Day 139: Snorkelling in Honda Bay

Super early start today, as we'd booked to do an island-hopping tour of Honda Bay, a local spot for snorkelling and diving and so on. The hotel staff seemed genuinely startled to see us arriving for breakfast at 6:10am (even though the buffet opened at 6!), but we ate our fill and were picked up promptly at 6:30am.

The drive was fairly short, as Honda Bay itself is only about 20 minutes out of Puerto Princesa. It was a bit squished as we were only in a small hatchback - the two of us, the driver, and another pair from the hotel who'd also booked the trip. A Canadian guy with Filipino heritage, and a young lady companion of his - "just a friend", though we got the distinct impression he was hoping it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Before arriving at the dock we stopped to pick up snorkelling gear which wasn't included in the price. According to the people there you "had" to wear reef shoes, which I'd never actually worn before. So we forked out 150 pesos each for a pair of reef shoes, and another 150 pesos each for a mask & snorkel. Total cost = 600 pesos, or about $17 AUD. Pretty steep if you ask me.

Arrived at the dock in good time (extremely unimpressed to note that the dock authority rented reef shoes and masks for 100 pesos each) and crammed onto our boat, the usual Filipino trimaran with a large-ish fibreglass and wood hull, and bamboo poles on either side for balance (and a seriously noisy diesel engine). The rest of the group was a large family of Filipinos, though we never quite worked out whether they were local to Palawan or holidaying from elsewhere.

As soon as the boat left the dock they started a rousing chorus of Row Row Row Your Boat, which was amusing but started to grate after a while. Shandos just joined in! After 30 minutes or so of puttering across the bay, we arrived at stop number one - a collection of floating pontoons around a coral reef in the middle of the bay.

A little dismayed to see a large fibreglass turtle perched on top of the main structure, and further dismayed on discovering that lifejackets were mandatory. I guess from their perspective it's a good way of stopping people accidentally damaging the coral, but it definitely limits your visibility. Shandos decided to be a rebel and just hold hers rather than wear it.

Unfortunately it was an overcast day and recent rains had stirred up quite a lot of silt, meaning the visibility was quite poor. There wasn't much coral and not a lot of marine life either, though there were a couple of pockets where you could see a few things.

Back on the boat where we headed to Luli Island, a tiny little sandbar in the middle of the bay. There was very little here other than a small enclosed area full of Chinese, and a diving board maybe 2 metres above the water. I'll never be an Olympic diver, but I had a great lot of fun jumping off the board and mucking around with the GoPro and stuff. I was probably a very amusing sight for all the skinny Filipino kids when the chubby pale Western guy wants a go, but whatevs!

Next stop was Cowrie Island, this one much larger and with a permanent settlement where we had our buffet lunch. Decent enough food, though nothing that's going to win any Michelin stars! We'd formed a little group with an English lady and a Polish guy who were also in the group, the English lady complaining most of the way about everything (including about the English reputation for complaining!).

After lunch we had another swim though there wasn't much to see in the way of sea life - and a huge rainstorm came through and lashed everything anyway. It was actually more pleasant in the water than on the beach!

Before long 2pm rolled around and it was time to go. We hopped back in the boat, puttered back across the bay, docked, and hopped back into the same car, drove back to the hotel. Had a relaxing swim in the pool (albeit in the drizzle) before retiring upstairs for a shower and a rest. Couldn't be bothered going out for dinner so we just ate in the hotel's tiny cafe. Food was quite good - Shandos had a pesto pasta and I had (what else) a burger.Read more