This is what's up...

So, I've gone to GREAT lengths to get this post up, borrowing an internet stick thingy, kayaking through treacherous seas out to an uninhabited island, climbing up rocks, braving the gale force winds, yeah, so you better read the WHOLE thing, I know it's long. Pictures are down below, lots and loooots of pictures

I’ve been trying to think of ways to tell you about my time on Palawan so far and it all sounds a LOT like bragging, but really, there’s no other way, it’s THAT incredible, if I told you anything different it would just be a lie, so here it is…

This place is the most unequivocally, inexplicably beautiful place I have ever seen in my entire life, and I really don’t say that lightly. I don’t have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to describe how incredible it really is, so I'll just stick with incredible. I almost don’t want to write too much about it, as selfish as that may seem, because I don’t want too many people to come here and ruin it, or change it into something different. Having spoken to the owners over the camp fire a few times, I know that they’ll never let that happen, they’ve turned down Lonely Planet and refuse to have any more than seven tents, ever. This place is an absolute gem, it’s a full blown, four page article in the centre of National Geographic Traveller just waiting to happen. I feel so lucky to be here. As lame as it sounds, and really, I’m not this person… but I often look around, and to myself, out aloud, I say stuff like… “NO way, nooo WAY”, “no look at that, is that for real… no WAAAAY”, I’m not even joking, it’s that beautiful here and I see that many incredible things on a daily, no, HOURLY basis. At the risk of sounding like a complete hippy earth-child, I’ve never had more of an appreciation for nature and for natural beauty, for the bright colours of the fish and the glowing of the fireflies and the phosphorescents at night, for the colourful butterflies and birds and the coral, the turquoise sea and the bright green coconut trees, for colourful shells and for the fresh cold water from the spring, and the little hermit crabs in their shells (I’d never seen a hermit crab before, how ADORABLE are they?!). It amazes me that all that beauty is natural, no one made it, it’s just there, for you to look at and enjoy and it’s all for free. You can’t order a butterfly to land on your shoulder, or to spot a kingfisher or an enormous turtle, or a beautiful parrot fish, it’s more like a gift and it’s always a surprise. Okay enough, forgive me.

Let me start at the beginning : the journey here was somewhat of a mission, but the most beautiful one at that. It involved a flight, an overnight sleep in a small town, an early start to the day, a one hour wait for the bus (after a multicab getting there), a 4 and a half hour bus, a flat tyre, some time stuck in the mud, push starts, delivering rice to half the island, picking up everyone’s granny’s uncles’s cousin, dropping off chickens, loading hitch hikers onto the roof and a damn good curry on the side of the road. That’s not the end… a one hour wait for the boat, a 40 minute boat ride and some wading through the ocean tooooo the campsite. I normally hate bus trips, but this one was the best. The sides were completely open, so it didn’t get hot, it was painted a million different colours, we stopped at cool places along the way, you could go sit on the roof if you wanted, the scenery was incredible and the entire trip only cost 250 pesos. The boat trip was beautiful too, crystal clear turquoise water, blue sky, green islands everywhere. I got off the boat, walked through the water and onto the beach and there was the camp, set in front a backdrop of thick green jungle, on top of beautiful white sand, behind the sparkling turquoise water, not a building or restaurant or ANYTHING else in sight.

I was so overwhelmed, it was more beautiful than I imagined, and after the pictures I had seen, I had really high expectations. Often when you’re paying to stay somewhere you’ll think, “well THAT was a rip off, or THAT was WAY overpriced, and here… I genuinely feel like I’m not paying enough, it doesn’t seem right. I don’t even know where or how to start describing what it’s like, so I’ll just start with my favourite things.

The bamboo shower, the best shower in the entire world. You have to walk along the beach to find it, it’s in amongst some jungle, they’ve put big flat stones at the bottom to stand on, and a little bamboo table with a stick between two trees to hang your towel on, it’s completely open, there’s a small spring that comes from the top of the mountain and they’ve put a big piece of bamboo to catch the water , okay, I can’t explain it… look at the picture in the post before.

I shower there about three times a day, because the water is so fresh and cool, you’re in amongst all the trees and the plants and you’re looking out onto the sea. It’s the best when the sun’s setting. Even now, as I walk away from the shower I always look back and think I’ve left the tap on and I remember all over again that it’s a natural source of water, that it’s going to run whether I’m there or not, so I’ll get back in. I literally have to tear myself away from it every time. All the water come straight from here, and there’s a second spring too, the water is out of this world clean and fresh.

The hammocks under the palm trees, reading in them in the morning, napping in them in the afternoon and watching stars in them at night.

The snorkelling: taking a Bangka out for the morning and floating around for hours in the water, being the only people in the entire area. I haven’t snorkelled much, but this is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, lime green, purple, pink and orange coral, massive angel fish in bright colours, parrot fish, turtles, rays, eels, clown fish, enormous star fish, big purple and turquoise fish, fish with massive lips and some with huge eyes, outlined in lime green, electric blue fish, it’s endless and every time I go I see something new. I could stay there for hours, and I often do.

The sunsets, more beautiful than I’ve ever seen before, I look forward to them every day. Everyone in camp grabs a chair and a drink and sits on the beach, watching the sky change the most incredible colours. I usually head straight there after my shower and straight to the camp fire once the colours have gone.

Kayaking: I try take the kayak out for a few hours every day, I go to the different islands, I’ll sometimes spend the entire day on a little island and be the only person on there, I tan and swim and read, I take photos and find pretty shells, I go exploring, I find caves and waterfalls and, now don't laugh, but I kind of think, maybe, I’m not sure, that I might be…birrrrdwatching (said in small whispery voice). I went for a walk one day and saw loads of different birds, came back to camp and asked the owner’s son what they were (he’s somewhat of a bird guru), flipped through some books and wrote down what I had seen (yeh know, just so I remember) and now I go looking for the one’s that I haven’t seen… Eish, what’s HAPPENING to me?

The food: the owners wife… she’s my hero, she’s the most incredible woman and she cooks up an absolute storm three times a day and it’s always so exciting, you never know what you’re going to get until you get it, it’s great, they have an absolutely zero tolerance for fussy people, in the nicest way possible, you just eat what you’re given, that’s it, end of story. But really, it’s always so good and there’s always so much choice there’s no room for anyone to complain. Breakfast is usually eggs and toast or banana pancakes or fruit, lunch is always different, and there’s always fresh fruit, sometimes a dessert (oooh my gosh, bananas cooked in coconut milk, brown sugar and cinnamon, the best dessert I’ve ever had), dinner is always the best, she puts out a couple of different dishes, there’s always rice (cooked in different ways), 2 or 3 massive fish, different types of seafood: squid, crabs, errrthing, lots of vegetables, cooked in ways I didn't know possible. This woman has some mad skills, and best thing is, she’s teaching them to me.

The stars and the fireflies and the phosphorescent plankton thingies that light up at night. I’ve never seen so many stars, and I’d never seen a fire fly until I got here, there are hundreds of them out at night, and the plankton thingies in the water, they’re so cool, you run your hand through the water and it lights up, hard to explain, but so cool. I always go for walks at night and sit up on my favourite rock, looking up at the stars.

This place is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, if I didn't have to go and earn some money, I would honestly stay here forever, or for as long as they’d have me. It’s made so many things clear for me. I know, for sure, that I want to have my own camp one day, this is the life I want, and without wanting to sound arrogant, I kind of think I’d be good at it (brush yo' shoulders off), what, with the cooking, and the wiping of the rich people's butts, and the way I like to decorate and make things pretty. It would be such an exciting and challenging thing, to start an amazing camp, in the middle of nowhere. I have all the plans, and all the ideas, I just need some money (aaany takers?)

Okay, so I must go because the tide is coming up, and I'd hate to see my kayak, floating out into the middle of the ocean, while I'm on this island, all by myself, and no one knows I'm here, and it's getting dark, and I think it's vegetable curry for dinner. Oh help. Right, take a look at all my pictures below. Hugs, kisses, awkward Cary pat on the back etc