the diary of the travelling mommy: Family trip

Puerto Princesa -- The City of the Living God

27-29 April 2014

After our looooong day by the beach, the van from our tour brought us back to our hotel. We took a bath and had a nap. It was tiring alright! We woke up at 630pm and decided to buy a some pasalubong for our family and friends. We took the tricycle which was waiting in front of the hotel and Kuya driver took us to the pasalubong area. I'm sorry, I forgot the name of the pasalubong area but they have everything in there -- shirts, sweets, pearls, key chains and a whole lot more. You just have to haggle to maximize you money. The tricycle waited for us and after that we went to Balinsasayaw for our dinner. :)

Balinsasayaw, as I know, is a kind of bird. But I'm not sure. Ha ha. The resto isn't air conditioned. It only has fans. It's really not that comfy for us, specially since we have a baby with us. So anyway, the cool thing about this resto was that the resto have small bahay-kubo's where customers have their meal, and these bahay-kubo's were elevated. Really nice and homey!

Since we didn't have pm snacks, we were again super hungry so, we ordered right away! We ordered grilled pork, grilled chicken, pork sisig, buko juice, and green mango shake. The good thing about this resto was it's unlimited rice. Happy tummy once again! :) The food was great as well. Dada ate the grilled pork and was convinced that that was not pork but fish because it was so tender. Lol. The price was okay too. The pricing was the same with Gerry's grill. Not bad.

Yeah, it's a bird.

Busy with my phone, huh?

Surf. Sunshine. Beach. :*

See, it's elevated.

"Yummy! I'm starving!" -- Erinn

Family Picture again.

After stuffing ourselves with good food, we went back to Casa Mila to hibernate. :) Dada has work at 11pm the following day, so we decided to sleep early and catch the 2nd earliest flight of Cebu Pacific to Manila which was around 10am.

We woke up at around 6am and ate the same breakfast. :) After that, we prepared, packed our stuff, took some pictures in the hotel, then we're off to the airport! We took the tricycle instead of the van (service) of the hotel, because the driver of the service is still taking his breakfast and we need to go already. Oh, by the way, Casa Mila has free round trip airport transfer. :)

Happy baby!

Ho ho. Still sleepy?

Me and Dada's only selfie together.

Inside the tricycle going to the airport.

When we arrived at the airport, we still need to wait for the check-in counters to close before we can be accommodated on the flight. That's the sad part of seat-availability only ticket holder. :( The booking was full but fortunately, not all passengers took the flight so there are seats available for us! Yipee!!!

Hi Ceb!

Family selfie before boarding the aircraft.

Waiting for take-off.

Had some shut-eye because of the air traffic congestion and the Obama plane. :)

We departed on time, but because of the air traffic congestion and because of the Air Force One, it took us another 30-45 before we can finally land. Whew! But we are safe, thank you Lord!

Using the walkalator.

And the escalator.

Erinn kissing the airplane goodbye! Ha ha.

This family trip was a blast. It was tiring but fulfilling. And I love Puerto Princesa. I love how homey and cozy the city feels, and of course the beaches! Will definitely go back when Erinn's a bit bigger. Need to see the Underground River!! :)

Toodles!

Puerto Princesa -- The City of the Living God

27-29 April 2014

On to our Day 2 here in PPS. Our little Erinn was just 18 months during this time. So we decided to pass up the Underground River tour and just go with the Honda Bay tour. Beach Baby! We just booked the tour in our hotel. And paid Php 2,400 for me and Dada. Erinn was free! Yay! We woke up very early, like 5am because the van will pick us up at 630am. We prepared, ate our breakfast and boarded the van. Yahoo! The van picked up 4 more groups of tourists before heading to Honda Bay. We also stopped by at the swimming gear shop where we can rent footwear, swimwear, and snorkeling gear for our sun, sea, and sand adventure!

With my little sweety.

Booties!

Upon arriving at Honda bay, Kuya Nelson, our tour guide, asked us for Php 40 each. It's a fee for something related to Honda bay. He'll be the one to pay in the cashier and after that we'll wait for our boat or bangka. We stayed in the lobby as what they call it. There are also lots of groups of tourists in there waiting for their tour guide and turn on the boats.While waiting for him, Erinn changed to her rash guard outfit. So cute indeed! After like 10 minutes, Kuya Nelson arrived and he led us near the dock. We boarded out bangka. We were also asked to wear life vests. They even have life vest for little Erinn. It was their protocol, I think, that all should wear life vests or else when caught not wearing it, the agency for the tour has to pay. So, life vest it is!

Excited to swim baby?

Let's do this! :)

Erinn and Dada talking about fishes. Lol!

We are off to the first island -- Luli Island. The trip from Honda bay to Luli island is around 20 minutes. The view going there is exhilarating! Superb water!

WOW!

Luli Island is short for Lulubog-Lilitaw Island. You'll see this place only when it's low tide and it will disappear during high tide. Wicked! Luli island has white sands and very very pretty view. Since the island depends on high tide or low tide, the seashore isn't definite but they have swimming area and they have diving area as well. Dada did dive but I wasn't able to take a photo of him 'cause I was looking after my little mermaid. :p The island, well all 3 islands, has huts for people to eat or if they just want to lounge around. Rest rooms and shower area for boys and girls are also available. They use salt water in there. So all you can do is just a little wash up. :) We did enjoy here in Luli island, even though all I did was take pictures and look after Erinn, Ha ha. Can't help it! The view was really amazing. And I want to freeze Erinn's time here. We stayed here for about an hour and we were herded back to our bangka to go see the Starfish Island and have lunch there.

Family Picture! :)

Yahoo!!!

Of course! I should have a selfie! :P

Erinn is enjoying this water adventure in the rest room more that swimming in the beach. Ho ho.

Welcome!

My turn...

Dada, your face??? Ha ha. Erinn helping Dada blow up her floater. Aaaaw!

Starfish Dada doing some snorkeling.

" What happened to your face Dada?" -- Erinn

My Little Mermaid can swim on her own. :p

O.O

Starfish Island. They say starfishes are abundant here. Hence, the name. But whether or not that's true, I am still about to find out because we didn't swim here. The sun was scorchingly hot. Even the sand can burn you and that's an understatement. We were scheduled to have lunch here. The lunch was included in the tour so yay! for my tummy! We had inihaw na liempo (grilled pork belly), inihaw na isda (grilled fish), inihaw na pusit (grilled squid). There's eggplant and mangga with yummy bagoong and banana. It's like a buffet. So Dada and I were in for a long munching. Ha ha. We ate a lot, I mean A LOT! The mangga with bagoong was so yummy! Two thumbs up for the food! Again, no time to take pictures of the foods -- tummy was angry! :) As for Erinn, she's happy with her milk. :p During lunch we got to talk with our table mates. One couple was Filipina with her Japanese boyfriend and the other was a Filipina, as well, with white African husband. Both couples were nice. They seem fond of Erinn because she was singing Hi5 songs all throughout lunch. Bravo baby girl! After lunch, we just lounged around. Dada and I tried to make Erinn fall sleep because she was throwing fits of tantrums from waking up so early. But no luck. She just had her small nap when we were in our bangka and on our way to Cowrie Island.

Dada's poging pogi look.

Pretty baby.

One of the tour guides took this shot. Thank you!

Go to sleep my sweet little baby.


:)

Last stop -- Cowrie Island. I know nothing about this Island and why they call it that. Wasn't able to ask Kuya Nelson. But hey, there's the beach! :) Erinn was still getting some Z's when we got off the bangka. Good thing we found a cottage right away. When Erinn woke up, Dada bought us halo-halo. A heat reliever! Then we're off to our swimming escapade. Again, I didn't swim a lot. Just happy taking shots my life. :) This island is a bit crowded maybe because it's quite big. Lots of foreign tourists too. We went back to Honda bay at maybe around 3 or 4pm. Then we were brought back to our hotel.