Puerto Princesa

So much for promising to post something right after my trip.  :P

We stayed at Palo Alto Bed & Breakfast, which is located about 15 minutes away from the airport.  It's also probably about 15 minutes away from the city proper via tricycle (They don't have taxis in Puerto Princesa to lessen the air pollution.), but it's very near 2 of the famous restaurants there: Kinabuchs and KaLui.  Anyway, the place was really nice and you could just spend an entire day chilling there since there's a nice pool and you can have them cook all your meals if you're really lazy to get out.  Here's a view of the courtyard and the pool.

On our first day, we asked the tricycle driver to take us to a yummy restaurant (talk about vague).  He took us to Badjao Sea Front.  Food was super yummy and prices were very reasonable.  It was really nice seeing it during the day because the place is surrounded by mangroves.

We did the Firefly Tour on the first night and unfortunately I do not have any pictures of it.  But it was one of the best things I've ever seen in my life - several trees filled with fireflies!!!  It was too dark so my low-tech camera phone couldn't take any decent pictures.  Anyway, here's a picture of the yummy seafood dinner we had on the boat:

Our second day was spent doing the Underground River tour.  It was a very interesting experience.  There are a number of interesting formations, but we were only able to capture the "corn".

That night, we ate at Kinabuchs...  Nyom nyom.

Third day was Honda Bay island hopping!  Our tour guide, Omar, was the best.  My niece's favorite activity was fish-feeding.  I don't like feeling weird things on my fingers so I was just throwing the bread a few inches away from me and not feeding them from my hands (Yeah, arte, I know).  :P  Here are some cool pictures.  We also got a taste of "alupihang dagat" which seems to be a cross between a shrimp and a lobster, or something like that.

And yes, I just had to post the jump shot because that is one of the few successful ones for me.  I am usually the last to launch.  Hehe.

There's still so much to do there.  I hear there's a Firefly tour from another area so I'm definitely going to try that.  We also decided to skip the Dolphin watching so that we would have a good excuse to return.

If you haven't been here - GO!!!  Tour prices are regulated by the local government so I don't think any of them go above 1,500 per head.  Food is also reasonably priced.  I really hope the new mayor will retain the current scheme because things are extremely organized here.