One of the things I really want to do is to travel. I want to see the world, visit the wonders of the world, tour the key cities. And my first stop, the Philippines. What better way to jump start my traveling dreams than to start in my own country. I’ve already been to various key destinations in this country – Baguio, Boracay, Mactan (Cebu), Pagudpud (Ilocos Norte), and Vigan (Ilocus Sur) just to name a few. Since this country is composed of 7,101 islands, I think I still have a lot to go. For the first time this year, I got to visit Boracay and this month, El Nido, Palawan.

Puerto Princesa Airport

Last September 10, my batchmates and I flew to Palawan for our 4-day El Nido, Palawan vacation. We touched down at Puerto Princesa airport around 6 in the evening. (The landing wasn’t very nice by the way). After that we were unsure what to do next, aside from the fact that we just wanted to get to El Nido. However, getting to El Nido was the tricky part. El Nido is located at the northern most tip of Palawan and is about 238 km away from Puerto Princesa. Once in Puerto Princesa, you could travel to El Nido via air, sea or land. Our group opted to take the land route. We had already arranged a shuttle service a few weeks before our flight. Our driver, Kuya Neil, was also our tour guide. He was nice and accommodating; and he definitely knew his way around Palawan. Without him, we would have been lost tourists in Palawan. [Shuttle Rate: P15,000 for this particular deal]

See, the initial ‘plan’ was to head straight to El Nido upon arriving at Puerto Princesa. However, that plan was dependent on several variables like the weather and road condition. There were a lot of “what ifs”. Good thing Kuya Neil helped us decide what to do. (Yes, for a 4-day vacation, we didn’t prepare a concrete itinerary. How adventurous of us. LOL). The final decision was to stay in Puerto Princesa for the night. So, the next question was, ‘where are we staying?’ Well, Kuya Neil also got that covered. He apparently knew the people that manages one of the newly built inns in Puerto Princesa and had already reserved us two rooms. Yep, he’s that efficient. Good thing too, else, our group would have probably just search for any open cafe shops to hangout or sleep in the van.

Kookaburra Travel Lodge

Kookaburra Travel Lodge was the place Kuya Neil suggested.  The lodge is fairly new; everything about the establishment still looks fresh and well, new. According to their site, they have 14 rooms. I wasn’t able to count but we got their two standard rooms, which were located at the ground floor. Since there were 8 of us – 4 boys and 4 girls, the girls stayed in one room and the boys in the other. Both rooms were really just made for 2 people, three is probably pushing it. The additional beds were not even useful because there wasn’t any floor space to place it. I’m not sure how the guys did it but for us girls, we were able to fit ourselves in the queen-size bed [I think it was queen-sized]. Aside from that, our room was nice. The bathroom was okay too; however, the bathroom window was not tinted and was beside a staircase. Someone could easily look in, good thing that didn’t happen. Over all, I would definitely recommend this place. [Room Rate: One standard room for 2 people - P1,500/night]

Bilao at Palayok: Seafood and Native Restaurant

Before settling in for the night, our group decided to have dinner out. Since we were not familiar with the place, it was again Kuya Neil that suggested the place. We ended up at ‘Bilao at Palayok: Seafood and Native Restaurant‘. The place does have a native feel to it. Most of the restaurant’s interior were made of bamboo or some type of wood. Their decorations were mostly ethnic in origin. To summarize, the ambiance of the place was really homey , peaceful and refreshing. Yeah, I obviously suck at interior design review.

Ihaw Ihaw sa Bilao Special

Let’s go to the food. They offer a wide selection of Filipino food, all served in a bilao or palayok. Their speciality is geared towards grilled seafood. Since we were on a tight budget, we opted to get their Ihaw Ihaw sa Bilao Special, which is good for around 8 people already, Pork Sisig and 8 cups of plain rice. Their Ihaw Ihaw sa Bilao Special consists of steamed shrimp, grilled squid, baked tahong, grilled tuna, grilled tilapia, liempo, and steamed crab together with grilled eggplant, achara, bagoong, salted eggs, tomatoes and green mangoes on the side. It’s definitely a must try if you happen to dine in this place. My personal favorites are their grilled squid and steamed crab.

After dinner, we went back to Kookaburra to rest. We were supposed to look for another hangout place but then remembered that we still have to wake up at 3 am the following day for our long road trip to El Nido. And that’s another day to blog about.

Picture credits: Mine, Bunny, Kat, Norman, and Ton