After leaving Seoul early March 2 and a five hour layover in Manila, I landed in Puerto Princesa, my first stop of this trip. After hearing glowing reviews from many of my friends who’d been before, to say I was incredibly excited to visit Palawan would be a bit of an understatement.
Tara and I had decided to stay a couple of days in Puerto Princesa before heading north to El Nido. With not much to do in the bustling but small town, we booked an island hopping tour for our last day. I’d read that the Honda Bay island hopping tour wasn’t really that great, and if that you were planning on going to El Nido it would be wise to save your money and skip it, but after months of cold and cloudy weather in Seoul we were ready for some sunshine and a beach or two. So, we coughed up the 1,300 pesos each and booked a tour with what seemed like the only operator open in town on Sunday.
Monday morning a van filled with a group of Filippino friends picked us up at our hotel and we began the drive to Honda Bay. Our first stop was at a rental shop where they encouraged people to rent snorkel gear and water shoes. I don’t really like to snorkel (looking at fish is boring) so I politely said no thanks. The tour guide wanted none of this and spent the next few minutes questioning me and my lack of desire to get up close and personal with slimy underwater creatures. She must’ve finally sensed my complete lack of desire and began herding us all back into the van.
We arrived a dock filled with other vans, sweating tourists, and jewelry touts where we proceeded to wait for about 20 minutes before being ushered into a bangka boat. While we sailed toward the first island our tour guide gave us a brief introduction to the islands and our schedule.
The first island was small, with a few huts, a diving board, and a couple of beach chairs. The water was a little murky with a lot of seaweed near the shore, but it was a beach and I was happy. Tara and I laid out our towels and began frying ourselves in the sun.
I laid back and closed my eyes only to be disturbed by increasingly louder chatter. I looked around and saw no less than four groups of young women taking posed self-timer pictures of themselves around the beach. This went on for the two hours we were there. I don’t know either.
At about 11:30 lunch was served to the group. It was quite the spread with grilled fish, pork, rice, salted eggs, eggplant salad, and other vegetables. Halfway through the lunch an old Japanese man in our group (the only other non-Filippino besides Tara and I) started a conversation with me by pointing at my tattoo to show me where he came from. It was a good ice breaker.
After lunch we went to a snorkeling spot on a reef. Tara and I sat on the dock and looked at pictures of the things in the water. I still don’t think I missed anything special.
Our last stop was Cowrie Island, named because of the abundance of cowrie shells found there. This place was the most developed of all our stops. There were pavilions to sit under and a full service bar.
It was also the prettiest. The water was clear and blue and lined with palm trees. Tara and I grabbed a couple of Red Horses to drink in the sand. When we got too hot we waded into the warm, shallow water. This was the kind of island we’d wanted all day.
Soon, sunburned and satisfied, it was time to head back to shore. Was it a great tour? No. Was it the most beautiful? No. Did I enjoy my first trip to the beach after a long, cold winter? Most definitely.
Though, if you are going to El Nido, believe what you read and don’t hang around Puerto Princesa longer than necessary…
Gorgeous pictures. <3 Don't you just hate pressure from toury people? They expect everyone to like the same things.
Ceri recently posted..I Came to Mexico and Got Eye-Fucked by Diego Luna
It is the worst. I generally dislike tours for that reason. Like, I’m an adult and I paid for this, I can decide what I want to do thanks…