Where in the hell is the beach!
Trip Start
Feb 19, 2012
1
4
8
Trip End
Mar 22, 2012
Where I stayed
Oro Bonito Hotel
Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sun, Feb 26, 2012
Today we left the hotel around noon to go to the Domestic airport to catch a plane on Zest Air for a 3:30pm departure. When we got to the airport, we found that the plane had been delayed until 4:20 pm. Then they delayed it to 4:40pm then delayed it again to 6:00pm. It finally showed up at 6:30pm. We were starting to worry that they were going to cancel the flight but, we finally took off and it was only about 40 minutes to get to Puerto Princesa airport. It's kind of frustrating when you think about how long we waited for the plane for the short amount of time it took to actually get to the island of Palawan.
When we left the airport we grabbed a trike (tuktuk) and asked him to take us to our first choice of hotel to stay, Casa Linda, but it was all booked up. We tried another hotel, it was also booked up. We started to get a little worried but, Puerto Princesa is much bigger than we thought it was going to be and there are plenty of places here to choose from. It appears that new places are going up so rapidly that even the tourist office has a hard time keeping up with all the hotels here. We ended up staying at a fairly decent hotel for about P2000 a night called the Oro Bonito Hotel. I thought we would see some beach when we got to this town but, we never did find the beach...partly because we spent most of the time finding out how to do get where were we wanted to go, setting up logistics and taking care of paperwork.
We decided to stay here for at least two nights while we figure out logistics. We also needed to apply for a visa extension while we are in Puerto Princesa and do laundry. You automatically get a
twenty-one day visa but, if you want to stay longer, you have to apply for an extension. We could do that while we are in Puerto Princesa as long as we have proof that we have a return airline ticket.
We ate at a great little restaurant called Ima's Vegetarian Restaurant. I ordered a stir fry with tofu,
green beans, nappa cabbage, and black beans with garlic rice. Boy was that good. The black beans gave it a little punch that really made the stir fry. Dave ordered a rice and bean burrito and he said it was probably the best burrito he's ever had. They also made me a no-milk tropical fruit shake, very good.
Mon, Feb 27, 2012
Today we walked around Puerto Princesa thinking we were headed to the harbor but ended up in some industrial area. We finally figured out that we were not on the main road like we thought. It's hard to navigate in this town as they don't have any
road name signs anywhere. It's also pretty hot here, I would say in the mid-90's and very humid. Halfway through the day we decided we had enough of walking around and it was time to start using the tricycles...they are everywhere. You just have to stick your hand out to flag one down. We went to the tourist office to figure out our travel options and
discovered that all the travel agents have booked up the Subterranean River Tour for the rest of February. So, we will have to wait until the first of March to do this tour. The other tour we would like to do is called the Ugong Rock trail, which includes a 7K walk along a trail, and then some scrambling through tunnels and up ladders to get to the top of a large karst rock...then you zip-line down...FUN! We are going to try to arrange this trip tomorrow as well as get our visa extension. We are going to stay one more night so we have time to get this all worked out. We also found that they now have a van service that will take you up to El Nido in about 5 hours vs. 9 hours that was quoted in the guide book. So our hope is to spend a couple of days up at Sabang to do the Subterranean tour and the Ugong Rock tour and then head to El Nido.
We ate lunch at Ima's again and then we Skyped Daniel the trike driver...he gave us his phone number to call whenever we wanted to go somewhere...to drive
us around
town a little and take us to a good restaurant that serves fresh
fish.
Daniel took us to the Badjao Seafront Restaurant...a gorgeous
restaurant right on the edge of a mangrove forest. There were some fantastic cloud formations in the sky making for a beautiful sunset. The grilled tuna was delicious, the atmosphere was serene though a little buggy with mosquitoes. If I had known we were going to eat there, I would have put on some bug juice.
Tue, Feb 28, 2012
Today Daniel showed up in the morning before we called him to take us around. I think he wanted to make sure we used his services and he had some time because there was a delay in the arrival for the morning airplane...Daniel also has a job working the airport for trike taxi service...he has to wear a uniform shirt when he is working the airport. Anyway,
we hadn't had breakfast yet but, since
he was ready, we decided to go ahead and get our errands completed.
First we went to the Underground River Tour Booking Office and managed to get a walk-in permit for March 1 in the morning, which is perfect. Then we went to the Immigration office and got our visa extension. Next we went to the Kalokairi Tour office and arranged to have a van pick us up tomorrow to take us to the Ugong Rock trail. He'll wait for us there and then take us to the Daluyon Resort in Sabang http://daluyonresort.com/. This is a beautiful resort right on the beach. We wanted to stay here two nights but, it was booked up for March 1 so, we are staying at the Sheridan Resort and Spa the second night. We seldom stay in places like the Sheridan. It's rather high end for us but, I managed to get a good deal for it online. The tour guide will pick us up at the Daluyon in the morning for the Subterranean river tour March 1st and then we'll go back to the Sheridan. We are hoping we'll have time during these two days to hike a couple of short trails and hang out at the beach. We'll go back to Puerto Princesa March 2nd and stay overnight so we can catch a van in the morning that will take us to El Nido on the north end of Palawan. We've been told that they don't have any banks or ATM's on this end of the island so we withdrew the max from the ATM today and will do the same tomorrow so we make sure to have enough cash on hand to do what we want to do on that end of the island. There are a number of islands and archipelagos from this end of the island that we want to visit. Eventually, we'll take a boat to Coron on Busuanga island. Apparently, there are banks here and an airport with a number of flights to Manila. So, we'll be able to replenish our cash supply here and we will go back to Manila from this island.
When we finally got all our errands completed...it took us perhaps 1 ½ hours to do all this...really quite efficient compared to the amount of time it took us to get things done in Manila...we had Daniel take us to the little coffee shop close by our hotel so we could have breakfast and some good coffee.
Then we wandered around a portion of
the town right outside the airport where there are a number of little stalls with handmade art, jewelry, and souvenirs...some really nice things...I ended up buying a handmade bracelet woven from reeds and includes a chunk of turquoise, somes shells, wood beads and python vertebrae disks...a really unique piece. Dave hand a shop make him a bracelet made with a variety of beads and python vertebrae. What a perfect souvenir to remind us of our trip to the Philippines.
Dave also found a beautiful coffee table book on Palawan that he wanted to buy and it turned out that we had to buy it through the Philippine Information Office in the Provincial Center where the tourist office also resides. We had to pay for it at the Treasury office...we experienced Philippine
Government red tape just to buy a coffee table book...that was kind of different. We had the ISBN number so we tried to go online to buy it but, the only places we could find it available for purchase were in Singapore or Australia for $90. We got it from the government office for $58. Now Dave has to decide if he wants to carry it around with him the rest of our trip or mail it to himself. I suggested he mail it but, he's a little concerned about the cost to mail something that heavy to the U.S.
It poured down rain on us while we were shopping for the bracelets and we found a great restaurant for lunch and to get out of the rain but, I realize now that I forgot to get the name of the restaurant. It's signature dish is a barbequed chicken that was about the best barbequed chicken I have ever had. It came with a little dipping saucer with a Kalamansi (a.k.a. Calamansi) fruit...it looks like a key lime but it's orange inside... sweet and sour...and a couple of tiny little red hot peppers about a quarter of an inch long...the smaller they are the hotter they are. We asked the waiter what we were supposed to do with these. He had us squeeze the fruit into the saucer, then crush the peppers with our fork. Then he had us pour some Philippine fish sauce called Patis over it. This fish sauce is so much better than any of the Thai fish sauce we have had. Then we dip the chicken into the sauce. That sauce was so good! The pepper added a pow to the chicken, the kalamansi and patis gave it contrast. We also had a kangkong stir fry and this stir fry used the tops of the kangkong. It tasted a lot like spinach but crisper...also really good. We'll have to go back and get the name of
that restaurant.
For dinner we ate at the Lotus Garden restaurant that specialized in Asian dishes. I had a Vegetarian Thai curry with cabbage, green beans, carrots, and some kind of meaty veggie that I didn't recognize. Also a great meal. Dave had a grilled chicken in a spicy coconut and lemongrass sauce. It was also really good and even though it had a lot of the same ingredients as a Thai curry, it didn't taste the same as my Thai curry. We are not sure what made it taste different. This restaurant has a number of different eating areas. One area has wooden floors with low tables...ala Japanese style seating with cushions on the floor and feet under the table. It also had a tea house where they had seating and right in the middle it had a giant tree with a tree house that also had seating. Needless to say, Dave and I sat in the tree house to eat. We had a few bats fly through as we were getting seated and one hooked itself to the ceiling of the house and rested for a while.
I tried to take pictures but, they didn't come out that great. Surrounding the tree were a number of ponds some that had some giant carp. An Australian couple at the table next to us ordered some kind of fruit platter and the bananas were suggestively prepared in such a way that I had to take a picture of it. The most phallic prepared banana I've seen served anywhere. We were all laughing at it.
Tomorrow, we are off for some adventure and hopefully, some beach time...FINALLY!
Comments
At last, you found food I can eat. Yummy. I love the tree house, too.
It's snowing right now. We had 6 inches Sunday night, sun on Monday and some clouds most of the day. Your weather sounds inviting.
wow, I thought the snow was over there. Since Dave and I aren't around to shovel snow, Aki may be crawling up to our house to water the plants. Hope you get to do some skiing!
Another great blog entry - made me hungry!