Palawan

Puerto Princesa
The capital of Palawan is Puerto Princesa which is located roughly in the middle of the island. Its a very quiet place where people seem to work only a few hours a day and instead concentrate on taking it easy enjoying the finer things in life! The streets are barely paved properly and at night the streets are difficult to distinquish due to the lack of lighting of any sort!

Arriving into Puerto Princesa I was confronted almost immediately by one of the cities most iconic symbols - The moto tricycle. Looking like a cross between a ride-on bike and a small car the vehicle is a bike which as had a ride on attached to it with a complete frame. With fares costing a flate rate of 6 Pesos' a ride in one of them is an inexpensive means of transport. The streets in the city are crawling with them as most people seem to choose to pay for a ride rather than the cost of buying a car on themselves.

Unfortunately I quickly found that many drivers seem to have little knowledge of the city which they live in. On the first night in town I tried to get back to my guesthouse and spent 30 minutes being driven around town by the only rider who a)didn't seem to have heard of Banwa Pension and b)was one of a very few people who couldn't understand English! I am quickly learning that its best to ask if they know a location first before jumping in as otherwise you could be in for a long and confusing experience!

Banwa Pension
Whilst staying at Pension Natividad in Manila I had met a young Aussie lady called Helen who had run a small eco-friendly questhouse in Puerto Princesa for year. With her recommendation in hand I headed for Banwa Pension with anticipation. The lodge is small with only a dozen or so rooms. What it lacks in facilities and amenities it makes up for in sheer character. The manager/owner is a young man called Joel who is immensely friendly and very knowledgable. As the lodge is made pretty much entirely out of wood its a very natural relaxing place to sit, relax and basically watch life go by! Due to the problems a few years back with the kidnappings tourists visiting the city are still relatively few in number so I found myself being the only quest in the entire place!

Palawan
For the next week or so I will be staying in Palawan. Most people reading this entry will wonder - where is the place??? Palawan is an island province located in the Western Visayas region between the South China Sea in the northwest and Sulu Sea in the southeast. It's best known for three things -

1) Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park;
2)Internationally Renowned Diving (especially Japanese wrecks in Coron) ;
3) Superb beaches and islands (El Nido being the most famous)

Palawan is well know internationally for its rich natural resources and boasts of exotic wildlife, white sandy beaches, world class snorkeling and superb wreck scuba diving. Starting off in Puerto Princesa I intend to visit the Subterranean Caves north of the city, then travel up to the beachs and islands of El Nido before 'attempting' to get the boat to Coron to do some wreck diving. Many of the travellers I have spoken to and through reading a range of books I realised relatively quickly that it was, in essence, "the last frontier" in the Philippines!