Port Barton
The backpacker scene seems to be different this time. People appear NOT to be travelling on tight budgets but spending a lot on expensive dorms and fancy coffee, more like glamping their way around the globe. We are not sure what has happened. It could be Covid and inflation related? It could be caused by vloggers and instagram making places more popular than they should be? We watched a video on YouTube created by 2 young British girls. We couldn't believe how naive and untruthful their experience was of the place we were staying at exactly the same time and we had visited 3 times in the past! It had been viewed by 17,000 people and was only a few days old. It is a real surprise / shock to us if this trend is all created by social media!
It could be digital nomads making money as they go? Or budget travellers that have suddenly got double the available money to spend. We did read that younger people have been forced out / opted out of the unaffordable housing market and are staying at home with their parents and fuelling a spending spree on luxury goods. And, maybe travel too.
We got help with our ferry ticket from El Nido to Coron by some super helpful locals who called Montenegro Shipping. It appears as though their new booking system is a total trial. Although it creates a ticket and then says you can pay at a counter the ticket is not booked at all! It is a real looking ticket and tells us when we need to pay by, with nothing written on it to show it is a test. So our ticket is completely useless. To add insult to injury, the ferry on the day we had booked is now full meaning a 2nd night in El Nido at double the price of everything we are paying now. That most likely means 4x the price in the rest of the Philippines. Why? The whole of the Philippines is beautiful and the country is all on remote islands - 7000 of them!
The whole ferry experience means a) a more expensive ferry, b) a later travel time c) an extra night in expensive accommodation, d) a lost day on another island and letting the booked accommodation know, e) a lost day trying to get the situation clarified, e) more expensive transport due to time restriction and risk.
Other people had to miss islands completely due to the whole of the Philippines airspace being closed at New Year. Others have been stuck in places for several days due to busy ferries and others deciding not to go to Coron because the flight price from Coron airport in Palawan is 3X more than from Puerto Princesa!
This is so unlike the Philippines we know and love. We have travelled to many islands over the last 20 years and this is crazy!
Whilst sorting the ticket we watched as a group of youngsters from the hostel got ready for their booze cruise, island hopping trip. Bottle after bottle, after bottle of Tanduay, vodka and white rum were loaded into boxes. Then followed the pre-trip briefing. 'If you feel drunk, drink plenty of water and lie on the deck.
If you feel sick, do it over the side'. Pretty worrying as it was 9.30am!!
Later we headed to the beach for a swim. The bay at Port Barton is very pretty with a lovely sandy beach. There were signs warning of jellyfish and we saw one washed up on the sand. These are sometimes box jellyfish which can be deadly! The water was lovely and warm but the waves were crashing on the shore.
In the evening we headed out in search of food. We found it was the annual basketball competition in the sports ground and there were street sellers selling food everywhere, bonus!! We opted for BBQ pork then sat and watched some of the basketball before heading to the beach. One of the bars had a bonfire and live music which was very good so we sat and listeny before heading off to bed.
