OUR EPIC JOURNEY
Sunday, December 19th, 2010ASIA 2010
Our friend Scott came up with this term for our trip & it stuck. In September we realized a life-long dream to visit the Far East & backpacked our way through Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore & The Philippines for 3 months. Quite an adventure.
Why do we travel? Recently Hans read that the word ‘travel’ stems from the root word ‘travail’ & at times it certainly felt like that for us-LOL! We enjoy experiencing other cultures of course. But for myself travel pushes me out of my cozy comfort zone & forces me to deal with new & challenging situations daily.
I’m sure much of that has to do with the image of my mother sitting on the front porch giving herself a manicure on her one day off…My dad would holler out to her “Come on Rosie, let’s go for a ride & see the sights.” She’d reply “Why would I want to go anywhere? I can see all I want from right here.” ARGH! Whenever I felt tempted to chuck life on the road, that image loomed large & pushed me to carry on with the journey. Like Ray, I hate to miss anything!
THAILAND
Our trip to “The Land of Smiles” began with a VERY frowny face experience. When we arrived at the LA airport, after 12 hours on the road, we went to the Thai Air check-in counter. There we were denied boarding rights unless we bought 2 new round trip tickets!
LONG story short: Hans had bought the tickets R/T LA/Bangkok/LA in August. Shortly after our credit card had to be replaced as someone used it for unauthorized on-line purchases. Thai Air demanded that we present the card we used to buy the tickets before allowing us to board. Obviously this was impossible as that card had been destroyed & replaced with a new one. The charge had already been paid as well but there was simply no reasoning with the bureaucratic buttheads at the ticket counter. When I asked why they needed to see the original card they said to verify the ticket so the charge could not be disputed later. I told them I’d call the credit card company which would explain why that card was replaced & verify that the charge had been paid. Obviously since we were flying on those tickets we could not later dispute the charge. No way! I demanded to speak with a supervisor-same shit. At one point Hans exploded, told them they were a complete rip-off & threatened to buy new tickets with another company! Of course we had no choice but to buy the damn tickets if we wanted to board our flight. They told us they’d refund the first charge back to our account ‘by the end of the year’ IF we went to the office in Bangkok to fill out their forms. NEVER fly Thai Air! Royal Thai is a royal rip-off in our opinion! And not even a glimmer of a smile from those shitheads either!
BUT we decided not to let them ruin our long awaited trip-this has now become the theme of our trip-LOL! We’ve only been traveling for 2 weeks & have had such a roller coaster ride of the good, the bad & the downright UGLY that our mantra is to not let any of it ruin the fun of the trip. Quite a challenge at times. Much like life in extreme mode.
The good part of the hostage scenario at the LA airport came in Bangkok. I went to the business center of our hotel to get directions to the Thai Air office to fill out their stupid forms. The woman there looked very concerned, told me it was very far to the office & an expensive taxi ride so why did I want to go there? I blurted out my sob story in gory detail. With a horrified expression she picked up the phone, called Thai Air & unleashed a torrent of Thai-GO GIRL! I counted 3 times she was transferred to another bureaucratic butthead until finally she handed me the phone WITH A BIG SMILE! The woman at the other end told me in perfect English that she would apply for the refund & I did not need to come in. I asked her to send me an email verification & hung up. Wonder Woman looked at me & said “Not to worry, they will send money. Have fun in Thailand.” And so we did, right after handling Hans’ health issues…
At the end of the 17 hour flight on Thai Air, Hans’ dental bridge fell out. Once we landed in Bangkok, the chest cold he’d been fighting off for days developed into a severe respiratory infection. Poor Hans was one sick guy. We found a dentist to stick the bridge back in-luckily it fell out intact! Then I put him on antibiotics-luckily available OTC so no need for a prescription. For the first few days Hans dragged himself around with me torturing him to see the sights…I did show some mercy & let him rest most of the day with just brief, easy excursions-LOL! We took a boat ride along the canals to see how people still live as they have for ages on the stinky river.
We scoped out the public transportation system-Skytrain over the city, subway beneath it & boats up & down the river. By the 4th day though I decided he needed to get his butt in gear & tour the temples with me & so we did, with Hans no doubt praying for a more compassionate wife! AWESOME architecture!
The best part of Buddhism is that it’s more of a lifestyle than a religion & one embracing accountability for one’s actions. People are polite! Imagine a culture of courtesy-cool! We Farangi (foreigners) could learn a lot from these gracious folks.
For us Thailand seems to be a mix of modern, traditional & touristy. Bangkok blends the modern with the traditional.
Not nearly as overwhelming as we’d been warned BUT coming from Panama we’re used to stench & crowds! Actually we thought Bangkok was quite clean, no litter & merchants washed the sidewalks in front of their stalls even-WOW!
We visited the city weekend market which was like a giant open air Cosco store & then some! From food to home décor & even pets, they had it ALL! Bangkok also has TONS of modern upscale malls. Guess the shopping bug is global? Hasn’t bitten us yet BUT those malls came in handy for me to cool off & pee-LOL!
The highlight though was a spectacular show we saw our last night there. You can check it out on-line:
http://www.siamniramit.com/show.php
Billed as a “Journey to the Enchanted Kingdom of Thailand” it’s quite a trip!
An extravaganza of the history & heritage of Thailand, complete with elephants marching across the stage & into the audience-WHOOHOO! Ornately designed & colorful costumes, flying performers, & dynamite dances made for an eye popping show. The country has many diverse cultures, from hill people to river folks to coastal lifestyles. Although tourism is rampant & changing traditional lifestyles, it was a fascinating view of the variety in Thai culture. We loved it & it was a great good-bye to Bangkok.
From the city we took a train/bus/ferry ride to Koh Samui, an island off the east coast of Thailand. Less said about that 8 hour train ride the better. Talk about stench…the last 2 hours our eyes watered due to the fetid toilet-ARGH! I started to gag & said to Hans “I think I might puke.” He looked at me “You’ll have to brave the bathroom then.” YUCK! I stuck my nose under my T-shirt & tried not to breathe too deeply. Glancing around to distract myself I saw our neighbor viciously ripping out his nose hairs & examining them intently. This set me off into a complete convulsive fit of laughter, with wild whoops of hysteria bursting forth. Hans went off too, which set off a coughing fit of hacking like to throw a lung. So we dispelled the aroma & soon exited the train. Thank goodness!
We’d recall this moment much later on a ride thru the Cameron Highlands when we saw this sign for a strawberry farm where you could pick your own:
View-wise the train trip was quite fun though. We saw the countryside with people living rural lives as they most likely have for generations. Rice paddies were followed by palm oil, rubber & coconut plantations, & lots of fish farms. Commercial fish farms in flooded fields along with personal fish farms next to people’s huts on the rivers. Once again we were so grateful to have won the DNA lottery, looking at how poor people are here.
We spent the night in Surat Thani, as the ferry didn’t leave until morning. There we enjoyed one of the food highlights of the trip so far. We walked around looking for a place to eat & saw a place packed with people. A grill extravaganza! Imagine a charcoal burner (with REAL charcoal!) in the shape of a juice squeezer, set on your table. The buffet is an array of raw meats, fish & shrimp which you lay on the dome to grill. They fill the bottom with water & you put veggies in there to cook with the meat juices that drip down-OMG! Beyond delicious! All you can eat-we sat & stuffed ourselves for 2 hours-LOL! The bill? TEN DOLLARS-including beers! As the only Farangis there we felt quite warmly welcomed with people helping us to figure out how the buffet worked & what to choose for meats & fish to cook on our grill. Very friendly folks! Lots of smiles-probably laughing at us a bit too-no problem (Mai pan Rai-never mind in Thai)! Sanuk is not just the word for FUN in Thai, it’s their national motto!
We took these sayings as our trip motto: “Let’s have sanuk, enjoy ourselves & mai pan rai the bullshit parts…often easier said than done but a great approach to travel & life with its ‘travails’ too!
In Koh Samui we experienced a touch of the traditional Thailand. We stayed at Arayaburi Hotel on the South China Sea. As it was the low season with hardly anyone there, the staff treated us like royalty. Their warm welcome made us feel they genuinely were glad to have us there. The gentle Thai have the loveliest greeting, with hands held prayer-like in front of their faces & a little bow to you. We always did the ‘prayer bow’ back, to their great delight. Pailin, Chao & the rest of the folks there made that place our favorite part of the trip to Thailand.
Their nature artwork was fun to wear & share!
We actually did a dive in Koh Samui-for twice as much as we pay in Florida-imagine! But how could we visit Thailand & not do at least one dive? While it was less exciting than expected, still beautiful & different coral to see. I think if I ever host a travel show I’d call it “No Expectations.” Like life, travel is best enjoyed without preconceived notions of what you think will happen! Nothing goes according to plan! Mai pan rai!
We took the 10 hour ferry/bus trip west to Phuket next…public transportation is quite cheap here in Asia but you do get what you pay for. We’re always the only Farangis on board (except for occasional young backpackers, who always look weirdly at us geezers) & there’s a reason for that…& that’s my final word on that subject-LOL! Phuket lived up to its phonetic name phor us & we phelt so phed up with the over-touristy place we phled after just 2 days. Not even a decent meal to be had as everything has been toned down to Farangi standards-UGH! No prayer bow greetings, few smiles, SAD! You could feel the vibe was “We’re so sick of you obnoxious tourists invading our country.” I call it the “walking wallet syndrome.” When natives of a country only see tourists as money to be made, not real people. Of course when tourists behave like disrespectful idiots I can see their point! But we hate getting lumped into that category by default!
The weather did not cooperate either. Rain showers daily with lots of wind whipped waves into high gear so we couldn’t even swim in the sea! Lots of litter on the beach & the usual 3rd World stinky septic tank river draining into the ocean nearby made it a less than pleasant beach walk. I wonder which pollutes the ocean more, 1st World chemical dumping or 3rd World toilet flushing? Both seem nasty to me.
Totally over public transportation, we flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next.
MALAYSIA
We spent about a week in KL, very impressed with the city. In comparison Panama City feels like a backwater town & bad example of urban blight! It’s easy to get around town on the Skytrain, subway & bus systems. Hans always makes it a point to master each city’s transportation system as part of the cultural experience! Not only is it WAY cheaper than taxi travel, it’s more fun to travel like locals (for such short trips around town at least-LOL!). The A/C & cleanliness of the Skytrain & subway were a blessed relief from the heat for me.
To say we’re avidly active sightseers would be a gross understatement. I think our approach to tourism is best described as ‘buzz-ass’. Despite debilitating heat & humidity we charge along, covering 10+ miles/day. Fit yet fat. Why so? Sightseeing is a ‘moveable feast’ for us-LOL! Street food stalls line the roads here with tasty treats not to be missed. So we eat as we walk-YUM! I feel every ounce of those 20 extra pounds I carry but that doesn’t stop the feeding frenzy!
Highlights of KL included the Petronas Twin Towers, an architectural masterpiece at 1,483 feet, 88 stories!
You can’t go to the tippity top of that so instead we visited The Menara Tower.
At the top-1,381 feet-you’re in a circle of glass with 360 degree views of the city & beyond. We went all over town & never saw any real slums, amazing!
It seems the government provides a lot of public housing for people.
Chinatown offered eating delights while Little India overwhelmed us with colorful fabrics & bling galore. Malaysia is a mix of cultures & cuisines-Malay, Chinese, & Indian are the predominant 3, the state religion is Islam. It’s been years since I’ve traveled in a Muslim country, though I have many fond memories of the hospitality extended to me as a foreigner then. People here are also quite friendly & helpful, though I did feel for the women wrapped head to toe in black in the blazing sun & fierce heat!
Before leaving KL we attended a cultural performance at the Tourist Center:
Our original plan after KL had been to head to the east coast for some diving & onto Borneo for jungle trekking. The early arrival of monsoon season squashed that idea. Instead we went inland to Taman Negara Nat’l Park for 3 days of jungle hikes. WOW! This park encompasses 1.1 million acres of primary rainforest estimated to be 130 million years old. Our cabin sat in the midst of the jungle so we could sit out on the porch & hear critters rustling about. Of course I imagined elephants in our backyard after spotting elephant poop on one of our hikes-LOL! We did see a tapir on a night walk…Hans thinks it belongs to the park & they let it out at night to impress the tourists! Cynic! Amazing that there were NO BUGS at all in the jungle-even at night! Our guide, Ismail, said the insects prefer the city-LOL!
The canopy walk rated as most thrilling & terrifying. One of the longest in the world & 120 feet above ground the view is spectacular. Hans & I both suffer fear of heights which added a delicious extra dab of horror to the experience. The walkway is simply a board stuck into some roping, with woven twine alongside & a rope handhold. It sways madly as you walk along, swinging you about-such fun!
At one point I turned to check on Hans & wished I had a camera to capture him creeping along like a crab, clinging to the sides & carefully not looking down-EEK! Always good to push yourself out of your comfort zone right? In between the walks platforms offered temporary respites to gather courage to set off again.
The river rides were our favorite ‘activity’ in the jungle visit-LOL! Just sitting in the narrow boat as it chugged along, creating a lovely breeze.
All that was missing was the mint julep! We swam upriver in freezing cold water-who’da thunk that in the middle of the steamy jungle? Malaysia has high mountains & this pristine stream came directly from there.
After the jungle we headed to the Cameron Highlands for a bit of a chill pill for me. The British built homes here to escape the heat of KL. Known for its tea plantations & beautiful gardens we enjoyed a cool visit to some of each.
By this time we’d been on the road for nearly a month. Though we’d met traveling & have traveled together for months at a time, we always had our own van. This provided transportation, sleeping quarters & food facilities. Backpacking is an entirely different animal & often a bit of a vicious one-LOL! Our ‘marital moments’ were quite minimal though & mostly due to me whining about feeling too hot, hungry or having to pee-LOL!
Admittedly the trip has proven more of a challenge for me than dear Hans. When we met Hans suffered horribly in the heat & humidity of Africa, while I remained cool as a cucumber & never broke a sweat. Menopause changed all that! Now I’m an internal combustion engine & tried to describe to Hans how I felt like my blood boiled as we trudged around town. Temperatures hovered at 34*C with 90% humidity, creating a heat index well over 100*F. But then as I remind him, there aren’t many 56 year old women willing to undertake such an ‘epic journey’.
Onto Georgetown, a World Heritage Site I was eager to visit. Our Frommer’s book states:
“Georgetown reminds me of the way Singapore looked before the government ‘sanitized’ the old neighborhoods.” I interpreted this to mean we’d discover quaint old fashioned areas with historic buildings. Hans interpreted it to mean the city was run down. Guess who was right? Sadly, sometimes sanitation is a good thing! Dilapidated grey buildings cast a dreary pall over narrow allies stinking of sewer stench. Partially treated waste water flowed next to the sidewalks. An assault upon your nose so fetid you simply cannot imagine it until you’ve experienced it-GAG ME!
In areas where we escaped the stench & managed to eat we did find delicious exotic foods, I will admit.
A highlight was our visit to the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion. Known as The Rockefeller of China, Cheong Fatt (1840-1917) worked his way up from a poor water carrier to become a successful businessman controlling a vast commercial empire.
He lived in that mansion with the youngest of his EIGHT wives-21 when he married her at age 75.
The story of the 8 wives was that his business ventures extended throughout the Far East so he had a wife in each city where he did business-LOL! The most interesting part of the house was its dedication to the principles of feng shui & how that system operated to keep the house cool way back before A/C!
The 2nd week of October finds us in Langkawi, an island off the west coast of Malaysia, just south of Phuket actually but a world away from that touristy place. We spent nearly a week in R&R here, rented a motor scooter & toured the island. A steep cable car ride took us to the top of a mountain for some spectacular views.
On a clear day you can see all the way to Phuket! The weather also cooperated so we did some boat tours as well.
SINGAPORE
From Langkawi we flew to Singapore, the highlight of our trip in many ways. It’s a model city, clean & pedestrian friendly & reminded us of European cities we’d visited. Frommer’s describes Singapore as a country “almost devoid of corruption, with a strong economy & a nation of racial & religious harmony.” Its amazing transformation from a backwater town to an economic powerhouse did not come without dissent over extreme government control. However most people enjoy a high standard of living with the average annual income at $49,900 in 2007.
We spent a week sightseeing & eating our way through this delightful city-state. While we do visit museums & such ‘official sites’ mostly we enjoy street culture. Wandering around side streets, discovering markets, parks & cafes, chance encounters with friendly natives, give us more of a feel of the lifestyle than tourist sightseeing. That’s why we avoid organized tours & prefer a DIY approach to travel! Chinatown here is the ‘sanitized’ version compared to the stink hole of Georgetown & much preferable to me, the Queen of Clean-LOL! The historic old shop houses have been restored to capture the cultural heritage of the original buildings.
Little India & Arab Street offered delicious street food & colorful fabric markets.
Here Hindus worship in temples down the road from Muslim mosques, as an example of how religions can coexist if only the extremists would allow it!
In Singapore, quite fitting with the vibe of the city, we splurged on a hotel stay! Mostly we avoid American brand hotels & stay where middle class locals stay (we may be backpacking but our hostel days are over-LOL!). But The Sands drew us like a gigantic magnet in the sky…an architectural wonder!
A ‘boat’ balances atop the 57th floor of 3 buildings. It remained in our view daily as we walked around Marina Bay until finally we decided to book a room there! WOW! There’s an infinity pool with stunning city views of the sunset. Well worth indulging our extravagant moment!
I must admit I had a major meltdown in Singapore…it happened the day we went to the spectacular botanical gardens. We had a glitch with the bus we were supposed to catch. It failed to stop for us so the next time it came down the road I ran to flag it down. Now I may no longer live up to my youthful nickname of “runs like the wind” but I’m still fleet footed enough to pound the pavement in pursuit of that fucking bus! NOT the smartest move in the heat of mid-day Singapore. By the time we finally figured out the glitch & arrived at the gardens I felt drained & dazed. Stumbling stupidly behind Hans I had a ‘Rose moment’ of wooziness-LOL! Dear Hans noticed my zombie state so when he saw a sign “cool room” he headed straight for it! It’s a room for orchids that can’t handle the heat of Singapore-imagine that! I fit right in!
Flower freaks that we are, we’ve visited many orchid gardens & never found the equal of the one at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania…until Singapore that is!
The orchids grow in a natural setting of tropical jungle, which you wander through, so you feel like “The Orchid Thief” (the movie-Adaptation-never did justice to the book of that title). Luscious purples, cerulean blues, mellow yellows, striped shades of pink, & even ‘colorless’ whites so blindingly devoid of color that they still dazzle the eye made us feel like we were tripping. They had even named celebrity flowers: The Princess Di & Michael Jackson orchids (both white! BAD!).
The weekend we stayed in Singapore, Marina Bay hosted an outdoor exhibit of artistic light creations, along with dance & cultural performances:
We couldn’t leave Singapore without sampling a Singapore Sling drink at the famous Raffles hotel, built in 1887. Named after Sir Stamford Raffles, the man who claimed control of Singapore for the British East India Company in 1819, it’s way too sweet of a drink for us, though the colonial experience it sprang from probably tasted a bit sour for Singaporeans. ..
From Singapore we took the train back up north to Malacca, Malaysia. By now if your sense of geography serves you well, you realize that we’ve been zig-zagging all over the place on this trip! This was mainly due to weather conditions. We visited in the rainy season so we bounced around avoiding the worst of it. Amazingly we never used the ponchos we brought & really only got caught once in a tropical downpour-though that was a humdinger-in The Philippines. More on that later…
Malacca’s draw is its colonial architecture & authentic Malay homes open for touring.
The inhabitants have figured out that we tourists love real cultural experiences. Built of bamboo & set high up on stilts, these houses remain essentially the same structures since generations. Owners have collected generations of STUFF on display for us tourists! Ya gotta love it! I’m talking old clothes, family photos, beat up cookware, ‘antique’ (old) furniture, etc.
We got a special kick out of this, having just purged our lives of years of STUFF to relocate to Panama! I told Hans we should have kept our crap & opened a home museum for foreign tourists visiting the states-“COME ON IN FOLKS! Pay to see real crap from real American lives”-LOL!
But I must admit we had a blast on this tour thanks to our ‘guide’ Musa. He came around the corner pedaling his ‘tuk-tuk’ which was festooned with fake flowers & blaring out 70’s songs. His huge toothless grin won us over & we climbed aboard.
For the first few minutes he pedaled along shouting out “HAPPY MUSA HAPPY HAPPY MUSA.” I took a fit of laughing, even squashed in the tuk-tuk as I was. Too funny!
From Malacca we took the bus back to KL to catch a discount flight to Manila. Air Asia is the Spirit Airline of the Far East. Their motto “Now everyone can fly” sums it up. We took 16 flights on this trip & most were a mere $50! WOW! The terminal is more like a bus station, with planes lined up & you walk out to your plane & climb aboard-LOL!
THE PHILIPPINES
We had never intended to visit The Philippines on this trip until we met Scott & Jen in Panama. Are we glad we did! We experienced some of the highlights of our trip on these lovely islands, thanks to their fun tour guiding.
These idyllic islands offered the cleanest beaches & clearest waters of the entire trip. In fact The Philippines are light years ahead of Panama in terms of environmental awareness. The day after any holiday here, beaches are littered with garbage, disposable diapers, Styrofoam & plastic trash, etc.-YUCK! Quite disgusting. When you point this out to Panamanians most don’t even get why it’s a problem! Clueless!
The beach at Boracay was our favorite, with signs like these not only stopping litterbugs but also preventing smoking on the beach-WOW!
We couldn’t even get that one passed in Florida! It may seem excessive but if you’ve ever been swimming in the ocean & nearly ingested someone’s cigarette butt, you’d agree that is just gross. To say nothing of poor sea critters who inadvertently eat them & suffer the consequences.
Our arrival in Manila was a bit of a shocker though. An assault on the senses actually! The budget plane terminal is a 2 hour drive from the city so we got the scenic tour into town. The poverty level seemed extreme compared to Panama. We saw people living in little more than cardboard shacks with a tin roof, some leaning precariously Tower of Pisa-like. People & cars crowded the streets creating a cacophony, exhaust fumes made our eyes water while beggars tugged at our sleeves. Quite overwhelming.
The day after our arrival we decided to do some sightseeing & headed to Manila Bay. That made us feel at home as it’s the same cesspool as Panama Bay, with the stench of sewage filling our nostrils. Plastic bags & other trash floated in the murky stink water. Again I wonder which is worse for the planet? Natural or artificial crap? Homeless people lined the bay walk & continually begged for money from us. While we never felt in the least threatened, still it’s quite depressing & sad to see families living on the street.
What a relief to leave the city & fly to Mindanao. The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7,000 islands. Mindanao is the southernmost island & Davao the city where Jen’s parents live. We went there to visit them. We love being invited into people’s homes when we travel, but it’s a rare event when that happens as a tourist. So the warm welcome we received from Jen’s folks felt even more special. Despite the language barrier which prevented much communication, we felt quite at home with them.
They made us delicious meals of grilled fish & veggies with tasty soups & of course RICE! The national dish of The Philippines. By the time we left even we were eating rice for breakfast-LOL! Her dad even staged a mock cock fight in the backyard!
Cock fighting is a national sport there & betting on the birds intensifies the action. I must say the roosters appeared gorgeously well cared for & ready to fight! If you’ve ever tended hens & had a rooster you know that’s what they love to do!
We island hopped our way around the country, next visiting Puerto Galero on Mindoro Island, closest to Manila. Scott drove part way & then we took the ferry. We stayed at the home of a friend of Scott & Jen, a lovely house right on the beach. We rented motor scooters & took a ride up to a golf course atop a mountain for some wonderful vistas. Puerto Galera is a cute town with a great beach & lots of dive shops. Once again, the weather did not cooperate for a dive though-boohoo!
Boracay beach was our next hop, often on the list of best beaches in the world & one of our favorite spots. The main beach, White Beach, is 4 km of pure white sand with crystal clear blue water.
We walked the beach every morning & swam in the afternoons. A delightful bout of R&R after months of intrepid travel. Many folks mourn the ‘discovery’ of Boracay & its development for the tourist trade. While I’m sure it must have been something years ago in its pristine phase, we still enjoyed the place, with all its hotels, restaurants, & yes even D’Mall!
Tourist watching can be quite entertaining & pristine also means primitive in terms of accommodations-LOL!
I once read a diver’s account of ‘the good old days’ diving a remote island that’s now been developed for tourism. You took a dinky ‘panga’ boat (like a canoe with an engine) to the island, slept in a hammock slung between palm trees (& fought off blood thirsty mosquitoes!), no electricity, ate simple rice & fish meals, & hoped you never had a dive accident as there was no hyperbaric chamber anywhere nearby. Sounds exciting in your 20’s but not such fun in your fifties-LOL! I like my creature comforts!
Next stop Dumaguete on Negros Island, next to Cebu. Our friends just bought a place there, with the intention of doing some permaculture farming. A gorgeous spot with vistas galore. We wished them well with their endeavor & parted ways here. Hans had a terrible cold so we hung out at El Dorado, a dive resort run by a Swiss guy! How ironic to stay at a dive resort & not be able to dive-Hans could not clear his ears due to severe congestion. We comforted ourselves with Swiss treats on the menu-LOL! After eating for 2 days we needed to leave lovely El Dorado before we burst our bellies, never mind Hans’ eardrums! We took off for Palawan-“the last frontier”. I dosed him with decongestants for the flight yet he still had difficulties clearing his ears on the landing.
We arrived at Puerto Princessa for a 2 night stay, giving us a day to visit the famous Underground River & HUGE bat cave! We took a mini-van to the place where we could catch a boat up the coast to the river & cave entrance. We lucked out & got to sit in the front of the narrow ‘panga’ boat-think Big Bertha stuffed into tiny hiney space-LOL! This meant we held the light for the trip upriver! There’s a battery in the front of the boat & once we entered the cave Hans had to hook it up & shine the light where the tour guide talked about. Thousands of bats of all sizes hung from the rock formations & we had to wear hard hats to protect us from guano bombs-YUCK!
Besides the bats, the cave itself is spectacular with weird formations of stalagmites & stalactites.
From Puerto Princessa we took another mini-van to El Nido on north Palawan. A 6 hour ride squashed into a van with our knees up to our chests, crammed in with 14 other people! Cozy! 4 hours on paved road & then the pavement ends & it’s rutted, rocky, & a ride from hell the rest of the way-LOL! This was one of the very few modes of public transportation we took with other tourists on board! Normally we’re the only foreigners riding with the locals & the occasional young backpackers.
El Nido reminded us of African towns we traveled through 30 years ago & we loved it. Not much to it; very laid back with friendly folks. No electricity from 6AM until 2:00 in the afternoon. But since we’re out & about all day that was never an issue. We chose to go there because the tour book promised fantastic snorkeling so we figured even if Hans’ sinuses refused to let him dive at least we could see the sea snorkeling! GREAT FUN! Snorkel tours are all day affairs. The boat leaves at 9AM & returns at 5:00. It’s sort of a large canoe with outriggers, very stable.
The trip includes several stops & a lunch of grilled fish, pork chops & salad, with fruit for dessert. Including snorkel gear it costs $12 each-such a deal! Our tour operator never stuffed the boat (we saw one boat clearly designated its capacity for 10 people unload a whopping 16 grumpy passengers!). We enjoyed meeting the fun folks from other countries on our tours. Not many Americans seem to visit The Philippines, mostly Europeans & Australians.
We saw an amazing array of sea critters every day-WHOOHOO! Exotic creatures like blue banded sea snakes (poisonous but they ignored us), lion fish (also poisonous if you touch them), & TONS of colorful fishes. One day we even had a close encounter with a giant squid! Our guide Jason let out a whoop & took off swimming after some monster in the water. I hung back but Hans followed so he at least got to see the squirt of black ink the squid released to escape its pursuers. Jason said it looked about 4-5 feet long-ARGH! We joked that we missed the squid but got the squirt-LOL!
One day we decided to visit a resort outside of town, for a beach walk & lunch. There’s no road access to this place so people arrive by boat or you can take a tuk-tuk (taxi-motorcycle attached to a sidecar) ride 30 minutes out of town & then walk the 20 minutes by trail to the resort. What an adventure we thought! Off we went & told our tuk-tuk driver to return in 2 hours for us. We tromped along the trail through the jungle, noticing other trails intersecting with ours! A regular highway of paths through this place. I wondered who else walked on these paths? The term ‘resort’ was a stretch for this place though it was cute & served yummy food (always all about the food-LOL!). As we ate it began to rain, then it poured, then it deluged. We smugly continued our meal, sure our luck would hold & the rain would stop soon…NOT! Finally forced to leave to meet our driver or risk being stranded in the middle of nowhere, we set off.
I didn’t mind getting wet as we wore our bathing suits so I trudged along no problem until we reached the trail-a river ran through it! No path was visible beneath the rushing torrent of muddy water. I froze & wailed to Hans “I can’t walk up that!” Hans, by now used to placating my freaked out moments, smiled soothingly “It’s no big deal Gail, just some water.” I imagined snakes writhing through the water & wrapping themselves around my legs. How could he say NO BIG DEAL??? I stood stolidly. Hans looked at me “There’s no other way to get back & it’s not gonna stop raining, Gail. You have to do it.” I took a deep breath & fortified myself with my “Don’t be a big baby Gail” mantra & stepped into the flow. ARGH!
As the mucky gunk water swirled up to mid-calf height I kept chanting to myself-“It’s OK Gail. Just water with mud, no big deal.” We heard voices & laughter & down the ‘path’ came a group of people dressed in hotel uniforms! Obviously returning home from work….moments like that sure put life in perspective! They were drenched & dripping but took one look at us & just fell out laughing. No doubt wondering what the hell these Farangi were doing wading thru the river path-LOL! We cracked up too. As my mom always said “Learn to laugh at yourself Gail & you’ll always have a source of amusement in life.” Too true!
But my next step proved no laughing matter…something wrapped around my ankle & held fast, pinning me to the path. Imagining an ANACONDA attack I let out a scream & Hans came hurtling back just as I reached down into the muck…..to rip the vine away from my leg! Hans said “Are you OK Gail?” I yelled at him “NO! I am NOT OK! I am deeply disturbed.” We stood staring at each other as that great understatement sunk in, and then we both burst out laughing.
I made Hans hold my hand the rest of the way (BIG BABY!) & that proved a good thing. As we climbed up the last of the trail to the road, it gave way under my feet & I jumped as Hans yanked me onto solid ground. So we landed with a flourish in front of the small hut on the side of the road, where several people waited in its shelter, staring at us in shock. Our tuk-tuk driver awaited us & we returned to the hotel & dry clothes.
We stayed 10 days in El Nido, waiting for Hans’ cold to clear up & enjoying the various snorkel tours. The salt water acted like a giant neti pot on Hans’ sinuses & finally after a week he decided to try a dive. There are several dive operators in El Nido & we went with the only Philippino owned outfit-support the locals! We totally lucked out. The day we dove Hans & I were the only 2 on the boat with our guide Boy-yes his real name! He pointed out all sorts of stuff for us-blue ribbon eels, turtles, moray eels, lion fish, and sea snakes. All critters not to be seen except in these seas, which is why we so wanted to dive here. Hans pointed out a stone fish to me BUT it was so perfectly camouflaged I missed it completely. I swam closer & closer to it, blindly seeking what was right in front of my nose until the fish leaped up at me, mouth agape & angry! EEK! I shot backward & could almost hear Hans laughing thru his regulator. After he told me he got a great view of the bright yellow inside of that fish’s mouth-LOL! . The weather (& Hans’ ears) cooperated & we got to do 3 dives! A great day!
We picked the perfect day in more ways than one it turns out….Hans got food poisoning that night so we couldn’t dive the next day again, as planned-boohoo! BUT the boat was packed the next day & they only got in 1 dive before the rains came. Lucky us!
Except not so lucky Hans with fever from his food poisoning confining him to bed all day-poor guy. At least his fever made him feel cold so he never missed the A/C!
The next day we headed back to Puerto Princessa for the flight to Manila & then directly onto Bangkok, where we met up with Scott & Jen again. We decided to break up the return journey to LA with 3 days of eating in Bangkok-LOL! Hans dreaded the 17 hour flight to LA, as he suffered through the first trip to Bangkok with no sleep. Just sitting in his cramped seat watching me sleep-LOL! This time he took a mild sleeping pill & knocked himself out & woke up for breakfast & the landing-tada!
Here we are back in our cozy condo & already planning our next trip!
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