Last look at Manila before Puerto Princesca, Palawan

Wednesday, 18 July

At 11:00 we were rushing out of our room to check out. We had to pay 90 pesos for them to whole our luggage. The first stop was to cure Alan's caffeine addiction. We went to the coffee bean, a very safe place, for three cups.

We had a few hours to spend before heading to the airport. We had three goals - pharmacy/supermarket to buy toiletries, lunch, and visit the intramuros. We did them in exactly that order. We figured a nearby mall must had the first two. On the way there we saw a lot of teenagers roaming the streets. They were all dressed in uniforms and the girls had small black pumps. Anders thought it was strange that the girls had heels as part of their uniform, but I bet they were by choice. Upon entering the Mall, we did so via a bookstore and they had to check our bags. I guess they have strict rules for security and such. Better safe than sorry. At the mall I found a whole selection of Asian / Spanish food that made me indecisive on what to eat. I saw a hainanese place, which made me think yum. I convinced Alan and Anders into eating there and what three dish to order. Unfortunately they didn't have any rice for the next 20 mins. What a bummer!

We decided to park the lunch idea for a while and went to a supermarket to buy the essentials for the next few days. The supermarket had a big fast food section, but we didn't find anything appealing. Since 20 mins passed, we went back to the hainanese place. The food did not disappoint. It was indeed very good. I'm amazed about the huge selection of Asian food here. They even have beard pappa!

By then we had roughly an hour to go find and visit the old walled city of intramuros, which is apparently the only tourist attraction in Manila. It's a spacious borough of wide streets, leafy plazas and lovely colonial houses, the centrepiece of Spanish Manila. We went searching for this at 30+ degrees author humidity through the roof. I was even sweating because of the temperature! Being not good with heat, I quickly wanted to call it quits after we saw the Fort Santiago (once made out of wood, but replaced with stones by the Spanish in 1590) and the San Agustin church (a building that survived many historical turmoils).

The plan was to get a taxi to drive us to the hotel to grab our bags and then head straight to the airport. There was no yellow cab in sight, so we went for a white cab. Prior to getting in I asked for the price and he said 400 pesos, I said 350, settled. In hindsight, he would probably agreed to the meter and it would be cheaper by 100 pesos or so.

Being a driver is serious business. It requires concentration at all times through the crazy congested streets. On the road, any hesitation could be dangerous. Our driver was a small little filipino that's all business and no chit chat. The whole ride he shifted front and back, turned his head left and right to look where he can go or turn. I was getting nervous watching him. The only time when he cracked a laughter was when we were by the harbour and he spotted a huge speedboat that looked like a plane to him. A speedboat that's like a plane...hee hee hee.

We had a bit over an hour till our flight took off. We were flying philippines airlines to puerto princesca in Palawan. We hoped to dodge the rain that seemed to be casting over philippines the next few days. Palawan is towards the souther part of the cluster of islands. Anders and I were a bit skeptical of the plane, given all the negative things we hear back at home about them not being EU compliant, etc. For one thing, local flights allow liquids, which is good because Anders did not empty out the toiletries we purchased. Other than that, the flight was pretty smooth sailing.

Jumbo Bobby picked us up with Jumbo Jeepney. Jeepneys are classic travel transports for Filipinos. The first jeepneys were modified army jeeps left behind by Americans after WWII. They have been customized with filipino touches such as chrome horses, colored headlights, and paintings. Puerto Pension was 10mins outside the main center, but it only costs 10 pesos per person to get a tricycle into the center. Tricycle is the Philippine rickshaw, a little roofed sidecar bolted to a motorcycle. It can fit maximum of 6ppl excluding driver! Crazy! They say tricycles looks like Ferraris. Hee hee...

Puerto Princesca was very nice. It's decorated in traditional Filipino style, which gave it a very homey feeling. The room was also very clean. Would definitely recommend this one. Good tip Trip Advisor! We spent the time between checking in and dinner planning our next few days. After long discussions among ourselves and consultation with the very nice receptionist, we decided to go to El Nido, known to be the best beaches in Philippines, and then the underwater river in Sabang before heading back to puerto princesca to catch a flight to Cebu. The drive to El Nido is supposed to be 5.5 hrs and cost 900 peso per person per way. Jumbo Bobby offered us a driver with a van for the next few days for 13,000 pesos. We concluded that was a good offer given the comfort and freedom of schedule. So we agreed, although we had hard time figuring out if the driver was picking us up at 8 or 8:30.

Dinner at Kalui Restaurant was very nice. We had a fantastic selection of seafood, which included fish, prawns, grape seaweed, cuttlefish, and crabs. Anders wasn't a huge fan of crabs with all the work involved in eating it. We also complimented the food with some specialty juices. All very good. The atmosphere was also very neat. It's nipa style (traditional hut), so we were requested to take off our shoes. I'd made sure we cleaned our feet before heading for dinner. The fantastic meal cost us each $13!!! Did I mention crabs, prawns, and fish?

We were all a bit sleepy after dinner. Alan even started to doze off in the end! I guess Anders and I weren't that great of a company for him! So, back to puerto pension we went. I'd stayed up a bit posting pics on Facebook before calling it a night around 11pm.