We Rented a Private Boat

A DIY tour of Honda Bay

The day after we got our backpacks back, the weather turned out to be good with only a few scattered clouds. We now had clean clothes, snorkels, and our GoPro so we were ready to actually do some touring. Puerto Princesa is generally the starting or ending point for all visitors to Palawan because it is the largest city on the island and has the biggest airport. Though it is a big city, there isn’t a lot to do within town but there are two main attractions outside it: the Underground River and Honda Bay.

The Underground River is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At 24km long, it is reportedly one of the longest underground rivers in the world and has some of the largest caves in the world too. It is supposedly incredibly beautiful — but we didn’t go.

Most people take an Underground River day tour, which costs around 1,640 PHP/person ($44 CAD). It is significantly cheaper to do it yourself, but it involves a 2-hour bus ride (each way) for a mere 45-minute experience of sitting in a kayak listening to an audio guide. According to most of the blogs we read, it is a good experience but there is a lot of traveling and waiting involved. Including the time to get to the bus and wait for the kayak, we were looking at a total of around 6 hours for just a 45-minute experience — so we decided that we weren’t interested. In hindsight it probably would have been nice to visit, but we felt like it would just be another “been there done that” experience instead of something we were actually interested in.

The other main attraction in Puerto Princesa is an island hopping tour of Honda Bay. This can also be done as a tour for 1,300 PHP/person ($34 CAD), but we chose to do it ourselves as it would be cheaper and we would get a whole boat to ourselves.

The first step was to get to Honda Bay from Puerto Princesa. Although tricycle taxis charge anywhere from 150 PHP to 500 PHP total, we took a multi-cab (which is like a small public bus, pictured on the left) for just 50 PHP total. Once we got to the boat terminal, we hired a boat for 1,300 PHP, paid 300 PHP in environmental fees, and paid 320 PHP in entrance fees to visit three islands. The total (including transportation) came out to be 2,020 PHP ($51 CAD), saving us 580 PHP ($15 CAD) off the tour price. Doing it ourselves did not cost us much extra effort, compared to a pre-arranged tour. The only thing we had to “figure out” was transportation.

Our boat came with a captain and deckhand who also acted as our tour guide. We asked to go to three locations from a selection of five. The first stop was Pambato Reef. Here there was a floating platform near an underwater reef that we were able to snorkel around. The first thing we noticed was that the water was slightly murky. This could have been because it had been stormy for the last few days, or it could have been because of the boat traffic. There wasn’t as much fish as what we saw in the Caribbean, and the fish are all accustomed to being fed by tourists so they followed us around. The most interesting thing we saw was a giant clam that our guide pointed out to us. He dove down and gently poked it with the end of a rope so that we could see it open and close. It was really cool to see such a large shellfish and something completely unexpected.

We were both pretty content to cruise around Honda Bay between islands on a quasi-traditional Filipino boat. These boats are narrow canoe-like structures with outriggers on either side. The outriggers are made of bamboo poles tied together. The boats could seat around 12–18 people, but we had ours to ourselves. A tent over the boat provides shade and rain protection, but the openness lets in a nice cooling breeze.

The second stop was Luli Island. The island is little more than a sandbar with nearby mangroves, but it is a popular stopping point for boat tours because it has a restaurant where you can get a buffet lunch for 250 PHP/person. We skipped lunch and went for a swim in a small fenced-off area instead. The area had a floating structure for fish feeding. It was cool to see lots of fish but also very unnatural. Afterwards, we took a walk along the scorching white sands for some photos.

It was only after we’d left that I realized I’d seen Luli Island featured on several blogs even before we researched the Philippines. That led me to conclude that we are definitely on the well-beaten Southeast Asian backpacking trail. That’s not necessarily bad; it just reaffirms that as much as backpackers talk about getting off the beaten track and having unique experiences, we don’t really do many unique things because we’re always basing our travels on what we find online. Just like we avoid booking AirBnB with no reviews, we avoid going to places without someone first confirming that it’s worthwhile.

To my disappointment, our boat captain told us at the beginning of the tour that our third destination choice, Starfish Island, would not be good at low tide and had a garbage problem. He said he’d take us to another island for snorkeling called Seahorse Island that had the same entrance fee. We agreed — but the thing is, Seahorse Island wasn’t listed at the terminal as a tour stop option so I’m not sure if he was skimming the system and pocketing the entrance fee we paid him. Though we don’t like to promote dishonesty, we felt conflicted when we tipped both the captain and the guide at the end of the trip for good service.

Seahorse Island was barely more than a bit of a sandbar and a gazebo on stilts.

The surrounding underwater world, however, made up for any above-water shortcomings and it turned out to be the best of the three places we visited. Our guide pulled up rock starfish (both alive) and hollow shells and eggs so we could have a better look. He pointed out an electric eel underwater, which was really cool. At the end, he found a starfish chilling in the shallow water and included it as he took pictures of us.

Overall, our tour of Honda Bay was quite enjoyable. The snorkeling wasn’t the greatest, but we enjoyed island hopping at mostly our own pace. It gave us a chance to snorkel and something to look forward to in El Nido, where we will be doing island hopping tours and having beach days.

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