TBK Travels to Brooke's Point, Palawan to see Grecil

 

                      On the road south to Brookes Point- photo by Mark

When you leave Puerto Princessa and head south to Brookes Point (BP) or North to Nacpan it’s easy to see why Palawan has been voted the world’s most beautiful island for several years running.

Sources: https://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/islands and https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4696830/Palawan-Island-Philippines-voted-best-world.html( accessed 20.05.22)

The lush green vegetation everywhere, the white sand beaches (including the longest, 14 km, in Asia at San Vicente), the coconut trees swaying in the breeze, the fresh fruits (Mangoes, Bananas etc), the daily catches of fresh fish delivered to your door, the beautiful forested mountains ( home to the many indigenous tribes). It is such a massive change from the 22 km of 6 lane highways in Bahrain with only skyscrapers in the city or oil wells in the dessert to look at. The pace of life is so much slower in Palawan and I have slipped into their rhythms. I happily follow a trike going 20 km /h waving at the smiling kids in Tsinellas (sandals ,Flip flops or Thongs for the Aussies!) on their way to or from school. A far cry from having a Saudi 4 x 4 roaring up behind you, hooting, flashing his lights and wanting to pass when you are doing 120 km/h in the outside lane. I constantly have to pinch myself and ask “Is this a dream or am I really here now?!)

A Carabao (Kalabaw in Tagalog) resting in the water from the hot sun- photo by Mark

When my friend Mark from Manila came to stay, we decided to head south to Brooke's Point (BP) and catch up with some friends there. It’s a 3 and a half hour  journey but for the majority of the way it’s a good fast road (by Palawan standards). As you see in the picture at the start of the blog there are 2 to 3 lanes of concreted road. As we went mid-week (Tuesday, 10 am to 2 pm with one coffee stop) there was not too much traffic. I found a hotel room on line so we could stay overnight near BP. Next, I packed a picnic as I had learnt from my trip up North there are few places to stop for coffee etc.

Brooke's point is in the southern part of Palawan which was new territory for me

We passed through Aborlan and Nara and then Sefrono Espanola and eventually stopped at 2 pm about 30 mins before we reached BP. Travelling with a Filipino dictated that we had to find a spot in the shade of a tree (as Mark explained

 “As we are Moreno (brown) we don’t like to be in the sun or we go maitim (black) like a piece of charcoal, and we don’t look good. Whereas Maputing Tao (white men) like to get brown in the sun and look good!”

           TBK pours his hot black coffee from his flask- photo by Mark

When we arrived in BP, we did a quick tour of the town in the car. As it was nearly 3 pm, and having declined Breakfast and Meryenda, Mark declared he was hungry! We found a local café where we had some excellent Tapsilog (fried rice, egg, pork and cucumber . I gave Mark my rice as I am not really Filipino and he gave me his cucumber* as he is not really English). We washed our meal down with three bottles of Royal (sparkling orange drink). The total cost of our lunch was 300 Pesos , 3 BHD or 4.5 GBP)

                     Our lunch stop in Brooke's point- photo by TBK!

Next we found a small beach where we watched some boys splashing in the waves and filmed a part of our Vlog.

           On the beach filming at Brooke's Point - cameraman Mark

The Vlog is now available on our You Tube Channel . Please don’t forget to like and subscribe and click the bell icon and You Tube will notify as each new vlog is added every Monday at 8 am by Chester, Next week it's Baker's Hill and Puerto, then our Holy week trip to Porty Barton ( cut short by Powersource turning off the electricity for a week). Adam kindly got us a room in Alimanguan instead and we met the Skimmers and started a Pinoy cookery lesson. We did a side trip to Alvin's home Bgy. Tumarbong and Roxas, to try and send a postcard to UK. We will be taking you to the secret beach to see the Pawikans and then on North to El Nido, Lio beach and you get to see a romantic wedding in the beach. I also walk 7 km along the beach to the place where I first fell in love with Palawan in 2014, El Nido Cove Resort & Spa, sadly now closed. From there we go to Nacpan before returning to Puerto at the end of August.

As Grecil was working after university we arranged to meet her on Thursday and headed back north in search of our hotel which was about a 25-minute drive from the town proper.

       TBK at the entrance to the Mt Maruyog Resort - photo by Mark

We had booked a deluxe room for 1,500 peso which is a chalet by the pool with a CR (toilet, shower, WC, Bathroom) TV and Phone and a small veranda with table and 2 chairs. So while Mark had his nap and the next morning slept after his exhausting day, I sat outside and wrote my blog. 

       Mark resting his eyes! Photo by TBK!

The best thing about the resort is it’s on the road to the mountains and has no Wi-Fi or phone signal. Apart from a karaoke for a birthday party next to the pool it was very quiet. We just heard the sound of the birds, the crickets and the Butiki (newts, Lizards and Ghekhos! ) The resort and pools are open to day visitors but  when they left it was blissfully peaceful. The place reminded me of Villa Escudero!  You can read my blogs about Villa Escudero which I visited in 2013 with Kuya Vin by clicking the links below:

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2019/12/villa-escudero-arrival-and-departure.html

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2019/12/villa-escudero-arrival-and-departure.html

There was a birthday party in full swing at the resort with Karaoke , food, and all the kids were in the pool so we went to see what all the noise behind the chalet was about- Mark took the camera to record events for the Vlog and Blog.

 
          The kids got very excited when they saw Mark making a vlog

We walked around the beautiful grounds, where we met a beautiful Labrador (just like the one I owned in the UK, Trixie) who followed is everywhere. There are lots of Instagramable spots, some Dinosaurs and TBK showed off his circus skills by putting his head in the Tiger and the Crocodiles mouth.

                 TBK shows off his circus skills- Photo and first aid by Mark!

After our walk we returned to the Villa where I update the blog for a couple of hours and then we went to have dinner at 7 pm. There was sizzling Pork Sisig, lots of Calamansi juice, Tuna steak and Dragonfruit ice cream (from their farm). Sadly the portions were too big and we had to leave some, much against Mark’s desire not to waste anything ( Carl Max lives on in Palawan) . 

                      The Dragonfruit ice cream was BONGALISCIOUS!

After an early night’s sleep, I was up early (as usual) and when we found Grecil was still at work we had breakfast at the hotel. We left the hotel at 9.30 am and went back to BP and walked by the sea but there was still no reply from Grecil so we headed North to Sefrono Espanola where we had agreed to meet Regine at Noon. I first met her at Sheila's wedding in Sibaltan where I was Ninong. I did not know anyone there and this pretty young lady sat next to me and kept smiling at me. Later, when I was back in Puerto, she added me on Facebook and told me she was now at High School in Pulot , near Sefrono Espanola. As Mark and I were in the area we agreed to meet her at the school in her lunch break. As I was with Mark I suggested she bring a friend. We arrived early and found the school. There was a fiesta in the school fields opposite. While Mark slept , again,  I went to explore the stalls and had Siomai, special burger ( with pineapple and cheese and a mango milkshake  while I waited for the girls to show up. 

                      Regine and her friends at Pulot National High School

Then I treated them all to meryenda and as we chatted under the tarpaulin at one of the stalls ( as it started to rain ) we got quizzed by the stall holder ( "where are you from, are you married, how do you know the girls, how much Tagalog do you know, how old are you etc." ) . However she also gave us some useful information on upcoming fiestas in Cuyo and Coron in August ( 26 I think) which I plan to visit in the coming months.

Our epic journey home criss covering much of the south of the island to give Mark an idea of the beauty of Palawan

Eventually we said our goodbyes and headed off Northwest to Quezon. Once again the route was very pretty , along the coast to Narra and then over the mountains to Quezon. The roads however were not as good and it took us 2 hours to get there by which time I was hungry and needed the CR and a rest from driving. However we could not find anywhere suitable. The only nice looking place, a new hotel and restaurant was still being built! Then I remembered a Priest who had tried to sell me a house in Quezon some years ago had extolled the virtues of the Tabon Caves. We eventually found the entrance down a 11 km grassy track, only to be told by the Security guard they were "CLOSED" . 

The Tabon caves , which after a 12 km drive down narrow lanes , we were told by the security guard, was closed!

No wonder Tourism in the Philippines i having a slow recovery from COV19. We reversed several kilometers and eventually were able to turn around and head back to Puerto through a torrential downpour. Eventually we saw some Vans pulled up outside a café and pulled in at 4 pm for some Manok Adobo ( the catering assistant could not believe I did not want rice with it!) and Coca Cola and then we were able to use the CR. 

Once we got home Mark kindly offered t unpack the car and I went to sleep at 6 pm exhausted after our 6 hour drive and slept until 3 am!

By the way of you see a girl called Grecil please let me know- 10 hrs. driving to see her and she disappeared!

We will be back with more TBK tours next week when Matilda and Rhoda are coming to stay. 

Until then - Ingat palagi and Kita kits

Thanks to Mark for the translation, proof reading, navigation and spelling advice, oh, and taking the photos and videos

*Having proof read the blog maybe I should rephrase “he gave me his cucumber”