Puerto Princesa, Palawan
We were picked up at 7am. The driver had to stop by a pharmacist to pick up some medicine for his wee daughter who had not been well overnight with a fever. We dropped the medicine off at his house, which was a sobering sight. Behind the main town of Puerto Princesa, narrow dirt backroads wind between wooden shacks. Drawing up to the driver’s home, the windows are either wire or bamboo. There’s one light bulb casting a fluorescent white light, hanging naked from the middle of the room, and the floors and walls are dark, bare. A small porch serves as the living room, where the single internal room is too hot during the day; baked by the sun and the corrugated iron roof. His pretty wife comes to meet us with a tired wee girl in her arms. She takes the medicine and disappears into the gloom of her home. In our air-conditioned people carrier, it’s another stark reminder of our privilege.
The drive through Palawan island was very scenic. The middle of the island is a combination of palms and rainforest; it’s very beautiful. The small villages dotted along the roadside are pretty and tended. This is in stark contrast to the city, which is functional, barely.
El Nido, Palawan
El Nido itself is much closer to the image of Palawan that we’d imagined. Small streets, wee shops, cafes, and a beach with a view. You can’t really use the beach for anything but walking on, as signs warn of no swimming due to Coliform Bacteria, presumably down to a lack of drainage and sewerage treatment. We have a few drinks at the beach that evening before dinner at a pizza place and an[other] early night.
It’s a 4:40am start the next day to grab our stuff and walk to the ferry port for a 4 hour crossing to Coron. Boarding the boat, I was relieved to see that it had working aircon (the reviews had suggested otherwise). However, after 20 minutes I was less relieved, as it was bloody freezing. As we headed out from port, I suggested that we take a Dramamine to stave off seasickness. The boat clearly wasn’t that stable as we were feeling a roll in almost dead calm waters. Best. Decision. Ever.
About an hour into the journey, people started disappearing to the toilet. After another 30 minutes, boat crew were lining the aisle handing out sick bags. Over half the boat was making very good use of the bags. The swell was much more significant when out of sheltered bays, and the pitch and yaw of the boat was rhythmic, in a Very Bad Way.
Coron Town, Busuanga
Arriving in Coron, we were duly ripped off by a tricycle driver (charging us 5x the going rate!) and dropped off at our hotel, the Bacau Bay Resort. We chilled out in the pool and gym that afternoon before heading back into town to check-in for diving the wrecks of Coron the next day.
Diving here is a basic affair; basic wooden trimaran boats, bench seating and no checks or guidance from the onboard dive team. Both of us felt grateful for the previous weeks’ refinement and practice. For once, we were probably the most experienced divers on board and ensured our gear-checks were thorough (noting a number of near catastrophes with some of the newly qualified divers who entered the water with closed tanks or no weight belts).
The day’s diving was all about wrecks. A Japanese fleet had been sunk here in 1944. Our first wreck, the Akitsushima, was a deep (35m) dive but a straightforward wreck with large rooms, illuminated by sunlight streaming through large holes in the side of the capsized vessel. The main challenge was a very significant current. I was amazed they allowed inexperienced divers in the water. One person ended up about 100m from the boat on the ascent, as he’d let go of the guide rope too soon.
While the third dive (Lusong) was nothing special, the second wreck, the Okikawa Maru was a proper dive. We were joined by Sofia (who had brought her dog on board), and our guide Mike, having reduced our group size to 3 due to our fourth member consuming air too fast on the previous dive. Sofia had demanded that the dive master make this dive more interesting, and after some sustained encouragement, he did just that. We dived to 25m and entered the ship through a small opening, proceeding through chamber after chamber of darkness through the entire length of the 170m plane carrier. We saw its destroyed crane, gearing systems, and the massive gun emplacement on its stern, before descending into the deep bowels of the ship to return back through the sunken tomb.
There was no natural light on this dive, and the openings to the various rooms were narrow and jagged. My regulator was snagged at one point and torn from my mouth. Sofia’s poor fin control led to billowing clouds of silt for Shona and me to navigate through in the gloom, with our weak torches as our only beacons. It was exhilarating. We both emerged unscathed, as did the ship, although we confessed to each other that there were moments where we had to actively control our heart rate and breathing, where the oppression of the rusting hulk, narrow passageways and near absolute blackness crept into our psyches, playing mind games around everything that could go wrong.
Video – Diving the Okikawa Maru
Coron Island
Our last full day in the Philippines, we did a ‘Super Ultimate Tour’ around Coron, visiting its lakes, beaches, sheltered lagoons and top snorkelling spots… along with every other tourist, it seemed. Thankfully, we’ve both adjusted to local time, as the boarding process to our boat, the Lucky Jay 2 was, well, crap. After about 3 changes of passengers (who were on various different tours), we eventually set off to sail around the stunning coastline of Coron and Busuanga Islands.
The snorkelling was fun, as were the many attempts at free-diving. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful white-sand beach, where a local diver who was on a tour waded out to me and handed me two little puppies. He’d bought them from someone on the island and needed help up to the boat.
We visited a freshwater lake, a hike up from a small harbour. I had my phone with me. My phone decided to get wet. My phone decided then to flash a disturbing purple colour and then get very very hot. My phone no longer turns on, despite being carefully dried out overnight.
Later that evening, back at the hotel, filling out an insurance claim for my phone (still doesn’t work), we couldn’t find Shona’s (my) Kindle. We think it vanished on board the boat. We are now down 1 x iPhone, 1 x Kindle and 1 x Bikini top (not mine) that vanished on board Infiniti.
Manila
We spent the next morning chilling at the resort before getting a transfer to the tiny Busuanga airport for a flight to Manila. We battle our way through a tortuous transfer process between Domestic and International airports, and after about 30 security checks, we board our flight to Melbourne for our 7th country of the trip, Australia.
Travels with Sklaroffs 