P.I. in pics (last part)

PALAWAN

Where to eat:

I'm glad the tricycle driver insisted we try eating at Kalui. It was lunchtime when we arrived in Puerto Princesa from Cebu so I told him to take us to Chowking if they had one. His answer was to ask me and A if we liked seafoods. That was my mission in life during the whole trip, to gobble tons of them. "Well then please try the best seafood restaurant in our town," he said. And so we did. And we were so glad we did.

Spicy clam soup is served for free during lunch and dinner. This poor prawn eventually landed in A's stomach. Kalui is open daily except Sundays.

Another must visit place in Puerto is Kinabuchs Bar and Grill very near Kalui (upper right pic with me looking like a native mushroom myself). Puerto Princesa has virtually no night life and the only place, aside from the perennial videokes, where you can hang-out is at Kinabuchs. Great food and live bands are their selling points.

Where to go:

Butterfly Garden- you can hire a tricycle to take you to this place. I forgot how much the entrance fee was but foreigners are asked to pay more than the local tourists. Talk about discrimination in another form.

Crocodile Farm- is quite far from the center but you can drop by Butterfly Garden first then head to this farm or the other way around. The very helpful tricycle driver who insisted we eat at Kalui offered to tour us around Puerto the whole afternoon for Php 500.00. He helped us so much without ripping us off. (Note: 1 USD-Php 45-46)

Sabang Beach and Underground River- the same driver recommended us to get a guided tour package from Topstar. He said it's the most reliable and the cheapest, and of course, he was right. The package was for Php 1,200/pax, all inclusive. Sabang is awesome, the kind of place which you'd like to visit again and again.

What to do:

Island-hopping. Honda Bay is relatively near the city center. You can get a package from travel agencies like Topstar to go island-hopping there for PhP 900.00 all inclusive. It includes boat rentals, lunch, pick-up and drop off at your hotel. We opted to go independently because Topstar didn't have a tour scheduled for that day. The greatest thing about Puerto Princesa is the tour packages, boat rentals, etc, are somewhat regulated by the local goverment complete with a receipt. In most parts of the country expect to be ripped off if you're traveling with a foreigner.

Above pics: 1 and 2. A hammock in Panda Island. Not a single soul is at the beach.
3. How Snake Island got its name. It looks like a long snake during low tide.
4. A resort under construction. This wasn't a planned stop but on our way back to Honda Bay A still wanted to explore more. Fortunately our guide knows the owner of this island so we were allowed to roam there freely.

Palawan made it to the very short list of the places in P.I. that I truly truly heart. My only regret was we were not able to go to El Nido. We were suddenly tired of traveling to different places in barely four weeks, and we thought we could only go to El Nido from Puerto by land. It's a 9-10-hour trip, so we were told. We only learned there are SEAir flights twice or thrice a week from Puerto when we were about to board our flight back to Cebu. Maybe next time we are in P.I. we'll finally be able to visit El Nido and its much talked about natural grandeur.