Palawan, in my Head - Part II

Ryan and I tried booking our trip to Dos Palmas from Last Frontier Dive. Apparently, it's the same tour company our hotel, Niko's Cabanas, is working with. With a little help from them we were able to confirm our reservation. The resort is nice, the staff are friendly and hospitable, I'm definitely looking forward for another stay with them.

Anyway, early Friday morning, Ryan and I were on our feet preparing for the trip to Dos Palmas. We have been advised that a service from Dos Palmas will be passing near the hotel to pick us up. Call time at the pick up point was 6:30am.

I have been trying to get Ryan out of the room but he kept on arguing that people from the tour will call the hotel to inform us that they're already there. It was 7am. It was almost 8am and we haven't received a single call yet. Obviously, something got lost in translation.

I tried calling the tour company to confirm and figure out if the service for Dos Palmas has already passed by our hotel. Well, they did. At 6:45am. And we weren't there. So Ryan and I got into this discussion trying to point the finger at this someone who made us miss the service. Nose bleed ako dun. Talo ako sa ingles. Grrr. No one really won. It was our fault. But anyway, thankfully, the staff of Last Frontier Dive tried arranging a (speedy) ride for us heading to the port where we are supposed to grab the boat going to Dos Palmas. Finally, we're really on our way to the beach! Yay!

It was going to be a 45min ride to the island. And yeah, it would have been hell for me if it was a bumpy ride. Thank God it wasn't.

The boat's roof clad in life vests.

Ryan wore his life vest the moment
he sat on the boat.

The boat orienting its bow towards the bay.
At 8am, its a pretty gloomy morning.

We're all set for the 45min. boat ride.

The boat soon gathered speed.

We spotted manong doing his morning chores
checking his fishes.

This was the first habited island we saw.
We thought this was it.

20minutes more, beautiful cottages started
appearing in sight. Apparently, they're the
beach villas of Dos Palmas.

Dead ahead were cottages, on right side of the
island, rain clouds started manifesting themselves.

We soon caught sight of the resort's bay villas.

The boat slowed down as we approached the dock.

The welcoming committee awaits us:
Staff holding our complimentary drinks and
erm.. a some music played by the staff :D

 When we docked, we were ushered to the briefing room which was just beside the grand hall where they hold their buffet. We have been told that for the day tour price that we have paid, Php 1800.00, we are entitled to the free use of the beach, snorkeling equipment, kayaks and of course the lunch buffet. All the other facilities/services will need fees from us. Note that the pool isn't allowed for us. For the resorts errm, checked-in guests lang daw. Ah.. Ok.

Sounds fair to me. As soon as the briefing was over, Ryan and I headed out and tried looking for a cottage that we can use.

We settled down in this cottage to do our
planing. I really find it's ceiling interesting.

While planning, it started to rain.

It started with a light shower.

Then the heavy rain came. It just pissed Ryan off.

We parted ways, he got a massage while I
(leaving my things in the cottage)
went to get a dip in the beach..

..and roam around.

A little late in the afternoon, the skies started
to clear. We can finally have some fun! YAY! :D

Since Ryan has been pushing me for snorkeling, I gave in. We suited up (i.e. life vests on) and grabbed our gear from this little shack and headed out to sea, errr.. bay, whatever. Well, since I didn't have the underwater cam with me, I don't have the pics. I have yet to get those pictures from him. Anyway, after snorkeling, we checked our watches, and it was time for us to prepare for departure. Booooo. Yeap, There goes my 1,800. It all just went... POOF!! No thanks to the weather!! Grrr..  

A look back at the bay villas before boarding
the boat back to the city. 

An inviting afternoon asking me to stay.
Babalikan kita, wag ka mag-alala!!

Palawan, in my Head

More than a month ago, I got the chance to visit the Philippine's last frontier, Palawan, with my friend Ryan. I have been anticipating the trip so much since that I have been desperately praying that the weather would cooperate with the trip. It was my first time to visit the place, and I wanted it to be perfect.

I had this picture in my mind about me in Palawan: A lot of grass.. A lot of trees.. more like of an African savannah that has gone Filipino style. I see myself riding this four-wheel-drive-mud-sticking-in-its-chassis vehicle watching the zebras roam and run around the field. Giraffes would then be spotted from afar stretching their necks trying to reach the leaves from the branches of this tall tree. Together with the zebras will be some mouse deer running in a herd as if being chased by some big predator.  Yeap, sounds more like of National Graphic documentary to me.

Honestly, that is what I have in mind. I think I have been watching too much National Geographic and that kind of picture (expectation) got stuck in my head. Kulang na lang eh may Circle of Life song playing in the background, at nasa set na ako ng Lion King. Sure, Palawan has that kind of scenery lying somewhere. But I wasn't headed there. I was headed for it's capital, Puerto Princesa.

In a sunny Thursday morning, Ryan and I boarded Philippine Airlines flight PR195 going to Puerto Princesa. As soon as the plane took off, Ryan and I got busy..

Erm.. with our cams.

The flight was supposed to be an hour but after a couple of chitchat, a glance of our erm.. itsy-bitsy snack pouch, which didn't feel like a lot of time has passed, we started seeing some islands.

Sooner than I expected, the plane swiveled a little to the left, a little the right, and there it was,  a smooth landing at the Puerto Princesa Airport. I always find it silly seeing and maybe knowing a band mosiko playing when some dignitary shows up in a particular place. I thought I'd never see myself in one. But I did. As soon as we got out of the plane, a band was playing in a corner of the airport. :D I was a little uncomfortable with it but it sure was an inviting and friendly gesture of welcoming us to Palawan. And all I heard from Ryan was, "That is nice.."

Aside from the lengthy wait for Ryan's ginormous bag, we got out of the airport in a breeze. Outside, our ride to the hotel, Niko's Cabannas, was waiting for us.

Ryan and I were only planning to stay for two nights. And our mid-morning arrival in Palawan didn't give us much time to do something else. Most of the island tours start in the morning and doing them in the afternoon wouldn't be a good idea. Since we had a couple of hours to kill before night fall, we decided, together with the friendly hotel staff, to just go on a city tour. But first, we have to get lunch somewhere in the city.

We sped off to KaLui for lunch.

Wood-carving of KaLui greeted us by the door.

The fountain's rocky bottom.

Wind chimes adorning the edges of the
restaurant's roof were greeting us, "Welcome!"

I wasn't allowed to wear my flip-flops inside.

Everyone else joined me go barefoot.

Helloooo, Momma!

The inviting table by the window was waiting.
I thought it was ours but it was for someone else.

A school of fish escaping the cook's wok
adorned the ceiling.

Clueless with what to order, we got the
house special, KaLui Special.

Ryan waited with his refreshing pinacolada. 

I had a mango shake inviting me to jump in.

Erm, seaweeds were served as our appetizer.

After the appetizer was served, dish after dish poured into our table. I lost myself with what was served and didn't care about taking pictures anymore. My growling stomach took control of me and had me put down my cam. The next thing I know, it was time for dessert. Our dessert was a fruit salad topped with erm.. something sugary on top (gawd, i'm so bad with names) served on a coconut shell (err.. yun ba tawag dun?!).

A couple of minutes after we had our dessert, our tour guide arrived to pick us up from the restaurant. We thought we were the only people in the tour. But apparently, we were with some other people who were at the restaurant as well. Nothing left for us to do but wait and take pictures!

As soon as everybody was on, the tour began with a short drive around the province's capital, Puerto Princesa city. I wish I had taken pictures of it's beautifully decorated city hall. But I was tired, and a little sleepy to pick up the camera to point and shoot.

Driving a little far away from the city, we reached Plaza Cuartel. The guide mentioned something about the plaza being used as an escape route during the Japanese occupation in World War II. Honestly, I cannot remember anything the tour guide said. Not that the tour guide wasn't audible enough, it's just that my head was thinking of something else.. SLEEP.

Beside the plaza, was the Immaculate Cathedral. Good thing, someone took a good picture of it here.

It didn't take too long before everyone got tired of taking pictures, so we headed of to our next stop, the Crocodile Farm. The drive to the farm was pretty much interesting. Our surroundings started greeting us with tints of red in the trees.

We spend a pretty good deal of time in the crocodile farm looking at some of the crocodiles DENR was breeding. Lest that I forget that we had a pretty good exercise walking around the mini-zoo they had near the farm.

Our last stop was the humble butterfly farm. 

Our little souvenir from the farm and tour: butterfly porn. :D

Even before we could have reached our hotel, the tour guide made a short detour to the house of the Mitra's sitting in one of the highest points in the city. The mansion has a pretty good view..

Before I could have even took pictures of the house, it was time to go. Bummer.

Our exhausting city tour was capped by a dinner in this restaurant downtown known as Kinabutch. Ryan and I pretty much ordered more than we could handle. We ended up ordering drinks, fine.. alcohol, to help us bring down what was left with what we have ordered.

After a shot of blowjob, a mai thai, and two screw drivers, I so tipsy that I can barely keep my eyes open. We decided to call it a night and dozed off to sleep as we rest and prepare for our long day in the pristine beach of Dos Palmas.