Swimming near Whale Sharks

tourist crossing

I got up at 5am so I could get to the Whale Shark area before 6 when the first boats go. On the short roughly ¼ mile walk there I saw my first ever “Tourist Crossing” sign. It warned drivers to slow down and is needed as last night I was nearly run over by a truck passing on the wrong side of the road. It didn’t care that I was there, just honked loudly so I scooted from the edge of the road onto the dirt and rocks on the side. Luckily I had seen Jake’s parents almost sideswiped yesterday while standing on the side of the road. They flattened themselves against their tricycle rig to avoid being hit so I knew these drivers don’t slow down or move over one bit for pedestrians. Clearly they don’t have injury lawyers here.

information board

I got in the first group of about 7 boats to go out to the whales. Each boat had about 10 people. The boats were arranged in an arc with skilled fishermen feeding the whale sharks from their canoes leading them around near our tourist boats. We had 30 minutes there so we slipped on the masks they handed out and hopped into the water, hanging off the wooden poles on the sides, and putting our faces into the water to watch the whale sharks. They are so cool swimming slowly and majestically around. One of the guides took some pictures of me with a whale shark behind me. After about 20 minutes I was pretty much done. It was a pretty touristy experience but at the same time amazing like seeing pandas in the zoo.

information seating area

sunrise before whale sharking

whale shark with fish

whale shark on surface

whale shark looking at me

whale shark from front

whale shark eating

me with whale shark showing in water

There is a great debate on whether this is good or bad for the whale sharks as some of the money raised goes into conservation efforts. Certainly it has saved the lives of the villagers who were some of the poorest in the country, struggling just to keep their families fed. Now they can affored 3 meals and day, school for their children, and a modest house that has some cement or bricks and not just palm fronds that get destroyed every monsoon (at the peak I think they made about $20,000 a year for each of the 170 fishermen). 60% of the proceeds go to the fishermen with 10% to the town. and 30% to the local government who uses at least some of the money on conservation and preventing whale shark poaching.

Me with a whale shark behind me plus a ton of other people

me from the back and a whale shark

me underwater with a whale shark

whale shark

Jake and Sherilyn

I met some really nice fellow travelers, Jake and Sherilyn, from Singapore who were swimming next to me. They are visting the area with a another couple. I got a few good shots of them since it’s easier to take pictures of people in other groups since you are not right next to them. You might also see one of their legs in some of my pictures. I might see them when I’m in Singapore in May. On the way back one of the vendors does money exchange for a poor rate, but I figured at least it helps out a local so I changed $10 to 470 pesos which was enough to get me to the airport.

conductor and bus

I grabbed the 7:30 bus which should have been the air conditioned bus that stops fewer places, but it was the regular (slower) bus which just rolls down the windows and is quite rickety with possibly no shocks (okay it had shocks, it just felt like it didn’t). The roads were rough from the flood damage and he drove like a bat out of hell so we got thrown around a bit. I didn’t mind since it got me to the airport faster. I was worried about traffic and the fact that I was on the “slower” bus. Perhaps the driver heard me vioce my concerns to the conductor about getting to the airport on time and decided to show me a thing or two because he was passing cars and trucks quite aggressively.

motorcycle transport

Scarecrows, my favorites are holding white scarves

I was unable to do much on the long trip as the bus flung us about and I was in danger of getting car sick so I certainly couldn’t read or work. I was able to nap for a bit. The campaigners were out again in full force and to add to that there was some strange detour that made everyone turn right, go down a long road, make a u-turn, just to come back and turn right to continue on the road. We got there in record time 4.5 hours and I grabbed a taxi from the bus station to the airport. I only had 268 pesos but he agreed to take dollars if it was more than that.

traffic detour turnaround

bus transport

lunch

Just before the airport he stopped to pick up some food commenting how it was more expensive in the airport. I almost followed him out to get something but I felt it would be rude to use some of the pesos I was going to pay him and buy food with it. It turns out the food was really really cheap, like 15 pesos (30 cents) for a chicken wing so I probably could have spared a few pesos and just given him extra dollars. It worked out roughly the same because I tipped him $2 and got him to sell me one chicken piece and some rice for another $1. I devoured it after I checked in. Guess I was hungry.

Cebu airport expansion

Cebue airport future duty free shopping trap

nice cebu airport toilets with bidet

On a side note, I think I figured out why everyone here is so happy. They live on a island so of course they’re happy just like Hawaiians. It’s the island life. The Philippines are basically a bunch of large islands with tiny islands near each of them. So the whole country is happy.

Dried salted peas and mango surprisingly good

I tried calling my little hotel to let them know I would be arriving late, but got no answer. So before the flight left I sent an email and had a very bad feeling about it. The flight to Puerta Princessa was short, but once we got there, I was expecting many offers of van rides to El Nido. I guess Covid with it’s lack of tourists has changed that because there were zero offers of van rides. I asked a man who was also in the El Nido check in area and ended up attachin myself to their family of four to find ourselves a van. We were told we needed to get a taxi to the other airport which seemed ricidulous and possibly quite far. Instead I found the number of one the van companies and a kind guard called them for us and arranged for a private van for the five of us for 6000 pesos, so only 1200 each ($24). Since the regular rate was $15, this wasn’t completely insane and we agreed.

Small plane to Palawan

Once we seemed to have transport, I put more attention on whether or not I had accomodation. I found a WhatsApp number for my hotel and was able to reach them. They have been closed since Covid and were unaware they are listed on Hotels.com. They did suggest a place to stay which was near there place. First I asked the family I was traveling with where they were staying but when I looked it up it was over $300 a night so very expensive. I got ahold of the suggested place and they had a room there. One more crisis averted.

sweet cashews

The family was from Kuwait so while the Philippines were very hot for me, this was cold weather for them! They also insisted on paying for the whole van and since they outnumbered me I had no choice. They put me in the front with the driver, which was perfect since I get car sick otherwise. The women were in the middle row and the men were in the back. We stopped at the beginning to get food and snacks, and once towards the end for a bathroom break and to give the driver a quick dinner. I bought some candied cashews, which were amazingly delicious. I had to stop myself from eating them all at once.

roadside stop area

Going through one of the small towns, I saw three kids sitting on the side of the road facing out towards the valley. Around the bend I saw a few more sets of kids doing the same thing. It looked just like people preparing to watch a fireworks show so I asked my driver if they were watching for a meteor shower, but he said they are playing games on their cell phones and can’t get good reception in the house. So you can’t say video games aren’t getting kids to enjoy the outdoors, at least not here!

google maps fail

We actually stopped two other times very quickly but didn’t get out of the car. Our driver lives right along the road we were on so he stopped for a few minutes there. Then again about halfway there he pulled over on the side of the road outside a house and two kids came out to fill up the gas tank with plastic gas cans and a hose. Our driver drove fast and he knows the roads so well he knew where to slow down for dips and to avoid potholes. He drives it twice a day, once in either direction. Still it was a long ride, 5 hours to my hotel, which was about 15 minutes before theirs. We had trouble finding the place but I looked at Google maps which had us turn down a “road” which was rocky and bumpy then turn right down a very narrow road. After that it had me go left down an alleyway with piles of sand and other obstacles (see pic). At that point I called and got better directions from the main road, but I felt bad that I had wasted 15 minutes trying to find the place which delayed the nice family (who were very tired and I think not used to 5 hour drives) getting to their place.

Telefora room

Telefora toilet rusty water

I rolled my luggage down a paved driveway almost to the beach where some young men were hanging out by the pool in front of a nice looking hotel, which was sadly not mine. One of them sprang up to help and I told him I was trying to find Telesfora. He carried my suitcase along the beach about 50 yards to where my place was. Now bear in mind that I am not super picky. I had just come from a 2-star hotel, though it was very nice for a 2-star. This place was horrible. Granted, it may have been the last room available and they had very little notice to prepare it (it had no toilet paper and no soap), but it was easily the worst place I have stayed at in for at least a decade. The toilet hose was rusted and dripping so the floor near the shower and behind the toilet was wet. The toilet water was pinkish like it as rust in it or something (even after multiple flushes that night). I had to push the front door really hard several times before it closed , possibly due to warping from the December floods. There were pen marks on the pillow, but the kicker was the tiny dead spider on the sheets near the pillows. Anyone who knows how I am with spiders knows this was the worst part. Surprisingly, the wifi was quite strong. I used it to immediately book another place for the next 2 nights.

Telefora bathroom

Telefora breakfast with view

The next morning, the included breakfast was actually quite good. The views were amazing as the place is right on the beach. Also, the place was packed with two rows of rooms all looking filled. My first choice of place was 15 minutes away in town, but my second choice was literally 200 meters away so I went there since I still had to find and book a tour for the day. More about that next post.

Telefora restaurant with view

Telefora beach front