I've been wanting to go to Palawan for like forever to experience its beautiful beaches, the pristine nature, to see the world-famous Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park (the world's longest navigable underground river which as of date is still ranked #1 on the New 7 Wonders of Nature list. go ahead and vote!), and basically just to experience something new and go to somewhere I've never been to. Finally, I was able to go there with my boyfriend last December 10-12.
The whole experience is totally awesome! The trip was quite short as we only had 1 1/2 days to try to experience everything (we arrived in Puerto Princesa Wednesday night and our return flight is Friday afternoon) but it was great nonetheless. But still, I hope we had more time to experience everything. There's still a lot of places that we weren't able to go to. Le sigh!
Since we arrived Wednesday evening, we decided to start our tour right then and experience Puerto Princesa's nightlife. After checking in at the hotel, we made our way on foot to downtown Puerto Princesa for dinner and some sight-seeing. In the Provincial Capitol, they have this Paskuhan sa Kapitolyo wherein they set up booths and kiosks selling food and souvenirs and put up Christmas decorations and live bands to invite both locals and tourists in. We decided to take our dinner there and some camwhoring. We then proceeded to Puerto Princesa's Baywalk, again on foot, with more sight-seeing along the way. We never thought it was that far. I swear my feet hurt like hell! I like Manila's Baywalk better but at least the bay doesn't smell like trash. Anyways, we took a tricycle going back to the hotel. We had enough of walking!
We woke up early the next day for our tour of the subterranean river that we booked for 1500 bucks per person while we were in the airport. Our tour group consists of 2 vans with only 1 tour guide (at least we had two vans. at first, they want to move all 14 of us in 1 van. fortunately, they decided otherwise). Our van consists of the two of us, two German couple and two cute Danish guys. The 2-hour trip was so exhausting. The roads are zig-zagged, much like driving to Baguio, because we were literally traversing the mountains to get to our destination, plus, half the trip the roads are unpaved. We had a pit stop at the viewing point near Sabang overlooking the South China Sea. It was a great view! We then proceeded to Sabang Bay for our boat ride to the subterranean river. The gruelling trip to the subterranean trip was all worth it! It pretty much lived up to its reputation. We had a great view of it too as we were in the front side of the boat and Jaypee is the one holding the light. The river is 8 kilometers long but the trip was only for 4 kms as it would take us 3 hrs to navigate all 8 kms of it. Jaypee also made friends with some of the monkeys outside the cave. Haha! We headed back to Sabang Bay for a late lunch then made the same 2-hr drive pack to the hotel (the drive back was more gruelling because it was raining, and naturally, the unpaved roads got all muddy which made it more difficult to navigate. we decided to sleep it through). The trip to the subterranean river took 1 day. We were so tired that we just stayed in the hotel the whole evening except to have dinner.
On our last day, we decided to go island-hopping at Honda Bay. We only have half of the day to do it coz we need to go back to Manila that afternoon. We rented a boat for 1300 pesos and snorkeling gear for 200 pesos. That time, we wished we had our friends with us so we could have saved a lot of money. But on the high side, we had the boat all to ourselves. Honda Bay was so serene. There are literally no waves. We went to Pandan Island first. It was nice. Jaypee had a blast snorkeling. As for me, well I did some snorkelling at first, but I was so afraid that the fish would bite me so I decided to just stay near the shore and do some sunbathing. We proceeded next to Snake Island. At first, I thought Snake Island was named as such because there are lots of sea snakes on it, but actually, there were no snakes. It was named Snake Island because it was shaped like a snake. I liked it much better than Pandan Island. It was really beautiful. We snorkeled again, but as with the other island, I was afraid of the fish so I content myself with relaxing near the shore, some swimming and listening to the conversation of two German guys that I cannot even understand. I wished we could have stayed longer on the island. I loved it there. But unfortunately, we had to go back downtown to pack-up and not miss our flight.
Our trip maybe short, but it was really great! Maybe we could go back sometime to see the places we were not able to visit. I can't wait for our next trip. We had already booked our tickets for our Boracay trip this summer. This time though, we would be with two of our friends. It would be FUN! See you in March, Bora!
Meanwhile, here are some pics:
The whole experience is totally awesome! The trip was quite short as we only had 1 1/2 days to try to experience everything (we arrived in Puerto Princesa Wednesday night and our return flight is Friday afternoon) but it was great nonetheless. But still, I hope we had more time to experience everything. There's still a lot of places that we weren't able to go to. Le sigh!
Since we arrived Wednesday evening, we decided to start our tour right then and experience Puerto Princesa's nightlife. After checking in at the hotel, we made our way on foot to downtown Puerto Princesa for dinner and some sight-seeing. In the Provincial Capitol, they have this Paskuhan sa Kapitolyo wherein they set up booths and kiosks selling food and souvenirs and put up Christmas decorations and live bands to invite both locals and tourists in. We decided to take our dinner there and some camwhoring. We then proceeded to Puerto Princesa's Baywalk, again on foot, with more sight-seeing along the way. We never thought it was that far. I swear my feet hurt like hell! I like Manila's Baywalk better but at least the bay doesn't smell like trash. Anyways, we took a tricycle going back to the hotel. We had enough of walking!
We woke up early the next day for our tour of the subterranean river that we booked for 1500 bucks per person while we were in the airport. Our tour group consists of 2 vans with only 1 tour guide (at least we had two vans. at first, they want to move all 14 of us in 1 van. fortunately, they decided otherwise). Our van consists of the two of us, two German couple and two cute Danish guys. The 2-hour trip was so exhausting. The roads are zig-zagged, much like driving to Baguio, because we were literally traversing the mountains to get to our destination, plus, half the trip the roads are unpaved. We had a pit stop at the viewing point near Sabang overlooking the South China Sea. It was a great view! We then proceeded to Sabang Bay for our boat ride to the subterranean river. The gruelling trip to the subterranean trip was all worth it! It pretty much lived up to its reputation. We had a great view of it too as we were in the front side of the boat and Jaypee is the one holding the light. The river is 8 kilometers long but the trip was only for 4 kms as it would take us 3 hrs to navigate all 8 kms of it. Jaypee also made friends with some of the monkeys outside the cave. Haha! We headed back to Sabang Bay for a late lunch then made the same 2-hr drive pack to the hotel (the drive back was more gruelling because it was raining, and naturally, the unpaved roads got all muddy which made it more difficult to navigate. we decided to sleep it through). The trip to the subterranean river took 1 day. We were so tired that we just stayed in the hotel the whole evening except to have dinner.
On our last day, we decided to go island-hopping at Honda Bay. We only have half of the day to do it coz we need to go back to Manila that afternoon. We rented a boat for 1300 pesos and snorkeling gear for 200 pesos. That time, we wished we had our friends with us so we could have saved a lot of money. But on the high side, we had the boat all to ourselves. Honda Bay was so serene. There are literally no waves. We went to Pandan Island first. It was nice. Jaypee had a blast snorkeling. As for me, well I did some snorkelling at first, but I was so afraid that the fish would bite me so I decided to just stay near the shore and do some sunbathing. We proceeded next to Snake Island. At first, I thought Snake Island was named as such because there are lots of sea snakes on it, but actually, there were no snakes. It was named Snake Island because it was shaped like a snake. I liked it much better than Pandan Island. It was really beautiful. We snorkeled again, but as with the other island, I was afraid of the fish so I content myself with relaxing near the shore, some swimming and listening to the conversation of two German guys that I cannot even understand. I wished we could have stayed longer on the island. I loved it there. But unfortunately, we had to go back downtown to pack-up and not miss our flight.
Our trip maybe short, but it was really great! Maybe we could go back sometime to see the places we were not able to visit. I can't wait for our next trip. We had already booked our tickets for our Boracay trip this summer. This time though, we would be with two of our friends. It would be FUN! See you in March, Bora!
Meanwhile, here are some pics:
while waiting for the our plane at Terminal 3, our flight was delayed
welcome to Puerto Princesa City, Palawan
at Paskuhan sa Kapitolyo
at the Baywalk
camwhoring at The Legend Hotel Palawan
at the viewpoint, overlooking the South China Sea
at the beautiful Sabang beach
boatride to the subterranean river. it was so windy and the waves are crazy!
at the entrance to the underground river
at the trail to the underground river
Jaypee and one his friends, lol!
picture taking before going inside the cave
Bev love JP =)
we heart Palawan
the serene waters of Honda Bay
island-hopping at Honda Bay
Jaypee feeding the fish at Pandan Island
enough of snorkeling, i'm safer here
the long stretch of Snake Island
