In my very first few days in the Philippines, some teenagers in Puerto Princesa started talking to me. Really seemed like normal young people to me, maybe like 14 years or so of age. Then one guy was asking for my number. I thought that was awkward, but then it seemed rude to me to say no, so I told him. Later that day, I left my cell phone unattended for an hour, came back an had like 12 missed calls. Soon another call from the same number. It was the teenager, asking me to meet him. Then I was annoyed, replied I’m busy and hung up. Two more similar calls. Then I started to get text messages along the lines of “Baby, I really need you tonight”. Funny. So that was a learning right there. Yesterday, I went shopping. When you go from one level to the other, you have to leave your bags at the security.
At the hotel room, I found this note in one of my bags.
As much as I would like to believe that the security guard would like to be my friend because of my character, style, and because he whole heartedly agrees with my views about how to protect the environment in this country, I somehow don’t think that’s the case. Probably more some joke like the one I experienced earlier. Or he’s trying to get money. Of which foreigners, as we all know, have endless supplies.
I spent the day at the Underground River today, 2 hours north of Puerto Princesa. It’s a long river that goes through the caves in a mountain. You paddle through it in a boat and explore all the stone formations and countless bats with a flash light. It was really impressive, especially the larger caves, like a dome with natural statues in it and water constantly dripping from the ceiling. If you ignore the boats in front of you and behind you, it was really like Indiana Jones exploring the world. If you take them into account, it was like Haunted Mansion in Disneyworld. ;)
Anyway, so the Underground River is trying hard to win a place in a semi-official worldwide chase for the “New 7 wonders of nature”. (http://www.new7wonders.com/) So arriving at the entrance you’re led to the registration desk, at which you basically had to put your name and signature into two lists. Fairly easy, so of course nobody asks what this is for. The second list said “New 7 Wonders Visitors List”. So, somehow I became suspicious and was asking what that list is for. I was explained that they submit that list (easily hundreds of names per day) as votes for the underground river to the contest. How cheap is that? I don’t like being fooled, so I wasn’t happy. Knowing that it is really not a thing to do to get angry in public in an Asian country, I didn’t say much. But it’s really stupid. Not only were people fooled in signing some petition, but also they supposedly “voted” for the underground river before they have even seen it. Precisely a few minutes before they have seen it. I was assured that usually I should have been explained that this was a vote. Yeah, right, how stupid do you think I am?
Hey, now a live guitarists starts playing really good music at this place! How cool! I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Puerto.
After the underground river I went to tour the mangroves in that area on another paddle boat (just for the record, there were always people who did the paddling _for_ me ;) I enjoyed seeing some hard wood trees, i.e., tall trees that in most other parts of Palawan were cut by the loggers. So and around these trees, you do get “real” rainforest. Very cool. They tour was organized by the community locally. Since we also would like to do some community led activities in our resort in Port Barton (the no-take zone also would need to be co-managed by the locals), I was interested in how it works. Before I was even introducing myself with that intention, the boatmen told me that this is a community-based thing, and that he is a volunteer in this. I guess every visitor now would think “man, these people are actually giving up their time to paddle me around their nature, which they want to preserve." At least I was thinking that. And was comparing that to the locals that I have in Port Barton, who happily put poison into the ocean to catch fish for a few Euros, destroying nature for years by doing so. So, I asked more, wanting to understand how they could do this for free. They have to feed their family after all. Turns out, they get 80% of the revenues. Grrrrrrrrrrr! I think the idea of them getting paid makes perfect sense. But why did they have to say they are volunteers? If they get 80% of revenues, I’d say they are the best paid volunteers in the region.
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