Here are some of the other animals I saw when I was in Palawan.

My friend had such a blast chasing these little crabs across the beach! They are the same color as the sand and they can dig into the sand really quick!

The rich sea offered a lot of fun fishing for the 14-yr old boy who joined us in the boat. Although the boat was travelling in high speed (perhaps around 40 km/h), he just let down his fishing line and caught 4 fish in the span of around 15-30 min intervals! Here are some of the pics we took with the fish.

I just saw an announcement on the sanriotown.com main blog and latest news section about the launch of What a great idea! Everyone can sure use some happy news and thoughts to make the day a bit cheerier!

Here is a happy photo I took during my recent trip. These army guys were with us on our boat back to the dock from Club Paradise and on (literally) the local jeepney with us on the way to the airport in Busuanga, Palawan. They were sporting their camoflauge uniforms… it’s blue! Is it because the island is surrounded by water?? They happily posed for me when I requested to take their photo.

I got the chance to see some of the unique animals of Palawan during my recent trip.

This particular red heron is the resident bird at Club Paradise. This fiesty bird has been known to attack the guests that accidentally get too close. She is 17-years old, even older than the resort itself. Her bad temper has lead to her injury as well, when one of the guests hit her too hard and twisted her left foot. Now she walks with a limp and just flies around in short distances. I was feeling bad for her, but then saw her try to peck one of the staff!

On our 2nd day at Club Paradise, we had to wait for a while for the rain to stop before we proceeded for our island hopping boat trip. It was during this time that I spotted this monitor lizard. I wanted to take the picture with the full “arrival” sign on the left side of the picture, but the lizard scuttled away too quickly before I got my next shot. Can you even spot the lizard??

Hi Everyone! I’m back from my trip to Palawan. The place is amazing! I’ll be posting some of the photos of the place and the animals I’ve seen during the trip in the coming days. Stay and enjoy…

We took the 1-hour plane ride on a 20-seater 2-propeller plane (from seair.com) from Manila to Busuanga, Palawan. Honestly, that’s the smallest plane I’ve ridden on. There was no control on the cabin pressure and I had to keep equalizing my ears.

Nonetheless, I was very thankful that the trip was not bumpy and saw a lot of nice sceneries. Before falling asleep on the flight, I managed to snap a few shots.

Upon arrival at the Busuanga airport, I took a 30-min jeepney ride to the dock. The ride on the single road was very pleasant, with lots of open spaces with and green grass and friendly locals. You can see the green mountains and feel the cleanness of the air. The soil of the road was reddish – like clay.

When I reached the dock, I had to transfer to Club Paradise’s boat and travel through the mangroves and to the open sea. I know that sounds like a lot of transfers, but believe me, I was enjoying the trip and had to remind myself not to worry too much of the time.

The sight of Club Paradise was amazing! It was a little island with soft, clean sand and lots of green! I was welcomed by the Club paradise staff, singing a couple of welcome songs. It was a bad time for my camera battery to run out of power, but I did manage to get a picture of the map of the island and the spa.

After reading Tingal79’s entry on her Night Safari experience in Singapore, I now have the strong urge to go and visit Calauit Wildlife Safari when I visit Palawan soon.

Calauit Wildlife Safari has an area of around 3700 hectares and features animals from Africa and native to Palawan. It was declared as a protected wildlife safari by the former President Marcos. How did the animals from Africa get there in the first place? Rumor has it that it was brought there by some rich and powerful govt official who wanted to do some huntin in his own jungle.

I’m excited about a trip I will be taking sometime this month. I will be going south of the Philippines to Palawan to accompany some friends visiting the country. It’s a timely break for me since I haven’t gone on a trip for a while.

Back to nature

Palawan is sometimes dubbed the last frontier of the Philippines since most of the natives and the people residing in the area try to preserve the balance and the eco system as much as they can. Although Palawan is known as a diver’s destination (marine life and wreck dives) I won’t be scuba diving (since my friends are non-divers) I will still have a chance to encounter meeting sea turtles, monitor lizards (not looking forward to that) and dugongs.

Dugong

Dugongs or sea cow is a mammal and is on the endangered species list. Even with a diet of sea grass, they can grow up to 3 meters long (about 9 ft.) and can weigh up to 400 kgs! (Who says veggies can’t make you fat?? Haha!) One may think that their size would make them aggressive, violent and intimidating, but actually, dugongs are sometimes referred to as the gentle giants, with no obvious way of defending themselves from natural predators like sharks and crocodiles (or from boat propellers for that matter).

Busuanga (an area in Palawan) is one of the few places in the world where you can observe these gentle giants in their natural habitat.

Paradise?

We will be staying at Club Paradise. Sweet! Escape from the noisy crowd with just sand and the sea on all sides. What’s more, my airfare is a free treat (by my friend) which makes this whole adventure lighter on the pocket. We will be taking a 2-propeller 19 seater plane (scary) from SEAair.

I hope to update you all when I get back from the trip and hopefully have some great photos with the gentle dugongs.

Get a chance to win a Panasonic DVD camcorder, a Sony Digital Camera or a diamond pendant! Sanriotown has launched a “Dazzling Moment” video making contest where you feature your dazzling moment using their cool Dream Studio product online on sanriotown.com.

See the details here below (from sanriotown.com official blog):

To join the competition, this is what you should do:

If you haven’t gotten a SanrioTown account yet, get one now Log in to your account, and then click on the DreamStudio tab (they yellow one) once you’re in . Create your own special video there, making sure that you maximize the features of DreamStudio by including different text styles, background music, and other special effects. Remember to use the “Twinkle” screen effect when you make your video. After making your work of art, be sure to save it. You can use whatever title you want, as long as you include “dazzling moment” as one of the tags of your video.

Note: When you enter that in the Tags section, make sure that you enclose “dazzling moment” in double quotation marks, otherwise, it would not register in the system.

The criteria for judging the videos are the following:

Creativity. The features of DreamStudio should be maximized. Effects, styles, and music should be utilized to its maximum effect to form a cohesive video.

Mileage. Comment activity and users’ ratings are also taken into consideration in judging the videos. Look at it as “A Dazzling Moment’s” version of Audience Participation

Overall Appeal. The effectiveness of the delivery of the message and its impact on viewers is also a factor in judging.

Aside from the grand prize of the diamond pendant from MaBelle Life, a Panasonic Video Digital Recorder VDR-D220 will be given for the winner of the Most Popular Award and a Sony Cyber-Shot Digital Camera DS-T10 Pink for the Judges’ Pick.

“A Dazzling Moment” contest will run from April 11 to May 11, 2007, so start making your videos now!

For the terms and conditions and other information of and about the competition, click here on the image above.