Finally, for the main event, Puerto Princesa Underground River!

A handsome foreigner offered to take a photo of us. Awyiss!

We arrived at Palawan on a Saturday and according to our IT and what other people say, we should head straight to the Booking office to secure a permit for our Underground River tour. Little did we know that the office was closed on weekends! After all the research I've done, how was it that I wasn't able to know about this? Oh well. Good thing we scheduled the tour on a Monday.

Booking office, why u no open on weekends?! (no, that's not the booking office)

We availed Clouds Inn's Underground River services for 1500php each. They took care of the permit, transportation (via van), boat, and buffet lunch after the tour. We were lucky we had the van for ourselves. If the inn had other guests who availed the tour package, we'd all share the same van.

We left the inn around 10am. We drove really fast because we were scheduled at 11:30.

He couldn't handle the zigzag roads. Haha

After our driver/tour guide took care of some things, we rode a boat from the port.

The waves were a bit strong during the ride

Puerto Princesa Underground River

We saw monkeys, monitor lizards, and the small chickens (I forgot what it's called) while we were waiting for our turn.

Don't bring plastic bags as these guys will snatch it from you

A monitor lizard digging something

Tiny chickens that lay an average of 70 eggs a day. How!?

Our boat carried six people.

What time is it? It's explore-a-cave-full-of-bat-shit time!

My camera doesn't perform well in low-light places.

I don't know how to do a setup to make it look a wee bit better either. haha!

After the tour, we rode our boat back to the port and had lunch.

The food wasn't that good.

Ugong Rock

Took a side trip to Elephant Mountain for pictures before arriving at Ugong Rock

Ugong Rock wasn't part of Clouds inn's PPUR tour packate but since we were the only guests, we requested that we go there. I was worried that they might charge us more for that but they didn't.

Caving, spelunking, zip lining, here we come!

Aww... look at us. Exploring caves together.

The only way we could get  to the top of the mountain for the zip line is through the caves. We had no choice but to survive. :))

There are two kinds of zip lines to choose from. The sitting position kind of zip line and the Superman position. Guess which zip line we tried?

The guys are ready to fly!

And so are the girls!

Woohoo!

Kalui Restaurant/ Art cafe

Of course, we had to visit Kalui at least once. I was hoping there weren't a lot of people since it was a Monday (We didn't make a reservation). I was wrong. The place was teeming with people. The waiter had to check if there were any available tables. We were lucky enough to get one.

Closed on Sundays

So artsy!

Too bad we weren't given a table like this

The food was so-so. I didn't enjoy it as much as Chaolong.

Eel in coconut milk

Garlic Buttered shrimp

Kinilaw

What I enjoyed was the art exhibit at the back of the restaurant!

Uguu. All that talent

Lots of photographs and paintings

Check out their souvenir shop

And that concludes are three-day trip at Puerto Princesa, Palawan. We had so much fun!

Day1 : City Tour, Iwahig Firefly watching, Kinabuch
Day 2: Honda Bay, Kuyba Almoneca, Thalia's Chao Long

Honda Bay

Our driver took us to a place to rent out snorkels and aqua shoes.

150php for a pair of aqua boots. 150php for a snorkel

Upon arriving, we registered for a boat, paid the terminal fee, and paid for the buffet on Cowrie Island.

You can select which islands to visit. We visited all five of them.

The first island, Luli Island!

The name is coined from "lulubog, lilitaw"

I am loving the sand bar!

Next was snorkeling at Pambato Reef.

ooh! Giant turtle!

We can't actually go near the corals. The guy assisting visitors borrowed our camera and took these photos for us

That life vest was secretly trying to murder me. It's difficult trying to look at corals while something is choking your neck

The coral reef isn't as pretty as the reef I visited at Puerto Galera when I was a kid. But still pretty

The third destination was Starfish Island.

Did a little more snorkeling

When we arrived, we weren't sure what island we were at. It wasn't until we found these starfishies that we found out! There was only two though...

The most interesting island, Pandan Island.

Look at all the activities!

We tried the Flying Fish!  Man, was it so much fun! 2000php for three people

Too bad we couldn't chill longer at Pandan Island. We were running late for Cowrie Island's buffet lunch

Lastly, Cowrie Island.

Had lunch at Cowrie for 200php

There's this thing they call Camera Tricks. It was awesome!

And when we got back to the port, it rained again.

Kuyba Almoneca

The next destination wasn't something we planned on going to. Our tricycle driver kept talking about it since the first day. He went on about how we'd be able to touch stalagmites and stalactites in this cave unlike that in the underground river. So we told him that if we got back early from Honda Bay, we can try it. And we did.

100php entrance fee

The decorated the interior of the first cave with saints

The third cave have pools you can bathe in

And because of this side-track, he asked for a hundred pesos more for the fare. So it's 800php in total.

Thalia's Chaolong

During the commute, we asked the driver what kind of food was considered a specialty in Puerto Princesa and he suggested we try Chaolong. While driving back to the inn, he pointed us to a place named Thalia's Chaolong.

After resting for a bit, we rode another tricycle to Thalia's. He wasn't familiar with the place so we had to direct him. When he saw it, he murmured that the Chaolong there wasn't good. But we found it hard to believe because people were lining up by the doors.

Choose between chicken

and beef stew

I wasn't sure if you're supposed to put the whole twig in it but I did.

Garlic french bread is harthart <3

I really enjoyed it! I would love to come back for more! We spent around 90php each for a bowl of Chaolong and some french bread.

And that ends our second day in Puerto Princesa.

Day1 : City Tour, Iwahig Firefly watching, Kinabuch
Day 3: Underground River, Ugong Rock, Kalui