Photo Blog #15: Puerto Princesa

On our way back home



Halloween night

Butterfly farm at Sta Monica

Bakers Hill Photo Ops

Crocs from crocodile farm

All photos were taken by my Nokia6300 phone- no edits. Most of the photos were taken by hubby and I'm too lazy to cross post here those that were already posted in FB.

Accommodation: Lola Itang, this is highly recommended- clean and cheap.

Day#1 -Oct 29 we arrived 1120H

Activities: City Tour- of course we don't have a tour guide, we opted to rent a tricycle that would take us to the various points of the city (including the cathedral).

I had a chance to run along the baywalk which totaled 5K- I was a little bored running the 500 m stretch.

We dined at Kalui- a very nice resto (which requires reservation hmmmm good thing were small family- hubby was able to nudge the manager to get us through).

Well the resto is famous for barefoot dining- you have to leave your shoes or slippers at the entrance.
 The food were really great. The wheatgrass with palawan honey is a must try drinks.

Day#2 -Oct 30 we woke up early....hubby and I sealed it with a kiss. Because it was our 11th wedding anniversary.

Spend the day island hopping at the honda bay (this was spelled hunda bay-which is which? am not sure about it). Again, we head off without a tour guide- this is to minimize expense and to get to know the locales better and interact with them. We find our way by commuting through a jeepney ride to Sta Lourdes.

The order of our island hopping visit is Pambato - which is really a fun filled snorkeling area. Then there is Luli -nothing much. But the island is interesting because the island is not visible during high tide (So Luli is for lulubog lilitaw)....reminds me of the famous Ms Universe pageant response on a question how many island does the Philippines have...."High tide or low tide?". Then there is starfish island- the starfish here are with hard shells, rich in calcium carbonate structure compared to the soft starfish we see in the beaches of Batangas. Afterwards we went to the famous snake island were we had our lunch a yummy grilled "Talakitok" and steamed crabs....I didn't know that two adults and two pre-schooler can consume 1.5kg of each viand harharhar....after lunch we had fun snorkeling the fish would go near over a pinch of bread...amazing. Our last stop is the Pandan island- in this place our boatman took us to a snorkeling site where I saw nemo's home the anemone....hmmm the clownfish isn't a funny fish, they were terretorial.

Before we knew it...it was almost four o clock time to go home.

Our way to the hotel was a little exciting- tricycle rent is really expensive so we end up walking the 1 km stretch from Honda bay to the main road hehehe so we can be a regular passenger (no tricycle offering their rental services)....I was telling my hubby if we could run 10K-why can't we walk the 1km? =) sometimes my responses could still be influenced by my running activities- maybe I'm crazy.

It was less than an hour ride to Puerto Princesa main city- so our next stop is the market...we purchased some cheap dried fish and nuts (kasoy!).

Dinner is at Bilao't Palayok- the resto is also good....but I realized we could have had our Anniv dinner instead to Kalui. But anyways, I enjoyed the exclusivity of the place- Kalui is usually jam packed....a lot of people wanted to partake the sumptous food it has to offer.

We were too tired that getting to bed and having a good night sleep was a wonderful luxury.

Day #3- Oct 31-We woke up early because we have in mind a swift run before going back home in Cavite. 8 AM is our supposed check in time.

But then the news of typhoon Santi in Manila glued as to our seat as we started watching tv to get updates....whoa! can't be another Ondoy.

Then the long wait is over- flight cancellation were announced-so we have to stay for another day.

Hubby immediately went to the airport to have our tickets reschedule the following day.

While hubby is away- had my breakfast with the kid....oh no! there were no more plans....I was thinking why not try the underground river. So while hubby is rescheduling our ticket, I was calling him to check out how we can proceed with the underground river.

Unfortunately, hubby was back 9:30AM which is already impossible to go to the underground river.

Sigh! Instead we went to the famous hot spring- we were sure it was good for our aching muscle. I noticed that the owners of hotspring were koreans. We were so early for that hotbath, it was only 2 PM.

Hubby loves hot bath so he and the kids enjoyed it. While I decided to examine the korean garden and the other pools.

At 4 PM we decided to go back to the hostel....but on downtown, we became curios about the vietnamese noodle- hmmm since the vietnamese refugee is not there anymore.....we find this noodle house exciting- they call it Pham Chao Long. Well the bread taste good, the Chao Long is a rice noodle the soup is quite sweet in blend.....hmmm maybe we Bicolanos are comfortable with spicy - my verdict it taste good but still nothing beats my favorite Loglog or Kinalas.

At dinner time we tried chooks to go- it's like Andok's- roasted chicken is their specialty, we took some stroll on the city plaza....oh the singing contest was just concluded....we didn't catch a glimpse of it. Their plaza is well built. Our attention was caught by the long lines of voters registering for the comelec hmmm this reminds us that its the final day to register.

Our Puerto Princesa visit is great! Adventure-filled and most of all value for money hahahaha....the airfare is cheap....everything was just economical- which is our target everytime we took a vacay-less spending.