Turista, Part Seven - Paradise Days Three and Four

III

Here's a closer look:

Unfortunately there's not many pictures of our actual snorkeling "adventure," as i don't have an underwater camera.  I keep wondering if i should just have sprung for the $50 gfm waterproof camera that i saw at meijer; would it have taken good enough pictures?  I guess we'll never know. 

This is my third try at snorkeling and Gianina's second.  I do find it somewhat enjoyable (except for the little stings i get on my skin when i pass by a patch of seaweed) and it whets my appetite for something more.  Mayhap one day when we're living lives of leisure we'll take up actual scuba diving.  For now i'm content to enjoy the sights in the shallow parts of the sea. 

On the way back we passed by a waterfall which serves as the main water source for the town of Sabang (which is where our resort was located).  If the weather had been more cooperative we would have kayaked there with a guide. 

As it was, we just contented ourselves with kayaking within a few hundred feet of the resort.  This particular experience i enjoyed immensely; i didn't realize that the waves subside (or at least start breaking) the farther you get from the shore.  Sitting two hundred feet into the sea, there's a peace that just settles on you... as if there's nothing wrong with the world, and i can appreciate how some people can get addicted to sailing. 

Here's a video of Gianina kayaking, subtitled for the non-Filipino-speakers among us:

 

For people who have never been on a bangka, here's a short video of what it looks (and sounds) like also:

The main event for Day Four was the City Tour. 

First on our itinerary was lunch (of course - no Chong ever goes hungry).  One of the more famous restaurants in Puerto Princesa is called Ka Lui's (Brother Louie's).  I'm no architect, but they seem to have constructed and decorated the place in the native fashion.  Their "gimmick" is that there are no shoes allowed in the whole restaurant.  Aside from keeping the floor clean, i guess it projects a little bit of local color.  The food was good and relatively inexpensive... and we got to try some STINGRAY!  There was the weird picture in the bathroom however that seemed out of place (it's the last picture - do not click on it if you are under 18). 


Next up was the "Crocodile Farm," although the official name of the place is obviously much longer. 


Inside the museum proper there's the skin of a sixteen-foot crocodile that's been hung out to dry, as well as some assorted odds and ends from local wildlife.  There's also a nature park where you can see "wild" animals that have been caged for all to see.  But the big thing is the crocodile "farm" itself. 


For thirty pesos you can have your picture taken with a baby crocodile.  In this picture, Gianina is genuinely enjoying herself while i am getting ready to pee in my pants:


A short drive away from the Crocodile Farm is the Iwahig Penitentiary, which is a weird tourist attraction in that it consists only of a large prisoner settlement where the low-security prisoners are actually allowed to roam free.  We have no pictures of the place as i found it equal parts depressing and creepy; the less that is said about it, the better. 

The third stop was the ranch of the late great Congressman Ramon Mitra.  The place looked deserted, but the security would let us through the gate; i guess someone still lives there.  At least we could frolic in the garden and enjoy the spectacular view. 

Half a mile down the road is "Baker's Hill," where we picked up some local hopia.  Seen from the road, it looks like a simple stall in someone's garage where they sell pastries.  It's a lot more when you walk inside the property, though.  It's hard to describe, but it's something like a cross between a sculpture park and a zoo for exotic animals, with a fancy snack bar.  The pictures do it absolutely no justice. 


There's a big house on the property which i assume is the owner's residence.  If he's really a baker, then i wonder if i got into the wrong profession. 


(As an interesting aside, another half-mile from Baker's Hill is a big house with a big sign announcing that it's the residence of a certain retired Commodore.  We asked our driver if it was open to the public, and he replied in the negative.  Why the heck would you want to advertise who lives in a house if you don't let visitors in?) 

The last destination of the day was the Butterfly Garden.  The name is pretty self-explanatory.  We spent the better part of a half-hour chasing around butterflies and i was able to snap at least one decent picture.  Not bad for a dinky little point-and-shoot, i think.

After that we headed straight to the airport, waited for our flight, and headed home. 

PALAWAN POSTSCRIPT:

I do have to point out that our City Tour was more than just mildly disappointing.  For the large sum of money we shelled out (a little over $2000 for our mini-vacation, excluding airfare), i did expect to at least have the various nominal entrance fees included.  They were measly sums to be sure, but being asked to pay "a little" more after just having paid a lot is just nasty and unprofessional.  Another thing that got my goat later on was how limited the experience was.  Although it was almost the exact same city tour i had when i went to Puerto Princesa with my family a few years ago, when i looked up sights to see at the WOW Philippines website after the fact, there were a lot more historical places we could have gone that were not even suggested.  This was a far cry from the uber-professional tour we got in Bohol last year, but i guess that's what you get when you go see the "frontier." 

Anyway, after the Palawan experience, there was one last big event: Marwin's wedding.