Wednesday 6 June 2012

Life on The Island




Everyday we wake up with the sun. It is really good for your body. Earlier you wake up, better you feel. Try it. Morning bathe in the sea with our friendly fish. Making a fire and cooking the rice. Checking the fishing net. Snorkeling. Swimming. On the evening after "mosquito time!" (the worst time is just before sun disappear totally in the sea and last for one hour) we drink some Tanduay Rhum and just doing nothing. Swimming, singing, laughing. Real freedom.

We found out who the big trails belong to. There are at least 7 monitor lizards near our camp. A lot more on whole island, that's for sure. One of them dug a nest in the sand 100 meters from us. We can hear them at night, they coming very close, looking for food. Hopefully we are not their target...:)

We hang the rice in the bag on the tree so they can't reach it. I don't know if they would eat it though... After first night I saw small holes in the rice bag. Probably hermit crabs. The problem is that the lizards are more and more audacious... Every day they coming closer and in bigger groups... Well, they are not really dangerous. Only if they would bite you- their saliva is toxic and full of bacteria as they eat everything. But they would bite you only if they would sense the danger. I don't know what you would have to do to provoke them, to be honest. You cannot step on them by accident or something as they are really fast beasts.

Mark dug a big hole in the sand. Wants to catch one. Do not kill, just catch, make some photos and release. Well. I am just wondering how he will release the angry lizard from the hole anyway... It took him like 3 hours digging in the sand under the tropical sun heat. He covered the hole by banana leaves and put some fish head in the middle.
We wait. And wait. And wait. And, there he is. Walking slowly examining the air with his long tongue. Come closer...he came closer, looked at the bait and turned back! Well, they are more clever than we thought :)

The next day the hole cover and banana leaves were inside the hole and fish head disappeared. It seems that the hole wasn't deep enough, the lizard simply got out from the hole.




One day I tried to fix my spear gun but with no success. Made 2 knots on the remaining rubber to make it more tight but it did not help. The power was half of the original. Anyway I tried to catch more fish.
I went to my fishing kingdom (rocks on the left) and dive.


 

Seen a lot of fish. The big ones are very shy but the smaller are curious and not afraid. Tracked one of them, quite big, maybe 30-35 cm. She try to swim away but I keep my eye on her. Following her, she wants to hide between the rocks where the much bigger one was hiding. The bigger one bitten the one I was chasing, seems that it was her home. It was really hard to target and come closer to the hole between the sharp rocks because of the waves. I don't want to cut myself on the rocks, the infection in this temperature on The Island would be really fast and dangerous. Mark cut his feet on the coral when he jumped from the boat during the island hopping first day in El Nido and the wound is healing really slowly. By the way, if you will cut yourself on the coral, under no circumstances treat it with iodine- corals feeds on it and they can grow inside your wound. But, I want to catch this big fish. The thing is that rocks and corals are covered with plants and seaweeds and I don't want to put my hand or leg into this stuff. Dunno what is inside... But I want this fish! F*ck that, I was keeping myself against the rock by putting the spear gun as a pole which helps me not going forward to the hole where the fish are. I put my legs on the rocks into the deep plants (I really want to catch this fish...) so now I have three points of footing (?) and waves can blow me only back where there is no rocks. I aimed at the fish. Shot.......the spear power was like a spit of an old man...

Came back to the camp with nothing...(well, at least I forced myself to put my legs into the stuff on the rocks, now I am not afraid of it :)) This spear gun sucks. No more fishing with it. I wish it would not broke... first day I've caught two small fish with the original power, so it would be easier to catch a big one...maybe... Well, time for hook and line fishing... We need something more than rice and green mangoes..

During my fishing I came across some small jellyfish, heard that the small ones are sometimes more dangerous than the big ones. I don't know what was the species I have seen, did not want to try if it was the dangerous one. Also, I had to fish in the long sleeves as there were a lot of tiny plankton, jellyfish-like, invisible in the water. I think it was Richard who told me that they are called nick-nacks (?) and are very popular in Australian waters. I could feel they sting all over my body, it was not really painful though and last just few seconds. Just little annoying stuff.

Regarding dangerous sea life, there was nothing to be really afraid of to be honest. Only sea urchins and jellyfish. Once we saw really fast moving fin very far in the sea, I don't know what that was, maybe a whale or dolphin? Apart of that only razor-sharp corals and rocks (on which I was walking everyday in order to get to my fishing spot) mosquitoes and sand flies. And heat. Almost paradise :) Well, almost makes a difference :)

Monday 4 June 2012

The slideshow


After some time without posting I am back. Did not update The Blog as after two weeks since I came back from The Island had to start adapting to "normal" life... It was difficult on the beginning but I have my Blog and it keeps my mind still on The Island.

Over the weekend I've finally made a slideshow. I have a lot of pictures from The Trip and putted some of them in the slideshow. Still many of pictures waiting to be uploaded to Blog, maybe will make another slideshow like the one below but this time not only from The Island. Anyway, enjoy watching!
Click full screen in the bottom right corner.



The slideshow was more difficult to make than you may think. I needed to mark every beat where I wanted photo to change and then insert photos and shrink it or extend to the time. Almost whole day of work and another day to upload it to YT... Well. I think it was worth it. Was it? :)

Tuesday 1 May 2012

After sleepless night. First day in Paradise.

Sun. Finally bright and sunny morning.

Really wicked night. Wings of some flies are everywhere. Strange. No flies, just wings. Everything is covered with it. Strange because we did not find anything like that later during our stay on The Island. Later on I found out that those wings belonged to some kind of ants and there are some times when they all die at once. It would explain those wings everywhere. We've been lucky (?) to see it on our fist night there.

Still hungry. Checked the rice from previous night. A lot of very tiny ants in the pan despite it was covered. Need to make a fire again and eat something.

First thing in the morning- bathe in the sea. A lot of small silver fish with black stripe. Funny fish, they are curious. Every time you move they follow you. Some of them are quite big but we decided we will not catch them (we found out later it would be really hard to catch them anyway).


We discovered some tracks on the sand leading from the jungle to the sea. Quite big tracks. Is it this big animal who was under our hammocks last night? We will find out soon.





After some rice we felt better and more confident in the new environment.



I have a spear-gun which borrowed from Ruel. Time to make a use of it. Took my snorkel mask and went near the rocks on the left of our camp. Later on it was my fishing kingdom :)






There is a lot of fish near these rocks. The problem is the waves. It is hard to swim near the rocks as the waves pushing you towards the rocks and coral. Very easy to get cut. In less than 10 minutes I caught 2 fish, not big though... But I felt good as those fish were small is harder to catch them with the spear gun. Was sure that if I caught small fish the big one will be easier to catch. Well, if my spear gun would not broke... One of the two rubbers broke so the spear-gun has now only half of the original power...
Did not catch any more fish this day. We ate those two small I caught before. That's it, but we still have almost 15 kilogrammes of rice :)




Monday 30 April 2012

First night on The Island. Jungle is massive!

Wicked.

We unloaded everything from Ruel's bangka, thanked him and said good bye.

Now we need to find good spot for our camp. We walked out beach all way long but to be honest, only one place was suitable to hang our hammocks. We could do it in different place but we would need to cut a lot of plants. As it was early evening already we decided to choose an easy option. We still needed to cut some small banana trees and some bushes and clear the ground but it was not very hard to do. Luckily we landed near the spot we choose as moving 6 big canisters to the different place would not be a pleasure in this heat ...

We hanged out hammocks, mosquito nets and tarpaulin above them.




Time to eat. Made a fire to cook the rice. Beautiful sunset on horizon, no islands on the way, just open South China sea. No people. Just paradise. Rice still not ready. And then, out from nowhere a big cloud of mosquitoes came. Hundreds and hundreds of them mixed with sand flies and other flies. They came to our fire or my head torch? I don't know and I don't have time to think about. We jumped to our hammocks. Mosquito time! There was not time to clear our hammocks from mosquitoes which were inside so we got some bites even under the mosquito net... It's getting darker and darker, rice is still on the fire and we are hungry. No way to get out from the hammock, too many mosquitoes...

 Jungle is massive. You know, you can read and watch some films or documentaries about some places and situations, but when you actually go there it is totally different experience. One example: I have snorkeled some time ago in Tenerife waters and a big turtle appeared in my sight. I don't know why but for the millisecond I felt afraid. You know, it was my first time seeing a wild turtle in his natural environment. I know turtles are not dangerous at all but still, seeing it for the first time, something new in not my environment made me anxious for a second. You know what I mean?

So going back to jungle. It is pretty scary night... It is dark already and the jungle coming to life. EVERYTHING on the ground was moving, everything made a noise. Insects, birds, some fighting monkeys, crabs, don't know what else. I knew what to expect but still, as mentioned before, is is totally different experience when you are there. On top of that we could hear some big animal just under our hammocks. Don't know what that is. Crazy night...We are hungry... We did not move out from our hammocks whole night. We did not sleep at all... But we survived this first night. After that everything should be easier. Just waiting for the sun...





Sunday 29 April 2012

On our way to Paradise - El Nido - The Island

First thing in the morning we went for shopping. We bought 6 big canisters of water, 4 gallons each which made more than 100 litres; 15 kilograms of rice and machete. Rest of stuff we had already. For water we paid 200 pesos deposit for each = 1200 pesos just deposit. Water was only 47 pesos for canister. For machete we paid 170 pesos. On top of that we bought 2 bottles of 1 litre Red Horse beer and 3 bottles of Tanduay rum. What..? Apart from survival we need to have some fun!

Ruel was waiting for us on front of our beach huts. We loaded all the stuff and...that's it. We are leaving the system. Finally. THIS is beginning of our REAL trip. Now.

Few words about Ruel. He is around 30-35 years old. Maybe more but doesn't look like more. Really honest and genuine person. First impression was really positive that's why we decided to go with him and took his advice about The Island. Despite he had a stroke and almost half of his body is paralysed he manage to operate his bangka on his own.

Bangka, really loud boat. I am wondering how many years the fishermans driving these boats will become deaf... It is really loud sitting right on the diesel engine. All of our trips we spent on the front of the bangka and it was still really, really loud. 

On the way to The Island we felt little anxious. You know, expectations are always different than reality. We are prepared though.

We are doing it, finally. My biggest dream is coming true. I was thinking very often during that trip about The Biggest Dream people have. What I realised is that not even minority of all people, I think minority of minority of people make their Biggest Dream come true. I am lucky guy. I am doing it. Either I will be happiest man in the world after that trip or I will need to find another Biggest Dream. Doesn't matter. I am here. I am doing it. I am happy. I am really happy man.

Someone told me that the pursuit of The Dream is the best part of it. I don't know. I was pursuing My Dream all my life but cannot tell it was the best part of The Dream...

It took us more than one hour to get to The Island. When we approached Our Beach it was something amazing. A very long golden beach, palm trees, high mountains and, the best of all, no one there. No people, no buildings, just nature. One of the best moments in my life. I am here and it will be my home for the next two weeks...






Second day in El Nido. Island hopping.

The next day we wanted to "taste" some of the islands before going to Our Island. Paid 700 pesos for Tour A (if I remember correctly) which is 4 islands and lunch. I've asked the captain to do the reverse tour as per Stephane's advice. There is too many people on the islands on the certain times as everyone visiting the islands in the same order. It was quite nice, snorkelling in crystal clear waters but the coral was not very nice and colourful as I expected. Filipinos done a lot of damage to corals some time ago because they used to do dynamite fishing... Well, now they try to preserve and recover it. Better late than not at all.





Spoken with locals on the boat asking where we could go camping for 2 weeks. Got some destinations. They said we are crazy. Not the first time we've heard it. Locals told us that some guys done camping on the islands around but for 2, max 3 nights. Well, it did not discourage us.

After island hopping which was really nice we came back to El Nido. On the evening we've met one fisherman who asked us if we want to go for island hopping tomorrow and after few minutes of chat he told us about The Island we could go which is outside island hopping tours area, and agreed to give us a lift to there and pick us up for 2000 pesos. Fortunately because we wanted to do it on our own, it is cheaper, no police and no Tourism Office involved and, it is half price :) I think we would have to pay even more than 4000 pesos, at the police station I am almost sure there would be some "administration costs" or something. So we decided to not make it through officials and go by ourselves with Ruel.

So, we have the destination.  Now, we just need water and rice. Yes, I know, it supposed to be survival but Ruel (mentioned fisherman) told us that there is no fruits nor water on the island. So we decided to take water and rice.


Finally, we have the destination. Now, just buy necessary stuff and we are going tomorrow!

Rest of the evening we spent with Stephane drinking Tanduay rhum (yes, rhum, not rum :)



Friday 27 April 2012

First day in El Nido

First thing on the morning after waking up- BIG SMILE after seeing the view from our beach huts... AMAZING. Nice surprise after arrival in the dark. Beautiful islands around.





Just on the front of my hut there was a beauty competition by Filipino children :) All of the children I've seen in Philippines are always smiling and happy. There is no parents watching them and saying "don't do this, don't do that, be careful etc." like in Europe. Children stick together and just have fun. And I think they are safe. Really nice childhood.





I've found El Nido really beautiful in terms of nature, scenery, islands and weather but...Too many tourists. It is more and more every year. I am not surprised. It is really beautiful place. But it is not what we are looking for...people everywhere. Met one local guy who just started business with island hopping. Generally Filipinos are really natural, friendly and happy people but this one guy was looking just for the money. Sad, but you can't stop it...

Anyway, we've had a breakfast in Art Cafe. Not the cheapest place in town but food is OK. Found out that they are not doing cash back any more. But, at the gas station (the one on the beach front) they do and they charge only 6% comparing to 8% in Art Cafe . So apart from Puerto there is only gas station where you can get money in El Nido. I think it is good to know.

As I've got some contacts from Richard from Reggae Pulse I went to the places he advised me to go and asked for The Island which would meet our criteria. I've met some girl who works for Tourism Office (we thought that it will be impossible to camp on our own somewhere around El Nido so we wanted to avoid official stuff and just to on our own) and she told us that we can go, not a problem but we need to get permission from the office and then go to the police station and sign some documents that in case something will go wrong they are not responsible for us. It would cost around 4000 pesos for the boat to go there and back. It would be some beach on one of the private islands (I forgot the name). As we could get the papers on Monday (it is Saturday today) we decided to wait so we paid for another 2 nights for our beach huts.

I've spent this day on fishing with some Filipino kid. I had a fishing line and hooks so we were snorkeling and watching fish how to take a bait. The boy was swimming without goggles or mask, I tried to do the same, you can see "something" but not really clear view and your eyes are sour after some time. I gave him swimming goggles and he was really excited. So we swam some distance, putted a squid on the hooks and looking for fish. We could see a lot of fish but it was really hard to catch one as they took the bait, eat it and spit out the empty hook... I've cought one but it was really small one so I've release it. :) My first fish in Philippines! It was really good fun for me and for the kid.


Came back to the beach hut and met the French guy, Stephane, who is traveling for long time now. He travels 12 years already, 7 months every year. Good stuff. I am really envious... Very good guy. Interesting stories with Tanduay in our cups. Long night. He told us about his adventures in Laos (if I remember correctly) that there were some gangs and he found himself in the middle of fire exchange. Wicked stuff... A lot of very interesting stories we have heard this night. Thanks Stephane! Hope to meet you again!



This evening I've seen the most amazing thing in my life. I took my snorkel mask and went with Stefan through the coral to the open sea. Dark, a little drunk, not really pleasure to walk in the water full of sharp coral at night...but the effect...Have you seen The Beach with Leo Di Caprio (BTW one of my favourite film and book). You remember the FLUORESCENCE? (or phosporescence?) It was nothing in the film comparing what you can see live...AMAZING! I've been lucky because this night there was no moonlight. When there is a moon the fluorescence is not so visible (the same thing with the stars in the city and the stars in the place where there is no artificial light). Really something... One of The best experience in my life I can say.

Puerto Princesa - El Nido by Roro bus.

San Jose bus terminal. Puerto Princesa

Woke up at 8am. Took the tricycle to the Bus Terminal in San Jose. As did not know where Mark stayed needed to wait for him 3 hrs... We came together, we go together. Hot, noise, tired. Want to be on The Island already...



Finally we've got the Roro bus to El Nido. Paid 350 pesos.

Driver is really crazy or too confident. Called him Michael Schumacher :) No asphalt sometimes and he doesn't change his driving style. Bags from the shelves above our heads falling down. Oh My God, want to be in El Nido asap... Dust, heat, want to pee, no chance he will stop just because of one person. Yes! Break, so I can pee. Stopped because of mango. There is some areas in the South of Palawan where mangoes are with some parasites or something and you cannot bring them to the North for health & safety reasons. Good. Did not eat any mango in Puerto.

Really nice views on the way. Rice terraces, virgin jungle and native houses in the middle of nowhere...


































6,5 hours and finally we are in El Nido. It's dark already. Funny thing, wherever we arrive is dark- Manila and Puerto, now El Nido... Ripped off by tricycle driver. 200 metres for 50 pesos. Later on we paid 10 pesos to get to anywhere in the town. Well, we are only guests, and 50 pesos is not even 1 British pound.

Found nice beach huts in Corong Corong, just south of El Nido for 500 pesos / night. Forgot the name but if you will go right from the bus station and walk not even 5 minutes there are first beach huts on the right.



Sleep. We need to sleep. We will sleep well. It was long journey...

Thursday 26 April 2012

Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Closer to Paradise

After around one hour flight from Manila we are in Puerto Princesa's airport and heading to our first contact in Palawan, who I met on Couchsurfing.com. Australian guy, Richard, Reggae Pulse Bar owner.
It is dark already. After almost one hour walking we are here. Really nice place which Richard opened just 2 months ago. Native bamboo style bar. I like it. Have a chat with Richard, his girlfriend, Claire and the bar staff. We decided to catch the first bus to El Nido tomorrow morning.
Few beers and we need to find some accommodation.

(Photo below is actually taken after we came back from The Island as I don't have more with Richard in Reggae Pulse Bar)

My bed for one nightAs per Richard's advice I've chosen the Bangwa Pension. Also native style and good atmosphere. Mark chosen some other hotel as in Bangwa there is no rooms available. I wanted to stay here as don't want to travel more and finding any more thing tonight, I am too tired.
At the Bangwa Pension they told me that there is no rooms available but I can sleep downstairs on the staff's bed. Paid 200 pesos. I see that there is no customers in the Bangwa's bar and decided to sleep on the bench in the open air.

Really hot. No mosquitoes so far... Closer to paradise...

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Manila. Necessary getaway to Paradise...

We landed in Manila. It is good to exchange money on the airport. As we found out later the exchange rate was best on the airport. It was around 67 pesos for £1.00. Took only 5000 pesos to paid for the visa (if you stay more than 21 days is 2700 pesos for 59 days visa) and the taxi to the hotel. In Manila it was 63-64 pesos for one British pound. By the way, I heard that is really hard to exchange Scottish pounds in Philippines (not only, even in Poland IF you will find some place to change Scottish pounds the exchange rate is less than for English pounds...) so change them to English pounds before you leave UK.

We booked the hotel when we were still in UK. Great Eastern Hotel in Makati, 1400 pesos/night for room. Really big differences in transport price. 800 pesos - taxi with no meter, metered taxi 450 pesos to get to the hotel. One of the most dangerous things in Philippines- taxi drivers :)

Arrived to hotel after around one hour in crazy traffic. Total freestyle. Took the shower and went to see the city. First thing, children beggars, cockroaches, heat, noise and prostitutes everywhere...

"Hello Sir, you wanna women? - No. - You wanna girl? - No. You wanna boy? - NO! - Wife? She still virgin! - NO! Ganja? - Hmm....., No!"
We need to catch some tan as we are on the target, visible from far.

Few Red Horse beers and some food, walking around the city and time to sleep. Tomorrow Palawan.

Ehh, Manila, crazy Manila, don't like it. Interesting to see it but couldn't live here. One night here is enough...