After a quick 1 hour flight we made it to Puerto Princessa, Palawan. We had to change our plans of where we were going to stay because we were running out of cash and I forgot my debit card. So instead of a 4 hour cab ride to a secluded place we stayed in the city of Puerta Princesa and stayed at a hotel 2 minutes from the airport. This turned out to be a great move because we could use my credit card and the hotel planned all these tours for us right when we arrived. We showed up at the hotel and we had a tour planned for everyday we were there.
Arrival in Puerto Princessa!
In our 2 minute shuttle ride!
Turned out to be an okay place. Not quite worth what we paid but we had a nice bed and air con inside. The service was great though!
Our pool!
Our first tour was a city tour and we saw some cool stuff. This was a boardwalk area (I think)!
An very pretty looking plaza where the entrance was the original work but most everything else has been redone!
A view of the coast and I heard they were going to have all this removed so they could expand the harbor.
A very beautiful blue church that is only about 50 years old!
I always find the dogs! These dogs were near Baker's Hill (next pics) and the big, fat black lab is the mayor's dog! The other was the cutest puppy. Here we had a beautiful view.
Awe! I wanted this guy!
And some horses. Justine was a bit scared of them but they were very sweet!!
Baker's Hill where they had a really good bakery and then a whole area of random statues and picture opportunities! One family lives here to keep it up and there is a restaurant as well.
The owner's house!
This place they make all the things they sell and its like they weaving but with some really big machine. Very cool stuff.
Where it's all made!
We even got to try and it is not an easy thing. There is a rhythm you need and I am sure it takes awhile to get it down but once you do, not too bad.
Then the shopping. They had a lot of good things and I wanted to buy a lot but no space to take it home! I did get a place mat set for mom.
She resisted, but it was a cool bag!
We heard about this cool restaurant and went to it that night. We took a tricycle ride there and when we asked how much he said he didn't know and I remembered hearing it should be about 200 pesos (like $7) so we paid that but later learned it should have been no more that 20 pesos (.50 cents). We decided we had made the guys night. As for the dinner it was not really that great and learned you should go to the restaurant during the day because it was set over the water but at night you can't see anything!
Very nice place though and cool atmosphere!
Back at home we went outside to read and a kid who lives there was very interested in my kindle fire and so I let him play a few games and he waited for us every night after that I think!
Our next tour we did some island hopping. We got to see 3 different islands and snorkel at each of them. The snorkeling unfortunately was not that great because they had some storms recently go through so the water was all churned up!
I was able to rent an underwater casing and use my camera as we were snorkeling. It was really cool and worked pretty well. Turned out to be really helpful because it was raining sometimes and I could still use it.
As always I love the dogs!
Couldn't ask for a more obvious picture opportunity.
Cool mangroves
Very fun spot to hang out an relax. The sun finally came out for the day and I sat in it for awhile but of course I still got burned. This spot offered a nice break from the hot sun!
We met a really nice girl, Aphy (sp?) who was traveling alone and she had the guts to go out on their "diving board." Cool photo op!
After a long day Aphy told us about this restaurant with great pizza so we met her and a couple other guys for dinner. And man was it good pizza!
In the tricycle which was the best way to travel anywhere!
Our next day we went scuba diving. The trip was through our resort and it was just me, Justine, a boat driver and the guide. Justine was not certified and she got to do an intro dive. She did a great job but kept trying to wonder off from the dive master. He held onto her octopus like a dog leash so she couldn't go anywhere. It definitely wasn't the best diving but they did have some of the best coral I have ever seen. We also briefly saw a manatee on the way to the first dive spot.
I went diving first.
Justine was up next for a quick briefing and then an intro.
Then we got to go together on the second dive.
In order to get to the dive boat we had to walk down this kind of road that gets covered up during high tide. Some parts you are walking where it is knee high.
A dog crossing to the other side.
And again at dinner at our hotel and the kid found us. He hung around all through dinner and I finally went to get my kindle fire for him to play. But it ran out of battery too soon!
When we were googling things to do in Palawan this Underground river came up and turns out it is a natural wonder of the world. So we said that was one thing we had to do and being the wonderful hotel it was our place booked us on the tour. We got lucky too because the tour had been cancelled for 4 days because of weather. We had to meet the tour at 5:30 am and we then had a 2 hour drive to the meeting place. Half way there we had a rest stop and to my very exciting surprise there was a monkey there. I saw him and the guy said he was friendly so I went over to say hi and he was soo cute. He jumped all over me. He tried to open my camera case and just watching his hands trying to open it was amazing because it is just like little kid hands.
Anytime I tried to leave he would jump on my leg or back and wanted me to stay! I didn't want to go either or take him with me.
We finally made it to the harbor where the bots left to get to the river and we only had to wait maybe a half hour. We got there early enough but the line quickly became long. Little boats had to take you to the entrance and only 6 people at most could fit in a boat.
Some photo ops while we were waiting.
Justine made the mistake of looking at the bracelets from one guy and all of a sudden there were about 4 people around her selling things.
The boats you take to the river entrance.
Finally time to go. The tour consisted of a 45 minute boat ride through the cave.
Very impressive river and absolutely huge. Some area were like 60 feet to 80 feet high! Full of bats as well.
Exit time
They had huge lizards there as well.
This is an endemic black peacock and it had beautiful, vibrant coloring.
The sun was out today and made it a beautiful day, but hot as well.
Picture with Justine's camera messing with the settings. It was beautiful!
The view from our lunch table.
Our included lunch. Grilled fish, rice, some pork and veggies. Not that tasty but we tried it.
We had some time to explore so I went for a walk down the beach. It was really nice to finally walk down a beac on a sunny day. I just wish I had some time to lay on it and relax with a book. It was really hot though and I know I would have burned. I loved my photo ops with the dogs. The Sabang is the name of the area we were in.
This was a very touristy area and they had a guy walking around with a python you could hold so of course I wanted too. I was abit nervous but not too bad and Justine was a okay with holding just the tail.
I was doing fine until the dang snake started putting its head close to me.
And even closer!!
There was another guy holding a different animal that I had no idea what it was and I wanted to hold it. This was really cool because he was so cute and would just crawl on you and sniffed my face. I could hear him in my ear and he was heavy but so cool! I later looked up what this animal was and its called a bearcat. I still get happy thinking about this because it was so unusual and so cute I think!
Photo op at a place called Elephant Cave. Beautiful views especially since the sun was still out!
I attempted to take some photos during the drive home and managed some good ones to show what the land was like.
We got home fairly early so we went on a search for a massage and nail place.
We found one decked out in Angry Bird stuff.
Ready for our pampering.
Our last dinner at a pretty good Thai place. We started with really yummy sushi.
Our last picture at the hotel. The lady who took this for us also asked if Justine was my daughter! We had a great time and were really sad to go!
A sign at the airport that was just funny and we have no idea what it means.
First plane of our long journey home. We flew Puerto Princess to Cebu, Cebu to Manila and Manila to Incheon!
Always cool views from planes.
We had an amazing time even if we had to change some plans and felt short on cash. It was really nice to travel with someone again. We didn't really get to sleep much or relax much on this trip but we saw a lot. We were okay waking up early and going to bed early. I am now looking forward to my next vacation and hoping to have another great trip somewhere. As of now it looks like we might try to go to Hong Kong.
