The Best and the Worst of Palawan, The Philippines

I am of the opinion that good travel writing does not only reflect the positive, glamorous and joyful travel moments but also the bad, the gritty and the raw. The Philippines is an undeniably beautiful country and I don't mean any disrespect to anyone who loves the Philippines, but I wanted to write an article that reflected the whole reality of my perspective after spending three weeks in the island nation.

In early May 2018 my friends and I took a trip to Palawan, a long island in the far western regions of the Philippines. This is an island that explorer Jacques Cousteau claimed was one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen in his life, while his granddaughter Alexandra remarked that El Nido, Palawan was a place akin to a museum because it reminds us what oceans used to be like. And after spending three weeks in the Philippines, I have to admit that the lagoons, water, and ocean vistas are pretty spectacular but there are some serious downsides that I would feel remiss not to mention to any friend who was considering traveling there.

Firstly, the main reason we traveled to Palawan and not Boracay was because Boracay island (otherwise known as the most popular island in the Philippines for tourists) is completely closed down for six months due to severe sewage pollution that has created copious amounts of green algae all along the coastline. The government, under the iron fist of president Rodrigo Duterte demanded that the "cesspool" of Boracay would close until businesses that operate there could manage their sewage lawfully and properly. This closure is expected to cost the island 1.4 billion USD, and 36,000 workers on Boracay will most likely lose their jobs, so you can imagine that the need for the closure is a very serious issue.

We chose Palawan as an alternative, as it is the second most traveled to island of the nearly 7,600 islands that make up the nation of the Philippines. We flew straight from Manila to Puerto Princessa without having many expectations or knowledge of what the country would be like.

Little things stood out immediately as very different. Instead of having Tuktuks the Philippines has Trics, which are motorcycles that have a rickety body set overtop it so that more people can ride inside of them.

The airport at Puerto Princessa was the smallest of any I had ever at that time seen, and the hotel we were taken to was along the biggest street in the town.

We were addressed as "ma'am/sir" without exception. The food was a collection of grilled meats and rice. And the humidity was fierce. But what immediately took hold of me was the huge amount of stray dogs roaming the streets. Dozens of mangy, emaciated dogs with sores and bald patches were wandering through the streets. Puerto Princessa was a stopping place for us before we carried on to the more mystical and renowned, far northern tip of El Nido, which can only be reached by a winding six hour bus or taxi ride unless you're very rich and can charter a private plane.

We stayed for a couple of days in Puerto Princessa to unwind, and we even did a couple of excursions around that area including Honda Bay island hopping and the Underground River tour. Both tours were inundated with tourists, probably made worse by the fact that Boracay's closure had pushed all tourist traffic there, but the tours did have some charms. My favorite part of the Honda Bay tour was Starfish Island, which felt very remote and was completely surrounded by little starfish in the water. You had to make sure that you reapplied sunscreen diligently every couple of hours because of the ferocity of the sun but the water was pristinely blue and the beach shacks selling raw coconuts topped off with rum were a nice addition.

My favorite part of the Underground River tour was the incredibly beautiful beach that we got to see right beside of it and feeling so very remote and far away from everything.

Once we took the night taxi up to El Nido, my confusion with the Philippines began to change into mild unpleasantness. Yes, El Nido is gorgeous and yes, if you enjoy diving apparently its the best in the world, but their infrastructure just isn't there. There internet unreliability makes it difficult to load Instagram, forget trying to work online or respond to an important email. As far as placing a call over Whatsapp or Skype, you might as well just write a postcard--except good luck finding a post office, and even if you do find a post office it is highly doubtful the card will get sent. I don't mean to be catty, that's just the way it is.

It is hard to say quite how, but the corruption in the Philippines is much more obvious than it had been in Thailand, and that is something that you feel. It might be because the poverty is more pronounced or it might be that the Philippines has a more recent history of being colonized by multiple western powers and therefore is still trying to find its feet, but there is a general lack of order. Any time I ate any meal, I had to assess the food beforehand and decide whether I thought eating it was worth the risk, I usually determined it was not, but hunger lead me to eat it anyway.

Two out of four of the hotels we stayed in had rats, that we saw with our eyes. And as for sitting on a beach and eating, or on an outdoor restaurant terrace, expect for at least four stray dogs and cats to surround you--all the female animals will be massively pregnant.

The best part of the Philippines was our time that we spent on the water. But even then there were downsides. Our tour guides opened our beers for us that we were allowed to bring on a private boat tour, but then they nonchalantly threw the caps into the ocean. When I asked them not to do that they smiled at me as if I was a bit strange and then seemed not to do it to humor me. I'm all for the rule that you don't tell someone else how to live in their country, but it was hard to watch people willfully liter in an ocean that was an actual paradise. If the people continue to pollute in this way, and with the sharp increase of tourists that the Philippines has seen recently, I don't see how El Nido won't be a dump before too much longer.

We were told that the best tours to do in El Nido were tours A & C, which are certain select routes that the tour boats take to various lagoons and beaches around the area. And they really were spectacular. For lunch our boat operators would find hidden stretches of beach and grill us whole fish, with rice and different fruits. It was pretty delicious. My advice would be spend a bit more money to have a private boat tour, if you can assemble a group of about four to six friends, it is well worth it and then you can bring your own beverages and music.

After a week in El Nido we moved on to the island of Coron, which is still in the province of Palawan, just about a three hour ferry ride north of El Nido. The ferry is nondescript, except it doesn't feel particularly clean, and like everything else it was overcrowded. While we were docked at the harbor a stray dog wandered aboard and stayed on until just before we left. I was certain that the dog was going to be traveling too, but he left of his own accord right when the whistle blew. Obviously, he wasn't feeling Coron. Wise dog.

Coron, not being directly on a beach like Palwan was much grungier and unkept. Unlike El Nido, there are no fast food chains or signs of westernization at all. In fact, finding a post card nearly wasn't possible. The main street that makes up the center of town has three bars, a few restaurants and a myriad of little connivence shops. Otherwise, there is a market and many diving schools. We stayed in a hostel that was co-owned by an American guy from Oregon. He said he had been in the Philippines for three years and chose to base himself in Coron because it was so remote and anti-commercial. The hostel did have all the essentials, including fresh pancakes every day but it only had shared bathrooms that were muddy and ran out of water (literally the taps just would stop running, mid-shower) there was also no hot water when they were running. We stayed there for a week because Coron has so many ship wrecks that it makes it excellent for diving.

Even though the Philippines is known for diving, it should be noted that most of its coral reefs are dead from years of fishing using cyinade or explosives. The only swimming beach in driving distance from central Coron can only be reached by taking a moped over a hair-raising, pot-holed dirt road coated in lose rocks. We actually wrecked our bike twice, from slipping on rocks. Luckily, we didn't get hurt. The beach itself is actually being built by the owner and you have to pay a marginal fee to access it. The view is nice. The water is filled with kelp.

While Josh and Sara were diving, Peter and I took the moped further outside of town in search of a "hidden lagoon" that appeared on google maps off in the jungle. It must have been very well hidden because we drove down road after road and every local we asked shook there head sadly at us and repeated back the word "lagoon?" and then said "nooooo". We took this as a bad sign. Also the jungle seemed very, very dry so the idea of a mythical, hidden lagoon out there lingering, did seem pretty unimaginable. We did see a thin skeleton of a dog in the middle of the baking road standing, staring, hollow eyed at us like an omen. It was enough to make your skin crawl.

We followed an ominous but slightly exciting hand made sign for an "eco camp with waterfalls" off down a long dirt road that led to some people's home where they charged us entry to a swimming pool they'd built in the jungle. They also suggested we take their "hiking trail" up a steep mountain edge in the mid-day sun to a viewpoint, we did this to see if we spotted the hidden lagoon...but there wasn't a lagoon to be seen.

This was the day we finished off by getting street kababs. Never have I made a worse mistake. Never. I knew it was wrong while I was doing it but I kept doing it anyway. This seems to be a theme in my life. I paid the consequences, definitely, as I was up the whole night vomiting everything I had up, and then some. And then some more. The next day we had booked another island hopping tour--this time it wasn't private and we were going with about 20 strangers. I had to jump off the boat to be sick underwater and avoid upsetting anyone.

So, what to take away from this article. 1) The Philippines and Palawan have some glorious, out of this world beautiful beaches and water spaces. 2) It is not all glamor and fun in the sun. 3) Be careful what you eat.