8. A big boat from a little island to a big island to drive to the airport to fly a bigger island!

Having done terribly well at being a traveller to get there, I went full privileged tourist and paid for a full private transfer directly from the beach to the airport for this trip. I decided the ‘boats go when full’ and ‘you’ll find someone to drive you… probably’ attitude might be a little risky when I had a flight to make!

My boat was waiting on the beach for me - it was one of the big dive boats that had a crew of 3 people (who were very willing to heave my massive bag up the beach and onto the boat) and then sail me back to Cebu island. Just little old me on the boat taxi! Once we got to the port, thee was a nice chap who wanted 50PHP (75p) to lift and carry my bag for me. It felt right to support the local economy and agree. My car was waiting and my driver was having a little pre-drive nap, which he quickly woke up from and off we went. Just as we were pulling out of the port, he saw his daughter so lots of hooting and pulling over and in she and her boyfriend got - both squeezed into the front seat and we took them to school (which was miles - I asked how she normally got to school but I didn’t really understand the answer except that she maybe stays with an aunt during the week. But not today, because it’s Wednesday?). Anyway, the car had seatbelts in so I had mine on - and so did the driver, which is lucky as we tended to drive FAST and weave around over - and under-taking whatever was driving slower. His kids sharing the front seat weren’t asked to put seatbelts on though. Madness.

Once we’d done the school run, we were on our way again. At this point, it became clear that the driver liked a chat. He spoke ok-ish English but was quite difficult to follow. His main point though, initially, was how tired he was, how much driving he does and his daily salary and how nice it is when passengers tips. But it’s ‘no worries’ for him if they don’t. We went round and round on that for about 30 minutes. I quickly realised that he either struggled to understand any questions I asked him or wasn’t interested in listening / answering anyway so I just let him carry on. He told me all about how he likes English, Australian, Canadian and US tourists as they tend to be kind and generous. He does not like the Koreans, Japanese or Chinese and tries to avoid driving them! Unclear on why except they’re not as nice and can be rude - and likely don’t tip as well or at all. To be fair - and I’ve researched and fact checked - it seems he was being truthful; his daily salary is dreadful (450 PHP a day - around £8). During lockdown, he had no choice, with no tourists to drive, but to take a job working as a delivery driver and made £6 per day, with not tips. He also said that prices have gone up in the Philippines and even basics like rice are expensive now - 60p per kilo, a lot when you think that’s 10% of his daily wage. His wife doesn’t work because she’s busy at home looking after their 7 children. I did not question the wisdom of having that many children when money is tight. I think that’s a cultural expectation. He said it’s difficult because he has many daughters (3) but couldn’t tell me why or understand when I asked what was better about sons / daughters. It doesn’t seem that daughters cost more but culturally, men here tend to prefer sons and there is a feeling that sons will always be able to work. But a lot of women in the Philippines also work. I’ve got no idea what the gender pay equality gap is like though! I have noticed shops or places who advertise jobs to also specify if they want a female or male employee though. No equal opportunities law here - which is another similarity to the UK catholics who are allowed to opt out of those laws in England too!

Once we’d talked about that, he moved onto telling me about his friend Ricky had been fired - a number of times then finally. Rather than give a summary, he re-enacted the entire conversation and all the events in full. Essentially Ricky didn’t follow the rules (hard to believe there are rules when you look at how they drive) and although he kept begging for - and being given - another chance, he still didn’t follow the rules. So he was sacked as a driver by their boss). That full reenactment took another half an hour. Then we went back to the poor pay and corrupt Filipino government (not idea how - he didn’t explain - but the recount included a full one-person role play of how he applied for a got his driving job). He is thinking he’d like to leave the Philippines because the pay is so low and go to somewhere else to drive where he can earn more - Australia or the UK he thinks. He’d need to make some significant amendments to his driving style first! I asked if there was a driving test or licence in the Philippines - after some tricky translations, he understood and said yes …. Then acted out a full eye test that he has to do every 5 years so he can be a driver. I’m less convinced driving tests or license are a thing! His Aussie / UK driving dream could be a challenge!

Anyway, thanks to my tendency to plan for extra time on airport journeys and Michael’s pacey driving, I arrived with time to spare and an airport chicken burger for lunch and browse the shops and enjoy some of the airport signage!

******

The flight and the taxi to my overnight stop in Puerto Princessa all went very smoothly - the taxi driver even knew where my hotel was and delivered me directly there, which was excellent. I had a couple of hours of daylight so thought I’d go out and see if there was anything much to see … this is really more of a functioning, locals’ city, not a tourist destination. I wondered about seeing if I could get something to eat but there aren’t really restaurants. It’s also bloody boiling! I ended up taking refuge in a donut shop with aircon and treated myself to a sweet treat and the only drink that wasn’t a weird jelly, milk, condensed milk option, which was their ‘world famous coffee’. It left a lot to be desired! On my walk back to my hotel, I found the main square in front of the prettiest church I’ve seen in the Philippines so far. There is a lot of Jesus here. I think it’s quite a religious part of the islands. My taxi driver even asked me if I believed in Jesus Christ on my drive from the airport. I fudged my answer about not being a Catholic although he then insisted I must be at least Christian. He checked I wasn’t Muslim, which I assured him I also wasn’t and he seemed happy with that. ‘No religion’ is simply incomprehensible here it seems. He informed me with some disdain that Muslims only think of Jesus as a prophet not a saviour. I tutted along with him as I wanted to reach my destination without being evangelised. Or murdered in the name of religious war.

There is also a memorial ‘garden’ here which is turns out is to mark events from the WWII. The Philippines seems to have been a location of some significant Japanese and American fighting. Two American submarines saw a Japanese fleet passing through the Filipino waters so torpedoed and sank them. The Japanese then occupied part of the islands and built an airfield using American prisoners of war. Bombing raids and naval battles continued. The Japanese then detected a strong American task force that they feared was enroute to Palawan so reacted by forcing all the US prisoners into air raid shelters and setting them alight, beating to death any who tried to escape. Only 11 of the 150 Americans survived. There is now a monument to those who were killed and the names of survivors also remembered. It’s is topped with a somewhat gruesome ‘burning man’ statue. There are information boards around the park to explain and remember the atrocities. And while I absolutely don’t dispute that they were brutal and dreadful acts of violence and war, I’m not sure some of the literature about the events are entirely considerate!

I returned to my hotel before dark after wandering around the ‘main street’ and a few of the more local streets, appreciating the sights, advertising and different food stuffs on offer. I’ve found sufficient snacks and food for the evening and found somewhere I can walk to tomorrow for breakfast. I am being picked up around midday to go to join my dive boat trip for the week. I have no idea if there will be WiFi but I’d suspect not as we’ll be off out to sea exploring the Tubbatah Reef that forms the top of the world’s ’coral triangle’… I may not be back here until after that trip finishes in the evening of 10th April.