Osong Ligaw goes to Palawan

Osong Ligaw goes to Palawan

One of another must see sights in the Philippines is Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Often neglected because of its more famous sisters, Coron and El Nido, Puerto Princesa will surely not fail to impress you.
So again, my human and I, packed a small bag with a couple of clothes and EZ maps for a grand adventure in Puerto Princesa!

• Manila to Puerto Princesa. I guess the most convenient way to travel to Puerto Princesa (PPS) is to fly. Since I have flown Zest Air already when I went to Cebu, my human decided to try Cebu Pacific this time. MNL to PPS costs around Php 2,300++ via Cebu Pac and around Php 2,100++ via Air Asia. Travel time usually takes just 1.15 hours. Remember to be at the airport 2 hours or earlier before your trip. 

~ Also, if you've used a friend's credit card in booking, you may want to double check the airline's policy on this one. I will tell you more of my horrendous experience with credit card in Singapore soon.  

• Subterranean River Park. At the airport, there are several travel agencies who will try to book you for a tour at SRP. Well, securing the permit yourself might be a hassle so I suggest that you book in one of these agencies. Roughly, this will cost you around Php 1,500 for a hassle-free travel to SRP. This already includes a van picking you up from your hotel to Sabang Bay where your boat awaits, a ferry that will take you to SRP, and another boat to tour you around the SRP. Ours also give a sumptuous lunch so you can say, it was worth it. 

Subterranean River Park

 The underground river is actually very, very long. Roughly around 8 km, but you will only explore just around 1.5 km for safety reasons. It was pitch-dark inside and the sites are such a marvel! Your Kuya Boat Ride will show you where to look to spot amazing rock formations like the *Cathedral *the Holy Family *Big Lion and several others.

Waiting for your boat to take you underground will never be a bore since you can go for a short hike where you'll see the local bayawak roaming the area (people say he's friendly, but I don't wanna try my luck), and several monkeys doing uhm...monkey stuff (read as: stealing food, swinging from branches to branches, and errr...making love before a live audience).

~Refrain from taking pictures with flash so as not to disturb the bats inside the cave. You have a small boat, total darkness, and who-knows-how-much-kilometres-deep below sea level, and believe me, the last thing you need is a a cloud of panicking bats.

• Mangrove Tour. This, thankfully, is already included in our tour. From Sabang Bay, you will be directed to a Mangrove Tour where besides the Mangroves, you will also see rich wildlife living near the mangroves. In fact, we were (un)fortunate enough to have seen a large snake hanging from a branch near our path. 

Well, you can say, I owned the boat

Like in movies, I could feel a large croc ready to swallow everyone in the boat 

Serenity at its finest 

Fish out of the water! Serious! 

• Puerto Princesa Tour. Just with a small tricycle which you can rent for Php600, you can tour Puerto Princesa lavishly. The tour includes *Baker's Hill *Butterfly Garden (try to skip this one) *Crocodile Farm. 

Pun intended

• Honda Bay. Going to Honda Bay is not much of a hassle compared to a trip to SRP. My human called for a small tricycle that brought us super early in the morning at Honda Bay where we toured unil 11am. Of course, you may want to stay a little longer, but since our flight was also on the same afternoon, we decided to just stay until 11am. A private tour such as ours cost us around Php 2,000 per boat for 4 people and a bear. 

From Honda Bay, you will tour three different islands: Star Fish Island, Pandan Island, and Snake Island. Pandan Island is the friendliest to (inexperienced) swimmers. Here, you can swim freely and the sand is soft and white. Starfish island's shore is a little rough with millions of white pebbles. Snake Island is the most beautiful among the three, and this is the perfect spot to snorkel. Different fishes here are so free and are not afraid of the swimmers. Of course, I was not allowed to snorkel since bears.eat.fish. 

Pandan Island

Dogs roam the area to "guard" the fishes from illegal fishers, but I guess this dog missed the memo.