Day 4: Honda Bay Island Hopping

Honday Bay tour was only an option, as you can read, we haven’t have City tour yet. We carefully planned and decided to have the City tour by tomorrow. Our flight is at 11 am so we have to manage our time. We were glad that we did not ignore Honda Bay tour, this is the best Palawan experience we ever had!

The tour cost P1,200 per person. We were picked up at 8 going to Sta. Lourdes Wharf with Elvie as our guide. Our main mode of transportation was a motor boat.

Sta. Lourdes Wharf

Our first hop was Pandan Island, so called because the island has plenty of Pandan trees.

Arriving at Pandan Island

Activities there are swimming and snorkeling. Our snorkeling guide brought us to the deeper part of the ocean using our snorkel gadgets only(no boat or anything). We saw various kinds of corals and colorful fishes.....

For our lunch..Elvie personally prepared our Filipino style food includes Hilabos na Hipon,Grilled Liempo, Grilled Tuna, Eggplant ( sautéed with soysauce, vinegar, roasted garlic - I do not know how it was called, she said that the recipe was adapted from her Thailander friend), Salted Egg and Tomato. The food was simply cooked but I was so satisfied that it became the biggest meal ever had while staying in Palawan, not only me who did have big appetite but also 4 other young company.

Snake Island

Next hop was Snake Island, so called for its 7 kilometers long and narrow beach area surrounded by mangrove trees. We wandered around and I snorkel again. The snorkeling area is separated by a net, then a sudden (water) deep gave me a freight! Just imagine water level from first meter was 3 feet deep, next to it is a 15 meter deep. I could have drowned if I don’t have snorkeling gadget due to that surprise. I stop thinking of that experience and just enjoyed myself feeding fishes. Fishes are abundant in here, I have seen big fishes such as Talakitok and some other kinds.

Sad part on this island stop was an American guy was bitten thrice by a big breed dog owned a by a resident on the tip of the island. Elvie already warned him but he still insisted. Lesson? Wag pasaway!

We moved to third and last stop – Starfish Island. It is not good as the previous 2 islands. They said that there are many starfish here but found nothing even if the boatman helped me in searching for it, he even swam but found nothing still.

Starfish Island

Island hopping was over. We passed by mysterious Luli (Lulubog, Lilitaw) Island upon approaching Sta. Lourdes wharf. The island is now privately owned and currently under construction for building a new resort.

Luli Island

We reached the wharf by 5 in the afternoon. We kindly asked the driver to drop us by in the market. We bought kilos of Dried Pusit, and Dangit for our pasalubong. Although our accommodation is pretty close to the market, we still took a tricycle ride so we can visit NCCC mall at last. We took a shower first and then immediately went to NCCC, we bought souvenir shirts and fridge magnets. For our dinner, Elvie suggested eating at Haim Chicken Inato. The restaurant is bigger that I thought it was. We shared an order of Sinigang na Lapu Lapu (P150) and Spicy Chicken Inato (P69). Food is absolutely great but the service we experienced was too slow. Staffs are lack of training.

We made our way back to the Inn and started packing things out. We also called Robert of Topstar and hired a van for the City Tour tomorrow.