Start of my adventure in Palawan.
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| My treehouse being built. |
Some travelers I meet along the way asks me every now and then about
places in my own home and the sad thing
is, I don’t really know much, haven’t been around the country that much, at
least for the past 15 or so years. Why
don’t I explore my own place some friends would always say, after all I’ve been
to so many places already. And I would also
say that it’s a special place that deserves to be a final destination. Well, after all it’s what I’ll consider as
“home”. So I guess this is the right
time. Continuing from my previous story,
I packed my suitcase and whatever I could bring home, bought a ticket and flew
to home.
On board the plane, the domestic not the international one, I started
to fret and apprehensions mounted – what’s waiting for me in Palawan? What would I be doing there? How
about my expenses? How’s the culture
now? Where would I hang out in case I
get saturated and bored? I don’t know,
it kind of giving me a lot of thinking while looking out on the plane’s window.
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| My new treehouse. |
I took the Cebu Pacific flight and touched down at the small airport of
the city. I wonder why they call it an
international airport, it’s so small that if you don’t have a luggage to check
in, it’s going to take a minute or two from the time you descend down the
stairs of the plane to the terminal exit.
It was raining, oh well, just a little drizzle, and I was impressed with
the service of the airline when they start handing over umbrellas to passengers
from the plane’s exit door down to the entrance of the terminal. I forgot that I actually have a checked-in
baggage with me, so I waited from the small conveyor and since it’s a small
airport, it didn’t took that long, probably 10 minutes before my luggage came
rolling on the equally small moving conveyor.
Although the weather is a little gray, it was really warm, or maybe
because I haven’t had that much sleep for the past 24 hours from my
international to the domestic flight.
I intend to give a lot of tips on this blog so to start with a nice airport
transport tip, don’t expect to find yellow taxi cabs (or whatever color you
have in your own place), upon exiting the small (and efficient) terminal
building, you won’t find any. Most
people (tourists in particular) have their hotels arranged their airport pick-ups. But for most travelers on a budget (like me),
there are those tricycles waiting beyond the exit. If you don’t have time or just lazy to take a
bit of a walk, then take those tricycles right at the exit, costs 150 pesos per
tricycle, not per person. But for most
of us, a 2-minute walk to the main road will save some bucks. Just take the path to your right until you
reach the main highway and walk couple of meters more where you’ll find several
people waiting for their ride. Flag
down, wave your hand to a running tricycle, these beasts are motorcycles with a
passenger carriage attached to it, much like the notorious tuktuks of Bangkok. It can accommodate comfortably 2 people
inside its attached cab but a maximum of 5 can fit in if you don’t mind bending
your head a little or squeezed your thighs.
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| Tricycle driver. |
The most that the drivers of these tricycle would ask from you to take you
to the downtown is 80 pesos for the whole tricycles especially if you’re alone
or just a couple.
Inside the tricycle on my way to our place, I started to survey the
streets and everything along the way. I
can’t remember well but I think this place used to be a little quieter than
now. I was here a decade and a half ago. There are a lot of vehicles on the road
especially the noisy tricycles (I’m in at one right now) and a lot of those
locally manufactured multicabs, a smaller version of the colourful jeepneys in Manila.
Few days after arrival, I found myself renovating the small old house
my father built for me before he passed away.
It’s a bit sentimental but hey, I want to consider this place a home I
wish it would be.
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Visit to The Crocodile Farm.
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| Big one at Crocodile Farm. |
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| Smaller crocs. |
On my third day, I went to the Crocodile Farm – a favorite attraction
of the city. You can reach this
attraction by either joining a tour called “City Tour” offered by your hotel or
any tour operators in town, the airconditioned van group tour costs 600 pesos
per person and it includes some highlights of the city of Puerto Princesa. My bubbly nephew is one of the tour van
driver, hook up with me and I could hook you up with him for a good price. But since I’m a local and - ehermm – a
traveler, I took it the hard (not so actually) way, hailing a multicab along
the highway. You could also find these
multicabs along Rizal Avenue at the downtown near Jollibee with the sign
“Irawan”. Just tell the driver that
you’re going to Crocodile Farm, fare is only 10 pesos, unless of course you’re
a big group, hiring a tricycle or renting a van would be cost-effective.
Crocodile farm, just as the name suggests, is a sanctuary for those
reptiles, they breed crocodiles in here.
Do you know that some restaurants are offering it cooked as a delicacy?
– eouw!
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| Laughing croc? |
Entrance fee is 40 pesos, students get a discount. They have introduction session prior to the
tour for a couple of minutes and then you’re on your own. There’s a huge open hall where small
crocodiles are in breed captivity in small to medium sizes. Bigger ones are down the swampy area, there’s
a bridge for visitors to watch those crocs below. There’s a really huge one down there named …
hmmm.. I forgot the name actually.
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| Eagle at the Crocodile Farm |
Aside from crocodiles, they keep some endangered animal species
scattered in huge cages around the forest wildlife park like talking maynahs,
eagles, bearcats, a lonely snake, and others.
There are also a lot of trees and different kind flora, some of them
have labels – scientific names – some are rare species. You just have to follow the clearly marked
paths.
The highlight for me – aside from the crocs of course – are the lovely
talking Hill Mynahs of Palawan. Scientific
name: Gracula religiosa palawanensis,
also called the Philippine Talking Mynah or simply Palawan Mynah.
They’re lovely black birds with yellow beaks that mimic human
speech. They’re amazing creatures,
almost unbelievably smart birds that talks like- you know - humans? When I first saw them in a big cage sitting
on a tree and I started hearing whistles blowing particularly the “you’re sexy”
whistles and several “wows” I thought they’re coming from people around, took
me a minute or two before I’d figured out it’s actually coming from those black
birds. I was so amused, never really
seen birds talking, except from some parrots I saw at a pet store few months
back that meows and whistles. Well, its
cage is beside several kittens.
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| Talking Mynahs of Palawan |
OK, going back to those talking mynahs of Palawan, throw them some
words, and if you’re lucky, they’d shout the same words back at you. Although, they already have sets of memorized
words like “panget” (Filipino word for ugly).
That made me wonder, why do some (or maybe most) Filipinos always let others
learn the basic Filipino language starting with the word “ugly”, and then
some really ugly words? Why? I’ve heard lots of arabs utter those tagalog
curses like .. you know what I mean… then there’s the words “kuripot”
(tightfisted), “gago” (stupid?), etc.
Anyways, I’ll save that topic for another post.
After exploring the crocodile farm, getting out of the area is
easy, there are multicabs running along
the highway in front of the gate for 10 pesos back to the downtown, or take the
parked tricycles there if it’s not closing time already when most of them are gone.
Next destination will be…hmmm, let’s see the next write up.
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