This is a guest post by a good friend, Patty Soliman. Patty and hubby Noli, were my housemates in the 80s where we stayed for free in the house of another good friend, Monchit Arellano, in Marikina.
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Amazing Trip to Puerto Princesa
By Patty Soliman
19 October 2012
October 15, 2012 was the first time Noly and I set foot
to this amazing place called Puerto Princesa. When my sister Tricci asked me
last February where I would like to go, I immediately said, Puerto Princesa in
Palawan. I never thought she was serious booking us right away when she
got a promo from Cebu Pacific. I chose to have the trip in October since
Noly and I celebrated our 26th Anniversary last Oct.11.
I started searching everything I need to know about the
place through the help of those people who've visited the place and made their
blogs through Google. And it helped me a lot. Where to dine, places to visit
and of course the pocket money more or less I should prepare. But that was also
being taken care of. I even made our itinerary for the entire 3-days trip and
secured medical certificate for Noly. Just in case someone asked. Two weeks
before we leave for Puerto, I called up my cousin, Levi Evangelista whom Ive
never seen for the past 20 years and told him I hope to see him there. He was
delighted to hear from me again and even told me to call him as soon as we
arrived.
Waking up as early as 3AM started our day preparing for
this trip as we need to be at terminal 3 by 6AM. I can't complain why she
booked our trip to 830AM flight. Contrary to what I hear about Cebu Pacific,
there was no delay in our flight and our plane touched down exactly as what was
indicated in our tickets. It was the most beautiful 9:10 AM I ever appreciated
with full of excitement wondering how would this vacation is going to be. We
were picked up from Puerto Princesa Airport by our hotel shuttle.
We checked in at A&A Plaza Hotel and funny, the room
given to us doesn't have any windows. It felt like we were in a big cabinet.
Good thing both Noly and I are not claustrophobic. As promised to my cousin,
Levi, I called him as soon as we settled in our room. He then told me that his
son will show us around the city. He was apologizing that he cannot join us due
to unexpected matters from work.
His son, Avin, met us at the hotel lobby at around
11:30AM and drove us to Bilao at Palayok. Told him to drive us there as it was
the one indicated in the itinerary I made. The first meal we ever ate in
Palawan, and can really tell how fresh the fish was. We ordered Grilled Tuna
and Beef Lengua. Tuna was really fresh and the Lengua was cooked with cream and
Banana Heart and really taste good. Right after lunch, we headed to our first
destination, The Crocodile Farm. We parked our van in front of those souvenir
shops and were already excited to buy Sky his pasalubong. We paid our entrance
fees and went straight to where a little information about Palawan Crocodiles
was given to us. We then first saw those cute crocodile hatchlings placed in
rectangular deep basins. The big ones were placed in bigger cages with shallow
water. The biggest we saw was about 11ft. long. Some tourists were given the
chance to feed those middle-sized crocodiles from the hanging raw meat. We made
our tour high top from those crocodiles.
Other Palawan animals were introduced to us, like the
Kalaw, Bearcat, and Peacock. I never thought we also have Peacocks here in the
Philippines and it is called Peacock Peasant. Noly had the chance to try having
picture with a Bearcat. It scares me to try, so I was contended to just stand
beside him with a huge Bearcat on his shoulders.
Next in our itinerary was supposed to be the Butterfly
farm but I begged off. We've seen a lot of Butterfly Farms in other places. So
Avin showed us the Mitra Ranch. Upon approaching the place, I felt a familiar
atmosphere and Avin told us that the place is similar to Tagaytay. I guess so,
because there was a sudden change of coldness from the breeze. It was amazing to
see Honda Bay from Mitra Ranch. Our next stop was the Baker's Hill. Noly was
delighted to see rare plants while I enjoyed looking at those statues around.
He even wanted to buy some plants but I stopped him from buying, not only that
it was a bit expensive, told him, we might have difficulty bringing it to
Manila.
We then went back to the City proper to buy the
pasalubong pearls I promised our daughter at Delma Pearls and Souvenir shop.
Noly then chose to buy also for his sister and a Palawan Printed Crocodile
shirt for our little Sky. While we were busy buying, we were surprised by my
cousin Levi. Finally meeting him again after 20 years! He then took the
privilege of showing us the Bay walk, Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral and the
Plaza Cuartel while Avin, went to fetch his mom and his other siblings for the
dinner Levi set for us. Our City Tour end around 5:30 PM. Levi then, brought us
back to our hotel to shower. It was tiring though since we were up since 3AM
but it didn't stop us to look forward for the dinner date with Levi and his
family.
