Palawan!

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So life is funny sometimes. You make plans, and then God say, umm no, you won't do that, you're gonna do THIS! And it will be glorious!

Basically, I'm still in the Phillippines, 1 month later. I just can't leave! I'm camped in El Nido, which is truly breathtaking. BUT let's go back to the beginning....

Definitely a time-consuming, energy-draining trip. Flew into Manila at 1230am, so I had to camp out til my flight to Puerto Princesa at 830am. Basically put myself in a corner in between the other hundreds of people sleeping in the airport, and tried to doze. Hard when there's roosters crowing at 430am. What were roosters doing in the airport, you ask? Believe me, I challenged God on that one a few times! Hahaha. Finally, I make it to Puerto. The airport is the size of a small closet. It's raining. Ahhh, bad luck. I get my first tricycle ride (basically a motorbike carrying a metal dome for people to sit in) and head for Banwa Pension. Luckily, they have a dorm bed for 300pesos so I crash for a few hours.

I was a bit shy making friends at first, but due to the rain, many people were hanging out in the common room, so I got my smile on and introduced myself. Instant gratification! Met many people from all around over a few beers and made plans for the next day. Good day one.

The next day I went on a day trip to Sabang to the Subterranean river with Blaise, Solene and Charles, all from France. The road trip was about 2.5 hours in an aircon van. Nice. Especially when they started playing Bon Jovi. Ha. In Sabang, we had a beach front lunch that was amazing, and had our own buko fruit to drink from. Buko is a kind of coconut, but huge and green, and the edible part inside is softer and in my opinion, better. We waited around for our park permits, and it started to rain! No!! Especially since the way to the river was in a small boat. I had my camera tucked up under my shirt like a precious baby, so no pictures from that time!

The river tour was short - only about 40 minutes round trip. The cave itself was incredible, but the tour information was lacking - clearly, our guide only had basic facts memorized and spent most of the time saying "we call that rock 'bart simpson' or 'broccoli.'" Still worth it. After the cave, the four of us decided to hike the 5k Monkey Trail back, instead of using the boat again. The trail was probably the best part - real jungle. I had on my Keen water/hiking shoes, which was good because some of the "trail" ended up being a creek instead. And we saw monkeys! A whole bunch, playing in the trees above us. Parts of the trail emptied out onto the beach, and it was like we had our own personal island. Really nice. I ended up being the dirtiest afterwards, surprise.

Made it back to Banwa, and the whole hostel decided to go out together, so it was grand fun. THe best part was when Blaise decided to order "Tamilok," a Filipino dish. It was described as "worm wood mollusk ceviche" so he was determined that he, a guy named Richard, and I try it. Richard wanted to get 3 but I said lets try it first. So it arrives...and it's long skinny worms soaked in vinegar and other herbs!!! At this point Richard says in shock, "I thought we were ordering drinks!!" Haha. It reminded me a bit of live octopus, texture-wise, but you couldn't chew the worms, had to swallow whole! Ahh! Don, the Filipino at our place, just laughed at us the whole time. As he should!

The next day was pretty quiet, so Don and I went on a walk around town. I got to see so many places I NEVER would have had I been on my own, because I had a Filipino guide. We started in the graveyard - Don was a little worried I thought it was so cool, haha. The large masoleums were really interesting. Then we went through the slums! I was like "umm is this safe? SHould I not take pictures?" But Don laughed again, and I soon saw why - everyone was so happy to see me and smiley and friendly. Oh, Palawan. More wandering around town, and then we went to the Promenade. Since it was Sunday, there were TONS of families riding bikes all around, so we just sat and people watched. Got some nice pics. Then we had dinner - chicken adobo, which is this great marinade made from soy sauce and vinegar and calamansi juice (like a lemon). Yumm!

More later, so much to do and say!

Here's a link to my facebook album of pictures so far...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2626171&id=4904710&l=af66aba8d8



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