Puerto Princesa Palawan (DIY TOUR) Day 1

Palawan is one of the most visited places here in the Philippines not only by foreigners but by Filipinos as well. When PAL had their promo of Boeing 777, I immediately booked online two tickets for 3 days and 2 nights though I wasn’t sure of what to expect in our first domestic travel together. Hehehe. There was only one thing on my mind:  to have our monthsary celebration there for a change.

Getting a Palawan Package Tour did not ever come to my mind for two reasons: I don’t like to spend a lot since we are on a budget (and I believe that traveling need not be expensive) and I want to be in control of the time, spend it the way we want. Searching the net and joining forums really helped me a lot. 🙂 It was pinoy exchange that gave me a lot of information about what to do in Palawan. Thanks to the pexers who patiently answered my queries.

AT THE AIRPORT, NAIA TERMINAL II – PUERTO PRINCESA

Our flight was scheduled at eight in the morning. We decided to take the MRT and get off at the Taft station. From there we took the cab that brought us to NAIA Terminal II. Actually, if we had enough time to spare, we can take a bus in going to the airport. After an hour of waiting, passengers to Puerto Princesa started to board the plane at exactly eight in the morning. We reached Palawan at around nine in the morning but left the airport at half past nine. Well, somebody took my tripod and dropped it on the floor when he found out that it’s not his. Grrrr! I hope people with that kind of attitude should vanish right away. >:-)

TIP: At the airport, you would see many tricycle drivers waiting for passengers and will approach you to take a ride with them. How much? It’s P50 for a ride. Just ignore them and walk straight until you reach the gate. Take the trike there and instruct the driver where to go. It’s only P7 per head.

We were about to leave the airport when a big guy followed us and offered us a ride but I ignored him. I told him that my “uncle” will pick us up. He kept on following us (see, i’m not that good in telling lies huh! lol) but we kept on walking until we saw Pizzito, a pizza house near the airport. Since we had breakfast at 5 am, hubby and I decided to grab some bite there. d(^_^)b

Then we waited for a trike. We were lucky to meet this trike driver whose name was almost the same as mine:  RENE: who happened to be from Moriones, Tondo. What a coincidence! @_@ Well, I took the opportunity to negotiate with him the Hunda Bay Tour. Most of the pexers told me on the forum that the tour costs P600. When I asked him of the tour, he said it’s P500 but I insisted to make it P400 instead. He agreed. Yey!

ANICETO  PENSION HOUSE, 71 Reynoso Street

After that conversation, he brought us to Aniceto Pension House, where I had a reservation for 3 days and 2 nights. It is located in Reynoso Street and owned by Ms. Tess. You can contact her through email: arc_tess@yahoo.com.ph and sms: +63927059782. 24 hour wifi access is also available.

How to reach the place by foot: From Rizal Avenue, take Roxas Street, walk straight til you reach the end of the street, then turn right. (Popularly known among tricycle drivers as corner Roxas St. and  Mabini St. at Quito )

HAIM’S CHICKEN INATO

On our way to Hunda Bay, we saw Haim’s Chicken Inato. Seafood kare-kare was our choice over the chicken inato. It only cost us P165 for: Seafood kare-kare (P120) & 3 cups of rice (P45). Well, it only has 1 piece of prawn, 3 pieces of small squids & fish cubes. Yummy? That’s what I thought…. but I was wrong!

HUNDA BAY TOUR – P1300 (Luli Island, Starfish Island, Snake Island, Pandan Island)

Upon reaching the wharf, there were no other people that I thought would share us a ride. Lucky us, a man in his fifties together with a young woman came a few minutes and inquired about the boat rental. With no hesitations at all, I asked the man if we could share in the same boat.  Instead of paying for the P1300 boat rental fee, we only paid the half of it — P650.

The first island we saw was LULI ISLAND. Luli came from two words – lulubog at lilitaw. You can see the island during low tide but it was hight tide that time, the ony thing that we saw was the cottage floating on the water. There were already people occupying the only cottage in that island. You can do snorkeling in this area if you want to. So make sure to bring goggles with you.

Next island was STARFISH ISLAND. We stopped there for a while. Mamang bangkero looked for some starfish and brought it to us. They are so cute! Of course, you cannot take them for they are alive…

Our last stop was SNAKE ISLAND. The sandbar has a snake shape. There are cottages that you can use for a small fee (donation). We had our lunch there or should I say merienda? LOL! Imagine having lunch at two in the afternoon?! The man we met  was Mr. Toto Benedicto, with a young Cebuana woman. Well, aside from treating us halo-halo which was being sold at the island, he also shared a lot of information about Palawan even his monkey businesses there. ;-P

At around 4:30 in the afternoon, they decided to go back at the wharf but I requested to drop by at PANDAN ISLAND. It is a private island a few meters away from Snake Island. I think, 15-20 minutes travel time. (What a  bumpy ride it was ! Big waves hit us at around 3pm) You have to pay P25 for the entrance and P200 for occupying the cottage. Only a few people were there… Since the beaches in the islands are not as good as the islands in Capones (promise, you will love Capones and other islands there in Pundakit!), we decided not to get off the boat. We also saw COWRIE ISLAND, a small private island owned by a businessman. Permits from the owners of the private islands are necessary.

Before leaving the wharf, we asked for some information about the name of the Bay. Others called it Hunda but for some it’s Honda. According to the personnel in the information desk, it’s name before was really Hunda Bay.

Me:	Kuya, ano ba talaga name nito, Hunda Bay or  Honda Bay? (points at the tarpaulin)
FD:	Hunda talaga ang name niya.
Hubby:	Bakit naging Honda Bay?
FD:	Kasi nagkamali sa printing ng tarp. Honda ang nailagay nila sa tarpaulin.
Hubby:	Ibig mong sabihin yun na lang tarpaulin ang  sinunod? (sabay kamot sa ulo)
FD:	Ganun na nga po ang nangyari. 😦

SIDE TRIP TOUR: Mitra’s Ranch and Baker’s Hill

After your island hopping tour, you can also have a sidetrip tour to Vietnamese Village if you want to try the taste of Vietnamese’s noodles which unfortunately I forgot. 😦  Mitra’s Ranch that closes at 5pm to have an overlooking view of Honda Bay (nothing more other than that) and Baker’s Hill which is good for photo op because the place is sooo nice! You can also buy hopia and other kinds of bread there. My rating for the hopia and pan de coco? 3/5.  Nothing special on the taste. :-p Engbee-tin is still the best! :)) After the tour, we headed back to Aniceto.

KINABUCH’S GRILL & BAR

It’s dinner time! Aniceto Pension is quite far from Rizal Avenue. I think you have to spend 15-20 minutes of walking. But I like to see more of the city looks at night  that’s why I encouraged my hubby not to take a trike and walk instead. You can also find Chowking, Jollibee and Mang Inasal along Rizal Avenue. But hey! You’re in Palawan. Why not trying to eat in one of the best restaurants in Puerto Princesa? It’s a new experience for us to try.

After 20 minutes of walking, we saw Kinabuch’s Grill & Bar, which is always full of life in the evening. I have read in some posts that foods in Kinabuch’s are great and not that expensive. What did we order? Hmmm.. no bestseller that’s why we ordered 2 Chix ni Buchs (P75 per order), 1 glass of iced tea (45) and 1 watermelon shake (P60). Every order is exclusive of 10% service charge. I think it only cost us P280.50 for our meal including the 10% SC.  All of the food servers were approachable and accommodating.  Kuya even made this unexpected pose for me huh! Two thumbs up for them! Wohooo! We’ll definitely visit this place again! 🙂

Of course, we were so full that’s why we took  a trike to bring us home. It was already past eleven then. We had a great day…… =)

DAY 2 in Palawan