Philippines

Monday June 4th

Moving out was such a hassle! We stayed up until about 3 am the night before, did A LOT of last minute packing in the morning, and left the English Village for the last time at about 2:15pm. It was a weird feeling to be leaving. I am happy that I am finished, but I think I will miss the place a little bit. 

Today we arrived in Manilla, Philippines! Well, last night at about 1am anyway. We met Michael's cousin Audrey and her husband who picked us up at the airport. They brought us to their house where I met his god daughter Kim, another cousin, Rens, his aunt and his grandmother. We had to repack again, because we had brought so many things that were going to stay with his family in the Philippines. So we packed most things in our giant backpacks, and went to sleep around 3:30am again. Our flight to go to Puerto Princesa was today at 11am, so we had to leave his cousins house at 9am. We also needed to finish packing. So we woke up around 7am, and did some more last minute packing!

We made it to Puerto Princesa at about 1:30pm. We decided to stay here for a night, and head out to El Nido tomorrow. On the 10th we are going to Sabang, to the underground river. In El Nido and Sabang, they only have electricity from about 2:30pm to 6:30am.

Today we got a tricycle, which is like a motorcycle with a cart attached. He drove us around all day while we figured out everything we need to go to the underground river (which is actually a lot of work and a lot of waiting!) and to get a van to El Nido. Tomorrow we leave at 7am for a long 6 hour ride to El Nido.

We also ate delicious food! This food is a MILLION times better than Korean food (in my opinion). We ate fried chicken at Jollibee, a fast food chain. Then we ate BBQ chicken and some stir fried veggies at a restaurant called Ugong Rock. Our supper was very delicious at Balinsasayaw Chicken Grill and Restaurant Inc. We ate some fried fish in sweet and sour sauce (amazing!) eggplant, garlic rice, fresh lumpier (a spring roll type thing), and I even drank the juice out of a fresh coconut! 

Time for sleep!