praying to the gods of speed is your only savior in this country.
The Alarm went off at 6AM, the room was already stuffy and hot so the AC was powered up with its Dilithium crystals and I packed my bag.
I went to the breakfast hall ad experienced the first piece of PH Toast……. yes…. probably a very weak
attempt at bread, it is very dry and when toasted it becomes the finest dehydrated square… almost freeze dried and turn to a mushy powder in your mouth, with A lot of butter a jam it does resemble some form of bread as i know it to be…. but its not something to jump out of bed in the AM and look forward to.
the second course was soy chicken on garlic rice with stir fried veges, this is actually quite good, the chicken isnt butchered and normally requires some digestion of bones or navigating your tongue through the meat to separate the crunch bits, the upside is that cooked chicken bones are high in nutrients and flavour
halfway through my breakfast i was tapped on the shoulder by a nice lady at 6:55 AM to inform me that my van was here
i suppose its better to be early rather than late.
the Van was a 2006 Toyota Hiace people mover on steel wheels painted black and 12 seats in it, all seats except one were full of hot and bothered Philippine customers, from what i work out; this van must start its pick up at around 5 am and once the van is full it navigates its way out of Peurto and makes its way 245KM to the top of the Island of Palawan.
the Van has AC which im informed doesnt always happen and by 7 AM in the morning the temperature is starting to get into the Late 20’s.
out first stop was a gas station which is another experience that you don’t see in NZ.
the Driver honks his horn as he is pulling into the station and a service station attendant will quickly run and grab a wheel ramp for the Van, the van is then driven on to it with its Left Front wheel, this in turn tilts the fuel tank so when the drive fills it he can fill it literally to the Brim!
Diesel Fuel in the PH has no Tax on it and oddly enough the handle to the pump is Green and regular petrol is Green… so the complete opposite to what we are accustomed to in NZ.
once we were gassed up the driver put the pedal to the metal!, the exit out of Puerto was simple enough and it was not untill we got to the main road up the island that i suddenly realised that to own a drivers license in the Philipines is more of a formality rather than a document to say that you can actually drive a vehicle.
the road to El Nido is rather standard, its what you would find in eastern europe out in country side, he driver would overtake almost every opportunity he could and the motorcycles taking up the lanes he would toot at aggressively until they moved over… if they didn’t he just weaved in and out of the oncoming traffic.
naturally in these circumstances you want to try and keep your wits about whats going on around the van at 100KPH + on a B/C grade Highway but sitting in a stinking hot van doing nothing starts to take its toll on your energy levels.
During the first 2 hours of the trip i made very intermitant notes of what on the van would break in the event of poor mechanical health and after years in the industry i can tell you the van had the following modifictaions or poor maintanance
- Leak Rear Muffler
- intake leak on tubo charger pressure side (black smoke)
- factory waste gate deleted
- RIght rear wheel bearing noisy
- Rear Differential Clunky under hard acceleration
- Synchromesh in gear box failing (gears 2,3,4,reverse)
- gear selector replaced with a large penis looking metal shifter over a foot in length
- rear suspension bushes worn
- front left tyre slightly flatter than the rest
Naturally i wanted to know how many KM were on this spaceship from hell but i think the odometer may have stopped many light years ago as it red 92369…….doesn’t seem right.
about 2 hours into the journey we stopped at a roadside Carinderia basically a small family run Cafeteria.
they were offering food but it looked like it had been present in the heat of the side of the road for a number of hours and i don’t think riding in a van for another few hours with a gurgling sphincter was the safest option, some of the Philippine’s did indulge but i think there gastric bacteria is probably slightly more robust than mine for the interim.
We loaded back in the van as hard a i tried to keep my eyes open i had to Assume Mr Zulu knew how to drive and not put us in a ditch on our roof.
dream land in a van is rather peaceful rocking back in forth with the aggressive driving of Mr. Zulu.
the screeching of rubber and heavy braking jolted all the passengers including myself awake in an instance, we all braced ourselves on the grab handles available trying to see what was happening.
from what i could see out the windshield there was nothing to be alarmed at…. as we came to an abrupt stop a boy no older than 8-9 years old was on a push bike that was 3 sizes too big and he casually rolled out in-front of the van with a blank look on his face like he had no idea what had happened. the driver threw his arms up and started yelling Tanga (idiot in Filipino), the boy slowly backed up not knowing that he was close to becoming a roadside meal for the local dog population.
about one hour thirty minutes later we approached the town of El Nido, i would consider this similar to Odessa in the Ukraine and the quality of buildings probably the same after the Russians bombed the hell out of it 7 weeks ago.
the streets smell of stagnant water and the footpath is non existent, the Travelers Inn that im staying at is located 100M from the beach and i got dropped 2 blocks back. this was my first opportunity to ride in a Taxi Trike.
the taxi trikes are very keen to get your business and most rides cost around 50 Peso’s (1.20 NZD)
the ride only takes around 2-3 Minutes and there is no giving way to pedestrians walking or other road users, its just go when you can…. and if you have to stop…. don’t just keep going
the trikes have enough space on the rear to put luggage and they strap that in so it doesn’t go flying as you roar around the tight streets.
this is very much a tourist destination, the main attraction here is the Islands off the coast and scuba diving is also very popular.
i arrived at the Motel and checked in at around 12:45, after a very sweaty and stressful ride i needed a nap.
i awoke at 4:30 and it was raining outside very heavily. the receptionist tells me it rains here most days and is only for a short period of time but very heavy, i pack up my bag and go for a stroll to find somewhere to start typing my backlog of blogs for the last 3 days.
there is a Bar Called SAVA and is right on the beech front a beer costs around $3NZD so i park myself here and start on the blog. this place is open in layout and very relaxed. the music is almost house Jazz and the only thing i can thing is that the music is 2 notches to high on their spotify app… not deafening… but disrupts thought patterns.
when it comes to food here, being a tourist destination everything is about 3$ more exspensive than manila.. .this will be due to the tourist population.
no dinner tonight as i didnt burn enough calories to warrant the food intake.
when i got back to the Inn i had a quick chat to reception and booked myself on the Island hopping tour “C” in the AM. this would leave my hotel at 8AM and cost around 1600 Peso’s including lunch, i confirmed the booking and retired to the AC with my next book ” Nelson Demille – Night Fall”
this is the 3rd book in the John Corey Series…. good thing about old 90’s books is on Amazon store they are only a few $ each and are cheap entertainment for 6-8 hours.
“Every soul will taste death. Then unto Us will you be returned.” Quran 29:57
Quantum Entanglement 