Friday, October 19, 2012

puerto princesa city tour, part 2

After the Crocodile Farm, Leo took us to Rancho Santa Monica, a.k.a. Mitra's Ranch. Fantastic view of Puerto Princesa.



The governor of Palawan, Baham Mitra, actually lives in that spaceship-like house. I find it amazing that anybody can just go there and walk around the property. There's even a zipline and pony rides. We saw a bunch of students practicing for a school play.


After a short drive, we arrived at Baker's Hill. I had read that it was the place to buy munchies. Their most famous product is hopia, which I thought was just so-so. I preferred the fudge brownies and cashew polvoron. Palawan, by the way, is the country's cashew capital.


Baker's Hill is also known for their... interesting landscaped gardens. Well, I guess the owners can do whatever they want, but the fake birds kind of creeped me out. There's just so many of them.




Next, we went to a weaving center. I admit I'm a sucker for happy primary colors and wanted to buy everything in the showroom.





After 30 minutes of excruciating indecision, I finally bought a little backpack (295 pesos) and a passport holder (75 pesos).


Our last stop was a cluster of souvenir shops. Apparently, there are a number of pasalubong centers in Puerto Princesa, but Leo took us to the one which, based on his experience, had the nicest selection of pearls and reliable vendors. So I bought some! My champagne-colored South Sea pearl earrings are my favorite purchase this year. In fact, I'm wearing them right now as I type this.


Our city tour was from 130pm to 530PM on Monday, 8 October 2012. It takes most people just three or four hours to hit all the tourist spots, but since it was just the two of us, we could set our own pace. Leo didn't seem to mind. During weekends or peak tourist season, there can be as many as 12 or 14 people in a group. Lucky us!

Part 1 of our city tour here.

I arranged our half-day city tour through Island Paradise Tours & Convention. It cost 600 pesos per person.

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