6 Week Gap Year

Picture 1 Covered tricycle typical of Palawan

Picture 2 Us standing outside Restaurant Badjao

Thursday 14th June 2007
Hooray. Today is a “do nothing” day. We have no plans save for a little swimming in the freeform pool and lazing in the sun for about 10 mins every couple of hours. I think I’ve said it before but it is too hot to sit in the sun, you can actually feel your skin drying out and crisping. Added to that, you dehydrate quickly and perspire ceaselessly so the whole experience is not comfortable and relaxing at all. By the time we are up and dressed it is almost 9am and breakfast finishes then, so we rush down to the restaurant and eat a slow and lazy meal of omelette and fried garlic rice to which Lu adds Danggit, a deep fried crispy fish which the Filipinos are addicted to! Lu decides we need to visit the markets in Puerto Princesa and so we take another tricycle journey ably driven by Romel this time. I should add here that all the tricycle drivers here on Palawan, that we met any way are very friendly and chatty. They also insist on giving you their cell phone number so you may text or call them should you need a ride. We did this twice, one didn’t reply and the other did and arrived within 10 minutes. We had to buy a few supplies including a little tip we had been given on the previous day’s tour. Buy a medium sized bottle of hand sanitizer(sic) and carry it with you at all times. You get dirty hands from almost everything and it’s very handy if you are about to eat something such as mango or casoy (cashew) nuts. Also, if you’ve room, carry a packet of those small handbag or pocket sized tissues and wet wipes. Another handy tip is carry a small hand towel at all times to help keep your face dry by dabbing at your perspiration! All Filipinos do it so you will not look out of place. Any how we arrive in the town centre and try a few shops for our shopping and then end up in the covered market looking for one of those rattan style woven hand fans for Ludy. We take a good walk around and find stalls selling everything you can imagine. Fruits, vegetables, rice, wet fish, dried fish, woven rattan goods like hats and fans, mats and bags and so on. The people are all friendly and we stop at one stall and buy some bags of cashews. These are grown on the island and are a good export item for the locals. They taste very similar to the ones we generally buy at home but I think these are sweeter and have an almost coffee piquancy which seems to follow in the mouth but only after you have swallowed them. The lady who sells them to us lets me take some photos and tells us she is also a part time tour guide and we spend a little time chatting to her. The market is slightly cooler than outside but has a typically fish market smell and you have to be careful stepping on the concrete floor as it is wet and slippery. Another stall we pass by the owner has fallen asleep whilst sitting on his stool and is resting his head on the table. It must be lunch time as there are loads of school children milling around buying snacks and we find some of them sitting at their parents businesses writing and doing homework. It is so interesting slowly wandering around seeing the different businesses and the different ages of vendors, ranging from kids to the ancient and wizened wise elders of the family. Looking at the fish stalls I would have no hesitancy in buying any of the fish on display. Almost no smell at all, more a bouquet of the sea, and the fish eyes are bright and shiny, a sure sign of a fresh catch of that morning. We emerge back into the sunshine and heat and buy a Kilo of mangoes for snacks later from a street vendor then cross the road and walk into Jollibees more for the relief of the air con and a drink than for hunger. Romel arrives a little while later to take us back to the hotel and we mention that we might be interested in looking at land and property on Palawan. Romel instantly knows just the person to help us and promises that they will call us later to help.
Back at the hotel we change and have a swim in the pool and Romel appears with a lady who is a realty agent and can give us help with land and property sales. What a service! We discuss the intricacies of foreign ownership which in Manila include the regulation that foreigners can own no more than 40% of any property and must have a Filipino property partner who owns the remainder. In Palawan the rules are the similar but a little different in that you cannot own more than 5000sq metres unless you are a Philippine citizen. Current land prices in Palawan range from very dear in the centre of Puerto Princesa and decreasing all the while as you head out and into the more rural areas. We were quoted at about peso 400 psqm for the land we looked at which was about a mile from the town centre but only ½ km from the beach. This evening we‘re going to a restaurant called Badjao which is unique for being on stilts within a mangrove on the coast. To reach it you walk along a raised walkway on stilts for about 100 yards with mangrove trees and bushes either side. The whole restaurant is literally in the middle of the mangroves and as you look out on 3 sides that is all you see together with the ocean. The tide was out when we dined and also it was dark so the true effect was a little lost but none the less a very different dining experience. We learnt that the tree in front of us was a male mangrove and if we looked to the side of the restaurant we could see a female. “They both look the same to me” I said and our waiter explained that the male tree bore long pointed fruits which when they fell stuck in the mangrove sand and germinated. The female fruits were more rounded and did not stick in the sand but were washed away with the tides. He told us that where there was a female tree there would always be a male next or very close by. Fascinating what you learn by being inquisitive and talking to the locals. Our food is good but the lobster I ordered turns out to be the baby that no one else wanted. It is quite late in the evening and the restaurant is more popular in the day so all the good sized prawns and lobster are eaten already. A second whammy to my potential eating pleasure is that the ’fish man’ didn’t come today so they are at the end of their supplies and naturally only the smaller crustaceans are left. Lu ordered a local Philippine fish, Lapu Lapu, and that was the size of a small whale! Obviously not so popular as shellfish. We also ordered house fried rice (enough to feed 4 to 6) and a greens dish which is like pak choi. I finished with Moist Chocolate cake which was moist, covered in thick deep exquisite chocolate, made by the owners daughter and was gorgeous. 2 glasses of wine and a coffee each and the bill was Peso1200. Ronnie collected us at 11pm and we had taken the liberty of having the restaurant make us up a doggy bag for the huge amount of rice and vegetables which were left. We presented them to him together with his fare and a tip as he had waited for us whilst we dined, with which he professed many many thanks. A very good night indeed. Packing and saying our tearful goodbyes to Palawan tomorrow.