Island Hopping at Honda Bay

Day 1

May 6, 2012
Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan

I and my officemates were fortunate enough to be able to redeem the vouchers we bought last November from coupon website CleverBuy before it was shutdowned due to complaints of fraud recently. Each voucher cost 9900 PHP and included a 3D/2N accommodation for 2 with roundtrip airfare. It also covered free breakfast and the Underground River tour with free lunch. It was a great deal even if it took about 2 months to finalize the actual airfare and hotel bookings for all 10 of us.

After checking-in at Tropical Sun Inn, we went to St. Lourdes port for the Honda Bay Island-hopping tour. It was already noon when we got there and there seemed to be a shortage of boats. Luckily, we were able to secure a whole boat to ourselves, as another group refused to share boat with us. This allowed us to hop through the islands at our own pace.

Our first stop was at this small island with a long stretch of white sand (It was not Snake island which was closed for renovation). We then moved to to Lu-Li island, which only emerges during low tide, hence the name which is short for Lulubog (sink) - Lilitaw (emerge). We also went to Starfish island, where we found a single starfish (we probably would have seen more if we explored further) and at Pambato Reef where we snorkeled for half an hour. Our last stop was at Pandan island, where we rented a cottage and ate the lunch we brought with us.

Jumping from a springboard at Lu-Li island

Jump shot at Starfish Island

For dinner, we went to Badjao Seafront, one of the more famous restaurants in the city. Their grilled squid and pandan chicken were good but it was their shrimp asparagus with cashew nuts that I enjoyed the most.