Puerto Princessa Round II

Last year, actually around this time, I spent a long week in Puerto Princessa, Palawan. I had a great time so when we saw early in the school year that there was a sale for tickets to there we booked them (who can pass up $40 round trip tickets).

This time it was just a quick one night fly in and fly out trip. I woke up at 2:45 am, which is probably about the time most people my age were going to bed to drive down to Manila for a 6:45am flight. When booking the tickets it seemed reasonable, but in actuality if I never had to do that again I'ld be fine with that. We landed in Palawan around 8:30, went to the hotel to drop off our bag, but it turned out they didn't have a bag check program, the only hotel in South East Asia is seems. No problem, quick change into our bathing suits, grabbed some breakfast at the Pancake House and we were on our way to go island hoping.

We got our banca boat at the wharf and headed out with the crew of three and our trusty guide Maurice, we headed out on to Honda Bay, to explore the various islands and their white sand beaches.

Our first stop was Lonely Island 

These small hole scattered the beach, made by little crabs.

Elementary school teachers unite in their beach frolic photo shoot. 

The sign tells beach enthusiasts to avoid swimming because of the presence of jelly and stone fish, both sting and are something to be avoided.

Then off to the next Island: Starfish Island.

Our Banca Boat

Dave made a new friend

Our banca driver was very excited to show us his "photo tricks" which felt awkward at the time, but turned out pretty awesome. 

We made our way to one more island were we swam, took advantage of the bar on the island and had massages on the beach. With our sunburns already taking shape they were a little more painful that usual, but still top notch, one of the best I've had in the Philippines all for the low cost of 300 pesos ($6.50). We headed back, checked into our hotel for a quick shower and change then we went to dinner at Kauli, a seafood restaurant that's top notch.  Our night lead us to a Filippina beauty pageant that turned out to be a bust. So we quickly returned to Tiki bar the home of the fried crocodile (face? not sure if that's accurate or not). We watched an amazing band, meet some fellow travellers, watched some fire dancers. By 10 o'clock it felt like I had been awake for far too long (because I had) and we made it until midnight went we back to the hotel for some much needed rest. 

Sunday morning we hit up the market. I found some pearls for an insanely cheap, picked up some nice wood carvings and a new beach sarong. We got lunch, headed to the airport and took off back to Manila. It was a quick trip, but it was wonderful.  

The airport happens to be on prime real-estate, the runway end on the beach, and you get to see the most amazing views of the island on both landing and take off.