My fiancé, I, friends and office mates decided to booked our flight to Palawan, Puerto Princesa February 15 this year, originally we booked for 14 people but unfortunately only 5 was left to pursue the trip. We had the seat sale from Manila-Puerto Princesa (one way) at Air Philippines for only 359.00 Pesos, sad to say due to some circumstances that we had in our group, we can’t booked our return ticket immediately so we've waited for some of our officemates if the airfare would be okay with them or not… in short we only booked the returned ticket July na, then hindi na sila sumama… the worst thing, naubos na ang ticket sale so we decided to book our flight back to Manila July 27 at Cebu Pacific for 1832.32 Pesos, napamahal tuloy kami, all in all our airfare for Palawan P2191.32, thanks kuya Dario for lending us your credit card. Anyways, I asked my friend Michelle to go with us since there’s ticket sale at Zest air. I and Michelle decided to do our own itinerary, with the help of some research and some forums we’ve made our DIY Palawan Tour, and we are so proud because we found contacts that are very accommodating and very kind.
Day 1 – 27th of August 2010
12:00nn flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa at terminal 3, I was at the airport 9:30 am ,I don’t want to be late in our flight since I’m so excited to go to Puerto Princesa. I’ve waited for my fiancé, after 15 minutes he arrived and we've waited for our friends to arrive at the airport, after an hour our companion arrived. We immediately checked-in since it was almost 11:00 am, we saw Paolo Contis behind our line and we actually had the same flight.
Alvin & me at Terminal 3
Our flight was delayed for an hour so we arrived at PPC at around 2:00pm. When I came out at the airport and I was welcomed by the Auddissie, hahaha it was really a funny but overwhelming experience to see your name written in a white board “Welcome Diane Wong”.
WelcomeWe checked in at Auddissie Pension, our contact is Kiko (I think he is the owner, he’s a young business man). Our airport transfer is free from them wohoo!. We’ve got the family room for Php 1500.00 plus extra bed Php 200 per day. It was a nice place to stay, very comfortable, nice room which has 2 queen sized beds, air-con, cable TV, free wifi and we actually have our own dinning area which also have fridge. Hmm, Belle had her Gatorade-icy in that fridge. 
Auddissie Pension Bed Room Dinning Room
Kulitan at the roomAt around 3:00pm after the kulitan in our room, we went straight to the Underground River Information Booking Office to get permit for our Underground River activity for the next day. I was informed that we have to secure permit first before we could tour at the said park, the booking office enforces a “No Permit, No Entry” policy. My friend Michelle told me that if we have time to secure the permit do it asap because there are a lot of tourists that week, and because of the limited guests they will accommodate in a day. From the pension house where we stayed, we took tricycle to get to Underground River Information Booking Office, we paid the driver P8.00 each. When we were inside the booking office, there are people who also securing their permit and when it is our turn to get ours the morning slot is now unavailable. We were scheduled for the 12:30pm slot instead. Since we admitted that we are all adults in the group we paid P200.00 each. The Park rates: General Entrance (Adult) P75.00 (Minor) P50.00 Cave Entrance Adult (21-59 yrs old) P200.00 Students (18-20 yrs old) P100.00 (13-17 yrs old) P750.00 (06-12 yrs old) P50.00 (5 yrs old below) Free Filipino Senior Citizen P75.00 According to the leaflet that they are distributing to the tourists, the park is open to visitors all year round. However, the best time to go is from January to May when the weather is drier and the seas are calmer. For our first day, we had a bright and shiny day!After securing the permit for UR, since most of us haven’t eaten lunch and our stomach is screaming already we decided to eat, we again took tricycle and paid P8.00 each until we saw the Balinsasayaw Inato and Grill Restaurant. Balinsasayaw is one kind of bird that you can only see at El Nido, Palawan. Their nest is made up of their saliva, this is edible nest which is the main ingredient of the famous nido soup. This soup is really sumptuous, very delicious as in. I really wanted to try the soup since ever since, all I know about that soup is that it is really expensive but worth it, information came from TV hehehe. We ordered grilled chicken, beef ampalaya and the famous Balinsasayaw soup for P350.00 for the whole group. We also ordered desert which is also their specialty it was placed in a halved fresh coconut with scooped ube ice cream and garnished with roasted cashew nuts, yum yum. 
Balinsasayaw while waiting for the food
Kuya Danny is our guide for our whole stay at Palawan, he met us at Balinsasayaw and we talked about our trip for the next day. Kuya Danny is a very kind tour guide for our DIY tour in PPC, Michelle got his number to gt and multiply. After the late lunch, late mirienda and early dinner at Balinsasayaw we decided to go to PPC’s mall, the NCCC New City Commercial Center, this is the largest mall at PPC located 100m behind Rizal Ave. southern side and behind Jollibbee, the mall is open from 8:00am to 7:00pm everyday. There are a lot of things you can buy there; anything you will need for your whole stay at Puerto Princesa.We went to Tiangge-Tiangge to buy pasalubong, it is located at Lacao St. there are wide collections of interesting and different kinds of pasalubong at extremely affordable price range. Actually I bought a lot for myself and that is a self confession, that’s why I love Palawan. We spent 3 hours just to look for best buys at the store, and then we headed back to the pension to take rest.At the pension, Michelle and her hubby Armin visited us in our room after they had a tour at Dos Palmas and had dinner at Badjao Seafront. We chat about their day in DP and planned our next day, since it was late we decided to take rest and the whole day was so tiring for all of us.Day 2 – 28th of August 2010We started the day early; at around 6:00am we went to the wet market to buy some food for our breakfast for the next day. We tried their suman and it is so delicious, since we can’t find food court to eat our breakfast we decided to go to Jollibee near the market. On the other hand, Michelle and Armin took their breakfast at Puerto Pension; she told me that it is quite pricey. At around 8:00am be went back to pension to prepare for our UR tour.
Market
Kuya Danny picked us up at around 9:00am since our UR tour is scheduled at 12:30pm. We rented the van from Kuya Danny for the whole day for P3500.00. When we were on the road heading to UR, Kuya Danny suggested to us to go to Ugong Rock for us to try rock climbing. Very exciting! Yeah, that was my first time to do that kind of thing. At around 10:50am we arrived at Ugong Rock.Entrance fee for Ugong Rock is P200.00 including the safety gear (hard hat and gloves) and the guide. I really want to try it at first, when we are getting near at the rock, it makes me scream OMG! I’m thinking how will I survive if I will pursue the climb, actually I’m shaking, I backed out. What we did, we observed those who climbed first, while I was taking photos of the rock I saw children who are more than willing to climb. I started telling myself I can do it! Then I decided to climb, tapang ‘ko! So I, Julius and Cory prepared to climb, here we go Ugong Rock!
Summit
Going down (with Kuya Ed)
It is a different experience a breath taking view at the summit and a great challenge for me, I’m glad that I’ve tried it. Thanks Kuya Ed for the whole experience, thanks for showing me the photos for convincing me to try it.Heading at UR, we arrived 30 minutes late for our tour. Since we are late we decided to eat luch at Sabang Beach at Roberts & Jewel Restaurant. Eat all you can, buffet style with pork chop, chicken adobo, grilled fish, adobong kangkong, pipino side dish, banana for desert and for the drink is a whole coconut for P200.00.UR trip was rescheduled at 3:00pm, we rented 2 boats since we are 7 in the group Michelle and his hubby rented separate boat while I, my fiancé Alvin, Julius, Cory and Belle are in one boat we paid P700.00. At around 2:30pm, we were in a boat ride going to UR. At 3:30pm it’s our turn to go inside the UR, we were 7 in the boat plus the boatman & guide in one. I was so astonished when we got inside to see different sizes, forms, colors of stalagmites and stalactites, there are also some birds inside and a lot of bats. I was so frustrated that I haven’t had a chance to take photos inside because my cam’s battery was drained, gosh! Inside UR, I asked the guide if we can hold the stalagmites and stalactites, he told me that it is prohibited. There are stalagmites and stalactites formed like half face of Jesus, Holy family, candle, corn and others. The guide was so funny and he made my day in that tour.
While waiting for our turn
Going Inside the URInside UR (photos from Belle)
After UR tour we had the chance to swim at the Sabang Beach. It has fine sand, clear beach water and we enjoyed. From the information at the beach, there are a lot of surfers going their because of its wave.
swimming at Sabang Beach Sizzling squid kinabuchs’ float At around 11:00 pm, our group decided to go back to pension to take rest for the next day’s activity while Michelle and Armin went to Bona’s Chaolong to try some of what they offer. We call it a day!Day 3 – 29th of August 20105:30 am alarm was set. I and Julius prepared our breakfast, Julius cooked the rice and danggit while I cooked the scrambled egg with tomatoes and onion perfectly hahaha… Cory asked me when she was washing the pan, “bakit sunog?” well you know the answer folks. We finished our breakfast at around 6:30am and we prepare for our Honda Bay Island Hopping Tour.Kuya Danny and Kuya Obet picked us up at the pension around 7:00am. For this tour we rented 2 tricycles since Michelle and Armin will head back to manila at 5:30 in the afternoon and my group will stay for the whole day. At 8:00am we arrived at Sta. Lourdes wharf and immediately rented a boat for my group, Michelle and Armin rented their own boat. We paid P1300.00 for the small boat, you can choose from small boat to the big ones which will cost you P1400.00, P15.00 for terminal fee, P12.00 entrance fee, P200 for snorkeling gear and P250.00 rental fee for underwater digital camera case. Our boat named Mellicent 2, our boatmen are Kuya Reynan and Kuya Robert they are so nice and very kind to us.First stop - the Pambato Reef, entrance fee is P50.00. Really a nice and must see place for snorkeling. When we get to the place I immediately noticed that there are a lot of different kinds of fishes and I can’t wait to go into the water. There are a lot of corals of different sizes, colors and shapes under water, nice view! I’m just somehow disappointed because we’re 5 in the group and not all of us are in the same mood, there are some malfunctioned happened to the vest of my friend and she can’t swim, then she requested if we could go back to the balsa. Well, thanks to Kuya Robert for taking us around at the Pambato, I saw his eagerness to take us around at the Pambato to show the beauty of it, I will treasure what I saw in that reef I will also treasure the story of Michelle as she tells me what they saw under, kainggit.
We stayed here longer; we played along with the starfish and took a lot of photos. At this island you can take shower after the whole day of your island hopping activity. Their shower rooms are good. My fiancé and I thought that the place was very nice for overnight stay (but we are not planning at that moment we just thought of that like in Anawangin) and then we asked our boat men if they are allowing people to stay overnight in that place and they told us that before there are people who stayed but now the government don’t allow it anymore.The Cowrie Island – P15.00 entrance fee, we dropped by to this beautiful small island for just 15 minutes to take some photos because it is almost 6:00pm and we need to get back to the wharf supposed to be 5:00pm but since we enjoyed and with our kind boatmen they allowed us to see the said island. Nice sunset view.Back at the wharf, since we interviewed our boatmen in our bonding lunch time we gave some tip as appreciation for the kindness they showed us. Thank you Kuya Reynan and Kuya Robert for the whole day breathtaking activity, God will bless you more as you continue doing good things!Kuya Obet, picked us up at the wharf. Since it is almost 7:00pm we decided to take a rest then cooked our food for dinner at the pension. We planned to have dinner at Badjao’s but since we are all tired, we decided to stay at the pension. At around 8:00pm we went at the baywalk, the activity: we rented bicycle for an hour and we enjoyed our last night staying at PPC.
Day 4 – 30th day of August 2010In our last day city tour was the one listed in our itinerary. Since our flight back to manila was scheduled 6:55pm we had our whole day to see the city. Kuya Danny picked us up 10:00am, our first destination Plaza Cuartel where the Japanese Ruins located no entrance fee, as per Kuya Danny, the Americans was burnt here by the Japanese.Next stop is the Immaculate Conception Cathedral located just across the Plaza Cuartel. This is a beautiful cathedral with stained glass at the altar side, blue and white color outside. I don’t had the chance to take photos near the stained glass because wedding ceremony was happening at that moment.
Baker’s Hill was the next, very nice place where you can take photos around. It was almost 12:00nn we decided to eat lunch at their restaurant called Baker’s Kitchen. We had gambas, pasta, and beef tapa, black gulaman, halo-halo and mango juice, yummy food. My fiancé bought scramble at the baker’s hill, it was delicious and it costs only P20.00.After eating, we bought hopia (mongo P35.00, ube P37.00) and other palasubong. Really delicious hopia, if you had a chance to go to this place try their hopia.
Mitra’s Mansion is the next stop, no entrance fee. Overlooking Honda bay is what it offers for the tourists. Nice place too, we had a lot of jump shot photos here courtesy of Kuya Danny.Farm, P20.00 entrance fee, it was raining when we got there. We were informed by the guide that we need to have our own umbrella since it is an outdoor place. What we did, we went back at the van and got our umbrellas and jackets. We continued our site seeing at the farm, we saw different sizes, colors of crocodiles. We also saw some birds and other species.We also had a chance to take photo with the crocs, P30.00 for 3 poses. Belle had an idea since we don’t want to pay more and since it was Julius’ turn already to have close encounter and photo shoot with the crocs, Belle set her cam for 7 shots, we had a chance to pose with the crocs, brilliant idea Belle!
