Wednesday, april 2nd – Friday, April 4th, 2025
World Tour Days 151 – 153
At 2:30am we departed on our roughly 4 hour flight to Manila, Philippines. It is always exciting to enter a new country. After a long layover we boarded our flight to our final destination, Puerto Princesa, in the province of Palawan. The flight was less than 1 hour, which was nice and quick. We hit the ground running by walking to the local mall to try Jollibee for the first time, which is a Filipino fast food chain serving fried chicken and spaghetti. I also tried their coke float which is more of a coke with a chocolate sundae on top, but I was not complaining. Everything was delicious. We also got snorkel gear for our time in the Philippines, some easy breakfasts for me, and sunscreen.
Our inn was small and quaint with spacious rooms. Our accommodation was a 30 minute, hot and sweaty walk, from the airport. It was quieter than the area by the mall, which we appreciated. There were several small stalls along the road in the neighborhood. Over the course of our stay, we tried hamburgers and freshly made lemonade from one, and bought a kilo of jackfruit from another. The lemonade was very fresh as the lady left the stall and came back with a lemon in order to make it, which we thought was awesome.
The first day we had a Honda Bay island hopping tour. The tour picked us up at 7:00am from our hotel, and we made our way to several other hotels until the van was full. At the port, the group waited for our guide to rent a boat and captain for the day. Our first stop was Pambato Reef. There was a floating dock the boats parked along, and snorkelers could enter the swim zone from. This spot was a little disappointing as all the reef was mostly dead. There were some fish there, but we assume it was mostly because the guides were feeding them in order to give the guests something to look at.
The next stop was Luli Island for lunch. The island itself was small, with a sand bar on one end, a BBQ shack, huts for eating in, and a dive platform. The water was crystal clear and the island was surrounded by lush green mountains in every direction. We enjoyed this stop much more. We tried some pork belly from the BBQ shack which was so scrumptious. Hilariously enough pork belly was included in our lunch later with the tour, and there was enough we could eat as much as we physically could.
Lunch was incredible. Our guide used a grill from the BBQ shack to cook everyone fish, shrimp, and pork belly. Other dishes included pickled egg salad, rice, eggplant salad, the best papaya we have ever had, fresh okra, soda, and juicy pineapple. It was an incredible spread for an island hopping tour lunch, that’s for sure. I also kept thinking the guide was done putting dishes down so I took the lunch spread photo with half the items still missing, then got too excited to eat and forgot to take another one.
Our last stop was Cowrie Island, where we had over an hour to hang out and relax. This island was bigger than the last one, with a large bar and long beach for laying on. There were palm trees and bathrooms, too. I enjoyed a mango milkshake. Nick and I swam for a short while, but mostly just relaxed.
A short boat ride followed by a van ride and we were back in our neighborhood after a wonderful outing. For dinner we had wood fired pizza from down the street. It was pretty good, but I was not a huge fan of the sourdough crust. There were some other activities available from Puerto Princesa, but everything was relatively expensive and underwhelming so we opted for just one organized activity.