Our first day day in the Philippines ended with an overpriced, yet delicious dinner at the hotel restaurant, coupled with two beers, a friendly dog, and the incomplete board games with missing pieces that the hotel provides for its guests.
On January 1st, we managed to make our way into town via a tricycle taxi, which is the main form of transportation in Palawan. At 50 pesos, we managed only a 70% mark up from the local price.
We knew there wasn’t much to do in the town of Puerto Princesa, especially the day after New Years. Most people only stay in the town for a day or two before heading off to greener pastures in the north part of the island, us included. All of the food stands were closed, as well as any sign of life. Next to the tayelet (boardwalk) we came across a western style joint owned by Filipino woman who had lived in Australia for 30 years. The British guy at the table next to us ordered a really appetizing chicken parmegiano, so naturally we had to order two more for ourselves in anticipation of dinner a few hours away, lest we overpay again at home.
One of the best ways to learn about a culture is through its culinary habits. Walking through the town, we found a supermarket and took a gander inside. Without exaggerating, there wasn’t a single item of fresh food. All there had was canned food. Meat, dairy, vegetables, fruit. All of it was canned! We were in shock. We heard the food in the Philippines was bad, but now we knew why.
In need of a haircut, we stopped at a hair dresser, who allowed Ben give himself a haircut with their machinery for 100 pesos, or $2 (which we would learn is a lot! Ben paid 45P for someone to do it all for him)
On the way back to the hotel, we probably found the only honest taxi driver in Southeast Asia. We knew the price was 15 pesos per person, so 30 total, but every single driver we asked told us, 100 pesos, 150 pesos, 200 pesos. Inside of the tricycles there is a piece of paper that show the price per kilometer, as dictated by the city. However, that doesn’t stop them from screwing the tourists. We read online that the best way to handle the situation is to simply enter the vehicle, if you can call it that, go along for the ride, and never mention the price until you reach the destination. Only then do you point towards the paper and fight for your cause. On this ride, we went with a different strategy: lying! We told the guy that Nadine’s dad was Filipino and we had been living in Puerto Princesa for the past 1.5 years. Why or how he believed our stupid story is beyond us. It’s really sad that we have to lie to get a fair price. Without ever mentioning the price to him, we exited the tricycle, gave the driver 30 pesos, and went on our way.
That night we planned our travels to Port Barton, our next destination. The ultimate plan is to head north to the well known beach of El Nido, followed by a 4 hour ferry to Coron. El Nido is accessible by a seven hour shared van ride, which was too far for us. Instead we chopped up the journey into two legs by stopping in the sleepy beach town of Port Barton for two days.
Comments