Blogs from Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines, Asia

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Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa February 28th 2024

Tour Day 141, Cruise Day 39 – There were no appealing shore excursions in Boracay, Philippines; however, I was planning to tender to shore and mosey around the dock area for a spell. Those plans were scuttled by a) a cautionary flier distributed to each cabin that warned of the precarious condition of the steps at the tender dock, and b) by the captain’s warning issued over the ship intercom about the rough seas and the increased challenges of transferring both to and from the tender to the tender docks. Four opportunities to incur additional injury to either wing! Not a prudent move, so I opted to stay on the ship. Tour Day 142, Cruise Day 40 – “Puerto Princesa Highlights" Shore Excursion – Puerto Princesa, Philippines – Welcome to Puerto Princesa. Legend says that Puerto ... read more
From Aboard ms Westerdam in Boracay, Philippines
From Aboard ms Westerdam in Boracay, Philippines
From Aboard ms Westerdam in Boracay, Philippines

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa December 26th 2019

We spent exactly the 60 days in Indonesia that our visa allowed us, yet still we feel we have only scratched the surface of this huge country and we could have stayed and travelled to so many other islands for at least another few months. So we will just have to come back sometime. After spending a wonderful short week at Bunaken island where the diving and snorkelling were great, we hopped on a short flight from Manado across the Celebes Sea to Davao City in Mindanao, Philippines, because this was the closest country we could get to and we had planned to spend Christmas and New Year at the Philippines anyway. Philippines is again a huge country with more than 7000 islands and we hope to visit at least a few of the best ones. ... read more
Manila
Manila
Sagada

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa July 11th 2019

The air conditioning had kicked in at some stage during the night, I had an unfitful sleep. The mattress was too hard and my sciatica was playing up and around 3.30am I was awake and needing to stretch. Eventually got back to sleep and we were woken at 6.50am for breakfast. Sweet pork and filipino sausage and eggs with rice. We said our goodbyes to our host who gave me two boxes of the hopia to take for our journey. We had booked the subtarenean river cave tour and an hour or so journey we gave over our ID so that the tour guide could get permits for us to do this. Apparently it takes at least an hour, so while we waited we were offered two choices, mangrove river cruise or zipline. Each had a ... read more
This view
Zipline
Kym ready for ziplining

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa July 10th 2019

Day 2 We had complimentary breakfast and needed to be there before 9am, so had set an earlish alarm. The buffet consisted of rice, noodles, deep fried sweet hotdogs, fried eggs and a slightly spicy dish and mushroom soup... it was good. A swim in the rooftop pool for an hour felt like we were officially on vacation. The weather was a balmy 32 degrees, slightly humid but exactly what we wanted. Packing our suitcase back up (We travel lightly, 17kg suitcase between us plus carry on) and we got a Grab to the airport. Air Asia asked us to check in 2 hours before and over an hour of that was spent in line for the bag drop. A quick lunch of sweet doughy buns filled with pork and a donut kept us saited. Our ... read more
The Face of Jesus
One of the many shrines at this place
Mermaiding in natural mineral water

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa March 1st 2017

Bad bugs = sand flies. These tiny little evil black dots can barely be seen but they suck your blood and leave itchy welts. We read that the female can burrow under your skin and lay its eggs. Lovely! Good bugs = fireflies. These little flying bugs don't bite or sting. They hang out after dark, lighting up the trees like Christmas lights. We ran into both kinds within a day of each other. We booked two nights at the Astoria hotel, four hours South along the coast from El Nido. At $100 a night, it was by far the fanciest place we'd stayed on the entire trip, but we just did it for the kids as a special treat. They couldn't care less about an expensive hotel room (and frankly neither could I) but the ... read more
The water playground that closed as we arrived! ?
Water park
Looking wistfully at the forbidden slides!

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa February 2nd 2017

Hit and Run, six countries, one month, two girls! We had one month of school for winter break. A whole month to explore Asia. After looking at a lot of different routes and working out the best financially Val and I decided to do Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, The Philippines, Taiwan and Japan. Our stay in the Philippines was on Palawan Island and near the city of Puerto Princesa. We take a Tuk-Tuk to our hotel and had a rest, we had had an over night flight and neither of us slept well. A friend of mine was staying in the city but was leaving later that day, I decided to go to see him while Val was sleeping. We spent some time together walking through the city before he caught his bus. I could see that ... read more
Palm Trees
Coconut plant pot
Swing in Subank

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa January 14th 2017

13-15 th Jan My heart skipped a little beat when I woke up and realised I didn't have to do another boat trip - those that know me know, and we were returning to a lovely room where I could get clean and dry! That aside it was up to the Terminal to catch the mini van at 10.30 am for PP. We arrived in plenty of time and were joined by a young Canadian lass and an older English man, we were told to get on board but the first row of seats were reserved hmm????? Anyway we piled in and waited and soon a group of 5 Americans arrived, 2 couples where both wives were originally from the Philippines and one son. One couple got the first row seats, ok..... Then all hell broke ... read more
Road back from El Nido
Puerto Princessa
Puerto Princessa - Board Walk

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa January 11th 2017

Suzanne here... I could easily have spent one more night in El Nido. But most of the hotels were booked up and we couldn't face slogging around looking for a room. Alhough there isn't that much to do in Puerto Princesa, the hotels are better value. So we decided to go back and treat ourselves to a nicer hotel there. The van from El Nido dropped us off directly at our hotel. This always makes a huge difference, saving loads of time and hassle, so we were grateful. We pulled up into a wide driveway, next to a little fountain. Behind us we could hear mutterings of "well this definitely isn't ours" and "ooh, this is really nice". This was gratifiying as it's usually us who says this about other people's hotels, while we're the ones ... read more
Puerto Princesa - Rizal Avenue
Puerto Princesa - Cathedral
Puerto Princesa - Cathedral

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa January 5th 2017

Flew in to Peurto Princessa in Palawan Island from Manila stopover late afternoon. Picked up at airport and taken to our little home in the burbs. Helpful and kind people. Everyone calls you "sir' and Ma'am" with every comment. I guess an American influence. Walked the 15mins to town and so witnessed PP as the sun went down: Chaotic, bustling, madly busy with motorbikes, motorbike taxis (motorbikes with a carriage seat attached on the side for passengers) kids playing basketball in the court right on the main street; lots of banks; fast food joints like Jollibees and McDonalds (high up above the other stores on the street); and dogs, dogs, dogs...and cats. Saw some pretty horrible sights which aren't worth mentioning but nothing compared to what I have seen in other SEAsian countries concerning dogs. Generally, ... read more
PP main street
PP
PP Night Market promenade set up fro Christmas

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa January 4th 2017

After a short flight from Macau we arrived in Manila, the scary city, late at night and the airport was bedlam with a few well dodgy characters hanging about. Still we found an ATM to get some pesos out and thankfully our lift (arranged through the flat we had booked) was waiting at the appointed place, we were then bundled into a minibus and driven off at high speed, me feeling rather uncomfortable about this, we were whisked away down back streets, across train tracks, through a garage and had absolutely no idea where we were as it was pitch black. The van suddenly turned into a block of flats and drove 2 floors up a ramp and stopped. We were then handed over to two children and taken up in a lift. It was all ... read more
Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour
Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour
Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour




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