Hmmm where to start?

I think in this case with the most recent events first…which would be a 7 hour bus ride that turned into a 12 hour bus ride via the public transportation system here in Puerto Princessa, Philippines. It’s cheap at only 7 bucks to ride to our destination in El Nido. Flights to the same spot cost upwards of $300. We could also have taken a 22 hour ferry boat ride for around $150. Or if we really wanted to, we could have rented a sling on a cargo ship for a whopping 36 hour journey @ just $25 per person. A no brainer – bus would be great, roll along the country side, stop at lots of places along the way and best of all…travel with the locals. We woke up at 4:00 a.m. to catch the 5:00 a.m bus. From our place to the “bus terminal” (read: dirt field) we had to take a tricycle. This is a deadly little machine in which a motorcycle with less than 300cc’s to its engine (about the same pulling power as 50 cats slung together) has been affixed (I use this word loosely) with a welded and custom made fiberglass frame, more fit in appearance for the Captain’s deck on a cruise ship or perhaps an air traffic control tower. They are also Philippino sized – think of this as the exact opposite of super sized. That’s right you only get one french fry. We load our bags, food, and 3 bodies into this machine and we’re off like a heard of turtles. Never mind the violent shaking of the front motorcycle wheel…this place is a beautiful mess.

The bus itself is more of an urban assault vehicle…well sort of. It’s cartoonish in appearance and looks as if Mini-Me, the dude from Space Balls and the cast of Super Troopers designed it to invade The Planet of the Apes. There are 10 inches of clearance from the axels to the ground and it has big old tires with dualies in the rear. People ride on the roof, the sides and anywhere you can sit inside. They even bring extra wooden stools so people can sit in the main walk way. It’s tight. The first 4 hours of the ride were great and we were treated to cool breezes, a sunrise and beautiful country side. The first obstacle was a giant mud pit created by the rain. Tara and I had no idea what was going on, the bus stopped and everybody looked concerned and after a few minutes started filing off the bus into massive amounts of thick red mud. We had to walk, this part of the road was not paved, was under construction and had become an impassable bog from earlier rains. They were going to take the bus up via the river and we would meet it about 1km up the road. Not a problem, we hot stepped through the mud with our little back packs and sure enough about 20mins later the bus came screaming and sliding up the river and back onto the road. Victory!...but short lived. After this we proceeded to get two flat tires within about 100m of each other. Three of the bus crew had to walk back to the town after the second flat. One carried the tube, the other the wheel and the third “new guy” had to mange the rim. It was a hilarious sight and they were laughing at the third guy who was practically throwing the rum just to get it to move. We were outside a loooooong time. I feel asleep in the “v” shaped drainage channel that ran along the dirt road which was surprisingly comfortable. Tara was sitting next to me and all along the road people were just hanging out. The guys rolled back riding on top of another truck, changed the tire and at that point I noticed something else…one of the rear tires was beyond bald, there was tube showing and I pointed it out to Tara. Sure enough, not 10mins later the tire blew out. I looked at Tara and chuckled. At least it was on the rear so we kept rollin’. What happened next was much more alarming. On one of the turns the steering wheel locked up and we went skidding off the road into the side of a mountain. WHAT THE @#$# We got off the bus and believe it or not Tara and I were totally mellow (she took some travel sickness pills and is just so fun on those things =p) but the locals were NOT happy. We were still 11km from our destination. One of the boys came up and told us that he hated this trip. I asked him if it was always like this and he said it wasn’t. They beat the crap out of the front tire with a breaker bar. It had slipped off something and lodged itself against the fender. They got it *fixed* and we finished a very long and rough journey. And there you have it, an epic bus ride full of jaw dropping action…did I mention that upon our departure we’ll be flying out? ^__^

Ok so the previous day…the Philippine’s are a very interesting place. I believe there are two ways to travel in places like this and I have experience with both. 1.) You take the mini fortress approach. You take a private car and hire your own armed guards or 2.) You fly invisible and under the radar. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. We however, flew low, very low. The guards are everywhere in the city of Manila where we spent 1 night. They own the fronts of stores, the insides of doors, the little spots next to vendors and atms and money changers. They bare heavy burdens: shotguns, pistols, machine guns, sub machine guns…there is no shortage of crowd control. The expressions on people’s faces are different here. They are hard and high strung. Too much action and not enough rest…or perhaps it is not enough peace I do not know for sure. Two days before we arrived there was a bombing in the city that killed and injured many people at one of the shopping malls. Our hotel was in the heart of the city next to the domestic airport. It was not welcoming and was more akin to a prison. Thick concrete walls, faux windows and poorly lit rooms made for an entrapping feeling. After check in, we walked discreetly around for a bit but attracted too much attention so headed back. We needed to eat and had some sealed beef that my Mom left us. We mixed in some 505 Green Chile Sauce and El Paso Taco Seasoning that we’d been saving. It was simple but holy cow it was a deliciously nice meal for my Birthday!! Yup hard to believe it but I’m 26 now J Green Chile is something that we’ve both been craving so it was quite the treat. Not long after, we were getting ready for bed when the power went out. It scared the bloody hell out of both of us. After lots of yelling in the hall it came on about 5 minutes later. Whoa. We went to bed after that but slept lightly. The next morning we were off to the islands.

Two nights ago we were in Puerto Princessa and decided it wasn’t what we wanted so yesterday we adventured up to El Nido. It is much safer in Palawan (the name of this whole island) than Manila and the people are friendly. We are once again without power for most of the day and have yet to find an internet place. The food on the island is amazing and by far the cheapest/best quality we’ve had. 2 bucks per person and you can eat a solid meal, for 5 dollars you’ll feast like a king. We’ll post shortly on the rest of Malaysia and Singapore.

We are trying something new so give us your feedack. Below is the link for the pictures associated with the blog!:
http://picasaweb.google.com/WorldRamblers/BusToElNido?authkey=6JcmVt4dAzs

We miss everyone! Keep adventuring on wherever you are and let us know how things are. We are learning so much about the world and each other and these next many weeks will be filled with travel as we journey to Macau, Hong Kong, China and Vietnam.

Jonathan and Tara

p.s Please let us know if you like the web album approach or the picture collage approach!