Contrary to popular belief, Honda Bay is not named after the car and motorcycle company. Instead, it comes from the Spanish language which means deep.
According to our guide, this pertained to the depth of the blue waters surrounding the group of islands within Honda Bay. When the Spanish visited the area.
Table of Contents
Pre-Island Hopping
Before leaving for Honda Bay, our guide brought us to a place to rent various type of beach equipment. You will find different sizes of aqua shoes, snorkels, masks, fins, wet suits, towels, and even protective cases for your Point and Shoot cameras and mobile phones. The rates are reasonable, considering the equipment can cost several thousand Pesos to buy on your own.
Unfortunately, if you have a dSLR camera, you’re out of luck. If you want to take that type of camera underwater, your best bet is to buy a waterproof case before flying to Puerto Princesa. If you are coming from Manila, camera shops in malls carry simple waterproof cases for PhP 3,600.
Dock
If you do not have aqua shoes, I suggest renting a pair because you will need it if you want to get close to the fish or to the coral. Since both of these tend to favor rocky areas, moving around with unprotected feet can be uncomfortable.
I also suggest renting a Rash Guard. This is a top that resembles a wet suit, though not as thick as it makes use of bathing suit material. The long sleeves can help keep any jellyfish stings at bay during the rainy season. It also helps to keep your skin from burning in the direct sunlight.
You might want to get is a waterproof case for your Point and Shoot camera or mobile phone. With a waterproof case, you can take your camera underwater to take interesting pictures.
In the case of the mobile phone, if it has a camera, you can also take it underwater for pictures. However, it your phone is one of those newer touch screens, they will not work with the cases. But if you have one of the older models that make use of buttons, you can lord it over the smart phone users.
Finally, I strongly suggest that you buy bread; lots of it. At just PhP 25 for a small pack of six pieces, you’ll be glad you bought a ton because a school of hungry fish can go through a pack in no time.
After our group got all the gear they needed, we then headed straight for the port, where we paid a fee of PhP 40 per person. It wasn’t included in our tour package as this is a new fee earmarked to help protect the environment. So, I would suggest setting aside some cash for this.
Strange Name
Like all of the islands in Honda Bay, Snake Island is privately owned. But instead of keeping it to themselves, the owners have allowed others to enjoy the beauty of the island. A small fee is paid to help maintain the island’s cleanliness. But you need not worry about this as it will already have been included in the tour fee you paid.
Port
With a name like snake island, I naturally expected it to be a jungle teeming with a large number of slimy serpents ready to uncoil their long bodies at us. But instead of a forest, we were greeted by a small island of white sand. The color and consistency of the sand was a little closer to Bohol Beach Club’s than to Boracay’s powder soft sands, though. And like Bohol, it was beautiful.
The simple dock meant that you will need to walk down a plank and jump into the water in order to disembark. And even with the sun bearing down on us, the water was cool, but not cold enough to elicit a blood curdling scream from swimmers.
Bu we still haven’t answered the question of why it is called Snake Island, have we? Well, it’s called snake island because the shape of the island resembles a long snake. And while you won’t be able to see it from the sand, just following the wavy shore will give you an idea of why it got its name.
Water
Clear Water
The main activity of Snake Island is, of course, swimming. Like I mentioned earlier, the water was cool so it was refreshing to take a dip in it.
As you wade a little deeper, the sea floor tends turns a slight greenish tint, most likely because of the plants at the bottom.
So does that mean the water is dirty? On the contrary, it means that it is clean because there is plant life under the water. If it were polluted, then there wouldn’t be any life at your feet.
Other than bancas, I did not notice any sea craft. That means that there were no Jet skis that blared deafening sound in to the air or dumped fuel into the sea. And their absence translated in to fish.
Fish
And speaking about fish, you will find a few of them swimming about. While there will be some colored fish, most will be pale or white in color because of their camouflage so you’ll need to keep an eye out for them. It also helps if you don’t make any sudden moves so they don’t get scared.
Fish Feeding
They can be fed but are quite shy, so you’ll need quite a bit of patience. If you want to see them eating, you’ll need to drop bread at arm’s length and make sure not to move from your spot before they come over and eat it.
Once they start eating, do not make any sudden moves, even with your arms, or they will dart away in fear. Then all you will have is crumbling bread that won’t be eaten.
And as much as we wanted to drop all the bread we had, we were advised by our tour guide to save the bulk until our next destination, which was Pandan Island. If it was fish-feeding we were after, that is the place for it.
Platform and Floating Roof
Diving Platform
Incidentally, one of the things that kept swimmers coming was a platform which was about two stories high. Once at the top, people walk to the end of a wooden plank to do belly flops, flips, or other interesting jumps. It was quite popular as adults and kids would line up the steps just to jump off.
The water they landed on was about chest high, so I wouldn’t recommend diving head first because that type of jump tends to make you dive deeper. Doing so and you might find yourself buried in sand.
Floating Roof
Now if you prefer to take a nap or sit and have your feet dangling in the water, there is a floating roof to hang on to while staying out of the sun. But if you want to sit, you’ll need to carefully crawl up the slippery barrels before perching yourself on top.
Final Thoughts
With the three islands in our Honda Bay tour being Snake Island, Pandan Island, and Starfish Island, this one is probably the simplest one.
With the cool clean water and small number of fish, it is the perfect start for a whole day of island hopping.
Shallow Water
The only complaint I have about this visit was that we didn’t have enough time to spend on the beach. Sure, a few hours is great, but a whole day would’ve been better.
If you still have the time, try a quick walk around the island so you can see why the island got its name.
Well, it’s time for us to board our banca and head out to Pandan Island. Please join us as we go fish feeding there.
Finally, the bancero, or boatman, normally watches over your things as he stays on the banca. Even then, I still recommend taking any valuable items with you just to make sure you don’t lose anything. I’m not worried about the locals because they know that they’ll be severely dealt with by the law if caught; it’s the outsiders who don’t know how seriously they take the law here that I’m more concerned about.
If you don’t need to carry something, I suggest leaving it at your hotel room. For wallets, cameras and phones, just rent waterproof containers so you can carry them with you on the beach.
Till next time, keep your cameras ready, your eyes peeled, and your minds open. You never know where your next adventure will take you!
Must Do’s
- Bring or rent a waterproof case for your camera or phone.
- Rent a pair of Aqua Shoes if you don’t have any.
- Avoid putting anything valuable in the bags you leave in the banca.
- Put on a healthy amount of sunblock.
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