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Published: January 24th 2009
Sabang, Palawan
Me and Nancy on the shore of the Island of the entrance to the Subterranean Underground River Dad, Nancy and I arrived Thursday morning in Puerto Princessa, Palawan. Woo Hoo! It was about 27 degrees celcius when we landed and humid as hell. Nancy had a stellar sleep (as she says) the night before we left (her first night in Manila) but I on the other hand only had about four hours sleep before we left.
Dad, Nancy, Ann and I decided to have some drinks on the porch after dinner and after Nancy and I had packed for Palawan. Dad went to bed around 9:20p and Nancy retired not long after but was a complete trooper. Ann and I decided to polish off the rest of the Grey Goose that night - hehe. We were just sitting and talking when we saw my dad come down stairs fully dressed. I started to panic because I thought I had lost track of time - so I asked dad where he was going and he said "to the airport!" and Ann said "Uncle Ben, it's only 11:30p!" hehe. Poor dad! He heard us talking downstairs and thought he was running late....so he went back to bed. Ann and I finally started to get tired around 1:00a. My dad
Sabang, Palawan
Mama & Daddy - Underground River Trip woke Nancy and I up at 5:00am so we could shower and head to the airport.
We arrived on time and my Tita Mila had arranged for a driver for us for the day. We are staying at the Casa Linda - a super cute nepa hut/bahay kubo style hotel. It's not by any means a luxury hotel but offers a nice place to sleep with a very rustic ambiance. It offers a very nostalgic stay here in Puerto Princessa and reminds us of the environmental consciousness that Palawan prides itself on. There is a beautiful garden in the center of the rooms. There are only 12 rooms here and they border the garden in this open air hotel. I have pictures but I didn't pack cords to upload them from the computer they have in the lobby. I promise to upload them when we get back to Manila.
Mom, Tita Mophtie, UNlce Nono, Tita Nen, Unlce Bon and Brian were waiting at the hotel to greet us. Nancy and I headed straight to our room to throw on our bathingsuits as the plan for the day was...Ilsand Hopping! Yes, Island Hopping. We all piled into the van
Natural Marble Mountains
The Natural Marble Mountains that surround the underground river in Sabang, Palawan. The natural beauty of Palawan is amazing. for a 30 minutes ride to Hunda Bay (also seen written as Honda). It's famous for the island hopping beaches and snorkeling. We were told before we go on the trip to get baoon (lunch) since there aren't any restaurants on the islands. So on the way to the Bay we stopped at Jolibee to pick up some quick food. Nancy and I decided it would be a fabulous idea to start a video clip diary of our trip. So you will see them as soon as I can get them uploaded and understand some of the things I may be talking about.
Once we got to the bay we hired a boat & tour guide for the afternoon. The boats are the traditional style boats with the bamboo side things that keep the boat from flipping over (you'll understand when the picture gets posted). We took about a 30 minute drive to our first stop at Pandan Island. The waters are unbelievably clear here and so blue. You can tell that the people of Palawan are very eco-friendly. When we pulled up to the beach, there were about 4 outher tour boats there making the island feel very secluded. The beach was not jam packed full of tourists but rather scattered with tourists here and there as well as the locals to the island. Now from my understanding the island is pretty small and you can actually walk around the whole thing in 30 minutes...so I am not sure if the "locals" actually live on the island or if they commute back and forth. Either way, it was stunning. The boat p0ulled right into the shore and we got off in the sun glistening warm water. Pandan Island has a supremely rustic feel seemingly untouched by anything commercial or developments. There was a store on the island but just a small stand set up on a table in front of what looked like an open air trip (they had local chips and drinks and some other refreshments). So come to think of it the locals might actually live on the island. As we walked up to the island we noticed small nepa huts with bamboo beds underneath scattered under the coconut trees for island goers who wanted to relax in the shade. The aunties and uncles immediately noticed the live blue crab which the immediately began bargaining for. They also had live lobster and fish they had just caught. Nancy has a picture of me holding a live lobster that I was not all excited to hold...she also has a picture of herself holding a live crab. We had a chance to bond with our lunches before they were sentenced to death by boiling water. Mom and Dad gave the Jolibee they bought to the local kids since we were about to devour an obscene amount of fresh seafood - you could tell they were really happy and excited. My guess is they hadn't had it in a long time or maybe might not be able to afford it.
As we waited for the lobsters, crabs and fishes demise we decided to go snorkeling. So Nancy, Brian and I set off on our snorkeling adventure. Our tour guide, Dex, (who was the best guide ever) poited us in the direction of the coral. I have only snorkeled in gym class in high school - never in the ocean. You could tell by looking at the top of the water, as it was that clear, where the coral beds started because the water got a little darker. Nancy decided to show us the way and we put our goggles on and got tubed up. She found a small school of fish that were black, white and yellow. There were at least 30 of them. We all started to panic as they swam closer and started to circle us. I guess Dex noticed that we weren't going far in so he came over to guide us. He also brought crackers to feed the fish - which we all tried - but will admit was a little creepy as the fish swarm all around you. We snorkeled pretty far off the shore but Dex would find something and then call us over to see it. "Angel Fish!" he would say pointing down - "look!" - his english wasn't that great. But he was such a nice tour guide. The coral reef was stunning and after swimming around with Dex I felt a bit more comfortable swimming amongst the fish. We saw calms hidden in the coral beds, nemo paid us a visit, star fish, sea urchin - which actually scared me a little bit from watching a man vs. wild episode when he talked about how bad the spikes hurt if you step on it - so I swam far from those for frear if i stopped to tread water to clear my mask i may accidentally hit one of them - eek! hehe. Other than that I was so glad we had a chance to snorkel in Palawan. We spotted so many beautiful fish from electric blue, rainbow colored, sleek black...it's endless. Now I truly understood why the Shedd Aquarium imported the coral reef from the Philippines for their exhibit - it's breath taking. I still don't think I will ever go scuba diving - the thought of being that far down with fish swimming overhead freaks me out. Absolute wonderful experience.
After about 45 minutes of observing the reef we headed back to where the aunties and Unlces were sitting and had lunch. Words can't explain how good the food was. I normally need butter and spices for my seafood - they boilled the fish on a put on a grill - but the taste of the lobster, fish and crab would have been ruined...at least i think so. Fresh lobster is absolutely amazing!
Not long after we ate we packed up to head to island number two - Snake Island. It was named so because the Island itself is shaped like a snake, not because there are snakes on it, like Nancy feared...hehe. Pandan was much nicer as this one was pretty small and didn;t offer much aside from more reef with bigger fish (which quite honestly I don't think I could handle - hehe). So we stayed and watched one of the local dogs run around in the sea trying to catch his lunch, I suppose....it was cute...I tried to take a video but I don;t think it turned out well.
After departing that island - most of us were wiped out and tired from the sun and a food coma so we just drove past some islands to see rather than getting off and getting back on. One Island was called Lost island - it was the size of about 4 house lots in mom and dad's neighborhood and they call it the lost island because during high tide the whole thing is underwater. After our share of boating around Honda bay we went back to the hotel to shower and head out to dinner.
We ate at this restaurant that was built on the sea - the ambiance we so nice - open air with water all around you and underneath you.
Nancy and I took our first tricycle ride (one of the main forms of transportation) yesterday afternoon. A trike is the motorcycle with a side car...I have seen whole familys (up to 8 people) on these things...thankfully there were only 3 of us (Nancy, Dad and I). I am okay riding them here but refuse to ride on in Manila (the traffic there is scary on a trike - IMO).
Anyway...Friday we decided to go to the Subterranean River which is the longest navigable underground river in the world. But I don't have time right now to blog about it...so until the next blog.
Much love to you all!
Peanut
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stephen
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Awesome! Island hopping snorkeling is one of the things I really want to do over there. Can't wait to see all the pictures. =)