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Published on April 12, 2008

FLYING TO PALAWAN is a weighty decision. Your baggage gets weighed. Your camera gets weighed. You get weighed, in front of everybody, as people gasp and politely look the other way. Those extra calories can mean the difference between flying to Palawan and rowing. Miscalculate and your baggage will be on the next flight. Why? Because small propeller planes operate on the basic laws of physics - thrust, drag, weight and lift. If your weight is going to drag the craft down - always a bad idea in shark-infested waters - you will be lifted up and thrust out speedily.

I weighed just 85kg WITH MY BAGS. So I was one of the fortunates who witnessed the safety demonstration. This was conducted in the small rustic airline lounge by a pretty stewardess who pointed out what to do in the event of decompression or ditching. If you are unaware of what to do in the event of an airline lounge landing in the water, this drill is for you. On my return I was pleased to see the airline lounge was still intact. Safe lounges are the future of travel.

Palawan is a wondrous lost paradise. One of the first islands you over-fly en route from Manila to El Nido, is Lubang. It was here in 1974 that Hiroo Onoda became the very last Japanese Imperial Army officer to surrender. He was genuinely lost unlike the actors in the TV drama of the same name. Lacking access to CNN, he simply assumed Japan had taken over the Philippines and would soon send across glad tidings along with some Hello Kitty souvenirs. He was mistaken. Japan had not taken over the Philippines. It had in fact, taken over the world, and while everyone else was driving Toyotas and taking pictures of Godzilla, such was not Hiroo's luck, until he was "discovered" and the Japanese embassy informed him he would need a new passport and a shave.

Below your aircraft the shimmering blue sea stretches out like tarpaulin as far as the eye can see, dotted with dramatic limestone outcroppings fringed by white sand. You'll see banca catamarans cutting gracefully through the water and, if you have binoculars, occasional zebras and giraffes along with endangered species like Tourists Who Have Not Entirely Lost Their Minds. Hang on. What the heck are giraffes doing here? Well, in 1976 President Ferdinand Marcos declared the island a protected wildlife sanctuary and a whole bunch of animals were shipped across from Africa to become perhaps the second most famous animal tourists since those on Noah's Ark.

While Marcos indeed managed to save these animals from deforestation, poachers and tortuous Zimbabwean elections, he was unable to save himself, proving conclusively that animals, no matter how well fed or protected, are not much use as a voting bloc without proper education and assimilation into modern society. Had the Japanese won, the giraffes would have been driving cars by now, if not making them.

The understated yet luxurious Amanpulo occupies Pamalican Island in the Cuyo group. It offers a superb stretch of beach and water. And El Nido Resorts runs two spectacularly sited properties off northwest Palawan Island. Miniloc is a Robinson Crusoe escape with rustic villas on stilts backed by soaring limestone crags looking over a sandy coral cove and startlingly blue waters. Not far away is Lagen with a similar, but more concrete, construction and the luxury of a swimming pool. While I was visiting, the lights were turned off from 8 to 9pm on March 29 to celebrate "Earth Hour", an Australian fad fast catching on around the world. As the power abruptly disappeared I looked up at the star-spangled night sky realising that it is at primeval moments like these, listening to the waves, the murmur of the wind, the harmony of strolling minstrels and the screech of long-tailed macaques, that a deep longing wells up in a man's heart - a longing for electricity, air-conditioning and the Internet. But I jest.

I lay back and savoured the moment, realising that there would be many more. Not in El Nido, alas, but elsewhere in the Philippines, and in India, where enlightened governments joyously pursue "Earth Year" with perpetual power cuts and sudden blackouts, leading their citizens firmly back to nature, in touch with their Inner Child, if not Wall Street.

Palawan remains one of Asia's last real escapes for dives, snorkelling, kayaking, rock climbing and much more. Trawl the rainforest to find your very own Japanese, surrendering, in droves, this time to the pleasures of sun, sand and sea. They might even have some Hello Kitty souvenirs for you. Then enjoy your flight back. The airport lounge will not depressurise and all aircraft display this reassuring sign next to the joystick -"No acrobatic manoeuvres, including spins." Quite right.

vijay verghese

The Nation