Monday 8th September
Puerta Princesa,
thus far, is just lovely.
Little houses,
woven like baskets, line the streets.
The Abanico Yacht
Club is simple, welcoming, cosy, and…woven like a basket.
We negotiated a
ride into town in Roland’s tricycle, and made our way to – a fairly big
shopping mall. This was NOT what we
expected! Pete, with much agonising,
bought some new clothes. Three t-shirts,
one shirt, one pair of shorts. MUCH
anguish and deliberation…He hates buying clothes but…it had to happen! His current clothes are threadbare and grubby
in spite of mending and washing, done by me…well, I do my best, me and my big
black washing bucket…and my dear little sewing machine. But everything does wear out, eventually. Even our teatowels are looking slightly
ghastly, with burn marks and rips and the odd ineradicable stain.
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|
Roland’s
tricycle is guarded by his teenage brother and a
pack of children climbing all
over it
|
I didn’t buy
clothes – nothing really appealed, in this mall – but I did get one month’s
worth of top-up for the internet.
The Team (about
six people were involved, one way and another, rushing back and forth into the
back office, calling out to each other across the crowded shop,) in Electronico
let out a whoop of delight when they finally got it all set up. It took nearly
an hour… I am so glad it was not me, on my own phone, desperately trying to get
the correct number to answer, the right connection to connect.
What we were
definitely not expecting to find, in Puerto Princesa, was a new coffeepot… But
there it was, waiting for us, our new duck-egg blue pot! It was astonishingly cheap…just
over $7, and it isn’t very solid, but we hope it will make us our two morning
cups of coffee until we can come home and find an Italian one.
From left to
right:
(1) Our original genuine Italian pot, given to
Pete and Clare by Robert Aureli many years ago.
Pete has MacGuyvered it to within an inch of its life but it has finally
given up entirely and will not allow any water through from the bottom to the
top.
(2) A one-cup pot which I bought in a proper
coffee shop a few years ago- it does still work although the rubber seal is
buggered, but it only makes one small cup, and squirts all over the stove
(3) A replacement pot which John Miedecke
kindly brought us last year. It too has
stopped working and just makes a ghastly mess all over the kitchen surfaces.
(4) The New Pot!
On the second
floor of the mall I found…a beauty salon!
My hair has grown like a weed, totally out of control, so I very bravely
went in to see if I could get it cut.
Yes certainly come in, mam… My lovely young coiffeur, Kelvin Jay, looked at a photo on my iPhone of a cut which
hadn’t made me cry (Kirsty, Tease, Hobart,) and said, Oh yes, I know! I told him
that if he cut it too short I would weep and he was, understandably, quite
alarmed. All of the hairdressers wear
masks in the salon. I asked why and he
said it was to protect their lungs from the ambient hairclippings – very
sensible! Kelvin Jay took nearly an hour,
carefully and minutely snipping. It was
all very strange - he blow dried my hair meticulously (it was already dry…) with an assistant holding
various hanks of hair out of the way as he worked. I was highly amused; I thought he was going
to be too scared to cut anything at all.
But eventually he did cut just a bit, and he was mightily pleased with
the result. And this very pleasant
experience (no sobbing!) all cost me…180 pesos ($4.87.)
This morning Pete
pumped up the dinghy (yes, the poor dead one,) and two keen young chaps from
the yacht club came to take it away.
John Leader is going to see what he can do to revive it. No we are not going to use it for 2XS- we are
delighted with the new tinny, replete with its stabilising fenders – but maybe
the old dinghy can go in peace and dignity to a new home.
So far we are
totally delighted with Palawan and we think the Philippines will be a
delightful experience altogether. It is
extremely beautiful, lush and green, and the people are cheery and
helpful. (And everything is astonishingly
cheap.)
And yet…
Look at this beautiful
yacht (an Amel ketch, very comfortable and luxurious.) It belongs to Stefan
Viktor Okonek, 71, and his female companion, Herike Diesen, 55, who were
forcibly taken from their yacht at Rio Tubbataha, an hour’s ride from Puerto
Princesa in Palawan. (I looked this up on Google; stories about this abduction
are a bit confused/confusing.) This happened
in April 2014 and they are still holed up in a mountain hideaway, being “looked
after” by terrorists. We asked John
Leader about the dangers in these waters and he said that yachties are
perfectly safe so long as they do not stay more than two nights in the one
anchorage. A bit like crocodiles, I said – they
suss you out over two days and then eat you on the third. Well yes…
We
are – so they say – OK here in Puerto Princesa.
It is all very mellow and benign.
The ketch is being looked after by Cissy and John, in preparation or
poor Stefan and Herike’s return. But
once we leave here we have to keep on the hop.
This is just more than a bit disturbing…But we have already me several calm
and contented people who have been cruising these waters for many years, and
they seem very confident and secure. I
am sure all will be well! But I do feel
for Herike and Stefan…
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| local boys fishing in their tiny outrigger canoe |
Yikes - keep that boat moving and stay safe! xx
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