Palawan, Philippines | 3 of 3

After a short boat ride, we finally made it to the Underground River and it was definitely worth the wait. It's comes as no surprise that it's a Natural World Heritage Site and one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. The actual area around the Underground River is untouched, monkeys and huge lizards still roam free. It was like seeing nature at it's finest. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before and was one of the best parts of our Philippines trip.

Mineral Formations

Palawan, Philippines | 2 of 3

After spending 12 days in the Philippines, I finally saw the beach on the second to last day. I didn't have a chance to go in the water, but at least I saw it. It was basically a 30 minute pit stop on the way to the Underground River.

Beaches in the Philippines are really beautiful. I've lived near a beach my entire life and the beaches in Palawan were unlike anything I've ever seen. I think it was the rustic and natural beauty that made it feel that way. There weren't any huge buildings or heaps of people, just us and the island. It was idyllic and a wonderful way to finally see the natural beauty of the Philippines.

Palawan 1 of 3

Palawan, Philippines | 1 of 3

The final leg of our journey to the Philippines took us to the beautiful island of Palawan and the city of Puerto Princesa. Palawan is absolutely gorgeous and I wished that the majority of our trip was spent there. This was what I thought the Philippines would be like, a tropical paradise. It's really a pity that we were only able to spend two days there, it was too little too late. If I ever make it back to the PI, I hope I spend my time in places like Palawan.

After we dropped off our luggage at the hotel, we headed straight for lunch at KaiLui. Our hotel highly recommended this restaurant because it's one of the best in Puerto Princesa. It's always packed and we had to make a reservation for lunch to make sure we would be able to eat there. The specialty of KaiLui is obviously seafood, since the product is so easily accessible. Everything is so fresh and comes straight from the ocean. Even though I've lived in places nearby the sea my whole life, I never tasted anything so fresh and delicious.

After lunch, we went on a city tour of Puerto Princesa. I was a bit annoyed, I wanted to go to a beach. You would think that being on an island there would be a beach nearby but there wasn't.  I was unable to fulfill my wish of going to the beach. Not once did I don a bathing suit and go to the beach while in the Philippines. Needless to say, I was very grumpy and cranky on our city tour.

Don't blink.

The city tour took us to a church, a park, a museum, but the most interesting place was the Crocodile Farm. Growing up in Florida, I've seen heaps of alligators, but never crocodiles. I was a bit disappointed to learn that they looked just like alligators. The best part of the Crocodile Farm was the bearcat. It was so cute and I wanted to take him home. While in the PI, we were unable to see the tarsiers. Markus is a lover of animals and nature and that was the one thing he wanted to do. It was a shame we couldn't fulfill his wish, but at least he got to play with a bearcat. I didn't even know these existed.

We spent the rest of our afternoon pretending like we were in Temple Run. Seriously, there was this weird jungle area of the Crocodile Park and we ran through broken bridges and hanging vines. It was awesome especially since we both started playing Temple Run on that trip. I still wish we went to the beach, but I'm glad that we made the most of what we had. 

Palawan 2 of 3