Going of the beaten path - or not
This is holiday - so I start the day getting up
early. No reason to be sleeping all day when you can get up before six and go
to the airport. I fly down to Puerto Princesa which is part of the island area
of Palawan which is described as some of the most of the beaten path area in
the
I get to the airport in Puerto - and it is
pretty small there is an airport building with to blocks on each side of an
open area. When I walk closer from the plane - no buses here to take you from
the plane to the arrival hall - I see what is in between the two buildings a
baggage conveyor belt. Yep this is a fancy and modern airport.
From the airport I get on my very first
tricycle. I tell the driver where I want to go - and he says he know the place
and will take me there no problem. Then we take of - and this backwaters place
I thought I got to is no way a quite place - on the contrary it is really busy
with a main street packed solid with tricycles. There is virtual tricycle jams
on every intersection.
Well the driver is not taking me straight to
where I want to stay he is trying to take me somewhere else - and of course
this place is closed for business.
After getting to the place I had reserved I get
of and go in - and great they have through away my reservation - but they do
have room so all is good. Now it is time to go out and see the city. But it is
a short walk around the city because the rain is coming frequently it is
raining for two hours at the time and then it stops for like ½ hour. I knew I
got here in the rainy season but this is a bit extreme. I end up calling it of
for the day and head back to my pension - and there I wait for the rain to stop
all afternoon. But it doesn't when time comes to diner I still cant get myself
to go out in the constant rain so I end up staying and having diner the place I
stay - not my ideal start of a holiday.
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The rooms are fairly small but they are clean and the staff is friendly and very helpful. The main attraction of the place is a large balcony at the back where you can have meals from the kitchen downstairs if you like. There is also a nice little self service bar where you can get your basic drinks at affordable rates.
The mother of the owner is a bit of an artist so the place is full of her artwork which is for sale if you want to buy.
Overall it is a great place to meet up with fellow travellers given there is almost always a few guest around even in the low season - something good do come out of being in LPG.
When we got there we all decided to have some different sort of fish and then share it all between us. The food came and it was really good. On top of this we got a dessert which we assumed were complimentary - but it could have been included in one of the meals we had order. The service was fairly rapid - which you should expect from the huge staff they had at this place. It appeared to be somewhat overstaffed in general, which helped explain why the prices is a bit higher than usual for the Philippines - but still reasonable for the quality of the food.
The place is decorated in the traditional manor of the area which means it is a quite interesting thing to look at your surroundings while having your meal. The no shoes policy also add to the feel of being in a local place.
Because the place is very popular bigger groups should book ahead and even a small group can consider doing so to avoid having to wait to get seated. We did not have any problems getting a table straight away though.
