DIY 3-Day Trip to Puerto Princesa 2011

Special thanks to Cebu Pacific Peso Fare for making this trip possible!
Great job google.com for giving us thorough information and travel tips!

6 of us managed to book this trip with Cebu Pac's web fare. Tickets were booked last mid June hence we still have 5 months to save for this trip.

Though we're all first timers in Palawan we successfully planned out this trip well just like a pro!

Ka trip: Ericson, Macky, Haizel, Anthony and Chuckie
Lodging: Lola Itangs
Budget: 5K per traveler and guts! heheh
Dates: November 13-15, 2011

Day 1

Checked in at Lola Itang Pension House

This place looks deceiving from the outside but wait till you see your accommodation. It's surprisingly more than what we expected to get with the 800/per night rate we spent.

Thanks to Ate Meggy for making our stay as pleasant and homy as possible and of course to Mimi for recommending this place.

At 1pm we went straight to Honda Bay for our Island Hopping. Unlike other tourists we did not book any package for this tour. We opted to simply take a tricycle for only PHP120 each roundtrip and divide the banca rental which was PHP1500. That will make it PHP500 per couple.

Do the math, instead of paying PHP1200 per person we just spent PHP310 each.

Travel tip: Better grab a snack such as instant noodles and eat on the boat. This would really save you time and money

We just need to rent our own snorkeling gear and waterproof camera case then off we go to Honda Bay. We chose 3 Islands to visit namely; Pambato Reef, Snake Island and Pandan Island.

Pambato Reef

PS: Entrance is for free. Be sure not to step on any corals.

Fact: Human skin is acidic which would shunt the growth of the corals.

It's here where I first tried snorkeling but opted to just use the goggles without the mouthpiece..heheh. It's sad to say that most of the corals were already dead and only a few fishes can be seen.

Snake Island

A kilo of "isda sa bato" was priced at PHP250 plus PHP95 for a kilo of rice and PHP50 for our nipa cottage. We bought an extra 2 cans of sardines and corned beef worth PHP87.

Next stop was Pandan Island. We paid PHP50 each for the entrance fee then off we go tried the fish feeding activity. Unfortunately I got stung by a sea urchin but the show must go on and still all smiles during our underwater pics.

After a quick rest from Honda Bay, we visited the Palawan Baywalk. We thought it was called Boulevard? Err Boardwalk? But it was just simply Baywalk. Main highlight was it's peacock shaped lights, a lot of people were strolling, sitting on the bench and some were even riding this "mini tricyle" and bicycle.

How can I forget my first taste of Palawan's Viet's delicacy called Chao Long, a noodle dish. BTW its real name is "pho". To sum it up, we did not like it except for Dady since he was the only who finished his beef Chaolong and french breads.

Day 2

Before heading to the Underground River, Ralph suggested that we visit the Ugong Cave wherein we can try Spelunking for only PHP200 per person and Zip Line Activities. Me, my Dad, Haizel and Anthony opted not to take the Zip Line on our way back. 

It was called Ugong cave 'coz literally stalactites found inside would produce a sound once their tapped, hence the name Ugong.

Our tour guide whom I forgot the name was as energetic and camera freak as she can be. She shared that she was once a "kainginero" and turned into a tour guide when the cave was developed as a tourist spot. As expected this was the part of our trip where we had the most number of pictures, bruises and possibly wounds.

'twas worth the sweat, aching muscles when we reached the "summit".. breathtaking view indeed..

Now it's time to go down..haha..this was no easy task since the trek we need to take was so steep..too bad for Dady. He wanted to just use the zipline but I hesitated...

Off we go to our next stop, The Underground River. Our banca was scheduled at 2:30PM and it was around 12pm that we left Ugong Cave, we then took our sumptuous lunch buffet at Taraw Beach Resort. 

PS: Try Palawan's Exotic delicacy, Tamilok.. Honestly, I prefer to have this than Chaolong. It tasted like softened squid..two thumbs up!

Considered as the main event of this trip, we visited one of the 7 Wonders of the World; The Puerto Princesa Underground River. In here we got no choice but to get a trip package worth PHP1,500 per person. It covered our van rent with it's tour guide, DENR fees, banca rental and lunch buffet. We just shelled out an extra PHP100 per person as a token to Ralph, our friendly tour guide and another PHP100 per person for the bancero.

It was raining on our way there but surprisingly sun shined as soon as we hopped on our boat going to the cave. Waves were bigger than I expected.

My first impression was "Pictures of this place that I saw online were indeed real!". Turquoise ocean surrounded by lush greenery, magnificent mountains, Monkeys (of all sizes) and "bayawaks" greeted us and a charming rainforest with a wooded walk way that lead us to our next ride.

Here's a picture of the group before entering the cave.

The bancero was a bonus too...we're just giggling with his antique jokes e.g "Please do not open your mouth when you look up. If it's cold, then its holy water whereas if its hot then its gotta be a holy s**t."

Here are some pictures taken inside the cave.

 

Lesson learned: Always bring a reliable and fully charged camera during trips. DSLR shots would have been better.

That's the gang after conquering one of the world's wonder. Now, 6 more to go..hahaha.

That's not all, on our way home we're able to visit the Buenavista View Deck and "The Beach" look a like movie location. As to Ralph its small caves were rich in "nido" from the balinsasayaw birds.

We all thought we're done for that day but wait there's more! To touchbase with Palawan's history we had a quick stop to the Vietnamese Village, "VietVille" as what they call it.

That PHP1500 tour package was really worth it! We've experienced several activities, saw a lot of sights unique to Palawan!

Day 3

Tired as we were, we did manage to wake up at 6am the next day. Our flight was scheduled at 11am but I was determined to explore the rest of the city in less than 4 hours. I have an idea where I wanted to go but as to its distance from where we we're, 'nada'.

Since we're on a budget trip, we opted to rent a tricyle instead of getting another tour package which would roughly cost PHP1200. We'll it was a smart move because we only paid PHP500 so that's PHP500 divided by 6,that's just PHP84 each.

With a limited time we visited several sites namely; Crocodile Farm, a glimpse of Mitra Farm (we just peeked from its gate..hahaha), Baker's Hill, Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral(Blue Church) and Plaza Cuartel. The latter was just walking distance from Lola Itang's.

At exactly 10am we're off to the airport. One can just imagine how tired we were but still with all smiles as we left this paradise called "Puerto Princesa".