Visiting the Philippines - discovering Palawan

In case you missed the previous post, check it out here...

Palawan - Although we arrived Puerto Princesa (the capital city) at night, getting to the hotel was pretty easy. 

The driver who took us to the hotel ended up being very resourceful throughout our stay. We chatted with him on our way and he made some great suggestions to us. We had an idea of the activities we wanted to do but hadn't made prior arrangements, so he gave us useful tips and even helped us book one of the excursions for the next morning. 

As much as I am a planner, I like to leave room for new plans as I go along and this was one of those times. My sister and I knew where we wanted to go, but we left a lot of this trip unplanned and went with the flow. It all worked out well in the end.

First stop was the underground river, a natural wonder and UNESCO world heritage site. We were picked up from the hotel early, there were already some passengers on board then we picked the last ones in our group up, which made a total of 13 of us. We went on a two hour drive on a curvy road to Sabang, the location to get the boat ride to the underground river. On arrival, we were ushered to wait while the tour operator had us queued. It took almost two hours for us to get on a boat. When we did, it was a bumpy 30 minute ride.

The water leading to the cave was emerald, clear, beautiful and we couldn't resist taking some photos. 

We were put into smaller boats and taken into a cave where the underground river was. 

On entry, we were told to be quiet, there was a quiet narration of different fossils, geological formations, some looked like statues of different things. We had a child in our boat who was in awe of everything, like we all were. We could barely keep him quiet and it became funny at some point. It was a beautiful visit that ended too quickly.

We took the boat ride back across then we went to a place where people could go ziplining. For once I passed up on an adventure because I was exhausted, so I did the most chill activity. My sister on the other hand went zip lining, they had to climb a hill then they ziplined over the river.

I sat quietly on this chair made of bamboo and floated quietly on the river. I tried to get a glimpse of my sister and the two others who went zip lining but I couldn't, sadly. I only saw them wading through water to get back to us as the tide was beginning to rise. We had lunch afterwards which was great, then the 2 hour journey back began. It was a day very well spent.

Visiting a waterfall was one of the things we planned to do, so our driver took us to the nearest one. We were in Puerto Princesa which is the capital of Palawan, so some driving was required to get around. 

The waterfall wasn't a high one but it was pleasant to be there regardless and we had the place to ourselves. 

Our driver who ended up being our guide through our stay. He was amazing!

From there we went to Palawan village, an indigenous village with a show demonstrating how people in the area lived a while back, which was an interesting display. 

You can see the ancient alphabets displayed

At the end of the display, there was a giant snake. If you wanted pictures with it, two young men would hold it for you. 

There were different parts to the village, notably a garden/green area. 

Then there was a fish pond, we were told to put our hands in and the fish would eat off dead skin and remove cuticles. 

It was an odd feeling at first but one you'd get used to. We had a free manicure from the fish.

If we were to ride back in style, we would have opted for this colourful tuktuk!

More tuk tuks

We spent the next two days discovering Puerto Princesa; the malls, food and we rested.

This became our photo spot at the mall for the last 2 days😅Although the celebration was late, a month after her birthday, we made the best of it.

 Asian countries tend to have many social media worthy photo spots :-)

For how varied my palate is, I have to say we struggled with food. This dish in the photo in particular was a weapon! The fishiness was the height of what I had experienced and it slapped us hard, we were left sorry for ourselves and completely unhappy with our choice.

After living in an Asian country for two years and visiting some of the countries, we found the Filipinos to be the least nice. The usual Asian niceness was not necessarily there. They would serve and move on, they were more direct and were up for the challenge of holding you or coming at you forcefully to get something from you if they needed to, compared to other countries where they would bow and smile you into doing it. 

The Philippines is beautiful and worth visiting. I would say you might want to start here then go elsewhere where people are more chill. As the country thrives on tourism, they have the right infrastructure for it and there is an abundance of places to visit in the country. It is not necessarily cheap but you'll get value for your money.