Puerto Princesa Town Tour and Firefly Watching

One [boring] August 2012 day in the office, Tiger Airways offered a seat sale and as excited as I am to jumpstart our plans in 2013 to travel I called up Tin and Zhek to book a flight to Puerto Princesa, Palawan. The promise of the underground river and island hopping and nature is too sweet to miss!

So I booked a flight on Feb 8-11, 2013 for three people, did the itinerary and next thing we know we’re waiting for Zhek by the waiting area in Terminal 4, walking towards the plane and off we go!

Day 1- February 8, 2013

We arrived at Puerto Princesa with our hotel representative already waiting for us. We have everything pre-booked except for the Town Tour.

Tip 1: For 3 people, it is advisable to pre-book your tours because it needs at least 12 people to fit a van.

Our contact person is Junar (09152000134). We need to pay Php4,000 each (total of Php12,000) for our hotel accomodation and breakfast for 3 days, transport to and from the tours and airport, and both the tours themselves.

Day 1 is City Tour day. We arrived around noon and as soon as we checked in we got our slingbags and rented a tricycle to have us tour around the city. Getting a tricycle is easy, just stop the first one you see ask if they would offer you a tour and bargain at a price. We had ours for Php800 for the whole day. That’s Php260 each!

First of course is lunch. The driver suggested Badjao Seafront and so we did. The view was amazing, the restaurant was located in a mangrove forest by the sea. The food however, though good, we’ve had better.

Crocodile Sanctuary

Entrance Fee: Php40.00

Activities: Sanctuary Tour, Photo ops with a baby croc, zoo

After the filling lunch, we went to the Crocodile Sanctuary. Personally, I would like it for the crocodiles to have more space in their cages. There is also a zoo right after the crocodiles but we didn’t. I am not a fan of zoos. So we went our way to Baker Hill.

Baker Hill

Entrance Fee: Free

Activities: Playground, Picnic, Bread shopping

Now Baker Hill we enjoyed! It’s a manmade park and the layout was artistic. We can smell the aroma of freshly baked bread before we even see the baker statue. This place is for kids with the playground and the statues of Shrek and other cartoon characters. There is also Shrek’s swamp. You can also climb the highest part there and just enjoy the scenery and cold air. What made it more fun was Toks. She’s a puppy with adrenaline that she cant seem to contain. She loves running around and showing off and it pays off. Everyone loved her. After buying some bread we went on to the Butterfly Garden.

Butterfly Garden

Entrance Fee: Php50.00

Activities: Butterfly watching, Palaw’an tribe education, Snake hugging (scary!)

We thought the Php50.00 entrance fee was steep just to watch butterflies flutter around you but there’s more to it than that we find. It was magical walking in a room full of butterflies all around you. Kind of romantic in a sense, especially at night. Anyway, aside from the butterflies, they also featured other insects like the stick insect which we found with extreme difficulty despite the fact that the tourguide keeps on pointing at it. Talk about camouflage. There are also worms that I did not bother remembering the names. They’re big worms. I have enough animals in my life and I don’t need another one to keep me from sleeping.

So after touring the garden, the tourguide told us to enter the door to the Palaw’an. It was an unexpected turn of the tour and that Php50.00 made us learn about the ethnic tribe of Palawan. They showed us their dart like weapon (they were really good and scary when it comes to aiming. They can kill you if they want to.) They also showed a whip and they’re better than Indiana Jones. They told us how they do their livelihood and all other interesting facts about their culture. Now my favorite part was when they played the kulintang, it is a string instrument of the Palaw’an and it was one of the most romantic music I heard. You can imagine the intro to your favorite love song and it will just make you smile. It made the hairs on my arms stood up. Seriously.

And then the 5 year old kid (guess) was suddenly hugging a snake by the head. Yup, it was their pet. Of course. The dad lifted it and invited us for photos. Among the three of us I tried it first. If the five year old could do it why can’t I? And behold!

After that we just toured the city, we went to the church and the plaza that was prison before.

We went back to our inn and saw a poster of “Firefly Watching.” We were so thrilled to try it and booked a ride for the night.

Now originally it should be around Php2,000 for each of us. Our budget wouldn’t let us but we bargained down to around Php600 each. How amazing is that? So we paid Php1,200 for the van, back and forth and the entrance fee for the Firefly watching is Php200 each. A total of Php1,800 for our group.

You could hire a tricycle as well and we think that the Php1,800 could be lowered to around Php1,000 if that’s the case.

Firefly Watching

Entrance Fee: Php200

Activities: Kayaking, Firefly watching

We needed to wake up before 7 am tomorrow and it was already 9pm when we arrived at the venue but sleeping late was worth it. We also went Php600 out of budget but again it was worth it.

The road to the venue was pitch-black. No streetlights and I thanked all the gods above that we took the van and not a tricycle. I would have died from the images that’s going on inside my head. And what made it worse was we passed by a prison. Well, of course they’re in shackles. You know what I mean.

So when we arrived, there was a line. We are on a waiting list. There’s a booking and we were just walk-ins so of course the priorities are those from the travel agencies. But luck was on our side, turnover was fast and by 10 pm we are strapped in our floating vests and climbing into the boat.

Our tourguide’s name is Vince and he was amusing. We found out that everyone in the tour industry of Palawan, be it drivers, tourguides, hotel owners need to accomplish a series of trainings and pass an exam before they can be licensed. Now that’s proper allocation of the provincial budget!

Now close your eyes and imagine a river. Make it wide like an olympic size swimming pool wide. Now imagine the entire riverbank lined with mangroves and trees and species of plants that you don’t really care to know what just as long they stay as harmless plants. Now imagine the moon, full and very bright. The perfect orb that werewolves react fairly well to as your only guide as you row. And then imagine the water itself, calm and stationary. You can see the moon reflected on it. Imagine the canoe you’re in, slim and small that a full grown crocodile can easily flip over. My imagination runs wild because I am in the perfect horror movie setting then we saw a Christmas tree like mangrove in the short distance. The horror movie turned into one of the most romantic experiences I have ever gone through. The tune of the kulintang still fresh from my memory played like the Palaw’an still plays it and magic returned.

The mangrove was literally filled with fireflies. I have no pictures to prove it because the flash of the camera would disturb them so I was pretty determined to etch it in my memory. I think I’m succeeding. It’s still magical in my head.

Then another mangrove was covered and another and another and then combine it with Vince’s jokes and trivias we laughed and we oohed and aaahed and continued to be amazed the rest of the trip.

Now note this, if there are fireflies in an area especially a body of water, it means the ecosystem is healthy and you know what else only lives in a healthy ecosystem? Planktons. Vince disturbed the water and for a second there I thought we would disturb crocodiles when suddenly the water glowed! It glowed bright green! IT GLOWED! Imagine a sci-fi river creature that glows when disturbed! It would have been scary what with my imagination if it weren’t too awesome!

And then Vince started with his farewell and it was too soon to end. We were telling him to row back to the river but there are more waiting in line and we can’t be selfish with an experience like that.

We got off the boat with smiles on our faces and all we said from going inside the van and getting on the bed was. “It’s so worth it!”
For our other Puerto Princesa Adventures