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| Puerto Princesa Airport |
My first solo trip to Philippine to the island of Palawan. It was a last minute decision to do backpacking on my own. Although I have been to Philippine many times prior to this trip, all the while I always have a local to accompany me around. I was supposed to fly to the island of Batanes in 2 days time but postpone it to another date instead due to some reason.
After gathering as much info as I can, booked a flight online to Palawan, pack my backpack, off to NAIA, Manila on a Sunday morning and arrived at Puerto Princesa airport in the noon. A short flight from Manila that took less than 1.5hrs. Do take a peek outside 20 minutes before landing as the scenery of the area around Palawan is pretty awesome.
As I did not make any hotel reservation, decided to walk from the airport to the city proper instead, but in the end I took the trike since I did not know the location of the lodging that I prefer to stay and I have quite a load to carry with me. After several queries, finally got to a budget inn (Princesa Inn) for 250 pesos along Malvar street. A fairly reasonable room, I would say, with lots of space to spread out your things around, non-aircondition with common bathroom.
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| 1st day accommodation |
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| A single bedroom |
Two things that fascinate me about Puerto Princesa is that there are no jeepneys that can be seen on the roads. The only public transportation are the tricycles and small narrow vans. The other is the cleaniness that you will see, not only all over the city but the whole island itself. One can feel the difference from the freshness of the air that you breathe. Much, much better than in Manila, not sure about other place though!
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| Map of northern Palawan |
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| Map of southern Palawan |
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| About Puerto Princesa |
Day 1: The trip started with a half-day city tour of Puerto Princesa. Jayson Pabiton, my trike (tricycle) driver cum tour guide for the day, brought me to most, if not all, of the attractions. Places visited were, Crocodile farm & Nature Park, The Butterfly Garden & Tribal village, a Zip-Line adventure, Baker’s Hill, Binuatan Recreation Handloom Weaving, the Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral & Baywalk. I think the highlights of the tour for me were the zip-line adventure and the tribal village, being a person who likes adventure and culture. While the day was spent on visiting tourist attraction, the night was witnessing a feast of fireworks on display. I was fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time as Puerto Princesa was celebrating its 142nd Founding anniversary & the 10th Balayang festival, 2 weeks of eventful activities, from fireworks competition to singing competition to Gay Boxing competition.
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| Crocodile farm & nature park |
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| Crocodile farm & nature park |
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| Tribal village |
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| A 4-course zip-line |
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| Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral |
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| Baywalk |
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| Baywalk |
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| Baywalk |
Day 2: Morning and afternoon was spent orienting the area surrounding the city proper of Puerto Princesa. One will notice that most of the facilities are located along the long stretch of Rizal Avenue: banks, souvenir shops, fast foods, restaurants, money changers etc. This road also leads all the way to the airport on one end up to the Cathedral & WWII memorial on the other end. One can also find a number of hotels & budget inns on both side of the roads running parallel along Rizal Ave; Malvar St & Manalo St. The night was then spent travelling to El Nido by van for 6hrs in total, including late dinner breaks halfway through the journey. Arrived at Maligaya Barangay, El Nido at past midnight and took another 10 min trike journey from the main transport terminal to Anang Inn (Serano St) where I stayed for the next 3 days. Fortunately, I found out that along Serano St is the best place to stay, as it is near to where all the activities started. The port (ferry terminal) is just less than 5 min away and most of the seafood restaurants are located along this street, where you can have a candlelight dinner by the beach.
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| Rizal Ave |
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| Anang Inn |
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| View from Anang Inn |
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| Serano St |
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| Port and Island hopping departure meeting pt |
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| Boat schedules to other islands |
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| Lodges along Serano St & port |
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| Map of El Nido |
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| Welcome to Barangay Maligaya |
Day 3-4: Island hopping was the highlight for the next 2 days at El Nido. Took the tour A package where we were taken to several islands for swimming, snorkelling and end the day just relaxing on a beautiful sandy beach. Islands visited were: Miniloc island which comprises of small and big lagoons, secret lagoon, really good for snorkelling; Simizu island where we had a sumptuous lunch prepared by our guide and the boat crews; And finally the Seven Commandos beach, a place to relax, sun tanning and swimming to end the day. Tour C package was chosen for the 2nd day island hopping trip. The islands visited were Secret beach, Hidden beach, Matinloc Shrine and Helicopter Island. There are 2 more island tours, B & D to be explored still. So far tour A was the best especially for snorkelling in my opinion.
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| Transport terminal at El Nido |
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| Eulyn Joy transport |
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| El Nido Transport terminal |
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| Other bus services schedule |
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| Roro bus schedule |
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| Grande Vista Hotel |
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| Friendly and helpful hotel staff makes your stay there worthwhile |
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| Restaurant located at the top of hotel. Nice view! |
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| Pool with a view |
Day 6: A visit to Puerto Princesa is not complete without a tour of the St Paul’s Underground River National Park, awarded World Heritage Site. It’s a river that runs under a limestone cave, stretching 8 km long, and at the end of it opens a lagoon, which is separated from the sea only by a low sandbar. However, before visiting the underground river, the guide did a stopover to the Ugong Rock Adventures, located at Tagabinet Barangay, just 15 min away from Sabang beach. Here, one can do caving or spelunking as they called it and also zip-lining, either seating style or superman style. It’s the fastest zip-line in Phil, completing in just 21 sec for 350m long. Not as adrenalin as in bungee jumping if you have done it before, but it’s good to do it just to experience how it feels. After the adventure, a buffet lunch was prepared at the restaurant near the wharf along Sabang beach. A 15 min bumpy boat ride brought us to a beach, where a further 200m walk through the forest leads to the entrance of the cave. A small outrigger boat equipped with powerful lamps, which can accommodate 10 pax each, took us upstream into the river for about 2km only out of the 8km long as the rest are off-limit for research and exploration purposes. A unique river and cave system and I’m very sure that any traveller will be very awed by its magnificent scenery and natural beauty.
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| A stopover for a caving & zip-lining adventure |
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| Caving & Spelunking |
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| Superman style Zip-line |
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| Entrance of Underground river |
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| Starting point of Underground river tour |
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| Underground river |
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| Stalactites in the cave |
Day 7: The final tour of the trip ended with island hopping along Honda Bay. It covered Cowrie Island, Starfish Island and Luli Island. Before start of the tour, we were brought to a rental shop for any gears that were needed for the island hopping tour. If you don't have an underwater or waterproof camera, the shop has the gadget to waterproof your camera (only for certain brand). Sadly though, for mobile phone, they only have for iphone, but if your phone has the same size as the iphone, then they might be able to put it for you. Cowrie island is our 1st island stop over and where lunch was served. We were given 2hrs to wander around while lunch was prepared. Not a big island though to explore, but it has quite a good snorkeling and swimming area. There is a bar area where you can buy drinks (fruit smoothies, juices etc) and snacks located in the middle of the island. Volleyball can be rented from the bar at 50 pesos for an hour.
Next stop was the Starfish island. This is where you can feed the fishes (with the bread that you can buy from the rental shop) while snorkelling. A very good snorkelling place to be. Many varieties of fishes and corals that can be seen around this island. Unfortunately, my mobile phone that was covered with the waterproof cover, did not work as I expect it to be. So did not manage to take any underwater pics. Finally, we were brought to Luli island. A unique island indeed! During low tide, the island is totally immersed under water and during high tide, it is like it came out of nowhere. Nice place for photoshoot!
While the day was spent on island tour, the night was spent on the mangroves to watch the firefly. A very soothing and quiet activity to end the day.
Overall this trip has been quite an experience for me. Never did I expect everything to go quite smoothly as it was a last minute decision and I have not been doing solo backpacking for many years. I guess the natural instinct in you as a traveller will come by naturally as you go through the travel experience. Also the serenity and the freshness of the air that you breathe just when you touch down at the airport in Palawan, makes one completely at ease and comfortable. That's what Palawan offers to a traveller like me! Not over friendly, but just acting as a host of an island who welcomes tourist to their beautiful island which they have been taking care of it proudly for many years and being environmentally conscious of its natural surrounding at the same time. Kudos to the people of Palawan! I am very amazed by this island. It will surely spur me on to visit this island again in the near future.
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