Trip to the Port of Princess - Puerto Princesa, Palawan

We celebrated our daughter's 5th birthday by going to Puerto Princesa City, the capital of Palawan. We stayed at the Balay Inato Pension for 3 days and 2 nights. It is quite near the airport and they offer free transfers. Aside from this, it is within the same compound as Haim Chicken Inato, which became the favorite chicken of my wife because of our stay there.

After settling in our room, we had lunch at Haim Chicken Inato and immediately proceeded on our city tour. First on our list was the butterfly farm which was quite disappointing because there were not much butterflies in the farm as we would have wanted.

 After less than an hour, we went to the crocodile farm where we saw lots of what else, crocodiles, he he he. They were also keeping ostritches. For a small fee, my wife got the opportunity to hold a baby crocodile for some photo ops.

We also went to the Mitra's Ranch which overlooks Honday Bay. The place is open to the public but the house is closed.  Near the ranch is Baker's Hill, which sells bread and has lots of life size cartoon characters. My daughter met some kids there and made new acquaintances.

 To end the day, we went to Vietville, which used to be a refugee processing center for refugees coming from Vietnam. Since most of the refugees had already been found their host countries, the place is almost deserted except for a restaurant that served Vietnamese dishes.

The following morning, we went on Honda Bay island hopping. We stayed longest at the Snake Island which is being maintained by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Entrance to the island is free and there are a few cottages for visitors.

The waters off the island is teeming with big fishes like jacks, bat, butterfly and angel fishes.

Before retiring for the day, my wife asked that we go to the market to buy some pasalubongs, particularly pearls and other jewelries and fish (they pack your fish with ice for transport back to Manila).



To cap the day, we also went to the baywalk where we saw the tallest Christmas tree in Palawan and also witnessed a parade of lanterns.

The following morning, we prepared to go to the airport for our flight back to Manila. We ordered some Chicken Inato also for pasalubong.