Honda Bay, Palawan

Thursday, March 4,2010: Honda Bay
Between Pepito, and our van driver the day before, we found Marcel and the hotel where he stayed. We went there early in the morning, after we asked for our Honda Bay tour van to pick us up from his hotel, to give us a chance to talk to him. He was pleasantly surprised to see us, and we invited him to have dinner with us later that evening at Badjao and coffee afterwards at Kamarikutan to meet the owner of the land that he said he was interested to see. We also wanted him to meet Dayang Dayang. He was impatient though, as by 3 pm he was already calling us, but we could not answer his call as we were in the middle of Honda bay. We did text him to tell him where we were and give him an idea of when we got into town.

Honda Bay, was beautiful. In our boat, we had the family of Victor, Blessie, Sam and Michael Gamboa from Manila, Iaian and Maryjelle Price from England, and Luis, Kim and Cris from Catalan, Spain.

Again when we got to the port to embark on our boats, the tourism authority made sure that we wrote our names as a headcount of all who went out on boats, and which boats. Our tourist guide was Gloria and was accountable for all of us. We first sailed into the coral reefs in the middle of the bay. We were given life vests and would transfer from the boat to a hut in the middle of the sea, which was the jump off point for snorkeling the coral reef. Alas, this was something I could not do. My vertigo gets bad when my head gets into the horizontal position, and in water? I did not want to risk anything. So, I sent my underwater camera with the captain and diver of the boat, and he took some awesome pictures. I had no idea how beautiful it was under the water. I confess that I did not experience snorkeling and diving at Honda Bay because of my vertigo, but I did experience it, for did I not see the coral reefs and fish?

Next stop was Pandan Island, noted for the giant spiky leaved pandanus plants that lined the beaches. More snorkeling, walking by the beach, and then lunch. While others continued to swim and snorkel, Jeanne and I indulged in a wonderful massage with virgin coconut oil. It just hit the spot, and I think helped us not get too sunburnt.

Third stop was Snake Island, and this island was full of mangroves, that all you could do was walk the beach- front perimeter. The island is very hot, and has no shady trees to rest under. Snake Island is about 8 km long from point to point, and is shaped like a snake, hence how it got it’s name. There are no snakes on Snake Island contrary to its name. While the group went off to swim and snorkel again, the boatmen bought fresh big fish from fishermen off the island. It was too hot, and by this time I was really exhausted by the heat. Jeanne and I stayed on the boat to sleep. I sent my camera off with the captain of the boat again, and got to see the biggest tropical fish in this area. The other passengers of the boat, also told us that there were siukoys (mermaids and mermen) jokingly referring to themselves being in the picture as they swam and snorkeled alongside the fish.

Coming back to port, our guide pointed out an island called Lu-li meaning lulubog – lilitaw. Part of it would submerge during high tide. It had two houses on it, though, and looked like it was occupied and busy when we passed by. Interesting!

We got into Puerto Princessa at around 5 pm, then proceeded to our hotel to freshen up. Then off to pick up Marcel at around 6 pm. Our van driver from Honda Bay said that he would be pleased to take us to the Badjao Restaurant and then Kamarikutan, as he did not live that far. So we had good transportation. Badjao Restaurant was the restaurant to be at sunset in Puerto Princessa. We ordered their seafood platter. Here, you get to eat good food, and watch the beautiful sunset at the same time. It had a fantastic view and I kept taking pictures of the different stages of the sunset. The entrance of the restaurant is a bridge through a very prolific mangrove swamp. Tall mangrove trees with roots jutting out of the water lined both sides of the bridge which gets you to the restaurant that is on stilts on top of the bay.

After Badjao, we proceeded to Kamarikutan for coffee. Alas, Dayang Dayang had already left, but she left me 3 tongatongs, plus a magazine about Palawan. I so wanted Marcel to meet her as she was such a high class personality living in Puerto Princessa, but I guess it was not meant to be. The girl who worked for her, whose aunt wanted to sell her beach property in south Palawan showed us the land title, etc., but the land was about 4 hours away, and Marcel was not interested to buy land that far from Puerto Princessa.

Hearing our conversation, our van driver said that he knew of beach property being sold around Honda Bay. Marcel wanted us to go with him, and when we left each other that night, we were to see each other in the morning and accompany Marcel as he looked for his beach property.