The capital of the island of Palawan. Shiz. Sounds like the name of a foreign country. The Most Serene Island Republic of Palawan. Eh! Eh? Visions of Venice just popped up, its history and its glory days, when all trade from the world led to its ports. What the.... getting back to my story of Puerto Princessa.
No comparison between Palawan and Venice, I'd take the sandy white beaches and clear emerald water in Palawan any day. So here I am in Puerto Princessa. Hanging out at the lobby outside my room. Waiting for the tour guide to pick up me for hours of island hopping!
Took this picture as I was sitting down on the comfortable couch. I stayed at a pension house, and it was really cheap. There is a restaurant on top of the roof, so you get a great of view the harbor and great food! Plus, it was cheap food! Cheap and good food.. oh yea! Well... cheap for foreigners anyways. A local might see it different.
And you will see foreigners. Met a Dutchman drinking a San Miguel as I was eating my breakfast, or was it dinner? Nice fellow. Drank a lot! Think he was on his 7th or 8th bottle. Didn't effect him one bit. Damn Europeans. Those guts are built for beer.
Here's a view of the harbor. It was pretty close to the pension house. Just a few minutes walk, and it was clean! Yea, that was a point for the harbor.
Yea, about the tour - it's the Honda Bay island hopping tour. It's cruising around 4 or 5 different pristine beaches, surrounded by clear still water. You could see straight through the water as your banka glides among the solitary waves. The banka is noisy, with its small little engine, but it got us to all the islands. Sweet.
Here you go - swoooooosh, as the banka takes flight!
I can't remember the names of the islands. One island was called Snake island because it was shaped as a snake. Pretty creative huh?
As lunch came, we ate some really good food. Yea, really good food. Should have taken pictures, but I was gorging on the stuff.
So after the island hopping tour, I took a a land tour of Puerto Princessa. Went to a butterfly place, a freakin live penal colony. Yea, a penal colony. Basically a jail but out in the countryside. They farm, grow their own food, and when their time is up, a lot of them stay in the area. Hell, it has great weather, and less crime than the big city of Manila.
The inmates sell trinkets to tourists really cheap. If you need to bring some crap from Palawan, get it from the penal colony. They use local material - shells, wood, etc, etc... and did I say it's bloody cheap? Plus, you have a great story to tell the folks at home where it's made!
Finally at the end of the tour, we came upon a bakery shop. I took a second look. Grinned. Laughed. Up yours Disney! Hahahahaaha! Check out the fine statues of Snow White and her seven dwarves. This place had tons of cartoon character statues.
It was hellya fun...!
There's also a mile long underground river that's pretty popular. Heard it's really good. You'd have to shoot me and drag my lifeless body to the boat to make do that. It's too confining for me personally.
2 comments:
It's looks beautiful there. I wanted to go while I was in PI but I ran out of time and money. I got to check out Boracay though. It was awesome. Way too many tourists though. But the white sand and girls made up for it!
Boracay is way too saturated with tourists. If you like a bit relaxing and up and coming place to vacation, go to Puerto Princessa, El Nido, or the beaches of Bohol.
If you want to get away from it all, try Danjugan. You could actually visit Cebu/Bohol and fly to Negros Occidental, but you will need driver to get to Danjugan. Takes a couple hours down south.
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