Puerto Princesa - where princesses "rock 'n' roll"

The living room of  Dallas Hostel, Puerto Princesa

After all these spectacular beaches, we were back in a city. Not too big, nothing special at first sight. We arrived by minivan from Port Barton. We extra booked a minivan ride because it seemed quite a bit faster and more luxurious for the little extra money. Well, it wasn't really worth it. Even though Port Barton consists of about three streets crossing four streets, it took the drivers (team of three) a good hour to pick up the ten passengers.

When we finally started the bumpy ride, we were looking forward to a short direct ride. But as the drivers already arrived too late in Port Barton, they had to stop for lunch and a couple of times for the toilet. All in all we might have had a quieter ride and more space in a Jeepney, they squeezed in too many people, the drivers were sitting together in the front plus passengers and the back was stuffed too.

Truly an international clientele

When we arrived at the backpackers in Puerto Princesa (Dallas Hostel, 600 PHP or 12 EUR for a private room) the host was wondering who we were, as he didn't expect any guests. I told him that I made a reservation online and that we have confirmed this in the morning. I wrote "afternoon" as the arrival time to make sure he knows we would come rather late. The host assumed that to be 4pm, we only showed up at 5.30pm so he just gave away our room. What a wonderful day. Well, at least it got better.

On our trip we met Matthias, a German guy who would spend his last night in the Philippines, so we agreed on having a drink together after dinner. The host of the backpacker suggested us to go to a nice vegetarian place (Imas),

Definitely the best beer in
the Philippines

 not too far from the center. We enjoyed a fantastic meal. It took the staff forever to service the guests and the portions were not big at all for the price, but it was extremely tasty and by far the best option in town.

With kinda full stomachs we went to the Tiki Bar, the place to be according to our new friend. When we entered, a concert was taking place. We realized that this was the band of nearly nude chicks advertized all over the city, playing for the foreigners who passed through here. Princesses in mini skirts and super high heels playing rock songs from the Beatles to Tailor Swift. Dinks were extremely overpriced but still well affordable compared to western prices and they had a great choice of beers.. We properly celebrated Mathias' last night and had a blast with not too appropriate entertainment.

The show at the Tiki bar

The following days we strolled through town to find internet, but the connection was interrupted and the whole city was off line. We found a good bakery, that's where we got breakfast cookies in the mornings. There is nothing much else to tell, Puerto Princesa is not a spectacular place, but it is not as bad as people say either, We left after two days and three nights on the only flight not going to Manila as we prefered to continue our journey in Cebu, in the Cental Philippines.

Our pictures from Puerto Princesa