Palawan March 2010

At the end of a 6 week trip around the Philippines, I spent a couple of weeks on Palawan Island, which is kind of isolated to the west of the rest of the archipelago. From the capital city Puerta Princesa, we went north and spent a couple of nights in Sabang in order to visit the Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park (see here).

Next, we spent 5 nights at Port Barton, which is a perfect stretch of sand in a crescent-shaped bay backed by a small village. Although there's plenty of accommodation along the beach, it has a long way to go before it's as built up as its Goan or Thai equivalent:





We spent the second week in the northern town of El Nido, which is the reason most people go to Palawan. The town is surrounded by Bacuit Bay, and the daily boat trips out to the islands of the Bacuit Archipelago are the main attraction:





Alex Garland is supposed is have modeled his The Beach after one of these islands. You could spend weeks, months if you wanted exploring these islands, although the daily tours tend to focus on a few specific clusters.

Lovely. I was planning to take a side trip, but other competing interests and distractions put the trip of perpetual hold. Apart from the beaches, the the National Park is famed for its underground river.

Nice pictures. It's really by far from Goa or Phuket. I hope they keep it that way. Away from commercialised beaches like Boracay. Cheers!