2016 Palawan

13 May 2016 to 25 May 2016

7 days / 6 nights Live-on-Board on the Stella Maris Explorer, diving the reefs of Tubbataha.
2 nights in Port Barton, chilling out in Paradise Cove Resort, kayaking the remote Cagnipa Island.
2 nights in El Nido, island hopping and watching sunsets in Corong Corong beach.

The Journey

Puerto Princesa

Getting from Singapore(SIN) - Manila(MNL) - Puerto Princesa(PPS)

14 May 2016

Decided to go with the SIN-MNL-PPS route (vs via Cebu) as there were more flight options between MNL-PPS. Settled on Jetstar and Philipines Airline which left us wtih a generous 7 hour transit in Manila airport. Could not find better option of cost vs shorter transit time, so I guess this will have to do. Anyway, longer transit time in Manila might not be a bad thing.

My experience in Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) was not too bad

Having been warned by various folks and reading numerous nightmare stories about how difficult the transfers between the airport terminals in NAIA, we were mentally prepared for the worst. From the time we disembark at NAIA Terminal 1, collected our luggage, got through customs, found the airport terminal transfer counter, waiting for the free terminal transfer bus, finally reaching NAIA Terminal 3, the entire process took 1.5-2 hours. Not too bad I must say, or maybe we got lucky but several other factors helped in the smooth transit ...

• Arriving at 6am early in the morning, it was off peak period with almost no traffic.
• The airport free shuttle bus runs an internal route parallel to the runway, bypassing the congested public roads. I would advise waiting for the free shuttle vs a public taxi. There were reports of the bus not turning up but we did not experience that for both our in-bound and out-bound transfers.
• NOTE: You NEED to present your boarding pass from the disembarking flight, else they will not let you get up the free shuttle as it is meant strictly for connecting flight transfer only. Keep your tickets handy.
• Having made it there and back, for future planning purpose, my estimate for a comfortable connecting flight transfer between NAIA terminals would be about 3-4 hours with some room to spare for small hiccups.

Breakfast ... the Mary Grace Tandem

Happily having our breakfast at Mary Grace cafe in Terminal 3 while waiting for our connecting flight to PPS. Mary Grace Tandem - Grilled Ensaymada paired with Mary Grace Hot Chocolate. The hot chocolate was sinfully good with the soft and fluffy Ensaymada. ($P217). Sirloin Beef Tapa with scrambled eggs ($P352). Food makes you feel great after an over-night flight ...

DON'T ignore stories of flight delays ... they are TRUE !

Having also been warned of how often domestic flights are delayed and many a times cancelled, we decided to fly-in to Puerto Princesa a day earlier so that we do not miss our embarkation for the Live-On-Board to tubbataha.
2 days before my flight, my MNL-PPS flight was cancelled, re-booked on a later flight. 1 day before, it was re-instated to the original flight time. On the actual day, boarding was delayed 1 hour, and the plane was sitting on the runway for another 1, probably 2 hours waiting for clearnace to take-off. All this for a 55 minutes flight. I am counting my blessings that nothing was cancelled and this was the final leg for this flight segment, so we just slept the delays away without much worries and woke up to a hot and sunny PPS airport.

14 May 2016 - Finally arriving at Floral Villarosa

5 mins ride from the airport, we arrived at our hotel. We absolutely like this hotel and would definitely stay here again. Exhausted from the prior day of travelling, we decided to just laze around the pool, had an early dinner and call it a night

Dinner followed by an early night ...

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