"Come Back, Come Back to Palawan Philippines!"

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park is not the only top grosser tourist destination in Palawan. In fact, it is just one of the many tourist destinations with similar strong capability to draw in the tourists with their money!

Honda Bay is another top grosser. It is the body of water in front of Puerto Princesa City which can be viewed from the balcony of the ranch of late Speaker Ramon V. Mitra. But, viewing it is far from the thrill and excitement that one could feel when one will do island hopping of the breathtaking Honda Bay! For only P1,200.00 per person, and a maximum of 6 persons you can have island hopping on board a pump boat that will take you to the fantastic islands in the bay. I was not able to do Island hopping this time. Let me then share with you my experience the last time I island-hopped Honda Bay. It started with a 15-minute motorcycle ride from the City to barangay Tagburos, which is where the pump boats are anchored. We departed Tagburos at 7:00 a.m., the pump boat took our group from one Island to another (Starfish Island, Cowrie Island, Dos Palmas, Snake Island, LULI for Lulubog Lilitaw sandbar etc…) which are all fine white sand Islands where we had snorkeling and spent time viewing the fantastic virgin corals with themulti-colored fishes. We also did fish feeding, swimming and sun bathing. Once we felt bored in one island, we asked our pump boat operator to move us to the next island. We had our lunch in the island of our choice.

The Honda Bay island hopping would have some variations like you may opt to spend a day or two in one of the island resorts like Dos Palmas or you simply want to spend the entire day in one Island say Cowrie Island.

Another popular tourist destination which would surely be of interest to the scholars and the scientifically-inclined individuals is the Tabon cave in the municipality of Quezon down south of the province. For only P1,500 per person in an air-conditioned van from Puerto Princesa, one will have the chance to see the archeological diggings of the famous relics of the Tabon man, which as Wikipedia describes it,

“The Tabon Man is a term used to reference a particular set of remains of Homo Sapiens. The Tabon Cave in Quezon, Palawan, Philippines, was a burial site of Homo sapiens. Carbon-14 dating tests reveal that fossil remains date back to 22,000 to 24,000 years before 1960 to 1967 (the years the excavations were held). However, at the deeper 160 cm level, the estimates dating of flake assemblage is from 45,000 to 50,000 years ago, probably over 60,000 years. The anthropologist Robert Fox, who directed the excavations, deduces that the Tabon cave was a habitation of man for a period 40,000 years, from 50,000 to 9,000 years ago. Tabon man was believed to travel here by land bridges from other countries to Palawan. The bridges disappeared after the Ice Age ended which caused the ice to melt and therefore drowning the bridges.”

The rest of the more popular tourist destinations are up north, to name a few: the Calauit Island, Coron, El Nido and the Tubbataha Reef. I have not been to these places though. The farthest place up north that I have been to is the town of Taytay. The road network from Puerto Princesa is not yet concreted that is why it is not advisable for tourists to go to the north with Puerto Princesa as the take off point.

The north will be our next destination. There is WG and A Superferry that sails from Manila to Coron and Puerto Princesa. I anticipate that I will have a lot more to share with you after our trip to the nothern part of Palawan!

Next post: Come back, come back Palawan, the conclusion!

Nagmamahal,

Edgar Sandalo