Puerto Princesa, Palawan Getaway

The “cleanest city in the country,” “the Last Frontier,” “City in the Forest,” famous for its tourism in the Philippines, “Puerto Princesa, Palawan” It’s biodiversity and natural made wonders made me in love on this city. People here are kind and disciplined. One of our tourist guides told me that there is 0.33% crime rate in the city and there were laws to protect the environment. They use tricycles as their way of transport and at affordable price it can bring you anywhere in the city for at least Php7/person for 1 km of ride. You need one week of to stay here to see all those beauty and hidden wonders of the city.


First Day:
Our first day was spent for city tour. There were different agencies that offers a higher price for each tour per persons so we go for a walk and we found a tricycle driver who offer much cheaper price and will rent his tricycle for the tour. His name is Mang Toto and he is a good tourist guide, at first tour we went to Badjao SeaFront Restaurant to take our lunch. Here, they serve different kinds of fresh seafoods and it is located between the Mangrove forest and in front of the sea. You can eat and relax in a magnificent view of the ocean. After we eat, we went to Butterfly Garden where you can see different kinds and colors of butterflies, insects only seen in the forests of Palawan such as scorpions, locusts, centipedes, stick insects, beetle and lizards. Next stop was at Crocodile farm where wildlife are kept here until they can be release into the forest and most of animals here are endangered. There are snakes, crocodiles, parrots, bearcats and different kinds of birds can be seen here. also serve crocodile meat dishes such as croc burgers and sisis crocodile. You can take a picture with a baby crocodile for Php30 and don’t worry there’s a guide that will hold it for you. After our wildlife tour, we went to Baker’s Hill home of the best hopia in Palawan to buy their famous Hopia ube and it tastes good. Near Baker’s Hill is a mansion owned by a retired general in Palawan and a ranch owned by the governor of the province. Both are huge and has a magnificent view of the Palawan Bay. It was a tiring yet a wonderful nature loving experience throughout the day. We arrived at our hotel at 5pm and took a rest to get ready for our dinner at Kinabuch Bar and Grill famous for their exotic Woodworm Mollusk, “Tamilok” it tastes like an oyster dipped into a spicy vinegar sauce. You have to taste it for your Palawan experience you will never forget.


Second Day:
On this day we’ve planned to go to Sabang Beach and a new wonders of the world finalists, the Puerto Princesa Underground River. From the hotel, we arrived at the Sabang Beach at approximately 3 hours of long drive, here we went to St.Paul’s mountain in a boat trip for about 15 minutes. There are beautiful rock formation seen along the ride and when we reach the the location there were monkeys and monitor lizards who will welcome you. You will ride a boat going inside the underground river and they will provide protective caps and vests for your safety.
The cave was so majestic with different rock formations you can imagine such as the Last Supper formation. The tour inside the cave took 45 minutes of boat ride and if you wanna try to see all inside the cave it will took 6 hours to see everything. After the underground river experience, a buffet lunch took on Sabang Beach and they serve a variety of seafoods such as grilled Tuna and squid and their version of adobong chicken and kangkong. After we rest, they offered us a tour on a river of Mangroves. These river is home for shrimps, crabs and mudfishies. Snakes are hanging on stems of the mangroves and the boatman told us that they are hospitable snakes even they are venomous.



Third Day:
Our third day was for Honda Bay tour, where we rent our own boat so we could enjoy island hopping experience. For the first snorkeling trip, we went to Pambato Reed where we can swim with different kinds and colors of fishes. We feed them bread and we sa different sizes of coral reefs and giant clams. Next island is Starfish Island, one of the best beach I’ve seen with it’s white sand beach and prestine clear water. We took our lunch here and we bought crabs and fish and the caretakers will cook it for you. Our boatman guide us to the nearest coral reef of the island to snorkel and we saw different corals that you can touch and enjoy our swim with the fishes. Next island was Snake Island, its name came from the S-shape of the island. Here many tourists enjoy the beach and calm water. There are big fishes you can feed just bring bread for them and they will feast. The last island was Pandan Island and from its name there were plenty of Pandan Trees on the island. I love the fine white sand of the beach and I took some sand to bring them home. Coral reefs here are in shallow waters just watch out for sea urchins, you will surely don’t like these if you step on their torns.



Fourth Day:
For our Final tour, we went to Dos Palmas Island Resort. One of the luxurious and most beautiful resort I’ve seen. It was like a Mediterranean Island resort famous for its watersports and best for scuba diving. We had a chance to drive a motorboat to our snorkeling destination. Here fishes and different marine creatures and giant corals as big as a van can be seen here. We had our buffet lunch at the resort serving the most famous dishes of the province. It was a fine dining experience when we eat those mouth watering dishes they serve. Almost of the dishes are new to our taste and everything were so delicious. Such a wonderful experience we had in the resort and we tried kayaking around the beaches of the resort. We took some rest on their Bohemian Huts along side of the beach. Even it was a last tour we had, we enjoy every minute of the time we are there and took as many pictures we can. When we get back to our hotel we took some rest and we went to “Baragatan Festival,” different people from different places in the province gather here to sell their famous products such as Cashew Brittle, handicrafts and different unique sculptures wood made from the famous wood curvers of the province. We bought our pasalubong here and we took our dinner at Balinsasayaw Restaurant famous for their chicken bbq and it tastes so good.