Visiting Palawan.

My dad was born and raised in Palawan, in the small island of Culion (yes, the country's former leper colony). For as long as I can remember, I told my aunt that I want to visit Palawan one day, but she told me that it would be easier to visit when they finally have electricity 24 hours a day. As of now, they only have electricity in Culion from 6 in the evening until 12 midnight.

While Tita Lety, Kuya Serg and Ate Liezel were visiting Manila, they decided to come visit Palawan as well. Ate Liezel booked a flight for Tita Lety, Kuya Serg and herself, plus Tita Beng and Tita Lyn. I wanted to come as well, but I didn't want to invite myself. But the day after the tickets have been booked, Ate Liezel came up to me and asked me if I could go. So she got a ticket for me as well.

We left on Sunday morning. I was super excited to finally see Palawan, as relatives (Palawan locals) kept saying how beautiful it was over there. I ended up sitting next to Kuya Serg on the plane (Tita Let sat with Ate Liezel while Tita Beng and Tita Lyn sat together). Because we didn't have much to talk about with each other, we talked about exercise regimes that I should follow ever since we three started jogging together. A few minutes into that, we dropped the topic and ended up leafing through the in-flight magazines while listening to our iPods.

We reached Busuanga Island an hour later and boarded a shuttle to KokosNuss Resort in the town of Coron, where we will be staying during our entire trip. On the way there, I immediately saw beautiful untouched land as we drove by. Checked in and dumped our stuff in our respective rooms (Tita Lety and Tita Lyn in one of the large bungalows, Tita Beng and I in one of the smaller ones, and Ate Liezel and Kuya Serg in another), then took a tricycle to Bistro Coron (a highly-recommended eating place owned by a French guy) for lunch. Found out that the place being used for the Bistro is owned by an elderly friend of my aunts, Ate Rosa, so she came and joined us. My cousins and I ordered a large pizza, and despite the cheap price, it was really large, filling, and pretty good.

After lunch, we had planned to spend the entire afternoon visiting Culion, so off we went to this pier called Lambingan. We had hired a boat (Ate Evie's contact) to take us there and back. Once we were in the water, I ended up just gawking at everything I saw. The views were awesome. Never mind that the waves splashed water at our boat and clothes, I was having a blast just taking everything in.

The boat ride to Culion lasted about an hour, and we walked directly to Tita Beng's house, known as "the kitchenette." Nanay Ila and Kellanie immediately appeared the moment we arrived. I have to say, Tita Beng's place was pretty nice, and she had always said that she wants to spruce it up even more. But even with that alone, I like the homey feel of the place. In one corner hung a photo of my grandmother when she was a young girl, and I couldn't resist admiring how beautiful she was.

All of us (except Kellanie) then hired 2 tricycles to take us around Culion. We first went to the cemetery to visit Tito Edmund's grave. He was an uncle I hardly knew, but we shared the same birthday. Then my aunts wanted to see the old San Jose church, so off we went. I found out that it was right across Holy Angels Kindergarten, where all my aunts and uncles, and even my cousin Beverley, went to for kindergarten. Photo ops galore inside the old church, then we were back on the tricycles to visit the big church. We even stopped somewhere along the road, and that's where I saw my grandparents' old house. Sadly, there are other people living in it now, but man, when I looked out to sea, I envied my aunts and uncles for growing up and seeing such a beautiful view like that every day.

The big church was super beautiful, and we even went around in the back, and saw and equally gorgeous view of the sea. A little more walking led us to this practically new hotel called Hotel Maya, and we decided to check it out. The accommodations were pretty nice, and the prices were cheap. Now I know where I can get my friends and I to stay if ever we visit Culion.

One thing I noticed about Kuya Serg, he never spoke a word of Filipino until that day, even if it was just one-word sentences, hahaha. I know Ate Liezel speaks a little Filipino every once in a while.

It was time to get back on the boat so we could be back in Coron by sunset. The water was tamer than it was earlier in the day, and no one got wet anymore because we decided not to sit on the benches up front anymore, hahaha.

Once back in Coron, we had dinner at Kawayanan Grill, which reminded me of every other grill in Manila. When I saw they served sisig, I immediately ordered that and ignored the seafood dishes, ahehe.

The following morning (Monday), we basically just hung around the resort, but had planned to go to the Maquinit hot springs in the afternoon. We were told by Ate Rosa's son, Tawini, that the hot springs can get really scalding hot from noon until about 3:30 in the afternoon, so we decided to go there at 4:30. Ate Liezel, Kuya Serg and I were pretty content lounging around outside in the hammocks, while my aunts stayed in the air-conditioned rooms, especially after lunch right there at the resort. We got a little bored for a while so we got Tita Beng to take us around the town. We ended up looking at some souvenir shops, and even saw a little accident at an intersection when we sat down on a bench to people-watch. We also checked out the pier plus the nearby Hotel Michelangelo, which is an functional-yet-in-the-works establishment by an Italian man.

Tawini picked us up promptly at 4:30 in his van (he works as one of the shuttle drivers at the Busuanga airport) and drove us, plus his mom, to Maquinit. Unfortunately, it was that time of the month for me, so all of us ended up just dipping our legs in the water. Huwaw, that hot water felt really good.

Tita Lety and Tita Lyn decided to retire back to the resort after our visit to the hot springs, while Tita Beng joined my cousins and me to Mount Tapyas. We had decided to climb all 724 steps up to the top to the cross to see the view of all of Coron and to catch the sunset. Tita Beng stopped at 170-something steps, while we kept climbing all the way up. I was a couple of steps behind Ate Liezel the whole time, already panting while still halfway up the mountain. Kuya Serg went up all the steps pretty quickly, not even stopping for a second's rest. When he passed by this group of college-age kids who were ahead of us taking a break, then just gawked at him in amazement as he climbed more steps as if he never got tired. I felt as if the steps could go on forever, until Ate Liezel said that we only had 4 more flights to go. I was sweaty, already panting like a dog, and I felt as if my lungs were burning. Had I known we were going all the way up to the top of the mountain, I should've worn shorts and a tank top.

Finally, we reached the top. Hahaha, we all noticed that there were only a handful of women (including some foreigners) at the top. One Japanese woman who saw us scale the last few steps smiled at us and said, "Girl power." Hahaha, oh yes. We found Kuya Serg at this little hut at the edge of the very top, and Ate Liezel suggested that we go over to him. That was when I admitted that I have acrophobia, hahahaha! And I just had to say it once we were already at the top. I didn't want to say anything because I was dying to see the sunset at the top of the mountain. So anyway, we walked over to where Kuya Serg was, and we noticed that the little hut's wooden posts were vandalized by people who had reached the top. They had written their names on the wood and the date that they came, and we had the same idea. We didn't have a pen or a marker on us, but Ate Liezel improvised and used her liquid eyeliner to write our names, ahehehe.

Once Kuya Serg had found out about my fear of heights, he made me stand somewhere a little farther out so I can see a lot more of how high we were. Holy kamote, that was HIGH. I was squealing like a baby half the time he made me go farther, hahaha. Ate Liezel even took a video of it.

We finally went back down to where Tita Beng was, and saw that she wasn't alone. A couple of waterboys kept her company as long as we buy water from them, plus there was this other guy who decided to stop climbing and let his wife and kids go ahead up the steps. We were told by the waterboys that it was better to climb Mount Tapyas first before going to Maquinit Hot Springs so a dip in the water would be more than refreshing. The guy noticed how young we looked, so we asked him to guess how old we were. He thought Kuya Serg was 25 (he's 43), Ate Liezel was 22 (she's 40), and I was 18. Hahahahahaha!

Back to the resort for showers and dinner. We were trying to enjoy our last night in Palawan, but Tita Lyn just had to make a scene. She was already complaining about trivial stuff ever since we arrived, but what she did during dinner was more than enough. Ended with Tita Lety moving to my room while Tita Beng had to switch and stay with Tita Lyn in the other room. Oh well.

Kuya Serg started speaking more Filipino by morning, and kept talking to me in his "barok" Filipino. He kept at it even before our plane took off, and didn't stop until after we had landed back in Manila, hahaha! He had decided to practice more Filipino until they had to leave for Washington two days later (which was this morning).

Palawan was a blast. I can't wait to come back, and maybe stay over at Tita Beng's place when she's there.