The Great Palawan Escape

Posted by pat on May 3, 2010 in Travel | 12 comments

Seven Days in Palawan…

…was not enough to really experience everything that this beautiful island has to offer. One will need to stay about a month and a half or two. There is a whole myriad of things to see and experience – rich forests (some remain unexplored), high mountains, clean flowing rivers and waterfalls, placid lakes, enormous caves, endangered wildlife conservation, bursting marine life, and of course, absolutely beautiful beaches whatever part of Palawan you’re in. If want to go nature tripping, adventure seeking, get a taste of some geological history, and have an out-of-the-box experience…go to Palawan.

“The Great Palawan Escape”, that’s what I call it because it really felt like one. We were away from the city, sometimes without cellphone signal, sometimes without electricity, practically no internet during the whole stay and only a few people knew where I was going off to (I liked the idea of “disappearing” for a while). For seven days my family and I went on an adventure and travelled to different points in Palawan. Being lovers of the road less-travelled, we decided not to go to two of most popular destinations in Palawan - El Nido and Coron. Both are undoubtly very beautiful places and are definitely on my list of spots to travel to, but on this trip, we went elsewhere..(be jealous). Along the way, we made some awesome discoveries, had some cool out-of-the-box experiences and met people with interesting stories to tell about how Palawan is evolving into a place where people are very keen on Sustainable Development (I loved this very much but we’ll talk about that some other time).

Our itinerary was not for the dainty or fussy. My mom, the one behind it all, made sure it would unforgettable for the whole family. When she said, “Make sure your bags are easy to carry around. I prefer you use a backpack if you have one. Bring comfy clothes and rubber shoes”, and wouldn’t tell us the exact itinerary, I knew we were in for something. And “SOMETHING” it was – 7 beaches, 6 islands, 2 (well.. more than) caves, 2 rivers, 1 waterfall, sleeping in a run-down three walled bahay kubo, turbulent seas, mountains, forests, rocky unpaved dirt roads, boat rides.. we hopped from the east side to the west side… in seven days. She kept us constantly wondering about what was coming next.

It was a really awesome trip. There was a lot that we saw, experienced, and definitely a lot learned (not to mention, we had SO MUCH FUN). I shall tell the stories little by little, by destination. For now, I’ll share with you the itinerary…

The Itinerary
(Please stay “tuned” for the upcoming posts)

1) Quezon Town : 27 March – 29 March
Highlights : Tabon Cave, Tamlangon Island

2) Kalatagbak : 29 March – 30 March
Highlights : A beautiful spot on the top of the mountains called Balugo, Bagong Pag-asa Foundation, The Bristol family

3) Narra : 30 March – 31 March
Highlights : Crystal Paradise, Rasa Island

*Road to Sabang – 31 March
Highlight : Estrella Falls

4) Sabang : 31 March – 1 April
The Underground River, The Mangrove Forest, Taraw Resort

5) WWF Boat : 1 April – 3 April
Honda Bay, Snake Island, Starfish Island, Pandan Island (we wanted to go to Turtle Bay the seas would not permit).

If you want to go trip like this, don’t forget…

- Bring lots of Sunblock
- (!) Citronella Oil to ward off the mosquitoes and prevent Malaria.
(You can choose to use Off lotion or drink Malaria Prophilaxis, both of which I don’t prefer)
- Acapulco ointment (for insect bites, particularly Nik Nik a.k.a. sand mites)

You’ll need : a trusty driver and rent a van service.

We hired Kuya Joel. He’s a really fun, cool, and quirky guy who loves cracking jokes, telling stories, and joining in on the adventures. Beyond merely knowing how to get to one place to the other, he knows a lot about Palawan…Not to mention he has friends almost everywhere we went (very helpful when you need little extra help from other people)

Name : Joel Danelles
Number: Please contact me if you want to get it.