Palawan: DIY or Packaged Tour?

in continuation to an earlier post about planning a trip to palawan, let me discuss another essential point: manner to go about the whole trip.
i should have discussed this point earlier on. but well, discussing about it only occurred to me now. so, let's get on with it, shall we?

first thing first, what kind of traveler are you?

el nido accommodation: greenviews resort and restaurant

are you planning to hit the islands and have zeroed in on el nido, palawan? darn, i ENVY you, hehe. among the many places i've visited over the years, there's no doubt in my mind that the philippines is richly blessed when GOD decided to create the bit of paradise that is el nido. i believe it's one of the best, if not the best beach destination in the country. for that, i encourage you, my dear reader, to put el nido in your must-visit place. check out the picture below and tell me if you don't agree. ain't it a beauty?

beach in el nido, taken during my brother and sister's trip february of last year

planning for palawan trip

i previously mentioned that a friend and his wife are planning to go to palawan this august. this friend is someone i've known way, way, back in grade school (think almost 2 decades ago). i recently received a message again asking me to help him plan. hehe, callous me just told him to check out my previous posts as i was sure i've covered most of the things he and his wife needed. however, a thought popped in mind "you were scared too when you planned for your first, second trip." i know my friend wasn't 'scared, scared' but was more like tentative, perhaps overwhelmed. maybe, i should have told him to leave the planning to his wife, hehe (peace, bay!). girls are more savvy when it comes to planning, bordering on planning to the last minute detail. anyway, i realized that there could be someone out there who's also planning a trip to palawan, and it could be that person's first time to travel. additionally, it had always been my goal to help fellow pinoys to explore the country, and the world. so, i'm writing this post just as a refresher (of previous palawan posts) and to share my two cents as far as planning for a palawan trip is concerned. hopefully, the tips will help you, my dear reader, plan the trip.

puerto princesa accommodation: skylight hotel palawan

almost five years ago, in february 2008 - i had the privilege of visiting one of the most beautiful places in the country. i've longed to go back there, but somehow haven't had the chance to return YET. i'm not certain if i'll be able to in the future. thus, this post and future posts will be my attempt at reminiscing the good old days. i hope to cover before this year ends, all the places i've been to in the past years both here, some parts of southeast asia, and seoul korea. while the pictures i'll be using may not be updated, rest assured that i will research on new information to make things relevant. i'm starting with palawan because i'm helping out a friend plan his and wife's future trip to beautiful palawan. hopefully, it will help them and whoever may chance and stumble upon my little place on the web.

busuanga island, (coron) palawan airport

in one of my blog posts (don't remember though if it was here or back at my blog at wordpress), i mentioned that visiting small towns in the country is a humbling experience for me. there are many occasions where i take notice of how much far behind cebu is to other cities in asia in terms of road networks and other infrastructures. having had the privilege of visiting nearby southeast asian countries (thanks to low airfare costs), i can't help but compare how wanting cebu's transportation system and mactan airport is. then, i visited places such as ozamiz city (2012), puerto princesa (2008 - airport has improved in 2010), and busuanga palawan (2012) i am reminded to be thankful of what we cebuanos are enjoying at the moment. with cebu being one of the top cities in the country, it enjoys far better facilities than the other provinces in the country do. i am hoping that with more funding in tourism, beautiful places such as coron palawan get to enjoy improved facilities, starting with its very small airport.

puerto princesa palawan airport

wow! i didn't realize that it's been 5 years since i first visited puerto princesa in palawan. true to my being a late blogger, it's only now that i'm resuming writing posts about palawan. so, i fully understand if you click "close" now. but i do hope you won't, and you'll stay. this decision to resume blogging about the place is motivated by a friend request. a friend of mine as far back as grade school asked me to help plan his and wife's honeymoon trip to entrancing palawan. so i'm hoping that i could actually write as much entries about palawan to help my friend. anyway, you should definitely stay coz not to belittle our infrastructure developments in the country, but sometimes (or is it most of the time?) improvements to our road networks, airports, or what-have-you take eons to materialize. thus, you can still somehow make use of the information here. besides, this post can enlighten you a bit of the difference between puerto princesa airport in 2008 and in 2012. lest i give you a wrong impression, let me be quick to add that i can only show the "then and now pictures of the airport's facade."

puerto princesa airport circa 2008

finally, tangub city!!!

tangub city plaza, dec. 9, 2012

at night

20th christmas symbols: welcome arch to the plaza

city of lights: eiffel tower of paris

china entry

petronas towers of kuala lumpur, malaysia

pyramid of kukulcan of mexico

the colloseum of rome, italy

more pix soon

looks like i'm going to tangub

previously, i decided that i'm going to skip tangub's christmas symbols once again. i've canceled on tangub the past two years. so, why not make it a third time this year, right? then, i went home to my parent's house and saw a feature of the different christmas lights all over the philippines. yes, i'm a sucker for christmas lights, hehe. tangub wasn't featured then because the clip was before december 1 and from what i know, tangub's christmas symbols usually starts first of december. that feature made me think twice about wasting my plane tickets once again. so, i flippantly told myself that should we receive our pay on the 8th, and not on the usual schedule - 10th of the month, then i'd go. my departure date is sunday and so if payday happens on a monday, then i won't have money for the trip. i truly thought that we'll be getting our salaries on monday. because of that, i've slowly told myself that it's OK if i ditch the plan once again. there's next year, then another year after that. no problem. when i've fully accepted that i won't be traveling, an unexpected thing happened. someone who's owed me from way, way, way back recently had a blessing and decided to pay me back. boy, was i ecstatic! nevertheless, i still told myself i'm only going to tangub if payday will be moved earlier (to today, saturday). and what do i know, we had payday yesterday! so it only means one thing: i'm flying to ozamiz tomorrow to head to tangub city.
one little issue. as i have psyched myself that i'm not going to tangub this year, i naturally didn't make any travel arrangements. so, since yesterday i've frantically did some research and just today i learned that today, december 8 is the fiesta of ozamiz. no wonder when i tried agoda, it told me that the hotel i wanted to stay in is fully booked! we are in the philippines and we know how fiestas go. sordid traffic!!! anyway, the good thing is by the time i'm there - the fiesta is over. but who knows, tomorrow is sunday and people might extend their revelries.
i can't remember the last time i traveled solo. tomorrow should be my first in a long while. no plans. no prior arrangements, so i'm a bit scared. scared because it will be my first time to visit ozamiz and tangub, and no one to ask help from. anyhow, i believe in something greater and bigger now, so i'll rest on the idea that i will be OK. so, gear for me tangub city - and please be hospitable: find me some accommodations for the night. pretty please^^
but before that, i've to hurdle waking up early tomorrow. because last year, i missed my plane by a mere 15 minutes. so let's see tomorrow. crossing fingers.