Day 141: North to Modessa Island

Time to move again. Even though we hadn't seen Puerto Princesa city itself, we'd seen its two main attractions and felt that it was time to move on. We considered staying at a tiny hamlet on the western coast of Palawan called Port Barton, but the more we looked into it, the less appealing it became.

Instead we opted for three nights at the Modessa Island Resort, a tiny island about 15 kilometres off the coast of Palawan near the city of Roxas (Row-Haas). We were going off the grid - no phone reception, very limited wifi, and electricity limited to only sunset-sunrise and a couple of hours around lunchtime. Time to get back to basics.

Our van picked us up promptly at "before 8am" - about 7:55, which was annoying since the receptionist had been a bit vague about what "before 8" meant. Was it 7:30? 7:45? She couldn't tell us. So we were ready at about 7:40, and waited patiently, wishing we'd slept in a bit more.

The van trip again was uneventful, thankfully dry this time though still very gloomy. Palawan is referred to as the "last frontier" of Philippines tourism and on days like today it's easy to see why. We were on the main north-south road of the island (there aren't many other roads anyway) and it's just a single lane each direction for basically the entire length. People walking along the edge, lots of bikes, farm animals, stray dogs, everyone uses the road. Annoying when your van driver gets up as much speed as possible with a clear road, then rounds a blind corner and slams on the brakes to avoid rear-ending a tractor puttering at 10km/h. Overtake on the wrong side of the road and the cycle repeats.

Our boat transfer to Modessa Island was scheduled for 2:30pm, and the hotel staff back in Puerto Princesa had assured us that the drive to Roxas was about 3-4 hours. So we were a little surprised when we arrived in Roxas at 10:15am, well ahead of schedule and with an unexpected 4 hours to kill.

We did a little exploring but it's a very tiny town, very rural and with nothing to see or do. The only ATM was a debit machine at the petrol station which we used, grabbed some bakery snacks, then found where our boat transfer would be taking place (we had to meet the tricycle driver at Bodega Restaurant). Shooing away some begging children we headed inside and settled in. With no books to read, no music or podcasts to listen to, and no internet connection available I watched a movie on my laptop (Catch Me If You Can). Good movie.

We had some lunch from the restaurant around 12pm, and chatted a little bit to a French couple who turned up, also transferring over to the island. Finally it was time to go - we hopped in a tricycle to the wharf, boarded the boat (much larger than my fateful boat from the previous day), and set off under gloomy skies.

The boat trip was about 45 minutes and very smooth. We were greeted at the resort dock by a very enthusiastic puppy named Simon, only 12 weeks old and a bundle of energy. After check-in formalities and a welcome drink, we were taken to our beachfront hut. The main room was large enough for a bed, small table and an extra mattress (for storing bags, I assume), and was actually quite new though very rustic. Wooden plank floors, bamboo thatched walls and a palm frond thatch roof. The bathroom was clearly much older vintage with no hot water and a sink that had rusted away, but at least it still worked! And there was a separate tap for water.

We set off exploring the island, and completed an entire lap in about 25 minutes. It's very small. Surrounded by coral as well, which looks quite nice though with overcast skies and intermittent drizzle we weren't much keen on snorkelling today. We still had a quick dip to test out the water, though the man at the dive shop said to be very careful as stingrays were quite common in the shallow water. They're visible, you just have to be careful. Thankfully we didn't see any.

Retreated to the main common area where we checked out the magazines and books (not a great selection, though August 2001 National Geographic was interesting, especially the feature on their website!!), and played a game of pool. After night fell (no sunset to speak of unfortunately) we had our dinner and then packed up for the night. I'd figured out a way to get some of my books on my laptop, so I started reading on there before passing out around 9:30pm.Read more