspeople

Chilling in the waves

Sailing into the distance

We did have fun anyways, walking around and chilling on the beach. Although the sun was a little lack luster for my best friend to tan in and at night it rained, we still made the best of it. We flew out only 2 days after we arrived. Far too short of a vacation in my opinion. Although the cost definitely made it prohibitive to stay any longer, i'm still not used to this 'high speed' traveling. Ha! What made things worse, is that flying back to Manila (again) would be the last time i got to see my best friend as she was connecting out of Niquoy. Our flight of course was delayed again. So long in fact that she missed her connecting flight and Air Philippines had to shuffle her into another one. I was secretly disappointed that i didn't get to spend just one more day with my best friend but in the end, i'll see her soon enough.

Miss you lots already. I'll be back soon enough though.
Time for some Blank and Jones with Herbie.
BTW, AVBs Imagine set is fantastic! We must go catch his world tour! HAH!

Just some random pics. Nearly glued my fingers together trying to repair my sandals. Who knew that it would come out like water and not thick crap like back home? And it really dries in seconds like it says on the bottle. They don't mess around out here. No worries, i don't really need all my fingers anyways. Just thumb, index and middle. I cut the useless ones that got stuck together.

-bk