I got up early around 6am as the cockerels were making noise and did a few things before heading out to book a bus to Port Barton. Unfortunately the 7.30 was booked up so I got a seat for 8.30. It was still early so I decided to go for a walk out of town and wandered for 30 minutes before turning around and coming back with nothing to really see apart from the mountains in the distance. I checked my email and the one I sent to my hostel about my towel hadn't gone through as I needed to click to release it so I did that. I got back to the hostel and picked up my things and went to the beach/bus area and left it next to the minivan. I met Dave and Amanda who were on the same bus and I got some breakfast. Then I tried to sit in the front but it was reserved so I ended up nearer the back and next to 2 English girls Ruth and Katie who were at my hostel Cafe Sabang. We talked on the way and they had both studied at Macau and Katie had been to Gilli air around the same time as me. We got to a junction and all got off as the can goes to Puerto Princesa and we change. All considering the price for the ticket is pretty high at 600 since you can get back to Puerto for 200 and from there to Port Barton is 350. Anyway the girls and some others got on a different van to El Nido and we waited for our bus which was a squeeze when it came as the luggage all went inside. We got to Port Barton just after 12 and had to pay 50 pesos environmental fee in an office. Then a man with sunglasses called Bibi found a place with a room for 500 as the dorm for 300 was all full but they needed to clean the room first. I chatted to a guy from Bournemouth who was just moving to this place as it was in the quieter part of town and he recommended it. He also mentioned a waterfall so I went off for a walk to see it. The walk was a fair distance so I got there close to 1.30 and there were a couple of French people and quite a few Filipinos there. There was a registration desk on the way that asked for donations and I gave a small one. I had forgotten my swimwear and of course didn't have a towel but some of the locals were swimming in their clothes so I decided to go in with my shorts on which is not too bad but it meant taking the belt in as well. It turned out ok and the area was quite nice with the pool, the waterfall and the trees all around. The swimming area was not so big but I did laps for a bit of exercise. The Filipinos were all messing around drinking rum and climbing around the waterfall but they left the water as I did so I got some photos without them in. On the way back I wondered how much they donated to the upkeep of the waterfall and checked the book and there was not one Filipino listed, it was German, French, UK etc. I walked back and made it around 3pm so I moved into the room where the electricity didn't work and the WiFi didn't go on until 5pm. I went out to get some food and found a place that had fish balls for 2 pesos each so I got 10 of them. Water was pretty expensive in most places so I didn't buy any and went and got a bus ticket from Bibi the guy with shades from earlier. It was 500 to El Nido and the bus leaves at 8am the next day and supposedly he'll pick me up. I decided to wander to other places and walked along the beach eating a papaya I'd bought. There was supposed to be a path to a mangrove forest but there was no obvious path and there was a small river in the way. I walked back past a dive centre which charged 3,500 for 2 fun dives but 3,900 for 3 but I didn't really feel like it on my own and there was a problem getting money in the town as well. It was still early around 5 when I got back to the main area so I decided to try walking a different way out of the place and went past a couple of tourists coming the other way so there was some promise for the route. After a bit of nothing 2 girls came the other way so I asked them what there was and they said a beach with white sand but its quite a walk so I turned around and went back and went to the beach for the sunset.
After that I went to get some food and went to the popular place Gacayan which advertised Philippine food for 50 pesos but then their menu looked touristy with prices from 100 up. I did find a local looking place but there was nobody there so I wandered a bit more past a vegetarian place which did a vegetable curry for 100 with rice which could be ok. I wandered back to the earlier place and someone was there so I ordered the dish which looked like mince meat with vegetables but turned out to be liver with some spice so I really struggled to eat it. After that I went back to the hostel and read a bit before going to sleep.
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