PALAWAN Encounter: DAY1

I wasn’t able to sleep before the flight. So many things to do before leaving the KIDS alone for the whole week! The IRRI bus taking us to the airport leaves at exactly 4:00 am from Harrar Hall. As expected, I wasn’t able to catch up at the first stop but was able to catch up on the second. Thanks to my husband’s driving! It was a boring trip from LB to NAIA terminal where PAL passengers board. After the initial his and hellos with my colleagues, it was just sleep…sleep….sleep.

Stepping out of the bus and checking in for the boarding pass triggered a whole new string of excitement for us. It looks like an IRRI-filled airbus is leaving today. Traveling with my officemates made the whole experience quite ‘new’ and exhilarating. I soon realized that our youngest colleague is an added bonus to the trip. It was her first time to board a plane and undergo the airport encounter so everything was ‘doing what the Romans do’ experience for her. As candid as she is, she raised questions that you will normally want to know but will be afraid to ask…and that spelled FUN to the rest us.

Except for the occasional giggles and sighs coming from our youngest colleague, who had been taking photos of the ‘ants’ below, the plane travel was boring. They don’t have games in PAL flights. They served a slice of banana cake (Goldilocks) with water/juice/coffee. For those of us who’s not in the mood to eat, we just stuff them in our bags to serve as a free meal later.

The Palawan airport was hot and crowded with long queues for checked-in baggage. The conference, which I forgot to mention upfront, was well organized with shuttle service taking us to the Legend Hotel where we will be staying for the next 4 nights/days. Once in the hotel, we checked in, registered to the Crop Science Society of the Philippines (CSSP) Conference, and head out for a good lunch.

1st stop: Haim’s Chicken InatÔ

It was a ‘hut-type’ restaurant with 1 big hut and several (maybe 8-12) smaller huts. It was a busy place but guarantees superb, reasonably cheap grilled chicken meals. Clean food with the luxury of rural air. Everyone was hungry, we didn’t take much time to order. Just go for the specialty of the house. One for each of us. Then silence, everybody was quiet after the food was served. Good eat, low cost.

Hurriedly, we left the chicken resto to join the complementary ‘CITY TOUR’ offered by the hotel. We don’t wanna miss that…especially when it’s complementary.

2nd stop: IWAHIG (The prison without bars – a penal colony)
The first striking thing that you will notice when you reach this place is how neatly everything was laid out. You can practically feel the invisible presence of the local authorities over the ‘inmates’. True, it is their choice to remain within the confines of the ‘enemy line’ but to abide by the rules to the dot is another thing. You would want to talk or blab a joke with them (the ‘guys in brown and blue’) but you still feel the need to keep it to yourself so as not to stir their ‘dark side’. Makes you wonder how these peaceful faces could do crimes equivalent to spending their whole lifetime in ‘jail’. Who knows what I can do with my dark side unleashed?! Anyway, it looked like the guys in brown and blue shirts spend most of their time making handicrafts. They have lots of woodcrafts sizing from big sculptures to small key chains. Of course, they still have the sailing ships inside whiskey bottles as we see in old movies. Could you imagine how much time it takes to make these things? No, you can’t. Otherwise, you won’t buy them as souvenirs.

3rd stop: Crocodile Farm (In fairness, it’s not like everything’s crocodile here!)

Despite the air conditioning, it was kinda misty and humid inside the bus. Stepping out into the open air of the wide green frontage of the crocodile farm was a big break for my already screaming lungs. Upfront is a souvenir shop where you can buy all sorts of handicrafts made out of a fallen crocodile teeth to wooden/stone artwork and accessories. They are reasonably priced but not too unique from those found in IWAHIG. So, if you missed shopping for souvenirs in iwahig, you can catch up at the croc farm. The tour started with a mini-museum showcasing the different croc remains that the farm had collected to date. Next, we were brought to the croc egg hatchery and growing pens. Surprisingly, it’s not as foul smelling as I expected. It was obviously well maintained. We then proceeded to their own wildlife collection which ranged from rare birds to the nearly extinct bearcats! Anyway, if you’re so fascinated with crocs, this is the place to be. Croc eggs, baby crocs, young and wild crocs, aging croc…croc bones, croc skins…name it, they have it here.

4th stop: The Baker’s Hill

Funny how that sounds like? You could immediately imagine a hill crowded with bakeries, each offering all sorts of bread and pastries. Well, wipe off that grin on your face because that’s exactly what it is. Whoever came up with that concept is full-blooded entrepreneur. The place was packaged as a park where one could easily buy a bread and a drink while leisurely talking to a friend or simply taking a walk along the windy hill. If you ever had a chance to visit this hill, don’t leave without taking a bite of Palawan-famous hopia monggo (moon cake). It just melts in your mouth…found nowhere else.

5th stop: Congressman Mitra’s Residence: A log-rich vacation house

It was one of those seldomly used vacation houses of the rich. It was close as usual. People are allowed to come but are not allowed to enter. Almost everything is brown simply because almost all of it is made of wood. A sprawling type as it is, the central support post located at the midsection of the house is the most interesting part of the house. I is a log-post with approximately 1 meter diameter. You would almost want to count the concentric annual rings in it if possible. The wine bar, the dinning, the living, the veranda…almost everything is made out of good wood…I even had to control myself from estimating how many trees were used in coming up with such beautifully crafted house overlooking the lower plains of Palawan down to the shoreline. It’s peaceful, quiet, and so so romantic! So, why doesn’t anyone live there? If he’d ask me…hmmm..wait…maybe, it’s hunted.

After that, we head back to our hotel. It was almost dinner anyway and we had to plan out a good dinner that night. We heard a good resto just around the corner, so we went up to our rooms, wash up, and head out again.

6th stop: Dinner at BALINSASAYAW

Balinsasayaw? It’s a particular breed of a local bird which makes the edible nests found on the walls of the El Nido cave located north of Palawan. It was again a hut type resto where clients are designated with their own hut to occupy. The food was great and reasonably priced. Several packaged meal choices were designed and offered for customers coming in as groups. These make it even more affordable. There are other more expensive restos around like KALUI and others but I doubt if the food will taste anywhere different than the affordable Balinsasayaw banquet.


Dinner was sumptuous. It’s still my first day in Palawan but I felt like I’m 2 pounds heavier than I was this morning when I left our house. Now, we all felt tired and sleepy. As sleepy as Garfield and as pampered as a Thanksgiving Day turkey. Slowly…slowly…we all got short of words. Nothing in mind but the cozy bed waiting for us at the hotel. We were on the road since 3 o’clock am. As we approach our rooms…everything turned heavy...heavy eyelids, heavy feet, heavy head…an air conditioned room, quiet and peaceful space, warm bed sheets…z z z z z z.