Pristine, by definition, is an adjective meaning "in its original condition; unspoiled", "clean and fresh as if new; spotless". The lovely people in our Palawan oasis did warn us that it wasn't the nicest beach, but we figured maybe it just didn't meet their high standards given the beaches of the Honda Bay islands are supposed to be incredible. We considered visiting Honda Bay but decided to cheap out and visit the city beach instead. It's name was "Pristine Beach" so we figured it should be acceptable, and I suppose it was; it just wasn't what we were imagining. Now to be fair, the winds brought in a lot of grasses, dirt and such that the people running the beach cannot control nor anticipate. The beach itself wasn't very deep but the upside meant that they hadn't cleared the trees and such away to make the beach larger so it was certainly very natural. The water was warm and shallow enough that you could walk past all the yuckiness of the shoreline. It was so covered in buildings and picnic cottages, however, that there was only one strip of sand about 8 feet wide along the water's edge and 30 feet deep back between the canteen and the picnic sheds - hardly enough for any type of sunbathing. On the positive side, though, the picnic cottages were nice shelter from the sun and given the fact that my sunburn has not yet faded and is starting to peel, I may not have needed sunbathing time anyways.
Our cottage - note the narrow strip of sand behind us
The view of the beach from the ocean
The view of other islands
Following our beach excursion, Robert and I decided to hit up some markets in the hopes of finding some souvenirs. After going back and forth between the 2 biggest souvenir markets and even trying out a local market, we gave up and returned to Robinson's Place Shopping Mall to pick up some Philippine Azkal jerseys. The Azkals are the national soccer team; Azkal means "street dogs". Even that turned into a fiasco though as we are quickly realizing that customer service is not a strong suit. Their stores are full of friendly faces, saying "May I help you Sir/Maam", but then when you actually ask for help, they have no idea what to do. We'd actually been in Robinson's 2 days ago and saw the jerseys. When we asked for help finding the number Robert wanted in his size, the girl simply said, "No, sorry Sir" and made no effort whatsoever to look for it. I then discovered a whole bunch of jerseys on the shelves below the hanging ones we were looking at and lo and behold - Robert's size in his desired number. At this same time, we had noticed the jerseys had been marked down. When we got to the checkout, Robert's jersey came up at regular price. It took 2 people then to help us and both said it was regular price (and of course we couldn't then find the ones we'd seen on sale so figured maybe it was the kids' ones and we were mistaken). In returning to the store yesterday, though, to pick up more, we found the sale ones, including the exact same one Robert purchased the day before. When we went to the checkout to express our frustration and to tell them that we'd be returning with the one we purchased and expected the refund, the sales lady said, "But we only do exchanges; we don't give refunds". Finally, Robert just asked for the manager who really wasn't much better and kept blaming others for the mistake. I told her we didn't really care who was responsible for the error, we just wanted it fixed. Eventually, they figured out how to do it, if only because they were scared this crazy big white woman and her very tall Filipino husband were going to snap.
After that, we picked up some coolers and spent the rest of the evening laying in the hammocks in our peaceful, serene piece of paradise. We also found a little gecko friend.
Unfortunately, my cough which seems to be worsening in spite of my 2 weeks of self-medication with antihistamines, puffer, cold & sinus medication, throat lozenges, and an entire bottle of cough medicine then kept the two of us up all night. At 6 a.m. we decided maybe it was time to give up on the self-medication and actually visit a doctor so we showered and headed off to Palawan Adventist Hospital. The Emergency Room was very basic but it was clean, the service was quick (as in we walked in the door, Robert explained why we were there in Tagalog to the person who greeted us at the door and then they sat me down at the table with the doctor), and all the nurses were polite and attentive. They even apologized when my nebulizer treatments were finished and Robert had returned from paying the bill and purchasing my prescriptions but there wasn't a doctor available to discharge me right away because they were all tied up in the Resuscitation Room next door trying to save the life, possibly of a child, who had arrived during my final treatment.
Now we are preparing to head back to Manila. I have to admit that as much as I have loved our time on Palawan, I do miss the kids.....
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