Appreciating the small things on a Honda XR150L.

It’s important to remind oneself that life isn’t always about the big and shiny, the opulent and fashionable, or perhaps in the case of motorcycles, the coveted and feature-rich. No, a Honda XR150L may not meet much of those characteristics in a Canadian market. Then again, using such a bike in the Philippines is an ideal tool to navigate nearly all terrains, from concrete carriageways to pot-holed sandy side roads. 

The XR boasts all the simple, reliable, analog features one could expect of a light-duty dual sport, including an air-cooled engine, a single carburetor, and a single disc brake up front. The XR is happy commuting, spending a bit of time at higher speeds, or tackling rougher conditions.

My plans to ride the highlands on the Philippines’ largest island, Luzon (also home to the nation’s capital, Manila), were dashed by recurring typhoons, flooding, and landslides. Instead, I found myself on Palawan Island and rented the XR from Palawan Days, a well-known and reputable motorbike rental agency in the administrative centre of Puerto Princesa. 

Palawan Days has a wide selection of bikes to rent from multiple locations across the island, though I was very content with the XR. I mapped out a rough itinerary of six days — which would eventually be extended to eight — to ride to the tourism epicentre of El Nido and back while the island was relatively quiet during shoulder season.

Leaving Puerto Princesa

I picked up the XR my first evening on Palawan and prepared to leave the next morning. I used my excellent ROK Straps to mount my Osprey travel bag to the convenient rear rack on the XR and donned my fanny pack with a cell phone window that has remained in my gear collection since completing a cross-country trip of Vietnam in January 2018. 

Leaving Puerto Princesa, I made my way north along the appropriately named Puerto Princessa North Road, which runs about 200 kilometres along the eastern coast of Palawan, passing through many villages and towns, with fantastic seaside views and twisty sections. Parts of the road even widened to six lanes and the XR cruised effortlessly for the long stretches. 

The tarmac changed at times, from soft and grippy to pot-holed and covered with a fine layer of sand, but the conditions were no match for the XR’s 50/50 CST tires. Navigating was a cinch with a quick glance down to my right hip as my Google Maps was running and visible through the fanny pack window.

Unwanted Visitors

After riding around 190 km, I gassed up the XR and lunched in the town of Taytay. I entered Verde’s Inasal, a BBQ restaurant…