PALAWAN ESCAPADE!!!

  Sept. 18 2006

undertime left the office at 3pm, went to manila together with my wife. Brought Tent, Fishing Rod, clothes, pocketmoney, etc. left lucena city at 3:30pm via bus, arrived at manila at 7:30pm. had a few drinks at my bro's crib. slept early, our flight is 6am.

Sept. 19 2006   

Left pasay at 5am, arrived at the airport 5:45am checked in our baggages, got frisked in every entry at the airport terminal fee at ninoy aquino domestic airport cost 200 each person, expensive!!!! but well worth it. left airport at 7am via cebu pacific airlines. Arrived at puerto princessa airport at 830am, check out baggages. somebody was waiting for us at the airport to bring us to our pad. freshen up for just a few minutes then went on

our city tour. while freshening up we look for a tricycle to take us for a city tour. we met ROBIN A.K.A. "mang kanor" our city tour cost P500.00 we agreed upon the price and got dressed up. Anyway the tricycle of palawan looks like this:  

1ST STOP: 1st food trip in palawan. CHOWLONG!!!

Rene's Chowlong House

ordered beef chowlong with bread which cost only P75.00. which was very cheap, can't even finish the whole meal itself. very filling at yummmyyyy!!!!!

2nd STOP: PALAWAN WILDLIFE RESCUE AND CONSERVATION CENTER A.K.A. (Crocodile Farm)

Entrance : P30.00

first thing you can smell when we arrived at crocodile farm is the stence of the crocs. we had a film viewing first, but skipped it since we don't have to waste time we have many places to go. we saw plenty of crocs, at the entrance you can see the giant croc skeleton, biggest in the philippines, caught in palawan, we had a picture taken holding a baby croc. saw a bear-cat, ostrich, turtles, eagles, and lots of crocs. The souvenirs are cheap but we didn’t buy, we thought we can buy some at the city. Our biggest mistake we did. But a lesson well learned. Hehehe.

3rd STOP: MITRA'S RANCH

Entrance:FREE!!!!!!

Just visited the place and had a few pics taken. a very large ranch owned by the mitra family. nothing much to see

but a nice place with a breath-taking view of the beaches of palawan.

4th STOP: BAKER'S HILL

Entrance: FREE!!!!!!!!!!!

this was not in our city tour package, but since its obn the way home, didn't mind to pass through, famous for

their hopia. didn't buy anything just took pics with their dispaly of cartoon characters. very near MITRA'S RANCH.

5th STOP: BUTTERFLY GARDEN

Entrance: P35.00

This place is a small compound with net over our heads so the butterflies can't escape the compound. many different species of butterflies bred here. and insects are also captive bred here. saw walking sticks, scorpions, beetles, and a colorful gecko.

6th STOP: WHITE BEACH

Entrance: P10.00

Just took a walk along this white sanded beach. the water is luke-warm. a knee-deep water you can see some fishes

swimming. saw lots of sea-weeds, box fishes, eels, small fishes. nice place though.  went to our place to stay to dress up for dinner.

DINNER: Balinsasayaw

Their menu consist of meal set which cost around 65-90 pesos per serving, which is alright since the food tastes great. Ate their specialty on the menu. Very nice food and the ambiance is nice also. Went to our pad to realize that there was a power failure that time at that place. We went to duchess a nice place to stay all room rates are very cheap.

09-20-2006

Woke up at 7am to go to the market to buy fresh shrimps, squids and meat to be our munchies at our island hoping escape!!!! Went to the pier to register and rented the snorkels and boat for our your.

PIER:

BOAT RENTAL (3 islands): P1,000.00

SNORKEL : P200.00 (w/ fins) : P300.00

PANDAN ISLAND: 9:00am

Entrance: 30.00

Snorkeled there for almost 1 hour, saw different species of fishes, corals and anemones. Want to stay there much longer but we still have to go to other islands.

SNAKE ISLAND: 10:30am

Our boatmen took the liberty in cooking the food we bought at the market, while we went to feed the fishes. Lots of fishes seen here. A very large school of fishes caught our attention here, after seeing it i went to get my fishing rod, only to discover that it’s illegal to fish there, all the fishes there are for viewing purposes only. Stayed there til 3:30pm. Had a great time at this island the most.

STARFISH ISLAND: 3:50pm

Nothing much in this island just took a couple of pics here and left.

LU-LI ISLAND : 4:00pm

Entrance: P40.00

Lulubog-Lilitaw island as most palweños say. This island has this very high diving board which I didn’t  try. Not that i’m chicken or what, i just don’t want to jump. Hehehe. This island is free in our island hoping.

PIER: 5:00pm

Reached duchess at 5:30pm rested for a while and went to Ka Lui’s

DINNER: Ka Lui’s

The food here is more expensive than of Balinsasayaw’s  but it tastes great. Tried their crab meal, consist of 1 medium sized crab, cup of rice, vegetable with 2 pcs of large shrimps. Also tried their sisig, and their fruit shakes!! Nice place but you have to wait to be seated since its always full.

GIMMIK!!!: Kinabuch!!

This bar has a very big projector a nice place to hang out and watch soccer or basketball game while having a few beers. We ordered Beers, fries, tuna sashimi, Pizza and SIZZLING BULALO. Enjoyed it and went to duchess around 3am not that really wasted.

09-21-2006

Woke up very early because the bus going to the underwater cave has 2 trips only 6:30am and the bus leaves at 5:00pm.

Our agenda for this day is to go the underground river. The bus trip took 4 hours 2 hours of concrete road and 2 hours of  rough road. We arrived at there at 9 or 10 am. Registered and got the necessary permit. NO PERMIT NO ENTRY in the underground river. We rode a mini boat that can carry 9 persons, we went to entrance to the caves. We rode a small boat that will take us inside the caves, the caves are full of bats and bat shit!! The stalagmites and stalactites are amazing many form different kinds of shape! The inside of the caves are very dark and very creepy. The water is dark brown and you can’t see the bottom of it. The tour only last almost an hour!!! Our travel time took most of our time there.

We ate at the tribal restaurant. The food is great and very cheap. We waited for the bus to take us back to the city. We went to VIETVILLE and a very short trip around it. And found no VIETs there. We didn’t try the chowlong there. The place is mosquito infested!!! Be sure to bring lots of bug spray!!!!!! Went to our pad late!!

DINNER: Kinabuch

Ordered Crispy Pata, Sweet and Sour Lapu-Lapu, Bulalo, Mango Salad and Fruit Shakes. Very Cheap!!!! Nice Food and Ambiance. Went home to prepare our things.

09-22-2006

Woke up very early to buy souvenirs to bring and pasalubong. Our flight is 9am and went to the airport at 8:45am. Boarded at 9:10am and lift off at 9:45. Arrived in manila almost 11am, lots of turbulence landing at NInoy Domestic Airport. Very Relaxing Trip and Enjoyed it very much. Be sure when you go to Palawan allot at least 5 days for your trip so you can go almost anywhere there!!! Bring lots of BUG spray when going to Underground River you don’t want to have MALARIA!!!!.