Getaways during long weekends have almost become mandatory, but hey, after what we put ourselves through at work, we deserve it.

Obviously everyone had the same idea for the ‘Araw ng Kagitingan’ weekend. At 7 am, the airport was jampacked; we even bumped into our boss! Several hours later, we landed at the island of Palawan and the getaway commenced.

There’s certainly a lot of things that made this trip memorable:

• The awesome snorkeling at Honda Bay! A few steps from the shore was all it took to be surrounded by schools of fish. I wish i read on corals and marine life first; I feel there’s so much more to appreciate only if I did that first. It was also my first time to plunge without a life vest. Yep, I’m officially over the fear of the depths. Whee!
• Manong’s bat-jokes at the underground river:
  • Bakit laging tulog ang bat sa umaga? kasi BATugan siya
  • anong tawag sa paniking mababa ang lipad? lo-BAT
  • (while Alex was holding the flashlight to see the rock formations) “Itapat mo diyan sa taas. Kaliwa pa, di, kaliwa pa. Yan, yan. Kita niyo yan? Bato yan.”
• Mang Pepito’s lunch spread at Pandan Island — stuffed pusit, shrimp with garlic, grilled lapu-lapu… yum! (Add to that the spread at Bilao’t Palayok, Badjao’s seaside resto… remind me why i came back home again? =p)
• The giant jellyfish at Sabang Beach… holy crap, it was the biggest live jellyfish i’ve ever seen. and poked. and took a picture with. =p
• Taboo and charades til you dropped. And of course, Alex’s rendition of Bambi… let’s do the Bambi dance!!

Definitely, Palawan has not seen the last of us yet. Our guide, Mang Pepito told us of other spots to see aside from Puerto Princesa, and this kaladkarin can’t wait for the next Palawan invasion. If you want an awesome Palawan adventure for your own, you can reach Mang Pepito at +63919-6423107 and he’ll hook you up.

Thanks Wes, Mich, James & Geebs for the pics!