The British Kabayan at the Puerto Princessa Subterranean River National Park- 2015Back in 2015 I wrote this Blog. Kuya Ran and I revisited the underground river on Jan 1st 2020 and Drew, Ritchelle and the Boys and I did the Honda Bay trip again. Now , In October 2020,I have rented a house in Puerto Princessa so I can move there when I leave Bahrain on 14.2.21
Let's step back in time to March 2015 and see how my love affair with Palawan started!
Puerto Princessa
“You should do some unscheduled blogs” said Mark, when I showed him how I had planned out my weekly blogs for the year ahead alternating between Defensive Driving, Travel, and the Environment and Leadership topics. I told him it was a great idea and I would schedule in an unscheduled blog- so here it is!
I first visited Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan, in the year 2013. It was my 5th Island that I visited in the Philippines after Luzon (where the capital Manila is), Boracay, Cebu and Bohol. I still have another 7,102 to visit! The good news is I have so far visited 4 of the top 7 islands according to a blog by Air Asia called
7-philippine-islands-you-must-visit-before-you-die ( sadly its no longer there)
( Mental note to Air Asia Marketing team- islands to visit before you die might not be such a good tag line these days!)
When I stayed in Baguio and in Boracay I chose Microtel by Wyndham's as recommended by Kuya Coco and so it seemed the natural choice for my visit to Palawan. As usual I was not disappointed. Wyndham's select new properties usually away from the town centre and always in stunning locations. Their style is “No tie” from GM to the front line staff.
The staff is mostly young and
always greet with you a smile and “good morning”. The rate includes a buffet breakfast and then
the restaurant is available all day for snacks, lunch and dinner. Everything is
freshly cooked, well presented and there’s a mix of Filipino favourites (like
Adobo and Sigsig) and international fare. ( Editors note, I later discovered the restaurant at the Microtel is not run by the hotel but by Mama Jam's fried, Chef Arnel and his young team)
The hotel offers free pick up from the airport (30 mins drive) and a daily free shuttle to Robinson’s mall (cinema, shops and restaurants) every hour at lunchtime and in the evening.
The first time I saw the tour was in 2015, with my crush, Christian Tao
In Puerto the hotel is by the mangrove swamp with spectacular sunrises and sunsets and it has a lovely open foyer with a variety of seats where you can look out to sea and drink the free coffee and water or read ( or type your blog) , or just sleep or relax.
On my first visit I saw the Underground River and went on the famous Honda Bay trip, and when I returned home everyone said “Did you go to El Nido?” So I researched El Nido and discovered it was then more beautiful than Puerto, being a 6 hour drive North at the top of the Island. In 2014 I flew direct to El Nido from Manila with ITI and had a fabulous vacation there with Drew. In 2015 I flew into Puerto to meet Drew, and then we took the van to El Nido and from there I flew back to Manila with what was then ITI and is now called Air Swift.
One of the tricks I learnt years ago when staying in hotels is that “if you do not ask, you do not get” so when I received a special promo offer by email from the Microtel at Boracay I forwarded it to Microtel at Puerto and said “ I would much rather come back and stay with you – if you can give me a special promo rate!” .
Maganda Ate Charisma responded quickly with their promo rates and when we realised they had no rooms when I wanted to stay on the special promo they made an exception for me and offered me the rate anyway. Even better when we arrived there was a bottle of red wine and two glasses in the room with a note from the GM saying “ Welcome back, Mr. Niel” – nice touch on both counts!
However it would have been even
better if you spelt my name right! ( Charot)
So what is there to do on Palawan? Well according to website :
The Honda bay trip is a must and on
Starfish Island you can take your photo in a pre made frame on the beach ( I have two pictures here which still hang in my wall in Bahrain to this day!)
Two old men return to the scene of their romance in 2021It was a fabulous day out. We visited 5 islands and had our own boatman and assistant. We fed the fish, swam above the coral reef, had a beautiful seafood lunch cooked for us on the beach and of course saw Patrick the starfish (the highlight of Drew’s day!)
Then there is the Underground river which is described on Afar as:
UNDERGROUND RIVER - ONE OF THE 7 NATURAL WONDERS OF NATURE
The St. Paul Subterranean Underground River has recently been declared as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, due to its unique natural phenomenon. Below the St. Paul Mountains lie an 8.2 km long underground river that flows directly to the sea. The lower half of the river is brackish and subject to the oceans tide.
It's hard to fully envision the experience unless you go and visit it. The river is pitch-black dark and is only lit by the small torches from the boats. Permits are required ahead of time and in recent months, there seem to be a 30 day advance booking required for tours. You have to travel 2 hours by land from Puerto Princesa (where the airport is) to Sabang Beach, then hop on a 15-minute motorized banca (outrigger boat) to the entrance of the underground river .
The actual river tour starts there as you board a small paddle boat and enter the river. The boatman paddles your boat at the same time, is your guide inside the river and showing you the formations found inside the cave. The tour is about 45 min and it only covers less than 2km of the river.
Back in 2015 I was lucky that Drew booked the trip in advance when I visited and arranged a driver and van to take us there. The actual caves smell of Bat pooh and as the author above said are very dark. The guide sits at the back of the boat and the light is controlled by one of the passengers at the front. On our trip the person with the light got very confused with her left and right so the light never quite reached the places the guide was talking about, which created much hilarity between the passengers and guide “and on the right is Sharon Stone – no po, the right po”.
At the far end the boat turns and retraces its route to the entrance of the cave and you hear the other boatmen saying exactly the same script as the next lot of punters start their tour. Not a place I would return to, but another one to cross off the list of places to go to with Air Asia before I die!
So in 2015 we avoided the tours and decided just to relax by the pool at the hotel and read ( the latest Ian Rankin , Inspector Rebus tale called “Standing in Another Man’s grave” had me glued to the book for 3 days – so much so that I got sunburn!)
My brother, Andrew got me into the Ian Rankin Inspector Rebus series and there is another one out in October 2020 which I will buy to read when I return to Puerto! You can check out his website on:
We went on the bus into town each night for dinner and did some shopping for Pasalubong (gifts- including a very good book on Leadership in English for my good friend Khalid Abdulla). I think we covered every centimeter of the award winning Robinson’s Mall (best small mall in the Philippines) - sad to see so many of the shops there closing (we counted six that had closed since our last visit).
On Friday there was a kite surfing competition next to the hotel and in the evening in Town we went to see a live band ( Drew is friends with one of the singers and they have played in Manila and Manama). You will be pleased to hear that I spared the audience with my singing but Drew did an excellent rendition on stage!
My diet watchers in Bahrain will also be pleased to hear we managed to fit in daily swims, walks on the beach and some time on the new exercise machines by the pool- great idea Microtel. I would also like to commend the hotel for their excellent new hotel directory. So often hotels list rules that customers must not break whereas Microtel gives us “Gentle reminders”
So after a week relaxing after an energetic weekend in Manila it’s time to head north to El Nido and I really cannot wait to see Marco and his lovely team at El Nido resort again. As the promo rate rooms in the cheapest Garden rooms were sold out by the time I booked Theresa managed to get us into the new (and therefore more expensive) Forest rooms at the Garden Room promo rate. This has certainly been a Value for money trip!
There is also a new pool and I am looking forward to my massage and have even promised Drew we will leave the hotel this time to go on a boat tour – supposed to be even more spectacular than Honda Bay. I am also making a delivery of hair colour to my good friend Mama Jam Fernandez ( Janussen) who is back home with his family before he returns to Germany to work on a cruise ship for the summer making fabulous pasties , cakes etc.
So until my next (scheduled) blog from El Nido I am going to spend the rest of the week proving that the Philippines Marketing slogan is very true:
“It is more fun in the Philippines”
Ingat Palagi
Mahal Kita
Kita Kits
 |  |
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment