Palawan the last frontier
I arrived in the green town of Puerto Princesa from where I headed to the north of Palawan island. Port Barton was an amazing quiet town with white sandy beaches and good snorkelling. I enjoyed myself in the hammock too. El Nido was also recommened to visit. I wish I had not done that. El Nido is busy, but has a trashed beach too. The scenery is similar to Halong Bay in Vietnam. Somehow I got very dissapointed by this place. The worse part is that the story from the government is not true. Damage to the (almost dead) reef is the cause of starfish, although this is partly true the main cause is of course unsustainable tourism. Boats anchor on the reefs. When I was snorkelling I could hear corals cracking from everywhere. Locals also step on them, touch them and even take them with them. When I visited the beautiful lagoons I did a cleanup of the lagoon as I could see rubbish laying everywhere around. If you think it helped, well then let’s stop that dreamy thinking. Just 4 minutes later a huge group of Pinoy (Philippine people) arrived and one fat man threw is chips bag in the lagoon. I asked him if he found the lagoon ugly, but he said ‘no’. I don’t think he ever got what I meant to say. This all didn’t make me feel happy and so I decided to leave already in 2 days to Sabang.
Here I found my paradise! Pristin primary rainforest and primary mangrove forest covered the steep karst mountains with surrounding deep blue water and a beautiful white sand beach. It’s here where I’ve seen most wildlife during my walks such as monkeys, snakes, monitoring lizards, frogs, birds, and orchids. The most famous attraction is the Underground River NP where I got by peddle boat. The cave is enormous and hosts 8(!) different bat species. A highlight of my trip. It’s one of the places I left with a feeling that when I’d come back it won’t have changed so much. And about the food: I found the very good vegetarian restaurants in El Nido and Puerto Princesa which were welcome refuge places in the meat-mad Philippines.