I'm not the party going type so I like places that are slow paced and not too crowded. If it's isolated then better. That's why I like going to Palawan.
The last time I've been there was July 2006 with my brother, his ex-girlfriend-now-wifey, her sister, my cousin and my cousin-in-law. Our cousins were visiting from the States and they wanted to go to Palawan. But as much as we wanted to bring them to a resort, we didn't have that much moolah to spend so we went on a Survivor: Palawan kind of vacation theme. At least it was a new experience for my cousins from the US.
Our first stop was Honda Bay. My grandma and her sisters owns this huge island in Honda Bay that's almost deserted except for the caretaker who's a distant relative.
To save on the boat ride to the island instead of renting pump boats we were brought there by a relative's fishing boat which was much smaller than the pump boats for rent. The boat ride itself provided excitement because we were there during the rainy season and it started raining while we were halfway through the island. Our small boat could feel even the small waves left by other passing boats and we were doing a cat and mouse chase with the oncoming rains.
Good thing the rains stopped and the sun shone, quite intensely, actually. We had lunch at our grandma's island. We had a make shift barbecue place where we barbecued fish and longaniza and corn that we harvested ourselves. Then we collected coconuts and cousin Gino gladly took the itak and sliced off the top of the coconut so we can get fresh buko juice. We also had sand crabs or kuday as it's called locally. It had a bittersweet taste and a really dark brown almost black juice. My mom loves it but I prefer regular crabs. I think they're an acquired taste.
Lunch
My sister-in-law is eating corn with the husks
Our next stop was Starfish Island for some snorkeling. Starfish Island is a small sandbar in Honda Bay. I think it's one of the regular stops if you go on a tour of Honda Bay.
When we got off the boat there were a number of small jellyfish. The kind that looked like plastic which means they're the kind that stings. I'm scared of jellyfish so I passed up snorkeling and just collected bakalan a type of shellfish and made kinilaw out of it. It didn' t however stop my cousins from snorkeling. :)
How to get there:
Puerto Princesa City, Palawan is about 1 hr 30 minute plane ride away from Manila. Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific Airlines both fly to PPC from Manila.
When you get there ask the lodge where you're staying at about Honda Bay Day Tours.
No comments:
Post a Comment