Huge typhoon damage, Corona abandoned amusement parks and a 600 km long visit to the authorities.
22. January 2022, Saturday
9° 46' 6" N, 118° 45' 14" E
The life of a round-the-world sailor doesn't only take place on the beach on the ship or in the water, but unfortunately too often in government offices.
I overran my visa which has to be renewed every 2 months!
The reason is plausible even for the all-powerful officials here:
The only road for the 600km route to and from Puerta Princessa, the provincial capital of Palawan, was impassable due to the typhoon damage in December.
We knew that the center of the storm further to the south-west of the island not only destroyed houses but also bridges, cut power and water lines and buried roads, but we didn't expect it to be quite as catastrophic until we saw it with our own eyes.
Normally, this trip with a car is a journey over long distances through blooming rice fields and lush jungle vegetation with dreamlike rivers that wearily find their way into the sea, lined with palm trees and tropical trees whose beauty you can hardly get enough of.
Not after Typhoon Rai, or Odette as it was called here.
The power that wind and rain can develop is unbelievable. Up to 240 kmh wind destroys everything that stands in its way.
Crash barriers were bent as if they were made of paper, electricity pylons snapped by the hundreds,
Roads were impassable over long distances due to rock, mud, and wood avalanches.
It looked like after a bomb attack.
A little more than 4 weeks later, everything is provisionally repaired, but the provisional is permanent in these tropical countries anyway. ;)
Millions of cubic meters of the finest tropical wood have been uprooted or snapped off and washed down the mountainsides. It still clogs the rivers there today.
The next catastrophe is waiting in the next rainy season!
One of Palawan's most beautiful and longest sandy beaches was in Conception.
Kilometers of rarely visited fine white sand.
All washed away!
Countless trees and branches make the beach a bio-dump today.
A friend of ours bought a dreamlike property with a park-like garden in November for a few hundred thousand Dollars. The garden no longer exists and the house is badly damaged. It's going to cost a fortune to rebuild.
Many locals have lost everything. The lightly built huts were easy victims of the storm.
However….none of the Filipinos seem desperate. They smile and accept their fate as they have done for centuries. The Phillipine way of life. Admirable!
After many hours we arrive in Puerto Princessa, did our things and on the way home we find the signpost to an amusement park.
However, since the beginning of the pandemic, it has been closed and left to its own devices.
I roam the overgrown paths and am amazed at how quickly nature takes back what is hers...if you just let it.
Keep in mind: Life is never boring. ;)
I overran my visa which has to be renewed every 2 months!
The reason is plausible even for the all-powerful officials here:
The only road for the 600km route to and from Puerta Princessa, the provincial capital of Palawan, was impassable due to the typhoon damage in December.
We knew that the center of the storm further to the south-west of the island not only destroyed houses but also bridges, cut power and water lines and buried roads, but we didn't expect it to be quite as catastrophic until we saw it with our own eyes.
Normally, this trip with a car is a journey over long distances through blooming rice fields and lush jungle vegetation with dreamlike rivers that wearily find their way into the sea, lined with palm trees and tropical trees whose beauty you can hardly get enough of.
Not after Typhoon Rai, or Odette as it was called here.
The power that wind and rain can develop is unbelievable. Up to 240 kmh wind destroys everything that stands in its way.
Crash barriers were bent as if they were made of paper, electricity pylons snapped by the hundreds,
Roads were impassable over long distances due to rock, mud, and wood avalanches.
It looked like after a bomb attack.
A little more than 4 weeks later, everything is provisionally repaired, but the provisional is permanent in these tropical countries anyway. ;)
Millions of cubic meters of the finest tropical wood have been uprooted or snapped off and washed down the mountainsides. It still clogs the rivers there today.
The next catastrophe is waiting in the next rainy season!
One of Palawan's most beautiful and longest sandy beaches was in Conception.
Kilometers of rarely visited fine white sand.
All washed away!
Countless trees and branches make the beach a bio-dump today.
A friend of ours bought a dreamlike property with a park-like garden in November for a few hundred thousand Dollars. The garden no longer exists and the house is badly damaged. It's going to cost a fortune to rebuild.
Many locals have lost everything. The lightly built huts were easy victims of the storm.
However….none of the Filipinos seem desperate. They smile and accept their fate as they have done for centuries. The Phillipine way of life. Admirable!
After many hours we arrive in Puerto Princessa, did our things and on the way home we find the signpost to an amusement park.
However, since the beginning of the pandemic, it has been closed and left to its own devices.
I roam the overgrown paths and am amazed at how quickly nature takes back what is hers...if you just let it.
Keep in mind: Life is never boring. ;)
