Asia trip Day 8 - Puerto Princesa

Sunday March 5

The Nautica docked at our first stop in the Philippines at 10 am. Half an hour ago a welcome party already made music at the pier. 

It was great fun. We had the balcony door open and enjoyed it.

We were supposed to be in the Nautica Lounge at 10:15am for our excursion and soon we were on our way. 

Our guide said to call her Geegee. We were only 3 couples, the driver and the guide in a mini van. First the traffice was slow because of lots and lots of these tricycles, mainly a form of taxi service we think. I hope I get a better picture on the way back. 

But then, OMG, the driver drove as fast as he could and weaving to overtake when possible. Well, it was a long way.

It was a pretty country side and we even saw some Philippine water buffalo. The road was not very wide but wound itself up and down between the mountains. It might have taken an hour and a half and we were at the place where we switched into an outrigger.

James and I were in the very back and pretty uncomfortable not sure were to put our legs. But the ride was only about 20 or 25 minutes.

It was a bit rough once in a while but the young man and the boy were excellent, also in helping us in and out of the boat.

Yes, getting out was not so easy. My capri pans got wet to the knees. I didn't worry.

 

We were now in a Natural World Heritage Site, the Puerto Princesa Subterranian River National Park. 

Picture taking time for all.

We got helmets and had a short walk to the entry of the next boatride. 

We were again 6 (same 3 couples) to a boat and a young man who paddled. We also got waterproof gadgets around our necks with an earpiece to get quiet explanations of what we were seeing. There is wildlife, mainly bats, which we were not supposed to disturb. Only our paddler had a headlamp.

I forgot to take a picture to the other side. This water was like a little pond here with beach at the other side (more like a dune) which kept the sea out except if it was really high tide. It was a gorgeous peaceful place.

All settled into the boat and off we go.

It was very dark. Only the headlamp was shining to what we were supposed to look at. And it was really quiet since we were not supposed to talk especially when your earpiece fell out of your ear. The audio explained and sometimes our underwater river guide would use his finger in the light stream to really point out what was talked about.

Many things had been given names. I think this is the giant candle. But there was a t-rex, crocodile, Holy Family, Mary and baby Jesus and more which I can't remember. It went quite fast and each look wasn't really long enough to see what somebody had seen and named it.

I was fascinated by the many bats. We were told several times that when we looked up to have our mouths closed - just in case.

The name of this is of course very obvious. I can see that to name it "Head of Jesus" is obvious.

 It was very difficult to get a good photo in this darkness. And even with good photos to give an impression of this experience. 

Half way through I started to hear alarm beeping and red light flashing on my lap. It was the audio gadget. Batterie failure. But James and I were sitting in the back and the guide behind us knew what it was. He unplugged my earpiece and plugged it into James'. The gadget kept beeping for a while but behind the guide.

Back at the entry after 30 or 35 minutes. The whole river is supposed to be something like 8 miles (or km?) long. But we did only a small part.

On the walk back through the bush we saw more monkeys. We were warned about them not to have any food for them to see. We saw one run with a plastic bottle in his mouth.

Back into the outrigger. Again not so easy to do but we managed, ha-ha. I never was a sporty person. We had better seats this time especially for James' long legs.

The landing part close to the platform was really quite a feat to do for the boys. 

We could wash our feet, shoes and/or legs while our mini bus was called. And then the long way back to the ship. Again, the landscape was quite fascinating. Of course photos at that tempo were a challenge.

This must have been something like a tricycle taxi stand place. The best photo I could get. Many of the tricycles had cute painting on them and individual names written.

We were let out outside the gate and had to walk through immigration but virtually just walk through. This photo is from the balcony. We had walked through the musicians and dancers. From our balcony we watched and listened for a long time until the ship finally sailed off again. I have some videos but of course can't upload them while on the trip. I will add them when back home. 

The "Bon Voyage" was fun, uplifting and heartwarming. We think they are genuinely grateful when a ship stops. Our bus guide told us that their main income comes from tourism. The pandemic was of course very bad for them too.

A shower was neccessary. We had to hassle not to miss anything of the entertainment. We went to dinner at 7pm and as always agree to be happy to share but nobody came for a while so we had "date" time.

First course for me: Oysters Rockefeller. 

We fell into bed happy. What a nice day.