My First Trip to Palawan (Part 1)

April 16, 2007

(I said “first” because I am definitely going to visit Palawan again. To those who are planning to go there, this may seem a spoiler, but from my experience I’d say you will never really know what it’s like unless you actually set foot in the Philippines‘ Last Frontier )

About five years ago, when Tita Helen and I started out with our “project” (read: to visit as many Philippine towns and islands as we can), Palawan was already on top of our list. But for some reason, the trip to Palawan did not materialize. In December 2006, we finally got the nod of our parents (yes, we do ask permission from our parents whenever we venture into a trip and usually it takes months bago makuha ang matamis nilang “Oo” but we don’t really mind at all. We like being treated like kids sometimes ). As early as January, we were already scouting for good airfare deals and cheap accommodations and planning our itinerary.

Our Base (Puerto Pension Inn)

We landed in Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan, after an hour flight from the Centennial Airport in Manila, and waited for a while for the vehicle which which would take us to the inn where we booked.

Puerto Pension Inn is a clean, cozy and decent place. Very accommodating ang staff, plus it offers low room rates. Ayan, libreng plugging hehehe.

Puerto Pension Inn at night.

Tita Helen at the reception area cum souvenir shop of Puerto Pension.

Sabang

To get to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, we had to travel first to Sabang in a van. It was a two and a half hour trip bone-shaking trip on winding and bumpy roads. But all in all it was fun and enjoyable, made more so by serene countryside scenery like this…

…and big limestone rocks on the side of the road. These limestone rocks are part of the St. Paul mountain range which is made up of "karst" limestone.

When we reached Sabang, we saw boatmen readying their outrigger boats (banca) to transport passengers to the beach at the entrance of the park.

Each boat can load a maximum of 8 persons, which include two boatmen. Guests are required to wear life jackets.

Yours truly with some new-found friends from mainland China who speak Mandarin, not Fookien. So the little Fookien that I knew was worthless that day. My broken English came handy though lol.

The 20-minute boat ride to the beach at the entrance of the cave was an awesome experience.

Notice the image in the background? It is the St. Paul mountain range. Some people say it looks like a contour of a face, St. Paul’s face, that is. Hence the name of the mountain range and the river under.

This picture tells we are just a few meters away from the shore of the bay at the entrance of the river. Look at the color of the water. It’s torquoise!

That's all for now folks. I have a terrible headache, my migraine is pestering me. Got to rest. Next post: Part 2 of my first Palawan trip. We’re going into the batcave .