----------
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.
He fetched us in our hotel at around 7PM and brought us
to Dampa where this Dampa branch offered a rare kind of shellfish. We wanted so
much to try the Tamilok but were afraid to get diarrhea if not eaten well. And so
we passed. But we ate a rare kind of shell fish cooked similar to Camaron
Rebosado style . And really tastes so good. I ate a lot of those. Our dinner
was a catching up from lost times and how Levi ended up working at Iwahig. Gave
up their careers from Jolibee in Manila and embraced the simple life in Iwahig.
Our first day in Puerto Princesa ended at around 10:30PM.
The following day, we were excited preparing for our
Underground River Tour. Ate buffet breakfast at around 6:30 and waited until
our tour guide arrived.
Eleven of us tourists were introduced to our tour guide,
Kristine and our driver Lito. Four foreigners, 3 honeymooners (including us)
and another Filipino as body guard for the 2 foreigners. Kristine's
deliberation about Palawan was really informative. She started her information
from how it was called Palawan. Well, the Chinese and Malays were to ones who
first set foot in this place. Then later, the British? I think? Well, I was not
at all time listening to her as I was busy looking at those tall and
huge trees I see on the road. I was surprised to see a live big boar running
along the road. I asked our driver if the one I saw was really boar. Smiling at
me, Lito replied nodding his head. Wow! I was fascinated with all these nature
I see in front of me.
Kristine informed us about how Mayor Edward
Hagedorn promotes to save the natural beauty of Palawan from the miners.
He even has this so-called community projects in which he taught the people to
protect their natural resources from miners and instead taught them to promote
their communities through tourism. One of which was the Ugong Rock Mountain.
Instead of allowing this Limestone Mountain to be quarried they let tourist to
enter this magnificent place. And we were given the chance to experience this
adventure. Before I signed in to register, I asked the guide if Noly be allowed
to enter the cave with his condition. Kristine said, maybe Noly can try half
way until Noly reached she called-Miranda Station. Then from there, she can
help Noly to go back while I continue the cave climb until the top. We all
agreed to these arrangements until we reached the Miranda Station.
Then Noly informed us, he can still continue and was
willing to do the spelunking. I was a bit apprehensive with his decision but I
then requested Kristine to extend her extra- assistance for Noly. We passed
through narrow passages and headed for the heart stopping spelunking. Noly made
it until the top of our cave exploration. Then I asked Kristine how to go down.
She then offered 2 choices. One was to pass through how we get in and the other
was to take the zip-line. It was not on my original plan as I am afraid of
heights. But I was informed all our tour mates took the zip-line and were
already waiting for us to finish. And Noly immediately said, OK, let's do the
zip-line. I was really having second thoughts on doing it but I got no choice
but to do it anyway. My heart was pounding so hard while men started fixing my
harness. While waiting for our turn, I requested Kristine to take off before us
for her to be able to take our picture as she capture this rare experience. I
just want my first zip-line experience to be recorded :-) And in matter of few
seconds it was over. While men were taking off my harness, Noly was asking me
how I feel. I was still in shocked and couldn't utter a word and my legs were a
bit shaky. Then we all applauded, Noly was able to do the entire cave
exploration and ending it by taking the zip-line. I was really proud of his
determination.
Then we head to Sabang where we were ushered to our Lunch
destination while we wait for our turn for Underground River Tour. Lunch was
buffet style prepared by those little restaurants by the beach. I wanted so
much to take a dip in the water but Kristine stopped me due to underwater
current. At exactly 1PM we are then one by one being assisted to take our boat.
Our group was divided to two. We are joined with the honeymooners while the
other boat where the foreigners and the bodyguard. We were amazed with those
rocky mountains as we approached St. Paul's Subterranean River National
Park. We requested someone to take our picture with those rocky mountains in
our back view. Upon entering the park, we were told that there are some
live monitor lizards around while we explore the place. I was excitedly taking
pictures of these lizards until suddenly my camera battery was off. I felt so
disappointed learning that I cannot be able to shoot our underground river
exploration. Good thing our tour mate, Au and Cris offered to take picture of us
and promised to send us through FB. Thanks to these two Samaritans our UR was
recorded.
While waiting for our turn to enter, Noly and I decided
to walk by the beach. Again, signage were written swimming is not allowed ): It
took us about 30 minutes or so until we finally entered the underground river.
It was really amazing! The boatman was telling us (in Filipino) how it was
discovered and how these were explored by some geologist. Fascinated to see
these stalagmites and stalactites formed were really incredible. But what
amazed us all, was the high ceiling stone formation the boatman called
Cathedral. Our boat exploration took us about 45 minutes and was really
delighted with what we experienced from inside. Truly, a great wonders of the
world. We headed back to City proper with full of amazement from what we
discovered.
Noly and I had our romantic dinner at Kalui where we were
served with complete meal from the appetizer (seaweed with calamansi), soup,
4-main course (Grilled Tuna, Buttered Shrimps, Sweet and Sour Dip-fried Fish
and Pinakbet), to dessert (assorted fruit slices in Cconut hask with brown
sugar). The serving was good for 2 and we were so full. After dinner, we
decided to take a walk to further explore the city. Noticing it was safe
to walk around Puerto Princesa. And also, noticed tricycle drivers are
disciplined to ask for the right fare despite knowing that we are tourists.
We woke up 6AM packing our things for our morning flight
back to Manila. When we approached the hotel's restaurant for our breakfast,
all our tour mates from the previous day are all waiting for their tour guide
for their Honda Bay Tour. Was a bit jealous that they will be able to further
explore what Palawan can offer, but said to myself, next time, when I bring our
children along :-)
Our amazing trip to Puerto Princesa ends when we boarded
our plane at 10:10AM. Brought with us the exciting experienced we had. As Noly
said, it was like watching a movie wherein we were part of it :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment