Palawan bound

Palawan
Having spent far to many days stuck in Manila I decided that I needed to escape the city and heard some things about an island in the south of the Philippines called Palawan. The island is reknowned for its fishing and wildlife. As its so far away from the rest of the Philippines it also recieves very few tourists. A few years back some American tourists were abducted and killed in near the capital of Peurto Princesca which decimated the tourism industry. Its now a very safe place to visit and has plenty of beaches and some of the best wreck diving sites in the world to dive in.

Leaving Manila
One of the interesting and amusing things about the Philipino's is their usege of English. They are, without a doubt the most fluent English speakers I have ever encountered in Asia. Even the beggers speak good English! Whats amusing is the way in which they sometimes construct sentences with perfect grammer but use slang and phrases which would never appear in formal documents in the UK or US. For example, as I was leaving the domestic shed, sorry I mean airport, I found a sign in the main foyer warning travellers of making practical jokes about having a bomb. In the UK or US the warning would be very official and sound very important. This warning said that anyone 'cracking such jokes' would be treated seriously.

Manila Domestic Airport Fight
As I was walking through the airport, a rather run down small structure from the 1950s, I noticed a lot of noise and shouting coming from the main waiting room. As I entered the room I was confronted by the sight of a lot of men, and women, jumping and shouting punching the air regularly. At first I wondered whether I had entered into some religious ceremoney or something like that!

I could see that they were watching TV's which were hanging up in the waiting room with a fight on. Asking someone standing nearby I was informed that this was a lightweight boxing match between a Philipino man and a Mexican. In fact it was a re-match as the Philipino had lost before. As I watched the crowd I realised that this could be best seen as a Philipino equivalent of English men watching an important football game in England. Apparently this boxing match was being watched across the country and had the whole nation hooked on the outcome, including those waiting to get onto planes!

Leaving Manila
Flying out of Manila was a really great feeling. Having spent a few days in the city I had been practically crawling up the wall to escape. As the plane rose steadily into the air and flew over some gorgeous mountains and crystal blue sea I looked forward to arriving into an island relatively un-spoilt by tourism.