Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan -- City Tour

We capped our Palawan Experience off with a half day city tour.

Since our hotel stay is good for 3nights/3days, we set our tour on afternoon schedule for us to have ample time to fix our things before flying back to Manila (right after the tour).

The tour started off at Plaza Cuartel (where Japanese invaders burnt around 150 American soldiers during World War 2 in 1944), though the actual place was already renovated, the arc/passageway of Cuartel stood the test of time.

 

Plaza Cuartel's arc

Few steps from Plaza Cuartel is Immaculate Conception Cathedral:

Church's facade.

 

We made stops to 2 different souvenir shops and our group being ever ready, already did our own shopping the night before. So no rush for us right there. ;)

 

Souvenir shirts sold in one of the stores.

Probably the highlight of our city tour was the short "field trip" at Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center (widely known as the Crocodile Farm). There are lots of FYIs about crocs and so are crocs themselves of different forms, sizes and ages. We also chanced on having photos with a baby croc for P30.

Preserved skeleton of a huge crocodile (but Lolong is still bigger than this)

Baby croc seemed unhappy unlike me :p

We also made a stop at Mitra's Ranch for a quick over-looking experience. The Mitra family owns a real wide span of property and the scenery is just beautiful. There are parts where you can see the China Sea, another part will let you see the city as whole and on another side you'll see a herd of cow peacefully eating grasses by. They also offer different recreational activities like horseback riding, zipline, trampoline but prices are quiet expensive.

Mitra's Ranch overlooking.

Our last top was Baker's Hill - famous for their bakeshop and hopias. We hoarded up stocks for pasalubong, made a quick round and stopped to have some snack. The place is full of colorful statues and life-sized cartoon character figures kids will surely enjoy.

When we were taken back to hotel, we rushed to Jollibee and grabbed our quick dinner. When we were back, our service was already set since our flight back to Manila is 8PM. We hurried up and bid Palawan our final goodbyes. 'Til then, Palawan! :) We'll meet again for El Nido and Coron, that's a promise!

Karen, Eka and Jehn - sporting their plastic bags :p

Ready to fly back to Manila!

Thank you, friends for a fun vacation! :)

Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan -- Honda Bay Tour (Pambato Reef, Isla Pandan, Starfish Island). Dinner at Ka Lui.

Day 2 of our Palawan Adventure is laid for Honda Bay Island Hopping.

After munching on a quick breakfast, we again boarded the van and fetch some other tourists who'll be joining our group. The van will take you to a snorkeling gear rental place where you can fit and choose what to use for the whole day. Rental fee is P300 (P150 for snorkeling gear, P150 for booties) and lost item will be charged P1000, so better be careful in using your rented swimming gears. Travel to St. Lourdes wharf is a shorter ride compared when going to Sabang wharf (for Underground River tour) it'll only take about 30 mins from city proper. Once all the papers are set and your boat is docked on the wharf, then, off the sea you go!

We passed by several islands and our tour guide was cheerful enough in giving us brief background of each. First is Cowry Island (one popular island visited during Honda Bay tour), Bat Island (named so because island is inhabited by huge bats know as kabog, we're also told that island is not included on the usual island hopping list because of the strong pee&poo smell of the bats) and Luli Island (Lulubog-lilitaw -- island gets submerged in waters during high tide).

Pambato Reef

First stop of our tour is Pambato Reef.
Our boatman guided as through the floating flatform (turtle shaped) that served as the base station for snorklers. The "turtle camp" is surrounded by shallow waters where fishes and corals were stone's throw away from you.

Pambato Reef

Since most of us didn't know how to swim, the boatman helped us snorkel around the area by dragging an improvised life buoy, we then gripped tightly and paddled around enjoying the bed of corals and fishes of different kind.

Fish feeding is not allowed in Pambato Reef, and we're glad that we experienced this in our next stop, Isla Pandan (Pandan Island).

Isla Pandan

While the guide and our boatmen were preparing our lunch, we roamed around the island and soaked ourselves in its clear waters. Isla Pandan is the most commercialized island in Honda Bay. Amenities are all in here. They've got food stalls, electricity, cellular signal, rooms for overnight stay.

Where the island got its name.

In for the feast!

Fine white sand + scenic beach

Lucky that the place wasn't crowded. Seems like we own the whole stretch!

Fresh haul we bought from the locals. SARAP!

We spent most of the day staying at Pandan since this is the best place to swim play around. We had photo ops courtesy of our boatman and his tricks, had some halo-halo, played and just swam the whole day. The last stop of our island tour is Starfish Island.

Starfish Island

The place looked deserted and we had a few to zero things to do there. The shores are not good for swimming since it's composed of sharp, starfish remains and so the name of the island is.

We just took few photos and called it a day.

Starfish Island.

We had to rush ourselves preparing for dinner after the van dropped us off our hotel. Since Ka Lui in Palawan is a word of mouth and a sure hit, landing a slot requires a pre-dinner reservation. Our hotel was able to arraged a 7PM schedule, thus the hurry.

Ka Lui

Ka Lui has great ambiance and place is well-decorated/maintained. Rule number 1 when dining here : NO FOOTWEAR.

Now we are ready to eaaaat!

Past the dining area.

And true enough, our verdict is: THE PLACE LIVED TO ITS NAME.
The rumors are not rumors at all. Ka Lui served the most delicious dinner we had in Palawan. We were in awe when we tasted what we had on our plates. I totally forgot how those dishes were called but the Lepu-lapu's sauce was coconut-y creamier than what was expected, the breaded eggplant (what seems like a tempura to me) and it's sweet-tangy orange sauce was a sure hit, the tender piece of grilled tanigue was perfectly seasoned, the sisig was superb. Ka Lui is A MUST TRY.

Superb dinner.

Happy tummy!
(L-R) Eka, Jehn, Karen, Etey

(L-R) Jehn, Me. Eka, Karen

Our Palawan Tour ending soon, drafting our City Tour. Blogging 6 months after we traveled. :))

Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan -- Ugong Rock (Caving, Spelunking and Zipline)

After our Underground River Tour, we head back to Sabang Wharf and drove to the beach where our buffet lunch is set. Kuya Bodjie asked us if we wanted to have a side trip to Ugong Rock and being on the adventurous side that day, we said yes!

We passed by Elephant Cave where Amazing Race Philippines made a stop.

Trip to Ugong Rock is not included in our paid tour that's why we shelled out few pesos out. Fee for caving, spelunking and tours is P200 and fee for zipline going down back to camp is P250.

Entrance of Ugong Rock Adventures

ABS -CBN Foundation helped fund this project and now a lot of people is earning livelihood from this.
We were briefed upon arrival and after we registered and paid, we head straight to their "wardrobe" where we took our head caps and gloves. Caving and spelunking ready!

Choose!

Passageway in

During the tour, they'll make you tap on to different stalactites that produces a somewhat humming sound (ugong in Filipino) where the cave got its name too.

You'll pass by several formation and you'll be forced to bend and fit yourself pass through thin passages like this:

 

And go down on trail like this:

The next level activity after caving is to climb up on a steep portion of the cave. They'll assist you in wearing harness and guide you on your way up. It wasn't really tiring for me but beginners and non-adventurous individuals may find this quiet challenging.

Jehn on her way up

After passing all the twisting, trekking and climbing, you have 3 options on how to go back to the base camp.
1. Zipline (sitting position - P250)
2. Zipline (Superman position - P350)
3. Walk your way back down

We opted to go for option 1 and took the 380meters (about 21 seconds fly) long zipline.
The zipline's drop off area was so steep I totally screamed out all the hell out of my system the moment they released me. Ugong Rock Adventures surely offers a notch higher adrenaline pump on your usual travels. Must try! :)

View up Ugong Rock

Erika's cam all set to fly with her!

You'll see how steep the wires could get from this photo :)

Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan -- A&A Plaza Hotel and Underground River Tour

Left Manila March 9 via Cebu Pacific, we arrived in Puerto Princesa a little over 8PM. Unlike my previous trips and travels, we chose to splurge rather than save this time. We bought tickets 7 months prior our fly date and scanned a number of accommodation/tour packages found online. We end up making arrangements with Harper giving us this package:

P5000
3nights/3days Quad sharing accommodation (with airport transfers) in A&A Plaza Hotel
Underground River Tour (with buffet lunch)
Honday Bay Island Hopping (with buffet lunch)
Half Day City Tour
Daily breakfasts

*All tours come with a licensed guide and van service.

Also, it'll be better if you reserve your tour a month earlier because travel agencies need to secure permits before you can even go to the Underground River.


March 10

We munched on a quick breakfast and hopped into the van for our Underground River Tour.
Our tour guide Kuya Bodjie immediately started talking the moment we hit the road. He's given trivia about Puerto Prinsesa and reminders on how we would go about the tour.

Ride from city proper going to Sabang Wharf took us around 2 hours and boat ride from wharf to Underground river some 20 minutes more.

Sabang Wharf

You will then take a short trek going to the underground river's boarding area where you'll see strayed monitor lizards and monkeys.

Arrived in PPUR!

Monitor lizard

Inside the cave are magnificent forms and figures of vegetables, religious figures, sexy lady and even T-rex! We're so lucky our river boatman/guide is so hilarious and amusing, he cracked all his jokes perfectly. He even made a whooshing sound like someone fell on the waters then screamed "don't worry, I'm still here!", I thought he's gone and we'll be paddling the boat out the cave ourselves. :( Anyways, they have a sort of Vegetable Section inside the cave where you will see form of eggplant (beside this is a tortang talong like figure), patola and other veggies. Next is the Cathedral where you'll see The Last Supper, The Nativity and various religious forms. You need to run your imagination creatively to appreciate the rock formations more.

According to our tour guide, the Underground River stretches to a total of 8.2kilometers (all navigable via boat) but the regular tour allowed for tourists is 1.2 or 1.8km only. Fossils ranging million years are found embedded on the walls of the cave's deeper parts making it locked out of public and exclusive for professional researchers.

Our group before the tour

When we were nearing the cave's mouth and the light started beaming on our sight, he playfully shouted "Yes Lord, we made it!". He closed our tour by cracking on his final joke. We were about to exit when another boat is about to enter the cave, they are around 9 in their boat (we are only 8) and kuya shouted, "Enjoy your tour! Ganyan din kame kadami kanina (we are about the same number as you before we enter the cave)!" and the lady seated near the tip of the boat instantly gave as a second glance as if she counted how many we were left in our boat. :)

Ugong Rock, Honda Bay Island Hoping and City Tour coming right up!