This is my first ever blog post and I'm feeling a bit uncertain *happy-nervous* mixed emotions, anyways, I just want to share my travel experience on my first ever solo travel. I guess this could be the start of my travel journey since I always wanted to travel into different places ever since a kid.
Luckily I had this chance to travel alone on one of the famous tourist destinations here in the Philippines, and that is PALAWAN. Originally, this should be a group travel but due to conflict of time schedules on work with my travel mates it ended up to just ME. Instead of being nervous on the fact "traveling alone/solo", it made me more excited to push this through.
Of course there are these common concerns on traveling alone 1. budget, 2. where to go, 3. where to stay, 4. what to bring, 5. how to go to places, in short what should be the proper itinerary???? It pays to have a proper research first on the place you want to travel. Reading different travel blogs is one of the best thing to do. It will give you sufficient information on how to plan your travel itinerary.
So now let me share to you my travel adventure in Palawan!!!!
DAY 1 - September 22, 2013
-- A whole day TRAVEL --
(from DAVAO-CEBU-PUERTO PRICESA)
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| A view from Cebu City |
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| Arrival at Puerto Princesa Airport |
Travel from Puerto Princesa to El Nido will take 5-6 hours with two stopovers for lunch/snack and restroom breaks. Roads are mostly cemented but some are still under construction. Zigzag road ahead so better bring candies or anti-dizziness medicine. As for me, I ended up sleeping most of the travel (lol).
I arrived at El Nido terminal around 7:00 pm and ride a tricycle to get me to Tay Miloy's Inn for Php50. The owner Mr. Rodrigo Canalog welcomed me and assists me on my El Nido island hopping plan for tomorrow. He is very friendly and accommodating!
I got exhausted from the whole day of traveling!! I dig right to my bed after settling my things and showered.
More about my stay in Tay Miloy's Inn here.
DAY 2 - September 23, 2013
-- ISLAND HOPPING TOUR --
I woke up early and stroll around the streets of El Nido to find a place to eat breakfast and landed at Skyline Grill and Restaurant. Since my tour will start at 9:00 am, I decided to head to souvenir shop first to buy pasalubong.
Skyline Grill and Restaurant serves "silog breakfast" with coffee for Php120.
You can find souvenir shops in El Nido for cheaper prices. Just keep strolling along the streets and surely you can find one. You can also ask the locals as they could lead you the way.
As I waited for my scheduled tour, I had a conversation with Mr. Rodrigo. He told me stories about El Nido and the renovation of his house to an inn. He told me I was very lucky that this day the sun shines bright and current's tolerable, thus avoiding cancellation of the tour. Just from the past weeks the weather was not good thus resulting to cancellation of tours. Thank GOD it became sunny as I only allotted one day for the tour - Yehey!!
More on my El Nido Island Hoping tour here!!
Day 3 - September 24, 2013
-- CITY TOUR --
I woke up early again around 4:00 am to catch the first van ride back to Puerto Princesa. We depart around 5:30 am and arrived to Puerto around 11:00 am. The van back to PP only cost me Php500.
Upon arrival on the terminal, I take a trike to get me to city proper to Duchess Pension which cost me Php100 after haggling. Trike drivers usually ask for a higher rates if they know your a tourist, so better practice your haggling skills (lol). Well, it's better to travel in group as you can divide the cost of transportation.
I booked a room at Duchess Pension for 2 nights. After heading to my room to shower and change, I head down the street for a city tour.
I hired a trike driver to personally tour me around the city. I got this idea from my blogger highschool schoolmate, and had the number of the trike driver who also toured her around the city a year ago. Lucky me the driver (Kuya Junito) haven't changed his number all along. I advised him not to change his number as he may be the one I'll recommend to other tourists who wants to have a city tour.
It's much better to hire a trike driver to tour you around the city rather than availing the tour packages of the agencies as you could control the time and places you want to visit. The trike driver asked for Php120/hour for the tour. We started the tour around 2:00 pm and ended 6:30 pm. I paid him Php500 for a job well done as a tour guide/photographer of mine. City tour offered by travel agencies for 4 hours costs Php600/person.
More about my stay at Duchess Pension here!!
More on my Puerto Princesa City tour here!!
Day 4 - September 25, 2013
-- UNDERGROUND RIVER TOUR, UGONG ROCK ADVENTURE --
An early call time for me for the Underground River tour, around 6:00 am. I was the first to fetch by our tour guide and afterwards fetch my other companions for the tour. Luckily my companions are a couple from Quezon City and a group of friends (barkada) from Davao also. I didn't had difficulty on mingling with them as they were very friendly and open for any conversation. We spend the whole road trip laughing from jokes and stories.
The Ugong Rock Adventure was not on my plan, but since the group of friends from our team wanted to go there, then why not join them instead. We will all be heading there anyways. The adventure was fun that leaves me too many bruises on my legs - LOL!!!
More on my Underground River Adventure!!
More on my Ugong Rock Adventure!!
Day 5 - September 26, 2013
-- HOME BOUND --
(from PUERTO PRINCESA - MANILA - DAVAO)
As much as i don't want to end this wonderful journey..well... it must be. As they say, everything must come to an end. But I promise to my self that I'll surely be back here especially in El Nido, I'll gonna try all the island hopping tours!! And as for Puerto Princesa I'll try the Honda Bay Island tour and Estrella Falls tour next time. And definitely I will try to go to Coron and go diving!! I just can't wait for that time to come.
Ok! back to this home bound thing. I arrived at Manila at 11:00 am and have to stay there for 5 hours since my flight back to Davao leaves on 4:45 pm. I didn't get to have a quick stopover at MOA since I'm carrying a bag full of pasalubongs. I decided to just stay at the airport and read a book :-)
Most random strangers I met on this travel usually asked me why am I traveling alone. Well, due to circumstances that others may think unfavorable, I think I'm just destined to have this trip alone. Somehow, I'm still wandering and searching. Searching for what? That still I don't know. Thus, from now on I'll have this soul searching adventure and lets see where this would lead me.
And oh!! I started this blog because of the first impression to me by the people I met on my travel. They used to asked me, "Blogger ka?" (Are you a blogger?) - LOL. They used to see me capturing photos everywhere and very curious about stories and details!! *masyadong mausisa*. And then I realized, why not try blogging instead, even just for fun or just to express any interest under the sun. There's no harm in trying anyway!
As they say, pictures are great, but why not write about it. Surely as it inspires you, you'll inspire others as well!!
I hope you find my post helpful for others who wants to travel there!! Just don't be afraid to travel alone. Go see the world while you're still young and have the guts to do what you really want!!
"I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more"
(Letter to John Banister, Jr., June 19, 1787)
Your Soul Searcher
-- ABS --
Special thanks to Joan of www.chasingplacesbyjoann.org
