Trip For The First Time

Trip Bookings

At the airport

As far as I remember, it was January 2010 when we saw the promo fare from Cebu Pacific on all destinations and its been months that they have offered these promo sales. My co-worker quickly alerts me about the promo and to cut it short we had decided to book a round trip for Davao-Cebu-Davao route dated February 17 - 22, 2010 with a couple of days to spent, we thought we should maximize this trip so we search other destination from Cebu and we found that Palawan is one of its destination.
Without hesitation we booked for a connecting round trip flight of Cebu-Palawan-Cebu. During that time we don't have a personal credit card yet to use for the booking and we settled by borrowing a credit card from our branch manager. It takes more than a day of thorough planning for this trip, we searched the internet of the best tourist spots and optimal place to visit since we need to fit the activities in the allotted time. We plan on our luggage just to have a hand-carry one and even dress code when going to the airport to avoid long queue.

First Time
It was Wednesday when we packed our bag and brought it to the office since our departure time was 5pm on that day and we don't have enough time to went to our respective home. By 4 o'clock in the afternoon we'd early out from the office to went to the airport just 15 minutes away through commuting. I will discussed later the consequences of what we have done on early outing. :) To continue, this trip will be my first time on different scenarios, its my first time to went to Davao International Airport, ran my bags to those X-ray machines, got my first airline ticket and most of all my first time to ride an airplane, yehey! By the way, Lee Van and Jeremy are my travel buddy in this trip.

Viva Cebu!
It was almost 7 in the evening when we arrived at Mactan International Airport and we have no clue on how to commute going to downtown. We don't want to take a ride using the cab since it's costly and the fact that we are stingy on our travel trips so we browse our mobile contacts to whom we could ask on how to commute. Finally, we found a contact to a friend of mine named Bon2 who currently works in Cebu. We followed his advised to ride a yellow multicab with a regular jeepney fare and drop off to Save More. From Save More, we rode a jeepney with a route of SM and met our friend.

At Ayala Center Cebu with Jeremy and Lee

Quick Tour
We would like to thank Bon2 for a quick tour in Cebu, we visited Ayala and IT Park. A lot of first time happened in here also, got a glimpse of the high rise building compare to Davao to have only few and first time on a Starbucks coffee, the fact that Davao had no Starbucks coffee shop yet. The funny part in this time was we don't have a fix place to stay with and my friend was scanning all his contacts that are based in Cebu just to have an overnight stay since plan A was not successful which was staying at her Aunt's house. Luckily, Bon2 is there to help us find a hotel to stay and that was the Sugbutel, a cheap range hotel accommodation. We checked in on the dormitory type where a sets of bunk beds are laid. At the end of the night we checked and balances on the payments and expenses on that day. Sleep time...

Free Wi-FI at Sugbutel

Palawan, Here I Come
By Thursday morning, we went to the airport for our flight bound to Puerto Princesa, Palawan. I forgot what was the feeling those time when we arrived at the Palawan airport but one thing that I'll always remember was their dialect, not Visayan nor Tagalog but some are Ilonggo. We proceeded to the hotel that we found on the internet and I forgot what was the name of it. Then we met Darl, a cousin of Lee, this time she was our travel guide. We had our lunched and ate a particular dessert which was an ice cream put in a buko, sorry, I forgot the term of it. We spent our afternoon through city tour, rented their own version of tricycle and proceeded to the different spot. As a type this blog, I also scan the pictures of the places that we visited in Puerto Princesa and these were Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center, Butterfly Garden which I was little bit disappointed, Mitra's Ranch, Baker's Hill and lastly Plaza Cuartel. I will not go on to the details of the city tour because that would be surely long. Back to the inn we had stayed, checked and balanced our expenses and ended our day.

Arriving at Puerto Princesa airport

At the Crocodile Park

At Baker's Hill

Immaculate Conception Cathedral

El Nido To Go
Friday early morning we proceeded to bus terminal bound to El Nido, it was a very long trip from 7am to 2pm, that was a 7 hours land trip but this time we have company, they were Darl and Carl who accompany us in our trip, big thanks to them. Since we arrived around 2 in the afternoon, we immediately hire a motorized boat for an island hopping and indeed it was very awesome, jaw-dropping view of limestone cliffs. We even spotted the Helicopter Island which the name derived because the island resembles a helicopter from afar. We dropped to Miniloc Island, saw and took some pictures with the foreign tourists. It was a white sand beach bordered by an amazing blue color of the ocean. Sorry, I don't have the proper words to described the scenery and its definitely awesome. After the island hopping, we went to El Nido shoreline fronting by the different shops and inns. We witnessed the sunset there and walk back to the house for our dinner. We had our sumptuous dinner and ended the night. Thanks to Carl for this free accommodation.

El Nido limestone cliffs

Sunset at El Nido beach

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park
Again, we departed from El Nido early in the morning bound to Sabang where the famous underground river located. We dropped off to a certain place where transportation going to Sabang would pass. This is one of the funny moments I remembered because there are European tourists who also needs to go to Sabang and after mix emotions of transactions of haggling and conversation, finally the foreigners agreed. Arriving at Sabang, we pay the necessary fees for the underground river tour and proceeded. That time, there are many tourists visiting the national park or even any other day, since the underground river was nominated among the New Wonders of the World. It was stunning scenery, you will be really amazed of the underground river. It will take long to go on the details and around 5pm went travel back to Puerto Princesa since our Palawan-Cebu flight will be on Sunday morning.

Me at Underground River

Puerto Princesa Underground River

Back To Cebu
We arrived at the Cebu in the afternoon and proceeded to a quick tour, we visited the Taoist Temple and Magellan's Cross, then proceeded to SM. It was a fast paced event that in the evening we went to the Cebu International Airport for a rest because we have our first flight back to Davao early in the morning. It would not be wise if we stay for night in a hotel instead we went to the airport and searched a space to lie down. :D

At Taoist Temple

Magellan's Cross

Home Sweet Home
Not literally sweet because we still have our regular duty on that day and on top of that, we will face a query from the management regarding of what we did of early outing. But to wrap up the blog it was indeed an amazing and memorable journey.

*Some Photos: Photo Courtesy of Lee Van Beronio

Thank you and God bless us all!