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Dispatch # 3: The Boat Trip to Coron, April 18-19, 1997

My plan was to make one last sweep across the Philippines. I planned on taking a bus south to Batangas and catching a boat to Palawan and from there make a loop through the Visayas.

So I grabbed a Victory bus and headed to Batangas. Traffic was heavy and I started to worry that I wasn't going to make the 6:00pm departure. I pulled into the port at 6:10 and ran for the boat. It was still there. And they were still loading. "When are we leaving?" I asked. "Nine o'clock or so, still lots to load." Philippine time runs at a different speed from time elsewhere. Nobody expects anything to be on time. So Filipinos arrive late. Since everybody is always late, why be on time? Catch 22.

So I bought a ticket for the 350 kilometer, 17 hour boat ride for 300 Pesos--or about $12.00 at the going exchange rate. The boat was like something out of a 1930's Humphrey Bogart movie. It was all wood, a hundred feet long and thirty feet wide. The lower deck and main deck were all filled with cargo: rice, crackers, live chickens, cases of Coca Cola, cookies, machine parts, whatever. The upper deck was strewn with cheap plastic cots for the passengers to sleep on.

There were about 50 passengers, mostly Filipinos, but a few young western tourists were also onboard. I threw my pack down on a bunk where the backpackers seemed to be congregating. Although the cot had been cleaned recently--say in the last year or so--I still pulled out a sheet to cover the cot and waited for us to shove off.

As they continued to load cargo onto the boat, I watched a small bus pull up onto the pier. They shoved a couple planks under the bus wheels and pointed them toward the boat. My God, I thought. Will they really try to drive it onto the boat? Well, after much consultation by several highly qualified technicians (that would be everybody who happened to be on the pier at the time) and a few nearly tragic attempts, that's exactly what they did.

Finally, the massive diesel engines gurgled to life and we shoved off at about 9:15 PM. I struck up a conversation with Thomaz, the Swiss guy on the bunk next to me. We chatted for a while and looked out the window as the port disappeared behind us and we headed out to the open sea. Outside of the shelter of the port the waves grew larger. The waves weren't bad, but they were big enough that when you laid down and closed your eyes you had a weird sense of vertigo, like when you an elevator starts downward and you get the feeling of the earth falling away from you.

After a while I set out to explore the ship. There were two bathrooms on the lower deck--overflowing, odiferous cesspools. Rather than subject themselves to the bathroom, most passengers elected to urinate over the railing or onto the deck in the vicinity of the bathrooms, thus adding to the general stench in the area. There were two diesel drums filled with water and a small pail that you could use to wash. On the passenger deck there was a small canteen that served a few cheap eats: cookies, biscuits, mami (ramen noodles) in a cup, soda, mineral water and beer. I bought a beer and settled into my cot and read until I fell asleep.

Somewhere after midnight it started to rain and the crew pulled canvas sheets over the windows. I woke again about 3:00am and was assaulted by the odor of diesel exhaust fumes. For some reason the exhaust was building up in the passenger deck and not being vented. My vision was blurred and double (I had only one beer--not an attributing factor). I went up to the bridge and managed to pantomime to the Tagalog-speaking crew that the passengers were being asphyxiated by placing a choke hold on my neck and walking drunkenly around the cabin. This elicited a few snickers. Somewhat grudgingly the crew went around opening the canvases so the fumes could escape.

I woke up at sunrise. It was wonderful to watch the sun come up over the sea. The canteen opened up at six o'clock. Thomaz went to get some noodles and two cokes for us for breakfast. They were out of noodles, so Thomaz brought us back two San Miguel beers. For the balance of the morning we drank San Miguel beers.

Sometime around noon Thomaz and I decided to start in on the bottle of Tanduay Rhum I had in my backpack. By the time we hit Coron, both of us were seriously plastered. We hired a tricycle for P10 each to take us down to the Sea Breeze guest house where I rented a room for P150 a night.

Almost Leaving Manila April 24, 1998

Good Friday Crucifixions, San Fernando Pampanga April 10, 1998

Return To Coron, Palawan, Philippines March-April 1998

Old Travelog Dispatches from the Philippines (1997)

Dispatch #4; The Early Days in Coron

Dispatch #3; The Boat Trip To Coron, Palalwan

Dispatch #2, Northern Luzon and Manila Yet Again.

Dispatch #1, Arrival In the Philippines and Third World Culture Shock