Puerto Princesa Trip - City Tour

warning: photo-heavy post

After checking in and resting in for a while, we headed out to have our Puerto Princesa City Tour.

As I mentioned on my intro, the package we got only included one tour - that is the Honda Bay Island Hopping.  Not Underground River Tour.  Not City tour.

But since we'll be doing the Island Hopping on the 2nd day, I figured we should have an activity on the first.  Para sulit ang stay.  I considered visiting the Underground River, because as they say, you cannot go to Puerto Princesa without going to the Underground River, blahblah.  But unfortunately, the time will not permit us.  Whole day dapat iyon, as in madaling araw ang start because it's far away from the city (2 hour drive).  So we opted to take the City Tour instead, less jam packed pa ang aming stay.  Babalik na lang kami ulit para sa Underground River naman (promise ni V yan, haha)

Anyhooooo… we I decided that we DIY our city tour, less expensive kasi  #gustongjowakoyan.  The hotel's city tour package rates at 600 php per person, 1200 php for the both of us, ong mohol do bo?  So what we did was we rented a tricycle instead (with Manong driver as our tour guide) and agreed to pay 700 pesos only.  But, sa ka-isdaan ko, 800 ang naibayad namen.  Pakker.  Good thing, kuya is very friendly and supportive sa aming pagtotour.  He always volunteers to take pictures of us, haha.  I guess bawi na rin #tryingtomakejusticeoutofkaisdaan

Here are the places we visited that day :)

Plaza Cuartel (Garden / Underground Tunnels)

Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral

Crocodile Farm

Kaloka yung ibang maliliit na crocs dito, tumatalon sa tub gustong kumawala!!!

Tingnan niyo yan! Tingnan niyo yan!

rawr.

When I saw this poster, hindi ako naattract :( Naawa ako.  I'm not a vegetarian, I eat meat.  Pero wala lang, the picture of the crocodile selling itself saying "I come in sausage, tocino, tapa, etc" parang nakakaawa lang.  Haha. #emotera

The view from Mitra's Ranch.

Sorry I'm not posting pictures of us (with faces).  Huhu, ayaw ni jowabels.  I really don't understand why >.<  Pagbigyan na lang.  (nasa fb page ko naman lahat itu, haha)

Anyways, moving on…

Baker's Hill

Baker's Hill is the home of baked goodies in Puerto Princesa.  Yes, they are good!  We bought their famous hopia  (which comes in ube and mongo flavor which also comes in pork oil and vegetable oil) and some other delicacies as pasalubong.  The mini-park inside is so cute.  Filled with Filipino made sculptures of Disney cartoon characters and since it was December, Santa was there too.

All the birds here are not real, they are hand-made! Nice! :)

The dinosaurs are hand-made, too *malamang*

A friend told me that we HAVE to try Baker's Hill's halo-halo.  Good thing we were there meryenda time, tomguts na talaga kami kaya sakto itey.  At first glance, the Razon's halo-halo and theirs look alike.  Haha.  The taste is almost the same too, except that MAS MASARAP ITOOOO.  Haha!  V even joked about going back there on our 3rd day (kung may time pa), he loved it too.  When we come back for the Underground River, we will definitely eat here again.  One large halo-halo costs 95 pesos (if i remember it right), sooper sulit.

After that, we headed to the Butterfly Garden.  The butterflies were almost scarce that you might as well call this place the "garden", hehe.  Anyways.  We spotted some (thankfully):

Di gumagalaw.  Feeling ko fake to, anlaki niya sa totoong buhay eh. Haha

Other pictures were blurred na because they're flying everywhere.

We also visited Binuatan Creations.

The people here are pros!  Super fast the hands, it's as if they don't have to think of what arm or leg to move next , it was like pure instinct.  Kalerkey.

Naki-experience ako, but no can do.  Lugi negosyo sakin.  Hahaha!

They have a store here, too, where they sell these carefully handwoven materials as wallets, trays, notebook covers, bags, etc.  Nice!

We intended to head straight to Baywalk, but we were already dead tired.  So we went back to the hotel first to get some rest and went to Baywalk at dinner time.

Merry Christmas Palawan!

Puerto Princesa's baywalk is very much similar to Manila's.  Except that there, food chains / carinderias are allowed.  Hmpf.  I miss the lively Manila Bay.  #sanaibalikna

We had our dinner on one of the food stands there *street style, yeah* and headed home after a verrrryyyyy long yet fun-filled day.  Sooper sulit this city tour. ^_^

Watch out for the next entry for this series : Puerto Princesa Trip - The Food