Palawan Vacation June 2012

Last June, I went on a vacation just before the school year started. I joined a friend of mine who's working in Dubai who decided to have a family vacation in Palawan before heading to their home town, Davao.

We didn't have much time to tour Palawan, actually. We were only there for two and a half days. I was traveling from Dumaguete and the plan was to meet them in Palawan.


7:30 - 8:15 travel from Dumaguete to Cebu
2:30 - 4: 00 travel from Cebu to Puerto Princesa


Day 1

I stayed in the domestic departure lounge of Cebu International Airport. It was a long wait but it would have been less frustrating if the lounge had more seats for departing passengers. I was there for hours waiting for my next flight to open check in counters and there were very few seats available and all were always occupied so i had to sit on the floor like a lot of others. Sitting on the floor could get quite uncomfortable, you know.

I arrived at the Puerto Princesa airport shortly after 4 in the afternoon. I was pretty anxious thinking how i'm going to get to the place we're staying considering nobody's going to pick me up. I ended up riding a tricycle for Php50.00.

We stayed at Matutina Pensionne, which is only about 15 minutes tricycle ride from the airport. It's also really close to the local church, less than 5-minute walk away.

Matutina Pensionne is more like a house-turned-pensionne kind of place. I stayed in a single room. Clean and well-lit. I wasn't able to take pictures because i was just too tired to take out my camera and my other stuff in the bag.

My friend's family stayed in a suite situated in another building, my friend and her boyfriend stayed in a room situated inside the main house in one of the rooms.

a photo of the group in the receiving area of Matutina Pensionne

The place has a receiving area situated outside with three small tables and some chairs. They had no front desk but a small kitchen-turned-office building which was where all their staff and personnel hung out. the receiving area also looked like a small restaurant but unfortunately, they don't serve meals except breakfast. for lunch, dinner or other food, you have to go out and look around for restaurants where you can go eat.

A snapshot of the group at Kinabuch's Grill, Puerto Princesa, Palawan

For dinner that night, we went out to eat at Kinabuch's Grill, a restaurant which reminded me a lot of Dumaguete's Hayahay. Food was good, and they had a special dish, one with crocodile meat. I didn't taste it as i'm not very adventurous when it comes to food.

Everything was fine, except for the fact that they had trouble with their internet connection during the time of our stay which resulted to a misunderstanding regarding the booking of our Honda Bay Tour the following day.


Day 2 - Honda Bay Tour

After what seemed like a stressful start of our day full of frutstrations and bad comments from our fellow Honda Bay Tourists (some issues about being late but that was purely a misunderstanding). We finally left the hotel riding a van provided by the tour. On the way, we stopped by a rental shop. We're required to have snorkel gear such as the goggles and the snorkel shoes. You can rent them from the shop for Php150 each. I think everything they have in the shop is for rent at Php150. Other stuff include waterproof packs for cameras even for iphones. They also sell the bread for fish-feeding at Php30/pack.

It would be best to bring your own snorkel gear so you don't have to rent. I didn't have any so i had to spend a total of Php300 for shoes and goggles. And be sure to take care of them because if you lose them, you have to pay more than a thousand bucks.

We arrive at the Honda Bay Tour station at around 8 am and it was packed. There were so many tourists here and there, buying stuff, waiting in the seats, having pictures taken, etc. Our tour guide told us to wait as she took care of our registration for the boat that will tour us.

a picture while waiting for the tour guide to register our names for the Honda Bay tour

Stalls nearby

people waiting for their numbered outirggers (bangka's) to arrive

The numbers assigned to the outriggers

Marjorie and Me. I am carrying the plastic filled with the rented snorkel gears

Finally on board!

We passed by Luli Island, which was going to be our last stop for the tour later that day.

The beautiful greens – a lot of mangroves to see as we passed by

Pambato Reef

approaching Pambato Coral Reef station - this was where we did some snorkeling (you're only given an hour so make the most of your time while in the water)

gears on and ready to snorkel!

I realized it wasn't easy. I struggled with all the gear that was on me. I never imagined snorkeling to be so strenuous! But hey, we took pictures to remind us!

underwater shots from Marj's camera

it's an entirely different world down there

After 45 minutes, it was time to go. There were so many snorkelers in line so you don't get unlimited time to swim around. It was difficult for me to move around because it was very uncomfortable to swim wearing a life-vest and snorkel goggles (especially the goggles!) but i had no choice because you're not  allowed to go in the water without proper gear plus i don't know how to swim.

We went back to our boat, off to the next island, Pandan Island.


Pandan Island

It was about lunch time when we arrived. This was also where we had our lunch and do some fish-feeding.

approaching Pandan Island

boats of other tourists also there to tour the island

tourists camped in separate groups taking lunch

beach front view

intricate tree branches providing shade in some areas in the beach

Let me tell you, that Pandan Island is sooooo beautiful. In terms of sand, it's powdery white, literally feels like your feet is stepping on flour. No kidding. And the water is turquoise blue, and very clear. There were a lot of colorful fish that swim near the shore and they really swarm around the pieces of bread you feed them with! We had an underwater camera so lucky you, i can show you here some snapshots we took underwater.

white sand everywhere!

can't leave without a "looking down" shot

Luis, Meilfe and Me! Don't you just love the water?

we found a lot of these, starfish.

a photo before some snorkeling

no life vests this time. it was so much easier. it was like being in a swimming pool.

or being in a huge aquarium.. those yellow fish are sooo... new to me! hehe

hello from under the water – me and meilfe

peace yo' little fishies

Marjorie and moi

photo before taking lunch, which was prepared by our tour guide

heyyyy.. big grins

Marjorie's polished toes

it's still bright and sunny but it's now very windy

wind is getting strong, dark clouds approaching

about to leave for Luli Island

After fish-feeding, we took lunch under one of the trees. The food was good, we had adobong manok, grilled pork belly, grilled fish, some veggies and banana. Lunch, by the way, is included in the tour fee.

And then it was time to head off to our next destination island. It was good to see people leaving and bringing their trash with them. Palawan's locals are very environment-conscious and they never fail to tell the tourists to never litter because the government imposes fines if you're caught littering.

It started to rain when we left the island. And en route Luli island, in the middle of the sea, it started to rain so hard and we started to get scared. Everything around us was foggy. We can't see anything except water and rain and nothing else was visible, not even the horizon. We even thought we should just head home and just skip Luli island. It really seemed dangerous to continue. We were so relieved! At some point we really thought we were going to drown! Meilfe's mom said a group prayer and thankfully, we got through it.The rain slowed down and left us with drizzle. Arriving at Luli Island was a big relief.


Luli Island

Luli Island is called such after the words lulubog, lilitaw because the island is covered or sunken when tide is high, and it becomes visible during low tide.

docked boats at Luli Island shore

beautiful and green mangroves in Luli Island

we walked over to go near the mangroves

Looking down, looking down

snorkeling footwear that's looking a lot like running shoes in the photos

the tiny baby mangroves

meilfe and me

jumped as high as I could

last shot before we leave

Luli Island has a wonderful scenic view and it has a really wide area for you to run around, take pictures and explore the mangroves. But there wasn't enough time, After an hour or so, we had to leave. That was, unfortunately, the last island for our tour and it was time to head home. The tour ended at around three or four in the afternoon.

It rained again while we were riding the boat but it wasn't as hard as we had the first time. We arrived back at the station and went back to the hotel riding the van provided by the tour. On the way home, we returned the snorkel gear that we rented.

That was a Sunday so we took time to hear mass at around 5 in the afternoon since the church is also just a short walk away from where we were staying.

Later that evening, we met up with a college classmate, who is from Palawan. He took the liberty of renting a van to tour us to Baker's Hill before heading off to dinner at a nearby restaurant.

That was the last stop for the day. We headed home to rest and prepare for the next day.