Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
Our third and final day at Puerto Princesa found us waking up real early to prepare for a visit to the famous UNESCO Heritage site, Puerto Princesa’s St Paul Subterranean National park. It’s around 2 hours away from the city and since we have a flight in the afternoon, I asked PASYAR Tours to book us the earliest tour to the site. They got to our hotel in time around 7am just when we were about to finish our breakfast.
Our 2nd day in Puerto Princesa started when a Van from Pasyar Palawan fetched us about 8am at Microtel Hotel. The only seats available in the van are for the four of us, I guess the P1100 per pax fee for the Honda Bay Island Hopping isn’t exclusive to us this time. Anyways, the fee covers a day of island hopping including our lunch so I guess I don’t mind sharing.
Having been to other parts of Palawan like, Coron, El Nido and Taytay, I was looking forward to finally visiting Puerto Princesa because it’s one of the major cities in Palawan and probably the most urbanized among them all. This Hagedorn governed city is the 2nd largest city in the country and also known as one of the greenest and cleanest. Driving through from the airport and making a few stops before reaching the resort, I thought it’s one of those places I could actually live in for a while. Wide roads, well organized city layout and medium sized high rises. I actually like it.
Microtel for many years have already established their brand. “It’s the same hotel where ever you go” as their slogan says. For the regular patrons, this is a good thing. They really do have one of the most comfortable chiropractic beds around and the familiar interiors would make it easier for guest to feel at home. While they do have a template for their hotels, they do make adjustments on their resort-type hotels. Like their Boracay branch, Microtel made adjustments to their beach front hotel in Puerto Princesa, Emerald Playa Beach and Nature Park.
I previously though that going into this part of the last frontier of the country we all know as Palawan would be really expensive. But I learned that with a bit of haggling, looking around and being with other thrifty companions while in El Nido can really stretch your budget. In the 5 days and 4 nights, with two days of Island hopping, 1 day of inland tours and sampling some of the good food of El Nido, I only spent P6082 (US$132) (excluding transport to El Nido from Manila). Read on for the details.
It’s been taunting me ever since we came to El Nido. Those towering cliffs and jagged peaks keep calling me, daring me to tread its trail, conquer its peak and discover what’s up there. We already inquired at one of the tour operators there first time we came here about climbing those cliff. There’s a 300 pesos guide fee per person with a minimum of two persons quota that I thought was expensive. And on our last day I got a good deal and the guide would accompany me to the peaks even on my own.
“We can’t make it to Snake Island”, our boatman who doubles as our guide, Charlie informed us. It was already late mid afternoon and Snake Island is far down south of Bacuit Bay. We were also told that we needed to refill our fuel soon lest we got stuck in the middle of the bay. We headed to an island they called Helicopter Island, said to be named after its shape. But it looks a lot more like a whale to me.
