We were flying through the dimly lit afternoon sky heading towards the small exotic island of Palawan, nested between the Sulu and the South China Sea. At that point in time, I had an idea of how I imagined the island to be fixed in my mind. The stereotypical white sandy beaches with palm trees and fallen coconuts littering the shoreline. As for the city itself, I was completely clueless as to what I should be expecting.

As the captain announced that we would soon be landing, I began staring out of the window trying to see the island. I was staring, looking for the white sandy beaches with palm-filled shorelines but they never came. An island eventually came into view, a small land mass covered with vegetation with the occasional small houses poking through the tree line.

As we flew over the city, I couldn’t help but think about how rural this town seemed. After spending my time in The Philippines always travelling between the urban sprawls of Cebu and Manila, this city seemed so small in comparison. Then I began to realise how low the plane was flying at that point; I started noticing how easily I could easily see the people walking through the streets. I could watch everything that was happening in the streets of Puerto Princesa in detail, as we made our way to the airport.

Once we landed, we quickly walked from the plane got our bags, then set our focus to getting to the hotel. A young man greeted us outside the airport, then went on to offer to take us to where we would be staying, the Sunlight Hotel. I have come to realise anybody who is enthusiastically offering you a ride outside the airport is generally trying to get a bit of extra money from you.

I would love to think that I have stopped falling for these tactics, but unfortunately, this guy managed to fool me and get double the standard fare for that particular route.

After a short 5-10 minute tricycle ride we were there standing outside a multistory supermarket. Our hotel lobby occupied a small section of the supermarkets ground floor as the hotel itself held the top story of the supermarket building. As I entered the building, I let out a sigh of relief. I knew Palawan was an isolated place, so I had no idea what to expect from the mid-range hotels. But from the look of the Sunlight Hotel lobby, I could tell straight away that this would be comfortable there.

After spending the previous sleeping on the floor of a friends condo, it was nice to be in our own room again. The room was beautifully decorated and was so much bigger than an average hotel room. We were only there for a few days before going to El Nido, if I hadn’t planned other activities in Puerto Princesa I could have easily just stayed and relaxed inside our room.

The first morning I was awoken early in the morning by a whistling sound which quickly built to a loud roar, it was the last thing I had expected to hear at that time in the morning.

As soon as it had come the sound disappeared leaving the dull sound of heavy wind. I immediately remembered how low we had flown over the city when coming into the airport; I had in no way imagined that the noise from the plane would be as loud as it was. But this, for me was a minor inconvenience for our stay in the Sunlight Hotel.

After our spending several nights in Puerto Princesa it came time for us to move on to El Nido. I had loved our stay in Sunlight Hotel; I actually would have liked to stay there and enjoy it a bit longer. But our primary reason for visiting Palawan was to see the beautiful scenery of El Nido, so we had to move on.

All in all our stay at Sunlight Hotel was extremely positive. It exceeded my expectation when it came to the quality of the hotel. I liked the hotel so much that we returned there another time, but I think I will save that story for later…